May 20th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 

Story time

·    King ambarIsha

·         King rantideva

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare kRuShNa hare - 5 verses

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

We started with our beginning prayers and continued into guru stotram and gItaa chanting.  During story time, we recapped our previous lessons.

We heard the story of king ambarIsha who was an ardent devotee of Lord viShNu.  He was very dear to the Lord himself.  Once when he was doing the dvaadashI vratam, sage dUrvaasa visited him.  The king offered the sage to have the meal with him.  The sage went to take a bath and took a long time.  It was time for the king to break his fast.  But it would be disrespectful to the sage to eat without waiting for him.  As a compromise to satisfy both the situations, he took a sip of water.  But that angered the sage and wanted to hurt him.  But the king was protected by the sudarshana chakra itself!  The chakra started chasing the sage.  He had no respite.  He could not hide in any corner of the 3 worlds, nor could the trinity of Gods help him.  Lord viShNu told the sage that even He was a servant of his devotees and only ambarIsha could save him.  Finally, the sage fell at ambarIsha's feet and asked for forgiveness.  But the king had no grudge against him.  All was well and they happily shared a meal together.

We moved on to the story of rantideva.  He was a very good king for his subjects and trusted the Lord completely!  He found happiness in feeling other's pain.  He enjoyed taking away the pain of others.  Once, when his land was afflicted by famine, he shared every last morsel of food and drop of water that he had.  With that, the Lord was pleased with him and blessed his kingdom with prosperity.

We learnt that trusting the Lord and being his devotee is the best way to eternal happiness.

We then chanted the first 5 verses of the dashaavataara stotram and the ending prayers, before going to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.

See you all in June.  Have a nice long weekend everyone!
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

April 22nd Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 

Story time

·    Churning - symbolism

·       vaamana avataara

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Congratulations class!!  We are so extremely proud of you!  It was nice to see all the kids wearing their medals to class today  :).  In yesterday's gItaa chanting competition, turn out from our class was the highest!  We have won an ice-cream party :).  But more importantly, by learning and participating in the gItaa chanting, we are all winners!!

After we celebrated for some time, we went back to our class schedule.  We did our beginning prayers and gurustotram.  As always, we did the gItaa chanting as well!  We did not learn it for the purpose of the competition alone, to leave it after the event!  We will be doing it as part of our schedule through out.  We are all such champs now, we do not need the script in front of us anymore.  The competition sure expedited the memorization :).

Even before we started the story time, we had a nice discussion about humility and righteousness.  Because we were on the topic, we listened to the story of arjuna and duryodhana's visit to shrI kRuShNa, before the mahaabhaarata war.  They both were seeking the Lord's favor, but only, one was arrogant and one was humble.  We discussed the outcomes of humility and our actions being righteous.  That lead to our story about the symbolism or churning.  The churning of the ocean is very symbolic of the churning of thoughts in our mind.  The good and bad thoughts we have are like the devas and asuras respectively. When we churn through them properly, with the aid of the Lord (like he did in kuurmaavataara), we are sure to attain the divine nectar!  For this we heard the story of the two frogs who fell in a huge jar of milk.  One gave up and drowned itself, where as the other didn't stop fighting.  Because of its constant paddling of its legs, it formed a lump of butter!  Due to that, it came out of the jar!

We then listened to the story of vaamaanaavataara.  bali, the grandson of prahlaada, was the king of asura-s.  He was a wonderful king and a good soul.  He was performing many a ashwamedha yagna-s which deterred indra's mother aditi.  She prayed to Lord viShNu.  He was born as her son, as a little dwarf.  They named him vaamana.  The little vaamana went to the yagna that bali was performing.  There bali was giving away gifts to all those present.  He asked vaamana what he wanted.  The Lord, in the form of vaamana, asked for 3 foot measure of land.  Knowing all well, it was the Lord, he agreed to it.  The Lord measured out the entire earth in one step and the sky with the other.  When the Lord asked where he should put the 3rd step, bali offered his own head.  The Lord put his foot and pushed him down.  bali had attained mokSha.  We discussed about how sometimes, what happens might seem like a bad thing, but in reality, the Lord has a bigger and better plan for us!  The fact that vaamana put his foot on bali's head seemed like a bad thing, but in reality, bali was made immortal!

