SECTION 1 & 2- ( 04/27/14 BALVIHAR WEEK :20)

Beginning prayers :

•  Sahanaavavatu
• Meditation for 5 minutes 
• Gurustotram 

Gita chanting :

• Chapter 14 - 1st to 20th verse

Bhajans :

• Raadhe Raadhe 
• Dashaavataram Stotram 

Bhagavatam Time :

• Gajendra Moksham
• Churning of the milky ocean

 Likhita Japa :

• Writing ‘Om’ 

Ending prayers and pledge :

• sarve bhavantu sukhinah
• puurnamadah purnamidam
• arati 
• Pledge

Bhagvatam Time :

Tale : Gajendra Moksham

Today we heard the story of Gajendra, an elephant king who lived in a forest on Mount Trikuta. The place was very beautiful. One sunny day the elephant king along with his herds went to drink water from a nearby lake. As Gajendra was drinking he felt his feet was attacked by a powerful crocodile and the crocodile was pulling his feet very hard. How much ever Gajendra tried freeing his leg he was being pulled again and again. Even the elephant herd also tried helping their king but did not succeed. Then finally Gajendra felt tired and exhausted and felt that his last moments were coming near and turned his thoughts to the Lord and prayed to Him for help. Maha Vishnu heard the cries of the elephant and went there immediately to save him. Maha Vishnu with his chakra cut open the mouth of the crocodile and let free Gajendra's leg. 

Tale: Who was the Crocodile?

The crocodile was actually a gandharva in his previous birth named, Hoohoo. One day when Rishi Devala was bathing in the river he played some tricks on the sage and the sage got angry and cursed him that he be crocodile in the next birth and that he'll be released from the curse by the touch of the Lord's Divine chakra, upon which he'll regain his gandarva-form. 

Tale: Who was Gajendra?

In his previous birth, Gajendra was Indradyumna, a Paandya king. He was a great Vishnu devotee and once he took a vow of silence and went into deep meditation. One day sage Agastya visited his ashram and found that the king didn't get up to receive him and on seeing this he became angry and cursed him that he be an elephant in his next birth. But even though he was an elephant he retained to some extent his devotion from his previous birth. And because of his devotion he got moksha when he remembered the Lord at the time of trouble. 


Tale: Churning of the Milky Ocean

One day sage Durvasa presented Indra deva a garland of flower which he got from Vaikunta. But Indra was in a proud mood he took the garland and gave it to his elephant and the elephant just threw it on the ground and crushed it. Sage Durvasa got angry seeing it and cursed Indra that they loose all their prosperity and glory. This curse took effect immediately and the devas quickly started loosing their glory and charm. With the result of this curse more and more devas started loosing their lives and the asuras turned out to be more powerful and strong. So the devas went to Maha Vishnu and asked for a solution to this and He told them to churn the ocean and get the amrutam, which on drinking will get all their vigor and will remain immortal forever. Maha Vishnu asked them to churn the ocean along with the asuras. So for that the devas and asuras uprooted the mount Mandara and carried it to the ocean and asked Vaasuki, the serpent king to act as rope to help them with the churning. Then the churning began, the asuras caught the head of the snake and the devas held the tail but the mountain proved to be too heavy and sank to the bottom of the ocean. At that time Maha Vishnu took his avatar as a huge turtle and swam under the ocean and took the mountain from under the water and placed it on his turtle back and thus the churning continued. Many things came out from the churning and the first thing that came out was a dangerous poison, kaalkoot. Lord Siva saved everyone by swallowing the poison. Then many other things came out from churning like Surabhi, Uchaisravas, Iravat, Lakshmi, Vaaruni, Kaustubha gem, and many other things which were taken by the devas and asuras and then finally came a handsome young man, Dhanvantari with Amrutam. And as soon as the asuras saw the amrut snatched it and ran away. The devas and asuras all were waiting for it. The devas went to Maha Vishnu and told what happened and Maha Vishnu to save the devas took the form of a beautiful girl, Mohini and attracted the asuras. Mesmerised by her beauty the asuras gave the vessel of the amrutam and told her to distribute equally among all. The devas sat in one row and asuras on the other. Mohini started distributing the amrut from the devas side and toward the end an asura named Rahu had a doubt if Mohini was cheating the asuras and sat on the devas side and thus Rahu got the last drop of the amrut and immediately the sun and the moon god realized that it was an asura and quickly Maha Vishu assumed his original form and cut Rahu's head with his divine discus. Because he had a taste of the potion his head is still there and the Lord turned Rahu into a planet, which causes the eclipses of the sun and moon. 

