Announcements

Balavihar for the year 2012-13 will start at Cross Roads South Middle School at 10 a.m. on September 16th.

For registering online, visit http://chinmayavrindavan.org/

We are looking forward for a fun filled year of learning and growing at our balavihar!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

December 18th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·       Meditation 
·       sahanaavavatu
·       gurustotram verses - none

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  10 shlokas

Story time
·    dhruva 

Chanting/Songs
·        none

Quiet time
·         none

Game time
·         none

Ending prayers and pledge
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
·        chinmaya aarati 
      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare 
      ·        pledge 

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
We had a lot of fun this week, because we had some new things on the agenda.

We started the class with our regular meditation and prayers.  After the gItaa chanting, we spoke about the upcoming program we will be presenting in the new year!  In the next balavihar, our class will be on stage, doing a presentation in the auditorium!  It is regarding the harvest festival sankraanti/pongal/lori celebrated generally on January 14th.  We are learning the lines for that.  Parents, do talk to your children for more details.  You will also hear more regarding the practice sessions, etc. from us via email.

We heard the story of dhruva.  He was a young 5 yr old boy who was discouraged by his step mother (suruchi) from sitting on his father's (uttaanapaada's) lap.  Disheartened, when he approached his mother (sunIti), she consoled him and explained that it was only Lord viShNu who could grant him all his wishes.  So, at that tender age, he left to the forest, in his quest of Lord viShnu.  On the way, he met maharShi naarada who gave him the 'om namo bhagavate vaasudevaaya' beeja mantra to chant upon.  After rigorous penance, he had the darshanam of Lord viShNu.  He was blessed with the ultimate knowledge and was given the 'dhruva padavi', (being the north star or pole star), which would lead mankind for a very long time.  But before attaining that position, he would rule the kingdom happily for a very long time.  On his return from the forest, after the penance, he was warmly welcomed by everyone, including his step mother, who had repented for her mistake.  We learnt how dhruva would not give up on his goal, inspite of all the hardships he encountered!

We then dispersed with our ending prayers.  Until we meet you next time, keep practicing and look out for our email regarding further updates about our practice.

Happy holidays everyone!
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

We started the class with 5 minutes meditation.
After regular prayers we discussed about Sankranthi festival. We learned that Sankranthi festival is a harvest festival and called "Lori" in Punjab / North India. We also learned that as the Sun enters Makara rashi, it is also called "Makara Sankranthi".
Rashmi aunty taught us the Sankranthi sloka  that 3rd grade will be reciting on January 8th in the auditorium.
We started the story of Dhruva, the tapas he did, and how Lord Vishnu blessed him. 
Happy holidays to all.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

December 11th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·       Meditation 
·       sahanaavavatu
·       gurustotram verses 1-9 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  9 shlokas

Story time
·    3 types of devotion (kapila story)
·         sati 

Chanting/Songs
·        none

Quiet time
·         none

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:
Our morning prayers and meditation are coming along very well.  Today, we did not have to tell anyone to keep their eyes closed or not wag their legs or any such thing!  They all know now what we do during meditation.  We get into our routine right away.

We are learning a lot of new shlokas in gurustotram, gItaa chanting, etc.  Today, we had a surprise pop quiz!  (We have always had informal quizzes, but today, we specially played it like a game with points for boys team vs. girls team, to make it more interesting :).  In the end, it was a tie, both had equal points!

We learnt about what devotion (bhakti) is today.  We learnt the 3 types of devotion - taamasika, raajasika and saatvika are the 3 varieties.  We learnt that taamasika bhakti is practiced with a selfish motive, in order to destroy others.  raajasika bhakti is praying for the betterment of oneself.  saatvika bhakti is the purest kind of devotion where one prays due to love of God and betterment of others.