We ended the class with our ending prayers.  After that, we had a photo session, with all the children proudly wearing their medals :).  Then we had a surprise candy treat for our wonderful grade 3 children!! Keep it up kids!
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

March 25th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  20 shlokas (full)

Story time

·    hiraNyakashipu

·      prahlaada

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Our numbers are soaring high!  What are we talking about - gItaa chanting registrations!!  More that 75 present of the children in today's class are registered for the competition!!!  We are oh so proud of them!!  They have all been practicing and getting more and more comfortable every week!  Continue the good work everyone.  Those who have not registered, please make sure you do so at the earliest.

In the story segment, our discussions are getting intense!  Sometimes, we wish we had more time to continue the conversations, but have to wrap up invariably.  We revised the story of hiraNyaakSha, varaaha avataara, jaya & vijaya.  This was to set the stage for today's story of hiraNyakashipu and prahlaada.  When hiraNyaakSha was killed, although hiraNyakashipu spoke words of wisdom about the soul being different from the body, he developed an intense hatred towards Lord viShNu.  He did very rigorous penance for many years, upon which brahma had to give him the boon he asked for.  He wished to be not killed by a god or a man, a boy or a girl, in the house or outside the house, during the day or in the night.... The list went on.  Effectively, hiraNyakashipu had made himself invincible.  This made him extremely arrogant.  He insisted that he be worshiped by all as god himself!  Everyone did so, but were fed up of the tyranny.  Lord viShNu promised to take care of the problem.  hiraNyakashipu had 4 sons, youngest of them was prahlaada.  For his father's agony, he was an ardent devotee of Lord viShNu.  No matter how his father tried to convince him, prahlaada would not stop being engrossed in thoughts of viShNu.  Losing all options, the father tried to get rid of him by throwing his own son off of a cliff, pushing him in fire, leaving him with poisonous snakes, getting him trampled by rut elephants, even poisoning his food!  But nothing would affect the little devotee of the Lord.  Really annoyed by this, the father got into an argument with the son as to why he worships viShNu.  When the son replies that He is omnipresent everywhere, hiraNyakashipu breaks open a pillar, asking his son if viShNu was in that pillar.  Sure enough, the Lord jumped out of the pillar in the form of 'narasimha' (half man, half lion) and slit open hiraNyakashipu with his bare claws, on the threshold.  (We discussed the work-arounds for the boon hiraNyakashipu was given :).  Then to pacify narasimha, prahlaada sang his glories.  He did not want anything by to be with naraayaNa.  But the Lord blessed him and said, may you lead a successful life of leading others till the end of your time and at the end of it, you shall attain Me.

With this story, we understood that age or size are of no importance.  What matters is the shraddha, the faith we have in what we believe in!  We had interesting discussions.  Please talk to your children more about it.

See you all next week.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

February 26th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  15 shlokas

Story time

·    Recap of previous stories

·        sage Rushabha 
·        King bharata

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Our class started with the prayers, meditation and gurustotram.  In the gItaa chanting, we learnt till the 15th verse.  Parents please be reminded to register your children for the gItaa chanting.  The link is in the announcements above.

During story time, we revisited the story of pura~njana beautifully.  Then we learnt the story of sage Rushabha.  He was a king who, after ruling the kingdom well for a long time, handed over his kingdom to his son bharata.  He then became a sage and meditated so intensely that he became a jIvanmukta (free from all attachments).  He attained this by doing the right things.

