Hari Om !
Dear Parents,
Here is the summary of our class on Friday, Nov 17, 2023
Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam
Lesson: Krishna at Gokula (Krishna Krishna Everywhere)
Discussion: Review of "Stopping the Kali"
Activity: Marble drop meditation
Lesson: Water (My 24 Teachers)
Chanting: Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra and Govinda Damodara Stotram
Geeta Chanting:Chapter 4 - Verses 6-7
Next Balavihar class: 12/1/23 w
Summary:
We were very happy to see a full class after a long time! It is always a pleasure and an honor to work with them. We started out with the opening Shlokas. We then chanted the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra and Govinda Damodhara Stotram. We then did a quick recap of the story so far on Krishna's birth. We were glad to see that despite the break, the children remembered the part we had left off. After having been successfully transferred to Nanda Gopa and Yashodha's house in Gokul, Krishna then slept peacefully by mother Yashodha's side. The morning dawned with the joyous news having spread to all over the village that Yashodha has given birth to a heavenly boy baby. All of Gokul was decorated festively and everyone celebrated by dancing, bringing gifts and taking turns holding darling Krishna. Meanwhile, the evil Kamsa was plotting His murder at Mathura! When he came to know about the divine baby in Gokul, he understood it was Bhagavan and sent Pootana, an evil Rakshasi, to poison and kill the Lord. Pootana assumed the form of a beautiful maiden and took Krishna from Yashodha and tried to feed him poison. The all knowing Bhagavan destroyed her. When she died, she assumed her original mountainous form but as she was touched by the merciful Bhagavan, she attained Moksha!
Kamsa was relentless! He sent Trinaavarta who could assume the form of a great dust storm (tornado) next. The all-knowing Krishna, yet again, made his body too heavy for Trinaavarta to carry, ultimately, killing him as well! We will continue to learn about Krishna's Leelas in the upcoming classes.
We moved on to our discussion about stopping Kali. The children shared their experiences with replacing harsh words with kind words and acts of kindness. It was very good to know that they are putting in the effort to use kind words while interacting with everyone around them. Please encourage the kids to share their experiences with you and continue to be kind to everyone to stop Kali. This will be an ongoing exercise that we will continue to review through the end of the Bala Vihar year.
Our next topic was water, as one of the 24 teachers. Water has the greatest quality of purifying anything that comes into contact with it, without itself being tainted by it. It is the elixir of life and the main source of sustenance for all living beings. We learn from water that our interaction with others should always make them better people while continuing to keep our purity intact. One way we can do that is by watching our speech. Speech is a special gift given to humans and we should always be mindful of not abusing this gift. Once the words leave our mouths, we have no way of retracting them and they have the power to hurt someone. We should purify our words by avoiding lying, using harsh and bad words. We discussed that Goddess Saraswathi resides in our tongue. We do not like to live in a house that is filled with garbage. Similarly, we should take care to keep Goddess Saraswathi's 'home' clean by always using kind words.
We then played everyone's favorite Marble drop meditation game and then moved on to Geeta chanting (Verse 6-7). After that we went to the prayer hall for Aarati and Pledge. Please have a discussion about the class with the children and encourage them to share their thoughts. We look forward to meeting them on 12/1/23. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
With Prem & Om,
Radhika & Anandhi