We ended our class with Arati and Pledge in the auditorium. 

Note : Kids are supposed to bring their "My Prayers" book and their Gita Chanting handouts every week for their balavihar classes. They are supposed to bring in a note book and pencil for their likhita japa. For the Gita Chanting please do practice at home too. You can log on to Chinmayavrindavan.org.

Warm Regards,

Deepthy Aunty & Rama Aunty (Section 1)

Indira Aunty & Shrinivas Uncle (Section 2)

SECTION 1 & 2- ( 03/06/14 BALVIHAR WEEK :19)

Beginning prayers :

•  Sahanaavavatu
• Meditation for 5 minutes 
• Gurustotram 

Gita chanting :

• Chapter 14 - 1st to 20th verse

Bhajans :

• Raadhe Raadhe 
• Dashaavataram Stotram 

Bhagavatam Time :

• Hiranyakashipu
• Prahlada

 Likhita Japa :

• Writing ‘Om’ 

Ending prayers and pledge :

• sarve bhavantu sukhinah
• puurnamadah purnamidam
• arati 
• Pledge

Bhagvatam Time :

Tale : Hiranyakashipu

Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were two demon brothers. We already heard the story of Hiranyaksha and how and why Maha Vishnu took the avatar of Varaha and how he saved mother earth and killed him. Because of this Hiranyakashipu always wanted to take revenge on Maha Vishnu and to become more powerful he did a very rigorous tapas that Brahmaji had to appear before to grant him boon. Hiranyakshipu thoughtfully asked such a boon that he should neither be killed by man, God, animal, or a demon. He added that he should not be killed in daylight or night and that no weapon should hurt him. He further added that he should not be killed inside nor outside. Brahmaji couldnot do anything but give what he asked for and left. Hiranyakashipu thought himself to be very smart and that boon made him immortal and thus started to become all the more arrogant and declared himself as God. He wanted everyone to worship him and killed all those who worshipped Maha Vishnu. He took away all Maha Vishnu's statue and placed his idol everywhere and made everyone worship him. Some took him as the God and some out of fear worshipped him. But he didn't realize that Maha Vishnu is even smarter than him. Even a small loophole was enough for the Lord. Hiranyakashipu took the boons from the Lord and started troubling the Lord itself. The giver of the boon has become his enemy. He lacked "Gratitude".

Moral:

Gratitude is the best Attitude.

Tale: Prahlada

Hiranyakashipu had 4 sons and his youngest son was Prahlada. Surprisingly Prahlada was a very ardent Vishnu devotee. He would constantly chant the Lord's name. He was taught many things but everyone was careful not to teach him anything about Maha Vishnu. But somehow Prahlada started singing and talking about Maha Vishnu everytime. When Hiranyakashipu came to know about this he felt very angry and tried to convince his child to stop worshipping Maha Vishnu but the child would not. He could not bear it anymore and tried to kill the child by throwing him down a big hill, giving poison, making the snake bite him, burning him and many more things. But such was the power of the Lord that He protected him from all the dangers and Prahalada was such a nice devotee that he trusted that his Lord would save him from all the danger and was not at all scared. Hiranyakashipu could not take it anymore and did not know what to do to his son. He tried convincing him that it is not Vishnu and that his father was the Lord. But Prahalada kept on saying that his Lord is everywhere and in all beings. Hearing that Hiranyakashipu asked him if his Lord is everywhere and pointed to a pillar out there and asked if he there in the pillar. Prahlada said his Lord was there in the pillar too. So to show that he's not there in the pillar Hiranyakashipu cut open the pillar but immediately the pillar spilt into two from there came Narasimha. He was the man-lion avatar of the Lord. Narasimha gave a tremendous roar and caught hold of Hiranyakashipu and put him on his lap and with his sharp nails tore open his chest and killed him. It was neither day or night time and it was neither inside or outside. 

We concluded with arati and pledge in the classroom.

Note : Kids are supposed to bring their "My Prayers" book and their Gita Chanting handouts every week for their balavihar classes. They are supposed to bring in a note book and pencil for their likhita japa. For the Gita Chanting please do practice at home too. You can log on to Chinmayavrindavan.org.

Warm Regards,

Deepthy Aunty & Rama Aunty (Section 1)

Indira Aunty & Shrinivas Uncle (Section 2)