To know what is the right thing to do, we heard another story where there was a king who had 3 questions in mind -
1.  What is the most important work?
2.  What is the best time to start the work?
3.  Who is the most important person?
In quest for his answers, he went to a sage disguised as a common man.  The king asked his 3 questions, but the sage was busily planting a bush.   So the king bent down and helped him.  Suddenly a wounded man, came to them bleeding and fainted in the king's arms.  The sage and the king nursed him and took care of him through the night.  Next morning, the wounded man fell at the king's feet begging for pardon.  He was actually an enemy who had come to kill the king, but had got wounded by the king's soldiers at the bottom of the hill.  But unknowingly, the king had saved him and saved himself in turn!  The sage then answered his 3 questions.  He said, the answers to your questions are right there

• the most important work is - that which is in FRONT of you
• the best time to do the work is - RIGHT NOW 
• the most important person is - the person in FRONT of you

If we remember this, we will do the right thing always and become like sage Rushabha!  

His son king bharata, after being a good king, came to a forest to meditate.  While meditating, he saw a fawn (baby deer) drowning in a river.  He saved it.  But then, he got so attached to the deer that he even forgot his meditation.  So, he was born as a deer in his next birth.  He regretted his actions and wanted to get back to meditation.  He was born as a human being in his following birth and he constantly meditated on the Lord.  He achieved mokSha eventually!  This showed us the importance of human birth, for, an animal can not meditate!  Already blessed with a human birth, it becomes our prime goal to meditate and work towards the higher goal!

With that thought in mind, we finished with the ending prayers and a reminder to register for the gItaa chanting competition!

See you all in two weeks.

________________________________________________

Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

As usual we started our class with 5 minutes of meditation, followed by chanting Guru Stotram. The children really enjoy singing the Dashavtar stotram.

We started a new story - the story of Priyavrata, the second son of Manu. In young age Priyavrata had decided to take sanyasa. But then his guru Naradji and his father convinced him. He got married and had 10 children, He ruled the land and he was a very riteous king.

The children listened to the story of a minister who was a great devoty of lord and always believed that "Every thing that happens, happens for the best"

Who is Jivanmuktah? One who is free from life. The one who always does right thing. Sage Rsabha was a jivan muktah. He had trained himself to do every action a right way.  We explained the children how every action can be done right and wrong way, by making a right choice you can be free.

We chanted 13th shloka of the geeta chapter 12th.

The next Balavihar class will be on March 11th , 2012.

February 12th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram - all 14 verses

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  13 shlokas

Story time

·    Recap of previous stories

·         New story

Chanting/Songs

·        none

Quiet time

·         chanting 'om namaH shivaaya'

Game time

·        none

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati - in the auditorium

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare - in the auditorium

      ·        pledge - in the auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

In today's class, after meditation and prayers, we chanted the gurustotram.  Today is special because, we finished learning the gurustotram completely!  We have learnt all the 14 verses and the children are comfortable chanting them in one voice.  We are so proud of them.  They did well in the gItaa chanting also.  Parents, do register them for the competition which will be held in April.

In story time, we discussed in quite some detail, the morals we have been talking about.  It is amazing, the understanding of these children, who seem to be gulping up every word we discuss in class!  They narrate the stories beautifully and recollect the morals very appropriately!  Then we heard the story of puranjana.  It was told by naarada to praachInabarhi, who was constantly indulging in performing rituals alone.  To make him realize his mistake, naarada told him the story of king puranjana.  He had a best buddy named avijnaata, who would constantly keep him off from wrong tracks.  But he was chasing his search for something more interesting.  He finally found a city with 9 gates and a beautiful princess.  He married and even became enslaved to the princess, abandoning avijnaata.  When the princess died, he lamented for her and was born as a girl in his next birth.  This time, she married a king and got tangled in the same cycle.  When her husband died, she lamented again.  At that time, the old friend avijnaata came to him and reminded him of the follies he was committing and the cycle he was getting stuck in.  Then naarada explained to king praachInabarhi that puranjana is none other than our soul (aatma) and his friend is none by the Lord Himself (paramaatma).  The city of 9 gates is the body itself (with 9 openings) and the wife was the intellect.  He explained to praachInabarhi that he should not entangle himself in indulging in the pleasure of his senses or in performing rituals alone.  There is a higher goal to life and we are all required to work towards that self realization through meditation, service, etc.  We come across these kind of situations in real life.  Our eyes want to watch tv when we have pending homework.  The mind wants to watch, but a small voice inside tells us that it is not a prudent idea!  That small voice is the voice of our true buddy avijnaata, the bhagawaan Himself!  We should befriend this inner conscience to attain our ultimate goal.

