Hari Om Parents,
We started our class with our Likhitha jaapa followed by daily prayers and then Ganesha Panchanatham.
Since Shivram ji was out and could not join our class due to his work schedule one of our Class mom volunteered to help out in class. Thank you Sri Lakshmi ji for volunteering to assist in the class.
The homework from December 1st class and December 8th class follow up is as below
Family tree up to 3 generations minimum and 4 if possible. Learn to chant Gita Chapter 4 until 12 slokas and send recordings to Geeta chanting team email:- geeta@chinmayavrindavan.org to get house points and also points for themselves too.
We went over every child and their family tree, few kids came to class very well prepared and went up to all 4 generations. Please take time to review your family tree with your children.
We recapped the story thus far, Dhritarstra married Gandhari the Princess of Gandhara, and since her husband was blind she chose to be blindfolded throughout her life to be a pativrata. Pandu married Kunti the daughter of KuntiBhoja and also Maadri who was sister of Shalaya. Back story of Vidhur and Kunti. How Pandu went to live in the forest after being cursed by the sage. The birth of Yudhishthira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. We then continued with our Mahabharata story by reading the Story of Bheema.
Story of Bheema
Bheema was the second son of Pandu and Kunti who was blessed by the grace of wind god Pavan.
After Pandu died Kunti along with her 5 children came to live in the palace of hastinapura. Duryodhana the eldest son of the 100 children Dhritarastra and Gandhari. Bheema, being very strong, always used to bully all the Kaurava princes. Bheema would swim fastest of all the kuru princes, when Karuva brothers climbed any trees as playing a sport, bheema would shake up the trees so hard that all the princes would fall on the ground like leaves. This caused a lot of anger and hatred towards Bheema.
Dhuryodhana already hated pandavas as his father could not become king even though he was eldest as he was blind. Dhuryodhana could not become the crown prince as Pandu was the king and Yudhishthira was the eldest and he would become the future king.
Dhuryodhana and his brothers always wanted to hatch a plan to kill pandavas. But they knew that Bheema, being the strongest, would always protect his brothers. So Duryodhana hatches a plan to kill Bheema.
They decided to participate in a swimming competition and everyone swam in the river Ganges. Bheema being the strongest swam the fastest and won the race. All the princes were extremely tired and exhausted after playing the entire day and swimming through Ganges. Bheema as always was very hungry and wanted to eat all the food. Kauravas offered Bheema their food as well, actually this food was poisoned. After eating so much food Bheema felt sleepy and dozed off. Kauravas tied Bheema's hands and legs with creepers and threw him into a poisonous lake full of poisonous snakes so that he would never ever return back.
Their plan was to kill Bheema first and later the rest of pandavas and take the throne of hastinapura. Since the body of Bheema was poisoned, the poison from the poisonous snake made Bheema more powerful and stronger than ever before. He was floated to the banks of river Ganga.
Meanwhile back in hastinapura yudhistira is worried that he does not find Bheema. He goes and asks mother Kunti if Bheema came back. When he comes to know that Bheema didn't return back he is worried about his brother. Dhuryodhana and his brothers are actually secretly smiling and happy, this causes more concern to Yudhishthira. After sometime Bheema returns back when he wakes on the banks of river Ganga. Seeing Bheema back at palace Yudhistira and Kunti are very happy but Duryodhana and his brothers are sad. Kunti goes to Vidhur and tells about what happened. Vidhur tells Kunti and Yudhistira to keep it low and not to talk about this as Dhuryodhana being wicked plus with hatred towards pandavas would not agree and create more havoc. Bheema is told by Yudhistira to keep calm and not to raise this topic of being poisoned by kauravas.
Please note that December 8th 2024 was the last balavihar class for 2023. We have our Bhagavad gita yagna conducted in our ashram from 10th Dec to Dec 16th.
We will try to start Nirvana Shatakam next class. Until we meet next week in January 2024.
Wishing everyone a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2024.
With Om and Pranams
Anuradha
Important Information:
List of things that we need the kids to bring to the class
1. An empty notebook to write likhita japa and notes
2. Two sharpened pencils
3. Daily Prayers book
4. Curriculum for 5th graders
1. Mahabharata By Raja Gopalachari
2. India the sacred land (handouts will be provided by teachers)
3. Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 4. Shlokas 1-28
4. Shlokas- Ganesha panchartnam and Nirvana Shatakam.
4.1 Ganesha Panchratnam
4.1.1 Link to rendition with lyrics in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lZCKxeJFE or
4.1.2 Link: https://youtu.be/Oyo0FWP9fB8?si=ZaYVDepNkX0YWShI (play at lower speeds for kids to follow lyrics and hear clearly
4.2. NirvanaShatakam
Link to chant
https://youtu.be/rKx7K13OvQ4?si=lM6g_ZtX0kdF5Sfo - Uninterrupted Line Guided Chant - YouTube
