Balavihar Week 2- Section 1

Our class started with the beginning prayers..Sahanaavathu & then we meditated for 5 minutes. We took attendance & greeted everybody with a "Hari Om". Then we did the Guru Stotram upto the 4th verse. We did the bhajan "Radhe Radhe Radhe". 

Bhagvatham Time: 

First we did the recap of the last class and moved on with the story. Today we talked about Narada Rishi & how King Praiksit Meets Kali. 

The topic of the day consists of :

How was Bhagavatham written?

From the last class it was seen that all the diciples gathered around Sutaji & Saunaka rishi asked a question that how can one be happy for ever. Sutaji said that the answer was in the poem "Bhagavatam" which was composed by Sri Veda Vyasa. Sri Veda Vyasa was a very learned scholar who had written many Puranas, Mahabharata and the Vedas for the benefit of the people. But still he was not happy. One day Narada Rishi came to see him and advised him to sing the glories of the Lord. He asked him to teach the people why God takes different avataras and that way he is going to be happy. 

Who is Naradaji??

Narada ji was the son of a servant lady who lived serving saints in the ashram. Narada Ji lived there hearing the glories of Bhagavan from the saints. It so happened that one day Narada Ji's mother got bitten by a snake and died and thus Narada Ji was left all alone. After this incident Narada Ji went to the forest for mediating and Bhagavan being happy with him blessed him by saying he will be reborn as Brahmaji's son. Few years later he died and was reborn again as the son of Brahmaji. 

 

Pariksit Meets Kali

  One day King Pariksit was going around and he was shocked to see a strange sight. A mean, well dressed man, Kali was torturing a white bull and a cow was standing close by and crying seeing this. The mean man had already pulled out three of the bull's leg and was about to cut out the fourth leg. Seeing this King Pariksit got angry and asked Kali why he was doing this to the poor animal. Then the King turned to the bull and cow and asked why he was doing this. The bull answered he didn't know why ..but some say may be due to past karmas. Pariksit thought deeply and realized that the bull was the personification of Dharma & the cow was of Mother Earth. And the four legs stands for Austerity, Purity, Kindness and Truthfulness. Of these, three has already been lost and only Truthfulness remains. We discussed the four words and their importance with the class. 

We ended the day with our Aarati & Pledge. See you all in the next class.

Pushakala & Deepthy

Balavihar Week 2- Section 2

We started the class by chanting OM 3 times followed by beginning prayers Sahanaavathu & then we meditated for 2 minutes. Then we did the Guru Stotram upto the 3rd verse and concluded with Tvamey va maatha cha verse.  We sang Radhe Radhe Radhe during Bhajan time.  Both Guru Stotram and Radhe Radhe bhajan lyrics can be found in 'MY Prayers' book. And also that the next class is on Oct 7th. Bhagvatham Time:  We reviewed last weeks lesson - Names of avataras. We then talked about how Bhagavatam was written  followed by story of Narada Rishi & how King Parikshit Meets Kali.  Saunaka rishi lived in the ashrama with several disciples. One day Sutaji a learned sage visited the ashrama.Saunaka rishi asked a question that how can one be happy for ever.To which Sutaji replied that the answer was in the poem "Bhagavatam" which was composed by Sri Veda Vyasa. Sri Veda Vyasa was a very learned scholar who had written many Puranas, Mahabharata and the Vedas for the benefit of the people. But still he was not happy. One day Narada Rishi came to see him and advised him to sing the glories of the Lord. He asked him to teach the people why God takes different avataras and that way he is going to be happy.   Naradaji Narada ji was the son of a servant lady who lived serving saints in the ashram. Narada Ji's mother got bitten by a snake and died and thus Narada Ji was left all alone. After this Narada Ji went to the forest for mediatation and Bhagavan being happy with him blessed him by saying he will be reborn as Brahmaji's son.  Pariksit Meets Kali   One day King Pariksit was going around and he was shocked to see a strange sight. A mean, well dressed man, Kali was torturing a white bull and a cow was standing close by and crying seeing this. The mean man had already pulled out three of the bull's leg and was about to cut out the fourth leg. Seeing this King Pariksit got angry and asked Kali why he was doing this to the poor animal. Then the King turned to the bull and cow and asked why he was doing this. The bull answered he didn't know why ..but some say may be due to past karmas. Pariksit thought deeply and realized that the bull was the personification of Dharma & the cow was of Mother Earth. And the four legs stands for Austerity, Purity Kindness and Truthfulness. Of these, three has already been lost and only Truthfulness remains. We learnt the importance of the four words.  Austerity :- keep up to your promises  Purity :- clean thoughts  Kindness :- be kind to all  Truthfulness :- never lie We ended the day with our Aarati & Pledge. See you all in two weeks on Oct 7th. ~Indira Aunty and Sanjana Didi

1st Balavihar Class!- Section 1

Our class started with the beginning prayers:
     Sahanavavathu & Guru stotram

Students and the teachers introduced themselves and described their summer experience as an ice breaker.

What to bring to our next BV class?
Kids were asked to bring :

• My Prayer Book
• Notebook/pad for likhita japa
• japa mala for meditation
• Bala Bhagavatam book (curriculum for 3rd grade, available in book store)

What did we learn today?
We summarized the learnings of second grade BV.
We covered what is an Avatara and why does God take an Avatara?
List of Dashavatara.


What do we learn from Bhagavatam?
Story Time:
Shaunaka Rishi  lived in nimisharanya with his disciples . One day Sutaji a learned Rishi visited them.
 All the students and the teacher paid respects to Sutaji and gathered around him. Saunaka Rishi asked a question to Sutaji so that the students could benefit.
Saunaka Rishi asked "please tell us how can a person become good and happy forever". Sutaji replied that he would love to and further he continued to state that it is given in a poem written by Sri Veda Vyasa called "Bhagavatam" which has 18,000 verses.


In the next class we are going to share how Bhagavatam was written.

The class assembled in the auditorium for Aarathi and pledge.
See you next week!
~Pushkala Aunty & Deepthy Aunty

1st Balavihar Class!- Section 2

We began the class by greeting each other and started chanting OM 3 times followed by our morning prayer, Sahanavavathu.
Right after, we meditated for a minute.

Students and the teachers introduced each other.

Kids were asked to bring :

 A note book, pencil, eraser , box of crayons, My Prayer book and Bala Bhagavatam book (both available at the book stall ).

What we learnt today:
We summarized the learnings of second grade BV (Hanuman - The superhero)
We started by introducing the avataras:

• What is an Avatara? It means God coming down and taking a form to destroy evil.
• What are the different avatars? We learned their names and how to properly pronounce them.

During quiet time we learned to write OM in both English and Sanskrit.

Please be sure to visit the blog each week for updates.
Have a nice week and see you all in class next week!

~Sanjana didi and Indira Aunty.

Hari Om!

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