After this, we did 'om namaH shivaaya' japa, as a practice for the akhaNDa japa for shivaraatri next week.  Our class will contribute to the akhaNDa japa by doing the chanting from 3 - 3:30 pm on the 19th, at the ashram.  Please mark your calendars and come on time to do the japa.  We finished the class with the ending prayers and came to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.

See you all at the ashram on the 19th of Feb.
________________________________________________

Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Today we started our class with 5 minutes of meditation, followed by chanting Guru Stotram. The children have learned four stanzas of the Dashavtar stotram.

We continued talking about the six sharks of the mind and how to conquer them. We talked about unity in diversity, how every person is different and different people have different types of good qualities in them. We compared this to how nature has different colors: the color of grass is different from the color of snow and the color of the sky. It makes nature look beautiful. So similarly, people around us bring good things to us. If we respect the differences, that is a true unity. Unity makes the sharks of the mind go away.

We also told one story of King Puranjana that Devarshi Narada told to Pracinabarhi, the grandson of King Prthu. The story is an analogy of the Atman and the cycle of life and death.

Since Mahasivarthri is on Feb 19^th, 2012, Swamiji has asked the BalaVihar children to come and chant “Om Namaah Shivaaya”.

The children had a practice session of “Om Namaah Shivaaya” chanting using the japa mala.

 On Sunday, Feb 19^th, we will gather in the Ashram and chant for half an hour (from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm).

Please bring the children to Vrindavan Ashram,Cranbury.

There is no BalaVihar next Sunday Feb 19^th in the morning.

See you all in the Ashram.

January 8th Class and Presentation

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Today was a special day at balavihar for us.  Our 3rd graders were doing a presentation on stage regarding Sankranti.  We met at 9:15 a.m.  for doing our last round of rehearsals.  (We had met at the ashram yesterday from 5 to 6:30 to prepare for the presentation.)

To begin with, we did a few minutes of meditation, so that we pulled our thoughts together.  Then, we did a couple practice sessions.  After that, we got to watch a small presentation about how Sankranti is celebrated in India.  There was also a small presentation of how to put rangoli.  Some of the children even tried to make rangoli patterns themselves!  

By then, it was time to line up by the auditorium.  When the children went on stage, they all did their parts wonderfully!  We are all so proud of them!!  Congratulations to all the children and parents, for encouraging and making them practice.  Below are the links to some pictures as well as video of the presentation.  Enjoy!!

Video:
3rd Graders' Sankranti Presentation Video

Pictures:
3rd Graders' Sankranti Presentation Pictures

Script:
Sankranti shloka - verse and meaning

Happy Sankranti to one and all!

Sankranti Shloka for Presentation

Makara sankraanti wishes:

तिलवत् स्निग्धं मनोऽस्तु वाण्यां गुडवन्माधुर्यम्
तिलगुडलड्डुकवत् सम्बन्धेऽस्तु सुवृत्तत्त्वम् ।
अस्तु विचारे शुभसङ्क्रमणं मङ्गलाय यशसे
कल्याणी सङ्क्रान्तिरस्तु वः सदाहमाशम्से ॥
- अज्ञात

Transliteration:
tilavat snigdhaM mano.stu vaaNyaaM guDavanmaadhuryam
tilaguDalaDDukavat sambandhe.stu suvRuttattvam |
astu vichAre shubhasa~nkramaNaM ma~ngalaaya yashase
kalyaaNI sa~nkraantirastu vaH sadaahamaashamse ||
- aj~naata (Anonymous)

Meaning of the Verse: 

May the mind be affectionate like sesame seeds, may there be sweetness in thy words as in jaggery.
May there be goodness in your relations like the relation of sesame and jaggery in a laddoo.
May there be, in your thoughts, a concurrence towards auspicious glory. 
We always wish that the festival of sankraanti prove to be blessed and auspicious for one and all.


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