We then heard the story of sati.  She was the daughter of dakSha and prasUti (manu/shatarUpa's daughter).  sati was married to Lord shiva.  We learnt in detail how a dakSha was arrogant of his possessions.  His own daughter sati emulated herself in fire and became ashes because of his conduct. The very 6 qualities that make a good person (knowledge, austerity, wealth, great body,, youth and birth in a good family), converted him to a bad one due to his blemished vision of arrogance.  We learnt with many examples, how the same good qualities can turn bad in an instant, the minute ego creeps in.  We then finished off with ending prayers.

We did not have time for raama hare song or likhita japa as we had to go to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.  We will see you all next week.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

December 4th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·       Meditation 
·       sahanaavavatu
·       gurustotram verses 1-9 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  9 shlokas

Story time
·         kardama and devahuti
·         kapila

Chanting/Songs
·        raama hare (5 verses)

Quiet time
·         Writing ‘om namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time
·         Understanding 'pralaya' though making and un-making a boat

Ending prayers and pledge
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
·        chinmaya aarati 
      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare
      ·        pledge

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
The class started with 3 om-s.  We understood that we can not chant the omkaara from just the lips or the nose, but have to bring it out from the naval.  We did meditation for 5 minutes and felt the calmness and quietness in the class as well as within ourselves.  From this we understood that we can de-clutter the mind and be alert for the rest of the class.  We suggested that they do 10 minutes of meditation daily, to prepare themselves mentally to go through the happenings of everyday.

In the prayers and chanting, they did wonderfully till the 8th verse of gurustotram!  We learnt the 9th one today.  In gItaa chanting, the entire class did a great job till verse 4!!  It was so pleasant to hear them all chant in one voice, so comfortably.  They needed help on the 5th verse.  We were supposed to learn the 6th verse today.  But surprisingly, we went up until verse 9!!  They were so comfortable with the words.  Even one of the very difficult lines, they pronounced so easily the very first time!  We are now ahead by a couple weeks in the schedule of gItaa chanting verses :).  We do have a bunch of very smart and alert children!

It was story time and during the review, we revisited the story from last week.  In today's story, we saw that a sage by name kardama had been doing rigorous penance on Lord viShNu.  When He appeared, he blessed the sage and said that he will beget a virtuous wife and have 10 children.  9 would be daughters and for the 10th, Lord viShNu himself would be born as his son.  After that, he would do greater penance and attain salvation.

manu and shatarUpa had gotten 5 children, one of which was a beautiful daughter named devahuti.  They came in search of a suitable groom for her and found sage kardama.  They gave devahuti in marriage to him.  They had 9 daughters and just as Lord viShNu had said, the 10th was a son, which was none other than viShNu himself.  He was named kapila.  After that kardama went away to do his penance.  kapila was a divine child and he told things that no one ever could.  He gave the saankhyan philosophy to the world.  Even his mother would sit and listen to his teachings intently.  One day she expressed that she wanted to know how to attain moksha (salvation).  kapila said that is possible by having a pure heart.  To have a pure heart, one has to follow 7 rules -
*  Obey the rules of life
*  Perform one's duties
*  See work as worship
*  Chanting the Lord's name
*  Trusting the Lord
*  Seeing the Lord in all creatures
*  Loving God as one's own child

This is called devotion.  We had quite a few interesting discussions and examples about these rules.  Do discuss with your children what we spoke about.  During the discussion, we have also promised that each and every child will practice gItaa chanting at home.  Please remind your children and encourage them to keep their word :).

We chanted 'raama hare' till verse 5.  As a fun activity that involved learning, we all learnt to make paper boats!  We then related the making and un-making of the boat to creation and dissolution of the world.  The material still remains the same, but the form it appears only changes.  That is exactly what happens in 'pralaya'.  We did the likhita japa on the boat itself today.  We finished off the class with our ending prayers.

