HariOm Parents,
We had a great Friday yesterday with all your children. As we had children coming in we got the children start the day with word find. The word find of Krishnas names.
Thank you for making sure quite a few children started doing Likhita Japa at home. We will continue collecting the sheets filled with Likhita Japa so our team Krishnas cowboys points. Please turn in once the sheet has likhita japa done both sides of the pages.
We then proceeded to our routine. We said Om 3 times and then starting class with our Opening Prayers(Om Sahanavavatu).
1. Chanting My Prayers: Since all the kids who attended 3rd grade were already taught the My Daily Prayers we chanted it. For the benefit of the newcomers, the Daily prayers are in My Prayers Pg,11 of green book. The following are the shlokas
a. Karagrevasathe Lakshmi
b. Gangecha yamunechaiva
c. Saraswati namstubyam
d. Brahmarpanam
e. Subhamkaroti kalyanam
f. Karacharana kratamvaak
g. Kayenavacha manasaindriyeyva
2. Shlokas : Krishnashtakam : We did the 5th and 6th verse again. Many children have started working on it and knew upto 4th verse. Some kids know the whole shloka by now. Thank you parents for your efforts. We want all our kids to learn the whole of Krishnashtakam so please practise at home. Please register for Shlokathon. Krishnashtakam can be chanted in Shlokathon.
3. Bhagawat Gita: We chanted the 11th, 12th and 13th verse of Bhagawat Gita along with Swamiji. Here are the audio links to swamiji's chanting.
4. Lesson Time : Today we had two main topics next stories of Krishna and Space/Sky as 24 teachers.
Started with the riddle : I am everywhere. I have no boundaries. I am quite popular with the astronauts. Who am I?
Fire burns in space; rain occurs in space; food and vegetation grow and wither in space; clouds move in space by the flow of air and, yet the space is untouched by all (fire,clouds, rain, vegetation). In the flow of time, many names and forms come and go, but atma is not bound(not touched) by any.
Just as space is in and through everything, Bhagavan is also everywhere and in and through everything. Whether it is fire or thunderstorms space/sky does not get heated nor does it get wet. From the standpoint of space, there is neither fire nor rain. Similarly, all different names and forms, objects andbeings are there in the world, but none of them affect the Lord. Good people don't make Bhagavan better. Nor do bad acts of people make him bad. Just as in a garland, a threads supports all the flowers, so also Bhagavan supports all beings.
The first shloka of Gurustotram explains the Omnipresence of Bhagvan.
Akhandamandalakaram vyaptam yena caracaram,
Tatpadam darshitam yena tasmai srigurave namah.
Salutations to that Guru, who showed me the abode- the one who is to be known whose form is the entire universe, and by whom all the movable and immovable are pervaded.
The teacher is called a Guru in Sanskrit. "Gu" means darkness and "ru" means remover. So, one who removes the darkness of our ignorance and gives us the light of knowledge is called a Guru.So, one removes our ignorance and gives us the light of knowledge is called a Guru.
My prostrations to that teacher who has shown me His Abode that is to be known. What is His form? He pervades the entire universe. He pervades the entire movable and the immovable.
Tale : Rama, Rama everywhere
During the fight between Rama and Ravana, all the monkeys in Rama's army were attacked by rakshasas with great force and monkeys were scared. Seeing the scared look Lord Rama decided to do something. He suddenly changed everyone in both sides into His form. All the monkeys saw Rama everywhere and rejoiced and rakshasas fighting and killing one another seeing Rama everywhere.
If we also see Bhagavan everywhere, like the monkeys did, with the eye of devotion, fear will vanish from us. We will love everyone and everything alike.
Space is present everywhere so is GOD.
Then we started talking about the various names of Krishna. Vasudeva, nandakumara, Devaki nandana, navneetachora, rishikesha, krishna and explained the meaning of the diffrent names. Please ask them at home and let them enjoy remembering them.
After that we continued with our krishna stories
Tale : The Death of Agasura
One day Krishna desired to have breakfast in the forest. He rose early in the morning and played his flute. Hearing the sweet melody the gopis woke up and followed him and their calves followed them. They were truly in high spirits as they made their way to the forest. They were dancing and singing and they were having a lot of fun as they went along and no one was alert or aware of the danger that lurked.
Waiting for them was the demon called Agha, who was younger brother of Putana and Bakasura. He was fully determined to avenge their deaths. He swore to himself that he would kill Krishna and all the gopis and gopas. Agha, stretched himself in the form of a large Python. He opened his mouth wide so that his lower haw rested on the earth and the upper jaw touched the clouds. The happy joyful gopis and their calves walked straight into the mouth of the serpent. They did not for one time think it might be dangerous and even if it was dangerous, they would be rescued like they were from the bakasura. Krishna knew of this deathtrap, but he had no time to warn his companions because they were engrossed in their merrymaking. Agasura did not immediately close his mouth because his main aim was to kill Krishna. As Krishna entered his mouth he wedged himself carefully in Aghasuras throat in order to prevent him from breathing. Agasura soon choked and breathed his last. Immediately Krishna brought his friends out to safety so they did not consume the poisonous fumes from the demon.
The devas again rejoiced and burst forth the songs of praise for the Lord.
We did start the tale of Brahmaji's moha bhanga but we could not continue as we had a short class yesterday. We proceeded to the temple for 9th grade skit followed by aarti and pledge.
Please make them practice Bhagawat Gita regularly.
You can record your childs Geeta chanting
a. Please state name of the child and grade then record the chanting
b. Send it to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com OR to the Grade 4 Aunties( meenarajan@gmail.com or lakshari2014@gmail.com )
We will have our next Balavihar next week December 20th.
Pranaam,
Meena and Viji
