Hari Om Dear Families,
We had a fun Sunday afternoon with our kids. We did start our class with a few yoga poses and some stretching exercises to calm down. Please find below the summary of our class on Sunday, January 28th 2024.
Opening Prayers: We chanted 3 OMs followed by the following opening Prayers
- Om Sahanavavatu
- Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu
- Saraswati Namastubhyam
- Vakratunda mahaakaavya(for Lord Ganesha)
- Buddhir Balam Yashodhairyam
Kids are given an opportunity to come in front and lead the group for chanting. Please revise as we will be asking each kid to lead in our class. We started the classes with the revision of all 8 values of Hanumanji and did a recap of all the verses we did in past Verse 1 to verse 20.
Hanuman Chalisa: We started learning Hanuman Chalisa in the last 8 weeks. We have learnt 25 verses so far.
We did verses 21,22, 23, 24 and 25.
Verse 21:
Rama duare tuma rakhvare, hota na ajna binu paisare. (Verse 21)
Meaning:
You guard the door (Entry) to Lord Rama's palace where none dare to enter (or go out) without your permission.
Verse 22:
Saba sukha lahai tumhari sarana , tuma raccha kahu ko darana.( Verse 22)
Meaning:
All those who seek refuge in You enjoy every kind of happiness. Why should one be afraid of anything when You are there to protect?
Story:
Once Malidas saw a Brahmin praying in the river. He was praying by closing his nose , he was doing Pranayama. Malidasa asked the Brahmin why do you pray and close your nose. Don't you get breathless, suffocated. Brahmin was so annoyed with his questions. He said he did this to see his guru and get his Blessings. Now Malidasa made him his Guru and started to pray in the same way to seek Blessings from the Lord. He closed his nose for a longer time, that made God think I should help him out or else he would die.So God appeared and told him I bless you please take off your hands . Malidasa asked who are you and why are you asking me all these things? God replied I am the Lord and trying to bless you. Malidasa didn't believe him, so he said can i bring my Guru? If he tells me you are Lord then only I trust you. Can I tie you to a tree till I get my Guru, So you don't run away. Once Brahmin came , he didn't see anyone. But now Malidasa was convinced by God, God in return granted him a boon for his greatness, he saw God everyday while he prayed.
Moral : With God as your Protector, you have nothing to fear.
Group Discussion:
We did a story of Little boy and grandma. Once a little boy was complaining to his grandma while she was baking a cake, how everything was going wrong in life- school, health, family, friends and so on. She asked if his grandson would like a snack to eat. He replied yes. She offered him cooking oil, but he said it was bad. She offers baking soda, he said that's bad too and many other baking stuff she had. So at the end grandma replied you didn't like all ingredients alone but when they all are mixed together in required proportion we get a cake that you loved to eat.
So here kids learned the moral from the story that god works in the same ways. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through so much pain and then we think why is he not protecting me. But God is always there protecting us, he wants to push us till we give our best.
Verse 23:
Apana teja sambahro apai, tinom loka hamka tem kampe. . (Verse 23)
Meaning:
You alone are capable of controlling your power. All the three worlds tremble when You roar.
Verse 24:
Bhuta pisaca nikata nahin avai, mahabira jaba nama sunavai.( Verse 24)
Meaning:
Chanting the name of Sri Hanumanji , all evil spirits and bad thoughts go away from us. Kids that have nightmares can put hanuman chalisa book under the pillow , so that helps them become stronger .
Verse 25:
Nasai roga harai saba pira, japata nirantara hunumanta bira.( Verse 25)
Meaning:
All the misery, suffering, ailments vanish when Your name is repeated continuously.
Story :
Once a family was awakened in the middle of night by the sound of an alarm. They noticed the house was on fire. Daddy took his boy and baby down from the stairs. While they were going down, the boy remembered he forgot his toy in his room. So he went back to get that toy, daddy didn't notice that boy was not coming down with him. Now while all were down out of the house, they didn't see the boy. But they hear him shouting Daddy help help. He was standing near the upstairs room window. Daay told him to trust me and jump down , I will save you. But the boy was afraid, what if he might not reach in his dads arms. But he took God's name and used his wisdom and jumped down and his Daddy saved him
Group Discussion:
While you are ill, if we keep chanting the Lord's name, will that only heal our disease. No, we also need to use the sense of thinking given by God to take medicine and then chant the Lord's name . Kids discussed the importance of having faith in God and using your wisdom in all the situations in life.
Other Activities:
Yoga: We did do few yoga poses and did some stretching exercises to calm down and get the class started.
Likhita japa: We did Likhita japa of the kid's favorite god in the book. Please remember to send it with the kids every class.
We did Listen to the Gita chanting.
Yellow is our house color. To read more about Balavihar Houses, check out this link and participate in the upcoming events.
Things to note:
You will receive class updates through email every week.
WhatsApp group if you haven't joined yet: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JTCTZ4rPWLPH8te76B1QGy
Class starts at 1 PM sharp with opening prayers. Please make sure kids are inside the classroom 5 mins before the class starts.
Please make sure kids use the restroom before entering the class.
This year's parent's handbook is available at the following link- https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/balavihar/parents-corner/handbook
Materials Needed for the Class
Notebook for Likhita japa (Pencil and Eraser)
Hanuman Chalisa book
Balavihar Handbook (Bhagavad Gita)
Regards,
Aastha and Rajeswariji.