Parents, thanks for checking our email and phone nos. list, so that our records are current.  That helps us immensely to keep in touch.  Have a nice week and we will see you next Sunday.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 
We started the class with 5 minutes meditation. 
After regular prayers we continued the story of Kardama rishi and Devahuti. We learned about Devahuti's son Kapila , the divine teacher who gave Sankhya philosophy to the mankind.
The children enjoyed 7 points of his teaching. It teaches us how to purify our mind.Perform our duty, Work as worship, Chant God's name, Trust the God as your friend, Seek the God in other people and Love God.
Next week we will learn about three types of devotees. Three gunas and who is the greatest devotee.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

November 20th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·       Meditation 
·       sahanaavavatu
·       gurustotram verses 1-8 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  5 shlokas

Story time
·         varaaha avataara
·         jaya and vijaya

Chanting/Songs
·        raama hare (4 verses)

Quiet time
·         Writing ‘om namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time
·         The attitude of gratitude - sharing the list (home work) of what we are grateful for

Ending prayers and pledge
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
·        chinmaya aarati 
      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare
      ·        pledge

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
Our class started omkaara and meditation.  Meditation is coming along very nicely.  The children are able to focus and 'guard their thoughts', while chanting their favorite mantra or concentrating on their breath.  We learnt new verses in gurustotram.  Now we are comfortable with the words till the 8th verse.  The gIta chanting is coming along slowly.  The children are comfortable with the words until 3rd verse.  We were supposed to learn till 6th today, but since some of them were not sure about the 4th and 5th verses, we stopped at that.

In the story time, we heard the story of the varaaha avataara.  As we had seen in the previous story, hiraNyaakSha was looking for a good fight.  He came looking for viShNu.  At that time, lord brahma had created the first man and woman named manu and shatarUpa.  They needed a place to start their lives.  But 'bhu' (earth) was buried deep in the waters during the pralaya.  Even as brahma was contemplating on what to do about it, a thumb sized boar (varaaha) came out of his right nostril and grew in size.  It was none other than viShNu himself.  Even as he was lifting the earth from under the waters, hiraNyaakSha found him and enraged him.  So varaaha balanced the earth on his tusk, then clawed and slayed hiraNyaakSha.

The back ground story for this was that, once when jaya and vijaya were guarding the gates of vaikunTha (viShNu's home), the 4 sanath kumaaras visited.  They did not allow them to enter and insulted the rishis too.  So the rishis cursed them to be born as asuras on earth.  They were born as the evil sons of diti - hiraNyaakSha and hiraNyakashipu.  Lord viShNu had promised them that he would personally come to redeem them.  Hence, he did that in varaaha avataara, for hiraNyaakSha.

The children were so good.  They knew the stories they had heard so far and were asking very smart and thoughtful questions.  We could clearly see that their mind's wheels were running and imagining all the scenes!

We then sang 'raama hare...'.  The likhita japa of 'om namo' is coming along beautifully.  They shared their homework questions answers.  They had all written so wonderfully what they were all thankful for!  It was very heartening to hear their answers.  Please check with them what they liked best and what part of the class they enjoyed.

We ended the class with ending prayers and pledge.  See you all in two weeks.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

November 6th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·       Meditation 
·       sahanaavavatu
·       gurustotram verses 1-6 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  5 shlokas

Story time
·         sage kashyapa
·         hiraNkyaakSha 

Chanting/Songs
·        raama hare (3 verses)

Quiet time
·         Writing ‘namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time
·         The attitude of gratitude - making a list of what we are grateful for - homework

Ending prayers and pledge
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
·        aarati and pledge in the auditorium 

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
We started the class with 3 'om's.  After the initiating prayer, we learnt about meditation.  While brainstorming about what meditation means, we were quite astounded to learn how much the children already knew about it!  The answers were 'thinking of God', 'not thinking of anything else', 'focusing', 'saying God's names',  'having good thoughts', etc.  Also one of the answers that really caught us was 'guarding our thoughts'!!  They couldn't have put it any better!  After understanding that the easiest way to do that is focusing on our breath, which we apparently do aaall the time :).  We spoke about how the air that we inhale feels cool and what we exhale feels warm.  We turned off the lights, focused attention on the breath and calmed the minds.  Parents, we request you to come to class in time.  If the child walks in during meditation, the rest of the class will get distracted.  If you come during that time, unfortunately, we would have to request you to stand out till the lights are on. At the same time, we are happy that most of the children come on time!  

