Feb 2, 2024 - Grade 4 (Friday)

Hari Om !

Dear Parents,

Here is the summary of our class on  Friday, Feb 02, 2024

Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu                            
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam 

Lesson: Krishna - Everyone's darling (Krishna Krishna Everywhere) and My 24 Teachers - Python
Discussion: Review of "Stopping the Kali"
Activity:  Marble drop meditation

Gita Chanting - Chapter 4 verses 19-21
Next Balavihar class: 2/9/24

Summary:

We started our class with the opening Shlokas and chanted Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. We then had our " Stopping the Kali" review and the kids shared incidents of what they did to stop Kali. We also went around the class discussing the exercise at the end of the day to think how grateful we are before going to bed. 

Today we learnt how Krishna was everyone's darling in Vrindavan. Krishna grew up with everyone irresistibly attracted to him. It's our nature to adore beauty in any form. We all have five sense organs capable of perceiving, feeling and thinking any form of beauty. The eyes get attracted to perfect forms, the ear listens to enjoyable music, the tongue registers delicious tastes, the nose revels sweet fragrances, the skin tends to the cool breeze or warmth of the pleasant surroundings. The mind and intellect appreciates the brilliance and creativity, respects the teachings from great masters. We all love anyone or anything even with any one of these qualities. But Krishna was full of all the beautiful qualities - he was an absolute perfection all around. 

Krishna's parents loved him because he was dutiful and obedient, his friends loved him because of his friendliness and cheerfulness, all the elders in the village loved him as he was very respectful and protected them from danger, the gopis loved him for his beauty and divinity and the great sages loved him because of his teachings.

We are loved because of our good qualities and it is therefore important to be kind, respectful, cheerful, loving all the time just like how Krishna was a darling to everyone. 

As Krishna grew up , he enjoyed everyday going to the Vrindavan's beautiful pastures along with his friends taking the cows and calves for grazing. There was a palmyra garden in the vicinity of the pastures and there were a lot of juicy tala fruits, which fall to the ground and rot away as there was a herd of donkeys with their leader - Dhenukasura , who was a ferocious donkey. No one dared to enter the garden and take the fruits, afraid of the demon donkey Dhenukasura. One day Krishna's friends as they were playing and enjoying the melodious flute by Krishna asked him to get the delicious fruits as they were so desperate to try the juicy fruits. Krishna wanted to satisfy the desire of his friends. So he and Balarama entered the garden and he shook the tree so that Balarama could pick up the juicy fruits. Dhenukasura heard the noise and got very angry and charged at Balarama. Balarama held him by his hind legs and swung him away, killing the mighty asura. The entire herd of donkeys charged at Krishna and Balarama, they both cleared all of them and the trees lay on the ground as a heap. All the villagers enjoyed the Palmyra garden and the delicious fruits after this. 

We did a small exercise, where all the kids wrote on a piece of paper one quality they think that they should be loved for. It was so beautiful to see the kids trying to find their best quality. 

We then proceeded with our meditation session using the marble drop method. 

We learnt about the next teacher from my 24 teachers - Python. One should eat like Python, with whatever food comes without struggle however it is, with a prarabdha attitude. We also learn to be satisfied like a python. A python is always content about the food that comes its way, it never chases behind the food. Sometimes it waits patiently, even starving. It never bothers if the food is big or small or good or bad.  We can compare this to our five senses. Everyday we all perceive things to our sense organs. It's important that we all have all our senses in harmony towards one particular goal. For example, all the wheels of the car need to go in the same direction for the car to move. If each wheel tries to go in one direction, the car will never be able to move. Then we saw a story about a rabbit - who wanted to live in the cloud. The story taught us the moral of how to always think before we ask. 

We had our Arthi practice session followed by Gita Chanting. We learnt verses 19 -21 from Chapter 4. We assembled in the main hall for Arthi and closing prayers. 

 
Looking forward to seeing all the kids tomorrow. 

