Hari Om Parents,
Here are the synopsis of yesterday's class.
We commenced our class with Om chanting and opening prayer of Sahanavavtu, after which we recited Govinda Damodara Stotram.
We started the story time by asking the kids how trees are useful to mankind. All the kids answered by taking turns about everything they provide us with like flowers, leaves, fruits, roots, bark with which furniture and violins are made, shade from hot scorching sun and from rain etc., Trees provide service to us although they themselves suffer from heat, rain, wind and frost.
We next talked about another story from Krishna's book. It was about the intense devotion of women who served the Lord and the gopas with food that had been cooked for the sacred yagna as prasad, against the wishes of their husbands. Serving people in need is nothing less than serving the Lord himself is the moral of the story.
One of the kids read the story of King Sibi who was known for his kindness and service. His generosity knew no bounds, and once offered himself to an eagle to save the life of an innocent pigeon who was being chased by it for its meal.
We emphasized the importance of volunteering and being of service to others in whatever little way one can.
Next we covered 5 teachers, the Moth, Bee, Elephant, Fish and Deer from my 24 teachers book where each of them teach us a moral.
A Moth gets attracted to flames, doesn't care of the imminent danger and gets burned. Similarly a person who does not have self control gets attracted to things that might destroy him.
Like the Bees that collect honey from different flowers and sizes, a man also should learn from all regardless of how big or small.
A Fish has no control over its sense of taste, it gets attracted to the bait of the hook and dies.
In the same manner if a person does not have control on what he eats then his body wouldn't function properly.
A Deer is attracted to sweet music and hunters take advantage of that and catch them by playing melodious songs. In the same manner, a man should not be drawn to the sweet words of false praise.
Elephants always travel in herds and are very attached to their families. Hunters make use of this, and place dummy elephants to lure them, and the elephants foolishly fall in the traps. Too much attachment to worldly object sometimes clouds a man's sense of intelligence.
We concluded our class by chanting the 19th, 20th and 21st verses from Bhagavad Gita following Swami Ji's video.
We also recorded kids chanting the first five slokas. Most of them did it from memory. This will earn points for their Krishna's Cowboys team. Will share the video on our WhatsApp group. We would appreciate if they can practice the next five slokas, 5-10, which we will record in our upcoming class.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or Roopa at roopab77@yahoo.com.
Balavihar is not in session on January 19th on account of MLK long weekend. Will see the kids on January 26th.
Thank you,
Purna and Roopa.