After that we chanted the gurustotram and learnt the words to verses 6 and 7.  We then did the gItaa chanting.  Most of the children were comfortable with the words for the first 3 verses.  We worked on learning the words for the 4th and 5th verses.  We are having fun with the tongue twisters when we are learning them for the first time :). 

Then was recap time.  We retreaded on the story of matsyaavataara and the children had all the answers.  We then went into the story of sage kashyapa.  His wife was diti.  One day, while sage kashyapa was performing his pooja and rituals, diti disturbed him as she was bored.  Even when the sage told her not to do so, she did not listen.  So, the sage left his pooja.  Later, diti realized her mistake and how she had been stubborn.  When she apologized, the sage told her that it was too late.  She was going to reap the fruit for her wrong actions, two in number.  One for her selfishness, the other for disobeying him.  They would come in the form of her two sons who will become demons and cause havoc in the 3 worlds.  She regretted, but had no choice.  As we sow, so shall we reap!  Her twin sons were born after a 100 years.  They were named hiraNyaakSha and hiraNyakashipu.  They grew not only in size but in pride and vanity too.  Everyone were scared of them and would hide at their very sight.  hiraNyaakSha would go challenging for fights.  Once when he challenged varuNa, the sea god, he tactfully directed him towards Lord viShNu.  He said only He can give hiraNyaakSha a good, satisfying fight!  We stopped the story under this suspense :).  We will continue it in the next class.

We sang the first 3 verses of 'raama hare'.  Then we wrote 'om namo' in devanaagari.  Some of them were so good at it already that they wanted to learn 'naaraayaNaaya' also, to complete their prahlaada mantra.  We will work more on this in the coming classes.

We have a homework this week.  We want to focus on what we are thankful for in our lives.  The children will give a good thought for the blessings they have in life and they are grateful for.  They will list out 10 or more such things they are grateful for.  This is called the 'Attitude of Gratitude' list.  Parents, please encourage them to think on their own.  It is wonderful to hear their thoughts and how deeply they think!

We finished with pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam and went to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October 23rd Class

Beginning prayers
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· saha naavavatu

Ending prayers
· pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

5k Walkathon for CORD

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:

Today's class was different and special.  Today, we met outdoors - at the Mercer county park for a very special cause!  We were taking gurudev's teachings to the practical level.  There was a walkathon arranged in the park so that we could raise money for the women and children in the rural areas of India, who are in need of our assistance.  It was a 5k walk for bringing awareness about the activities of CORD and to do our bit in helping them in a wee little way that we could.  Before the walk, we met briefly as a class. 

Since the walk was for raising money for rural development in India, we spoke about what CORD stands for, why we were at the park, what our role was in assisting the not so fortunate children. 

To emphasize the purpose of the walk, we heard a story called 'The Glass of milk'.  There was once a poor boy who was very hungry and cold.  He did not know where to go and stood in the cold for a long time.  Finally, not able to bear it anymore, he thought of asking someone for food and knocked on the door of a house near by.  A kind looking young lady opened the door.  At that moment, the boy hesitated to ask for food.  So, he ended up asking for just a glass of water to drink.  But that lady brought him a tall warm glass of milk instead.  With that, not only his hunger was quenched, he felt warm and energized!

Many years later, that same lady was admitted to a hospital with a grave disease.  When a doctor was looking through her charts and saw the name of her hometown, his eyes lit up.  He went to see the lady and, lo and behold, it was the same lady that had energized him on a cold winter day, years ago!  He was a doctor now!  He immediately took over her case, gave her the best treatment and took special care of her.  After a long battle, she was cured and well enough to go home.  When the bills were being made, the doctor asked to see the bills for his approval.  When it came to him, he wrote something on the bottom of the bill and sent it to the lady.  The lady could not hold her tears back, for, it said, 'Paid in full, with a glass of milk'!!  The deed of kindness she had sown had come right back to her!  Even if you never see the deed again, atleast you would have made the world a better place.

