Hari OM Everyone,
We started off the class with everyone making their nametags - they wrote their names and decorated it with their favorite activities or objects. We then started the class with 3 OMs and went through the daily prayers again with a short discussion on when and why we do each. It was very cute when we talked about why we worship the Earth as Bhuma Devi - one of the kids said 'if there was no Earth we will all fall down' 🙂!
Then we had a short discussion about Listening - how to keep your eyes on the person talking and keep your hands to yourself, not interrupt and nod your head to show the other person that you are listening. Also we discussed the difference between just hearing and listening! We then played a short game of Krishna says to practice listening. We made the mistake of picking the actual Krishna in our class - who promptly told everyone to pack up and leave!!🙂 So we had to switch to Hanuman says! (Similar to the Simon Says game)
Then we told them about the topic we are covering this year - Bala Bhagavatam - how it describes the various Avatars of God and the stories of the devotees of the Lord. We told them how God decides to take a form (either an animal or a human form) to come and destroy the evil and to protect His devotees - we have a very smart class - many of them knew already the story of Narasimha Avatar which we will cover in greater detail later. Someone had a question 'What if we say we believe in God' but actually we don't!! We talked about how God knows everything we are thinking even before we think it and God would definitely know what was in our mind! 🙂
Then we talked about the author of Srimad Bhagavatam - Maharishi Veda Vyasa and how he was feeling unfulfilled even after compiling the Vedas and writing the Mahabharata and other Puranas - it was then that Narada Muni met him and advised him that only writing about the Glories of the Lord and His devotees will give him fulfillment.
We shared the backstory of Narada Muni - how in his previous birth he was the son of a maid servant and had served the Sages who had come to his village - and after his mother was killed when a snake bit her - he went into the forest and meditated as taught by the sages and had a momentary vision of God but could not retain it! Then at the end of that life he reached Vaikunta and when the world was created again he became Brahmaji's son Narada! We discussed about how associating with good people like Narada did with the sages can help us too!
We talked about the main character King Parikshit - son of Abhimanyu and Uttara. When he is roaming about the kingdom he meets Mother Earth crying in the form of a cow and Dharma in the form of a bull. The 3 legs of the bull are missing and there is a man standing who is beating the bull and trying to cut the other leg too.
We then explained about the 2 of the 4 legs of the bull - Austerity (Tapas), Purity (Saucham). Living a simple life and taking vows and fulfilling them is Austerity. Purity applies to both body and mind. We did a small activity with water, sugar, salt and dirt to explain how sometimes even if an action appears pure outside, if it is done with selfish interests or anger it might be like how sugar or salt is added to water - it is not actually pure.
We will continue discussing in the next class.
We had the Geeta Telecast today - we learned to chant the vowels and consonants in the Sanskrit language and some of the words in the 1st chapter before we actually start learning the shlokas next week.
We request all parents to buy the My Prayers Book and Bala Bhagavatam book for the kids from the bookstore if they don't already have it.
We have formed a Whatsapp group for easy communication. Request all parents to join using this link - https://chat.whatsapp.com/FpealiQWbOkDTpiYDCYnA2
We will see you all next Friday. Children will perform Saraswati puja in the temple. It would be great if they can all come in Indian dress.
Thanks & Regards
Jayashree Vedamurthy & Sujatha Iyer
Jayashree Vedamurthy & Sujatha Iyer