With Prem & Om,
Radhika & Anandhi

Grade 4 Sevikas

Jan 26, 2024 - Grade 4 (Friday)

Hari Om !
Dear Parents,

Here is the summary of our class on  Friday, Jan 26, 2024

Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu                            
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam 

Lesson: Agasura Vadham (Krishna Krishna Everywhere) and My 24 Teachers - Pigeon
Discussion: Review of "Stopping the Kali"
Activity:  Marble drop meditation
Next Balavihar class: 2/2/24

Summary:

It was a small class this week.  We started with the opening Shlokas. We then had our " Stopping the Kali" review and the kids shared incidents of what they did to stop Kali. Please engage in conversations with kids on how they can follow the practice of stopping the Kali during small daily incidents they encounter.

Since we were meeting after a couple of weeks due to holiday and snow day, we had a recap session for both our lessons - Krishna Krishna Everywhere and My 24 Teachers. We proceeded with our next story on Krishna Leela - Agasura Vadham.  This story tells how little Krishna dealt with Agasura - who was a rakshasa in the form of a giant python. Agasura was waiting to avenge the death of his sister Putana and brother Bakasura and wanted to kill Krishna along with the entire village. One day Krishna wanted to have breakfast in the forest. So he woke up early and started playing his flute. The entire village immediately woke up to his mesmerizing tune and started to sing and dance. All the gopis and gopikas and children started following krishna indulged deeply in the music. They were dancing, singing, playing flutes, horns and slowly entering the forest. They didn't realize they were entering danger.  Agasura was waiting in the forest for this opportunity and he was so rejoiced seeing the entire village walking towards the deep jungle. Agasura soon opened his mouth with his lower jaw on the ground and upper jaw far above in the sky. Krishna realized the danger but didn't had time to stop all the villagers, they all started entering into Agasura's mouth one by one . Agasure waited until everyone entered and Krishna entered at last, then he closed his mouth. Krishna placed himself in the throat and made him choke. Agasura couldn't breathe and finally lay dead and Krishna pulled everyone outside at the right time. This was how the mighty Agasura was liberated by lord krishna.

Lord Brahma once wanted to witness Krishna's power by himself and wanted to play a trick with him. One day Krishna and all his friends were having lunch by the river as the cows were grazing.  Slowly all the herd went far away. Brahma utilized this opportunity and hid all the cows inside the mountain cave. Krishna, without knowing this , asked his friend to continue with the lunch and offered to find the cows by himself. He couldn't find them anywhere after the exhausting search. When he returned back to the riverside, he couldn't find his friends either. Brahma had hid all the gopas in the same cave as well.  Krishna then came to know the play and came up with a plan. He took the exact form of all the missing cows, calves and gopas and returned to the village. No one could find any difference. Instead there was overflowing of love and kindness in every home and the entire village was filled with divine kindness. Mothers were showering more love to the kids, Cows to the calves. Brahma was curious to know what happened, when he returned the next day it was already one year here. He saw there two sets of identical beings - one he hid in the cave and one outside. When looked closely he realized it was Krishna in every form as Vishnu's incarnation and he then gave the Vishwaroopa darshan to Brahma. Everything was reverted back to normal and no one realized anything at the village. It was a blissful year with Krishna's presence in every home and every corner in Vrindavan. 

We then proceeded with our meditation session using the marble drop method. 

Next we learnt about the next teacher from nature - Pigeon, how the sage Dhattatreya learnt not to be attached with anyone by witnessing a family of pigeons during his journey in forest. There was a family of pigeons with a mother, father and two babies. The two babies got struck in the trap laid by the hunter as they were playing. Seeing this the mother Pigeon can't take the suffering and she immediately went into the trap not to leave her babies. The father pigeon seeing the entire family in the trap thought that's nothing more in life and couldn't bear the grief and also jumped into the trap. All of them were killed by the hunter. The mother and the father pigeon decided to end their life too in haste, carried away by the emotions due to the attachment with the kids. We should not be attached to anyone and we should live our life given by the Lord to the fullest. 

One of the kids who participated in the story telling contest the previous week shared the story with the class. 

We had a small prep session for our upcoming Arthi turn. 

It was then the time for the monthly program by Grade 1 kids, we assembled in the main hall to see the wonderful performance by the kids on Ramayana and concluded with the Pledge. 

Looking forward to seeing all the kids today. 