We related to this story, our act of giving to the needy.  We have just assisted in making the world a better place for someone we may never come to know.  But atleast, we know we did our share in helping them.

The children were even more energized and enthusiastic about the walk after hearing about the role they were playing.  We all promised that if we felt fatigued during the walk, we would remind ourselves about all the children that would be able to buy books and clothes, because we were walking today.

We finished the class with 'pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam...' and dispersed to enjoy the walk in the park on this beautiful, sunny, fall day.  The weather also looked as if was inclined to make it as pleasant as possible for all the walkers!  We all had loads of fun and a great energizing work out as well, even as we were raising awareness and funds for CORD.

See you all at Cross Roads School for the next balavihar on Nov 6th.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

October 16th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·        saha naavavatu
·         gurustotram verses 1-6 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  3 shloka

Story time
·         parIkShit meets shukadeva (recap)
·         matsyaavataara 

Chanting/Songs
·        raama hare (3 verses)

Quiet time
·         Writing ‘namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time
·         4 corners game - parIkShita, shamika, shRunghI, satyavrata

Ending prayers and pledge
·        sarve bhavantu sukhinaH 
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

We started the class with the opening prayers.  The kids remembered the lessons from last time and were 'keeping their thoughts on guard'!!  We couldn't be more impressed and start the class off on a high note :).  We chanted the guru stotram and gIta.

During the recap, the children filled in the details regarding the story we have heard so far.  We then went ahead with the story for today.  We learnt how king parIkShita got together with a lot of learned sages like vyaasa, vasiShTa, atri, bhRugu, etc.  Then, a very learned sage shukadeva came by too.   They all suggested that parIkShita listen to the glories the Lord, that are sung in the bhaagavatam, to attain eternal peace, since he was cursed to die in 7 days.  They began to listen to the story.  The first was the story of how Lord viShNu came in 'matsyaavataara' to protect the vedas, that were stolen by a demon named hayagrIva.  The Lord came in the form of a small fish, to a noble viShNu bhakta king named satyavrata.  He grew tremendously in size.   He instructed the king that in 7 days, there will be a rapture and hence, he should collect all herbs, plants, trees, animals of all species and the 7 sages (saptarshis) and be ready.  A strong build boat would come to him.  They were to enter the boat, tie it to the fish' horn using vaasuki snake and wait for the rapture to pass.  The Lord would protect them.  During that time the Lord slayed hayagrIva and restored the 4 vedas back to Lord brahma.  This is what the Lord did during his 'matsyaavataara'.

We then learnt 3 verses of the song 'raama hare'.  We had already finished our likhita japa of 'om namo' as well.  It was game time and we played the game of 4 corners.  The corners were named 'parIkShita, satyavrata, shamika and shRunghI'.  We would not take the names of the corners, but would give clues regarding those characters we had learnt during the story.  Based on that, the children had to decide which corner they have to pile in.  We tried to trick them with trick questions, but they caught on quick!

We wrapped up the class with pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam.

Our next class will be at the 'Mercer County Park'.  It will be on October 23rd, Sunday 10 a.m.   After a brief class, we will all be walking for CORD walkathon and do our bit of seva for a noble cause.  See you all there.  Please plan ahead, so you arrive on time.
________________________________________________

Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

We started the class with 5 minutes meditation. 
After regular prayers we continued the story of Parikshit. He learnt meditate and listened to Srimad Bhagavatam from Suka Maharshi.
The children enjoyed the story of Matsya avatara.
We are chanting BGeeta Chapter 12th, So far they have learnt 4 shlokas. Please ask your son/daughter to practise them at home.
CORD Walkathon--  While explaining importance of donating and helping needy people we have given information about CORD walkathon on Sunday Oct 23rd that will take place in Mercer county park,That day  Balavihar class will not be held in Cross roads school SouthBrunswick.
Please register for Walkathon. To pledge the donation please use below link.
 
