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.

February 5th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram verses 1-11 and 14

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  12 shlokas

Story time

·    Recap of sanath kumaara's teachings

·         Unity in diversity

Chanting/Songs

·        none

Quiet time

·         none

Game time

·         Color the picture to establish Unity in diversity - home work

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Today the class was in full spirits.  They did all the chanting wonderfully well!!  The children chanted the  gurustotram in one voice!  They did the bhagavadgItaa verse so well that we learnt 2 new ones!  Parents please remember to register them for the competition.  They are doing a wonderful job at chanting!

We revisited the teachings of sanath kumaaras.  But it was the children's turn to narrate the teachings.  Not only did they list out the teachings and remedies for the 6 dangerous sharks of life, they reminded us the stories for each of those sharks that we discussed in the last class and how one could subdue those traits!  We were super impressed kids!!

We then spoke about on aspect that would help overcome all the 6 sharks and give us the respective attributes to overcome those habits as well.  That one aspect is, the ability to see 'unity in diversity'!  If we are unified as people, there is never a circumstance where the 6 debilitating scenarios arise.  Would one treat his own left eye different from his right?  Would one's left arm be jealous of his right arm?  Would one's thumb show pride over his pinky finger?  Similarly, when we see that oneness in everyone, we learn to rejoice in others' achievements, rather than feel hard feelings.  We all spoke about how we all feel happy when we perform well as '3rd graders', rather than each individual child.  There is more happiness in sharing the success of the entire class than in their own individual achievements.

We have homework for next class.  The children have a picture with them.  Half the class will bring back the picture, colored in one single color.  The other half of them will use different colors in their picture.  We will talk more about it in the following class.

We finished our fun class with our ending prayers.  See you all next week, until then, keep practicing :).
________________________________________________

Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Today we started our class with 5 minutes meditation followed by Guru stotram. The children are learning new song, it is on Dasaavatara.

We talked about king Prthu a descendant of Dhruva. Before Prthu was crowned people spent many years in merry making, people had become very lazy they were all engaged in living luxurious life. They had spoiled the earth and had forgotten hard work. The farmers had forgotten to do farming, all the crops were dead. There was a terrible famine all over the earth.

King Prthu was very noble and righteous king. He realized that people have to change they need to work hard.  The earth took form of a cow and came to meet King Prthu, she told him there are many fertile seeds of fruits and vegetables inside her but there is no one to cultivate them. I cannot bring them up unless people put forth their efforts.

Prthu changed the people and people started working hard and all the earth was restored again. The earth is considered as Prthu’s daughter and so she is called Prthvi.

We learned about one subhashitam. 

उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथैः
न हि सुप्‍तस्य सिंहस्य प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृगाः
- पञ्चतन्त्र, मित्रसम्प्राप्ति

udyamena hi sidhyanti kaaryaaNi na manorathaiH
na hi suptasya siMhasya pravishanti mukhe mRugaaH
- pa~nchatantra, mitrasampraapti

We can accomplish something by putting our efforts and not just day dreaming about it. A deer does not enter the mouth of sleeping lion on its own accord.

We also learned about the Sanatkumara’s teaching. King Prthu learned from Sanatkumaras that to cross over  the ocean of samsara (world) one should accept Lord as a ferryman with devotion. There are six sharks of mind in the ocean of samsara, one who tries to escape from those sharks can cross the ocean, The lord a ferryman will help one to escape from those sharks.

Those six sharks are : Lust, Greed, Delusion, jealousy, pride,  anger

In Bhagavat geeta chanting session we learned two more slokas 11 and 12 from 12^th chapter.

Please encourage the children to memorize the shlokas and register for Geeta  chanting competition.

Next Balavihar class will be on Feb 12^th 2012.