With Prem & Om,
Radhika & Anandhi

Grade 4 Sevikas

Jan 5, 2024 - Grade 4 (Friday)

Hari Om !
Dear Parents,

Happy New Year !

Here is the summary of our class on  Friday, Jan 5, 2024
Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu                            
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam 

Lesson: Krishna, The Divine Child (Krishna Krishna Everywhere) and My 24 Teachers Recap Session
Discussion: Review of "Stopping the Kali"
Activity:  Marble drop meditation
Geeta Chanting:Chapter 4 - Verses 12-14
Next Balavihar class: 1/12/24

Summary:

It was great to have a full class and meet the children after the holidays after almost a month gap.  We started with the opening Shlokas. We then had our review and the kids shared  incidents of what they did to stop Kali. We re-emphasized how important it is to be kind to everyone even when someone is not kind to us and how slowly it will become a habit . 

Since we were meeting after a long break along with the holidays, we focussed today's class as a recap session for both our lessons - Krishna Krishna Everywhere and My 24 Teachers. In order to make it more fun for the kids, we divided the class into two groups and had a fun quiz session.  This way we covered the entire recap from the beginning. It was very refreshing for the kids and interesting to see how they discussed as a group to come up with the right answers. Some of the children precisely remembered all the stories shared in the class as part of the lessons and also beautifully articulated the message taken away in each lesson. 

We then proceeded with our meditation session using the marble drop method. 

It was time for Geetha Chanting and we learnt the verses 12-14 from Chapter 4 today and then all of us gathered for Aarthi in the Temple Hall. 

A few reminders - lots of interesting events for the kids are coming up starting this month and all the details are in the weekly email. Please register and encourage the kids to participate in all the events, we have storytelling, Kalarangam, Slokathon, Bhajanotsavam and Bhagavad Gita Chanting. Please let us or the coordinators know if you have any questions and if you need assistance. 

Kindly note we have our next Balavihar session on Jan 12th, 2024, it may not be on the calendar as it's a make up class for Friday session alone. 

With Prem & Om,
Radhika & Anandhi

Grade 4 Sevikas

Dec 8, 2023 - Grade 4 (Friday)

Hari Om !

Dear Parents,

Here is the summary of our class on  Friday, Dec 8, 2023

Opening prayers:

Om Sahana Vavatu                            

Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH

Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH

Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH

Vasudevasutam Devam 

Lesson: Krishna, The Divine Child (Krishna Krishna Everywhere)

Discussion: Review of "Stopping the Kali"

Activity:  Marble drop meditation

Lesson: Moon (My 24 Teachers)

Chanting: Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra and Govinda Damodara Stotram

Geeta Chanting:Chapter 4 - Verses 10 - 11

Next Balavihar class: 1/5/24

Summary:

We had an almost full class yesterday. We started with the opening Shlokas, followed by Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra and learnt 2 more verses in the Govinda Damodara Stotram. Hope the children can keep practising at home. We then reviewed our week in class and shared what we did to stop Kali. We discussed that it is easy to be kind to our friends and  those who are not mean to us but we should practise being kind to those who are not kind to us. We should try to recognize that Bhagavan is in all beings and all beings are in Bhagavan.

Following that, we moved on to our story of Lord Krishna. After a quick recap, we discussed the story of Krishna's Leelas as a naughty child. One time, He ate mud and when Yashoda asked Him about it, He opened His mouth and showed her the entire universe. Yashoda was mesmerized and for a brief second she realized He was indeed the lord of the universe. Then Krishna made her forget this because He wanted to experience the joy of being yashoda's son. Another time, Krishna was very hungry and Yashoda was feeding him his food when she suddenly saw that the milk was boiling over. She immediately placed Him down from her lap and went to attend to it. This made Krishna angry and cranky and He broke the butter pot, ate the butter and fed the monkeys too! Yashoda was upset seeing this tantrum and wanted to punish Krishna by tying him up to a big mortar. Bhagavan allowed Himself to be bound by his mother but started crawling away into the garden when she was not looking. He kept crawling until the mortar got stuck between 2 huge trees. Bhagavan pulled at hard making the trees to crack from the roots and fall away. From there emerged 2 divine beings, Nalakubara and Manigreeva, the sons of Kubera the Yaksha. They were both cursed by Narada to become trees as they misbehaved and disrespected him. Krishna delivered them from their curses. This was the reason behind this entire Leela!

