Hari OM Dear Families,
Here is this week's update.
Week 13:
21st January 2024 / 9:15 AM
Opening prayers and Shlokas
Slokas: Class began with 3 OMs followed by
"Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
Om shrI Ganeśaya Namaha, shrI Saraswatyai Namaha, shrI Sat Gurubhyo Namaha.
"Vakratunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
"Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)
"Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
Govinda Damodara Sthotram - We practiced the first verse and then started learning the next verse of the Govinda Damodara Sthotram.
Govinda and Damodara are the other names of Lord Krishna. This sthotram is in praise of Govinda, the protector of cows, and Damodara, one who was tied up with a rope around his stomach (by Maa Yashoda).
Today's Lesson: Krishna Krishna Everywhere
Kids took turns trying to recap what we had discussed in our previous class.
Aghasura Vadham
One day Krishna wakes up early in the morning, and he desires to go to the forest for a picnic. He plays the flute, which wakes up all the Gopas. They come out of the house, and their calves follow them. They are all very excited and in high spirits as they make their way to the forest.
They are having a lot of fun, teasing each other, racing, laughing, and singing.
On the way, waiting for them, is the demon, Agha. Aghasura is the younger brother of Putana and Bakasura. He is waiting to kill Krishna and avenge the death of his siblings. He is in the form of a huge and very long snake. He opens his mouth so wide that the lower jaw is on the earth, while the upper jaw touches the clouds. He lays still and is waiting for the Gopas to come closer. The Gopas see this huge structure, but are not sure what it actually is. They playfully enter the huge mouth. They were not afraid as they were with Krishna, and knew he would protect them, no matter what. Krishna knows that this is a deathtrap. He goes and stands right in Aghasura's throat, preventing him from breathing. Soon, Aghasura chokes and dies. All the Gopas safely come out of the demon's body. The devas sing and praise Krishna as, yet another evil plan of Kamsa fails.
Brahmaji's Moha Bhanga
After the death of Aghasura, Krishna and the Gopas go to the river Yamuna. They are all hungry and tired. They all sit down to eat. As they are sitting and starting to eat, the calves stray away along the riverside. By the time the Gopas realized, the calves had all gone. As they are getting worried, Krishna goes in search of the calves.
Lord Brahma had witnessed the strength of Krishna before, and he had this desire to experience it once more by himself. So, he hides all the calves in a cave. Krishna searches everyone, and not finding the calves, returns to the riverside and now all the Gopas are also gone. Krishna meditates deeply and realizes that it was all Brahmaji's trick to test his divinity. He smiles and decides that he would please Lord Brahma and at the same time, give the experience of infinite bliss to all the missing Gopa's mothers. Krishna multiplies himself and assumes the exact forms of the Gopas and their calves. That evening all the Krishna-Gopas and Krishna-calves go back to their home, just the way they left in the morning. The moms came running out to receive them with overwhelming love and the cows too showed extra special tenderness. No one could figure out the source of this extra, overflowing love and bliss, but they reveled in it just the same. The Lord, who is the essence of all beings, thus received the love of so many human and animal mothers. Nobody noticed any change, except that the mothers had started loving their boys a LOT more. Krishna, the Krishna-Gopas and the Krishna-calves went to the forest every morning as usual for almost a year!
One day the cows were grazing on the summit of Mount Govardhana, they felt a tremendous upsurge of love for their calves. Balarama was watching and thought, "Never have I seen the cows display such great love towards their calves. Even the mothers' love for the Gopas has become so much more than it ever was. "These calves and their keepers have all started looking like You, Krishna. What is this new mystery? Krishna then explained what happened.
Brahmaji was curious to see how Krishna had handled this tricky situation. He was puzzled to see TWO sets of Gopas and their calves!!! Brahmaji's maya disappeared in the overpowering maya of Krishna. Brahmaji had been beaten at his own game! Everything went back to normal, and no one realized the year they missed!
By becoming the Gopas and Calves Himself, The Lord showed that God is in each one of us.
Today's Lesson, 24 Teachers
Like always, we started with a riddle:
Believe it or not, I used to be a mailman a long time ago.
My kind is found all over the globe.
But, we tend to like Trafalgar Square in London the most.
Who Am I?
The kids got it with the very first clue. The first guess was "Bird" and the second guess was "Pigeon". And it was right!!
A short story about a pigeon family was shared with the class. One day, when the parents went out to find food, the babies were caught in a trap by a hunter. When the parents returned and saw their babies caught, the mommy jumped into the trap and seeing his whole family caught, the daddy too jumped into the trap. The whole family was killed!
Instead of being so blind in attachment, if the parents had taken a step back to think, they would have probably come up with an idea to save their babies.
Dattatreya said, "O King, I learned from the pigeon couple that when you are overly attached to things and beings, you lose control of your life. Troubles do come in life but face them with courage and try to find a proper solution."
Attachment to near and dear ones is the cause of suffering in life.
As an exercise to reinforce what we just learnt from the story, we had two pictures with text and asked the kids to try reading the text from the far back of the class and asked them to come close till their nose touched the picture. When they were too close or too far, they were not able to see and read the text and picture properly. Just like we cannot see something very close to the eye, we cannot make proper judgments when we are too attached to a person or thing. Even when something is too far off, we cannot see. We need to have things at the right distance, for us to see and read properly.
We gave an example of Rama and Dasharatha. King Dasaratha was extremely attached to his son Rama. When Rama left for the forest, Dasaratha was totally devastated and died.
When we forget our true eternal nature, we take our body to be real and the relations born out of it. Man comes to grief when he is over attached to his family and possessions. He loses his reason and self-control. Born as a human being, one should strive to reach Brahman, for all our attachments to the world of sense objects drag us down.
We can reduce our attachment to worldly things by attaching to higher ideals - like helping others, praying to God, or going to a temple.
We then briefly discussed the story of Ramayana and what they knew about the Pran- Pratishtha of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya later tonight.
We met with a few parents today between 10:30 and 10:45 AM. Those who could not make it today, can meet with us next week between 10:30 and 10:45 AM. We look forward to meeting you all to share and receive feedback.
Likhita Japa- The last few minutes of the class before we went to the main assembly for Aarthi, the kids wrote "Jai Sri Rama" in the language of their choice. Some tried drawing Sri Rama.
Aarti and Pledge - We concluded the class with Aarti and Pledge in the temple hall.
Our next class will be on January 28th, 2024.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns you may have.
Thank you and Hari OM
Neelima & Rekha
