Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is the update of our Nov 3rd 2023 balavihar session.
We begin our session by greeting the students followed by Likhita Japa , Opening Prayers and attendance.
We started chanting Geeta Dhyanam today. The intent is to learn to chant the complete Gita Dhynam before our stage performance. We started with the first 2 verses today.
Yato Dharmah Tato Jayah (40 Mins)
We started with a recap of the last class on the Sins of the body, mind and speech – The 10 Karmas that one should avoid to have a good life.
We then discussed the 'My Vaca' activity and set up the initial board for marking our observation. Each person in the class has a tag area where they mark their observation. The idea is to inculcate the habit of watching what we do on a daily basis. (more to come on this)
The focus of our session today onwards (for the next few weeks) was to do a quick look or analysis of the events in the Mahabharata epic with a view to understanding Karma and Karmaphala concept. (Cause and effect).
With that intent we started with an overview of Mahabharata.
We talked about the number of verses in the Mahabharata, the author, the timeline of when this happened, the Scribe and also discussed the number of Parva's in Mahabharata. We noted that this is a ithihassa purana and thus we have some evidence of some of the events existing even today.
We played a short game to understand how difficult it is to scribe when one recites verses in a flow. We read a few list of words and asked youths to write and then discussed who got it right vs many who missed a word or two.
Key takeaway: To be a scribe one must be alert, should posses concentration and must write accurately with speed to do the task. (not an easy one)
We concluded the day today with closing prayers and assembled in the main hall for Saraswathi Pooja and Pledge.
See below for a picture of our class doing Saraswathi Pooja.
Next Class : Nov 17th 2023.
We do not have class next week as we will be celebrating Diwali. Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year to all!! Please do join us at the Ashram on Sunday as we will be having our Annakut celebrations. Hope to see you all !!
Thanks and Hari Om
Purnima and Shankar