We then discussed Moon as one of the 24 teachers. From the moon we can learn that everything changes with time. Instead of placing our happiness on the ever changing objects of the world, we have to focus within and understand that Bhagavan is in us and all beings around us as the only constant!  We also discussed that the time for action is Now! We asked the children, if we are given a candy and are not told when we are supposed to it, when would we want to eat it. Everyone said now is when we would want to eat the candy. We discussed then, that, that should be the attitude we should have to do good and kind deeds because, in Pujya Gurudev's own words, "Yesterday was, and tomorrow will be!" today is what we have with us and we must make the most of it. 

We then played our favorite shell drop mediation game! Most of the children got their numbers right today! After that we learnt Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verses 10 and 11. Please encourage the children to practice at home during the break. We will meet again in January, 2024. Wishing you and your family a great winter break and a happy new year!

With Prem & Om,

Radhika & Anandhi

Grade 4 Sevikas

Nov 17, 2023 - Grade 4 (Friday)

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

Sept 15, 2023 - Grade 4 (Friday)

Dear Parents,

Here is the summary of our class on  Friday, Sep 15, 2023

Opening prayers:

 Om Sahana Vavatu                            

Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH

Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH

Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH

Vasudevasutam Devam 

Quote of the Day: 

Watch your thoughts, for they become words

Watch your words, for they become actions

Watch your actions, for they become habits

Watch your habits, for they become your character

Watch your character, for it becomes your DESTINY

Lesson: Story of Kali

Discussion/Game: Stop the Kali

Activity:  Marble drop meditation

 

Chanting: Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

Geeta Chanting: Pronunciations 

Next Balavihar class: 9/22/23

Summary: We had our first full class this week and we welcomed 3 new friends to our class. We started with Opening shlokas, followed by Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. We then had a discussion about the quote of the day. The children had interesting interpretations of the quote. We discussed that if we watch our thoughts and be sure to keep them positive, good and kind, we can make that a habit and do our part in making the world a better place. We have an ongoing 'homework' of using kind words with everyone we interact with everyday. This was reiterated in this week's lesson/story. King Parikshit This is the best way to Stop The Kali and destroy his sister Durukti (harsh/bad words). KIng Parkshit was one of the greatest kings that ruled many many centuries ago. One day, he saw a cruel looking man beating a cow, He found out that this was Kali and was about to destroy him, when Kali begged him to give him a place in the country. Kali was then permitted to be in places where people were unkind, valued material things more than people, etc. Kali brought his sister, Durkuti with him. Thus began the Kali Yuga, in which we currently live.  In order to stop the Kali, we have to counter them with kind words and actions. We then played a game where the children exchanged little notes with each other. Each note had a kind/happy statement and it brought a smile on their faces when they read it. We decided to spread the words and acts of kindness to everyone we interact with. We will review in the next class and the upcoming classes to see if we are able to consistently follow this and how we feel because of this. We then did the Marble drop meditation. This is a meditation game that we will follow every week. The children had to close their eyes and concentrate on the sound of the marbles dropping in the box and keep count. At the end of the activity, we checked to see who got the right number and almost every child got it right! We are going to continue this game in class every week to improve focus and practice mindfulness. We then moved on to our discussion about the importance of our teachers, starting with our parents, teachers at school and outside that give us knowledge in the various fields and Pujya Gurudev and Pujya Swamiji for being our guide to leading a life of good values and principles. It was then time for our Geeta chanting video of the day. We practiced some Sanskrit pronunciations this week. Following that, we had a quick meeting with new parents to give them an overview of the class this year. We then went to the prayer hall for Aarati. Please have a discussion about the class with the children and encourage them to share their thoughts. We will continue to engage them in a fun and positive way every week when we meet them! We look forward to meeting them on 9/22/23.

Pranaam

Radhika and Anandhi 

Grade 4 Sevikas

Welcome to Gr 4 - Friday Session

Please look out for regular updates from 

the teachers 

soon after the session starts.