See you next Sunday in Mercer county park.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

October 9th Class


Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times
·        saha naavavatu
·         gurustotram verses 1-5 and 14

Gitaa chanting
·        bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 -  3 shloka

Story time
·         the curse
·         parIkShit meets shukadeva

Chanting/Songs
·        none

Quiet time
·         Writing ‘namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time
·         I am on guard

Ending prayers and pledge
·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
·        aarati and pledge were done in the auditorium

Comments:
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

We started the class with 3 'om'-s and the opening prayers.   In the bhagavadgIta segment, we revisited the facts about the gIta, which chapter we are learning and why.  We learnt that this chapter (the 12th) talks about bhakti (devotion).  In the first verse, arjuna asks kRuShNa who is the best kind of devotee.  In the following 19 verses, bhagavaan explains to him who is the best devotee, how to become the best devotee, what are the characteristics of a devotee, etc.   We learnt the words for the 3rd verse also today.  We had fun learning new words, that sounded like tongue twisters in the beginning, but after saying it a few times, it was a piece of cake, wasn't it :).  Parents, please encourage them to practice the verses at home.  You have all been given a handout in the beginning of the year.  The script of the 12th chapter is in that book.  (We will be giving printouts for using in the class, they do not need to bring the books from now on.) 

We then revised the story we have heard so far.  The children knew all the details and names that were told to them.  They have been taking notes and writing down pointers.  Parents, do help them revise and narrate to you, what they have understood.  That way, they will be reinforcing their learning in class.  It could be a brief narration, even on their ride home from balavihar.  That will play a key factor in how well they participate in class, so that they can tell you all about it during their ride back.

Building on the story, we heard how once king parIkShita went on a hunting venture.  After a long time, he got weary, hungry and thirsty.  He walked into the ashram nearby where sage shamika sat in very deep meditation.  The king asked him for food and water, but the sage was unaware of the king's arrival.  Restless and hungry, the king lost guard of his thoughts and actions.  The king got annoyed.  He placed a dead snake that was lying near by, on the sage, in order catch his attention.  But the sage was in such deep meditation that he did not know what the king had done.  His son, sage shRungI, saw this and cursed the king, saying that he shall die in 7 days, by getting bitten by a snake called takShaka!  On waking up from his meditation, sage shamika was not happy with the events that had happened.  He scolded his son for having cursed and asked him to go and apologize to the king!  This showed us that, one mistake cannot be fixed by another mistake!

We had a wonderful discussion with examples, how we forget guarding our thoughts at times and get in trouble.  We even played a game of 'I am on guard', to see how alert we were during the game.  We did not catch many 'off guard', so as to say :).

In our desire to write dhruva's favorite mantra, we learnt writing 'namo' in Sanskrit.  Some of the kids immediately recognized the similarity of the alphabet to Hindi.  But everyone successfully wrote the likhita japa of 'namo' today. 

We were having so much fun, we did not have time to chant 'raama hare' today.  That is okay.  We will do it next class.

We concluded the class with pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam.  We went to the auditorium for aarti and pledge.

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

We started the class with 5 minutes meditation, Children have slowly started taking the meditaion time seriouly and learing to chant OM.
The children have received a welcome letter. Please check their folders.
Since we met after two weeks we revised brielfy what they learnt in last couple of classes.
Continued with the story of Parikshit and Kali, We explained them what are Kali's addresses where Parikshit told him to reside.
The children also listened to the story of Parikshit and Rishi Samika and Parikshit's curse. Children are very much interested in listening to stories and seriously trying to understand the message given in the stories, We are glad to see their interest in learning the backround of Srimad Bhagavatam. Keep it up!!
We don't expect them to read any stories ahead of the class becuse some times they lose interest in listening and then don't understand the message given in them.
We are chanting BGeeta Chapter 12th, So far they have learnt 3 shlokas. Please ask your son/daughter to practise them at home.
CORD Walkathon--  While explaining importance of donating and helping needy people we have given information about CORD walkathon on Sunday Oct 23rd that will take place in Mercer county park,That day  Balavihar class will not be held in Cross roads school SouthBrunswick.
See you next Sunday in Cross roads school.