Hari OM Everyone,
Happy Deepavali! We started off our class with daily prayers as usual. The class was filled with a lot of anticipation for the surprise that was promised to them at the end of the class! 🙂 All of them were at their best behavior so they would not miss out on the surprise! We had a small quiz to review all the stories we had done so far! We were so impressed by how most of them remembered all the details including how Vishnu Bhagavan had come out as a boar (Varaha) of the right nostril of Brahmaji and the 4 legs of the Bull Dharma (Austerity, Kindness, Purity and Truthfulness) - they even remembered 'Moksha' - liberation from the cycle of birth and death!!
Our story this week was the Bhagavan's Kapila Avatar - we talked about how Kardama Rishi and Devahuti were married and how she served him faithfully for a long time. Please ask them about the magic flying palace he created for her and what happened when Devahuti came out of the lake! They both had 9 daughters and then Kardama Rishi asks her to do a vrat so she could prepare for the birth of the Lord! Once Kapila Bhagawan is born to them, Kardama Rishi leaves them and takes Sannyasa - then Devahuti becomes tired of enjoying life and requests her son to teach her and we discussed His teachings - Making the heart pure by doing your duties, treating work as worship, chanting the name of the Lord repeatedly, trusting God as a friend and seeing the Lord in everyone!
We told them the story of Sage Narada and the farmer devotee of Lord Vishnu - Sage Narada is surprised to find that the farmer who only recites the name of the Lord twice each day is a better devotee of Vishnu than him who keeps chanting the Lord's name all the time. Vishnu asks Narada to take a pot brimming with oil to Kailash without spilling even a drop and Naradaji accomplishes the task successfully but then realizes that because of his concentration he hasn't remembered Bhagawan's name even once and realizes the greatness of the farmer who in spite of all his busy duties remembered the Lord at least twice a day!
We talked about the words in the pledge where we talk about Service to the People is Service to the Supreme Self - how when we serve people around us we are serving God Himself because He is present in everyone. We were so pleased that many kids remembered and brought in pasta/cereal boxes for the Seva Diwali project.
We learned verses 3 and 4 from Geeta Ch 1 from Swamiji's video. Please help them practice at home. Once they memorize 4 verses please send a video recording to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn points for our House. All recordings are available at - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVaQ1AsTFVEK4MvW4zOX3dd7ct-7nFwWC
We discussed about how reciting the pledge means we are also taking a vow to do all the things we say in the pledge. We then recited the pledge in class before going outside to enjoy the fireworks for Diwali!
There were a lot of interesting questions the kids raised this class - how we know what birth we will have next time, is it possible to become a human being again etc! We did answer them - but we will have interesting stories that answer these questions coming later on in the year.
Please use this email and ask them to share all the stories with you. You can read the Bala Bhagavatam book together too. We have given them a coloring activity to do at home. Please ask them to do it and bring it back - we will do a bigger project with all that at the end of the year.
Next week we will have our pictures taken for the Ashram Souvenir! So please ask them to wear their best Indian outfits if possible!
Thanks & Regards
Jayashree & Suja
Jayashree & Suja
