Hari Om!
Dear Parents,
Please find below the summary of our class on Friday, Oct 25, 2019.
Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Neelambuja Shyamala Komalaangam (Rama Shloka)
Quote of the day: Asatoma Sat Gamayah
Tamasoma Jyotir Gamayah
Mrityorma Amrutam Gamayah
Discussion: Ramayana Story (up to Rama-Sita Kalyanam)
Bhagavat Gita: Ch. 1, Verses 3,4
Next Balavihar class: 11/1/19
Announcement:
We are planning to celebrate Govardhan Puja/Annakut/ Chappan Bhog in the Ashram on Monday evening Oct 28..please sign up to bring an item if possible:
All items should be brought to the Ashram by 5:30 pm. Please stay for the Pooja and Prasad.
The class pictures will be taken for the annual magazine. Please have the children dress in Indian clothes.
Summary: Happy Deepavali to all of you and your families! The atmosphere for today's class was festive. We started the class by discussing briefly about Deepavali traditions in our respective houses. We also discussed a bit about the symbolism and significance of Deepavali in different parts of India. In the North, it is celebrated in the evenings as the day that Rama, Sita and Lakshmana returned from their 14 year exile after destroying the evil Ravana and in the South it is celebrated in the mornings as the day that Lord Krishna destroyed the evil Narakasura. Regardless of the reasons for celebrating Deepavali, the common concept is the celebration of the victory of Good over evil. Ravana and Narakasura are symbolic of our ignorance and Ego which many times blind us into making wrong choices but surrendering to the Lord within us helps us win over these low tendencies and false values! Such a victory should indeed be celebrated with glory!
Our quote of the day is from our ending Shlokas during Aarati. The children were well aware of the quote but we explored the basic meaning of the verses: Lead us from Untruth to Truth
Lead us from Darkness to Light
Lead us from Mortality to Immortality
Lead us from Untruth to Truth: The one Truth is that we are all one and in the same Paramatma who is in us. This is an abstract statement for them to understand at their age but we wanted to introduce it to them so that they can slowly contemplate about them as they grow older. For now, our class has understood that we should be empathetic and always treat others like we would like to be treated, with kindness because we are all the same.
Lead us from Darkness to Light: our prayer is for us to get rid of our ignorance and remove the darkness with the light of knowledge, the supreme knowledge that God is everyone and everything we experience including ourselves. Again, the concept has been given to them to contemplate and each day that they grow will help them get more clarity.
Lead us from Mortality to Immortality: We spoke about people like Gurudev, Lord Rama and many other great people that are remembered long after their physical body is gone. Such great people live on by virtue of their actions. Each of us should strive to be the person to be remembered through our great deeds even after we leave the body.
The children had some interesting insights into what these concepts mean to them. Please do discuss with them to know their thoughts on this. It is amazing how they already have high thoughts at such a young age!
We then did a quick recap and then continued with the story and stopped with Rama & Sita's wedding and the weddings of the other brothers with Sita's sisters. Then we continued the Gita chanting with Swamiji. Today we learnt verses 3, 4. We will be spending a little more time revising our chanting from next class. It will be helpful if the children practice them at home. We finished with reciting the Pledge in our classroom and then went to join the fireworks celebrations with all the other Balavihar families. Overall it was an interesting class and hopefully the children enjoyed it as much as we did. We look forward to the next Balavihar class.
