Hari OM
Parents,
Our class started with chanting "Om" and was followed by our opening prayers-
· saha naavavatu
. Vakratunda Mahakaya
. Saraswathi Namasthubhyam
. Gururbrahmaa
. Budhir Balam
· Guru Stotram (all verses) - The kids were paired and each group had a chance to chant the guru stotram.
Following our morning prayers we had a brief discussion on Maha Shivratri. It is a major festival and is observed by remembering Shiva and chanting prayers, fasting, and meditating. Some devotees keep awake all night. Others visit one of the Shiva temples. This year Shivratri falls on Friday, Feb 21st.
Gitaa chanting
We practiced verses 1- 7. They have all been practicing and getting more and more comfortable every week! We are so proud of them!! Continue the good work everyone. Those who have not registered, please make sure you do so at the earliest.
Story time
Ø hiraNyakashipu
Ø prahlaada
Comments:
In the story segment, our discussions are very enjoyable! Sometimes, we wish we had more time to continue the conversations, but have to wrap up invariably.We covered today's story of hiraNyakashipu and prahlaada. When hiraNyaakSha was killed, although hiraNyakashipu spoke words of wisdom about the soul being different from the body, he developed an intense hatred towards Lord viShNu. He did very rigorous penance for many years, upon which brahma had to give him the boon he asked for. He wished to be not killed by a god or a man, a boy or a girl, in the house or outside the house, during the day or in the night.... The list went on. Effectively, hiraNyakashipu had made himself invincible. This made him extremely arrogant. He insisted that he be worshiped by all as god himself! Everyone did so but were fed up of the tyranny. Lord viShNu promised to take care of the problem. hiraNyakashipu had 4 sons, youngest of them was prahlaada. For his father's agony, he was an ardent devotee of Lord viShNu. No matter how his father tried to convince him, prahlaada would not stop being engrossed in thoughts of viShNu. Losing all options, the father tried to get rid of him by throwing his own son off a cliff, pushing him in fire, leaving him with poisonous snakes, getting him trampled by rut elephants, even poisoning his food! But nothing would affect the little devotee of the Lord. Really annoyed by this, the father got into an argument with the son as to why he worships viShNu. When the son replies that He is omnipresent everywhere, hiraNyakashipu breaks open a pillar, asking his son if viShNu was in that pillar. Sure enough, the Lord jumped out of the pillar in the form of 'narasimha' (half man, half lion) and slit open hiraNyakashipu with his bare claws, on the threshold. (We discussed the work-arounds for the boon hiraNyakashipu was given :). Then to pacify narasimha, prahlaada sang his glories. He did not want anything but to be with naraayaNa. But the Lord blessed him and said, may you lead a successful life of leading others till the end of your time and at the end of it, you shall attain Me.
With this story, we understood that age or size are of no importance. What matters is the shraddha, the faith we have in what we believe in! We had interesting discussions. Please talk to your children more about it.
**Important Announcements**
No balavihar on Sun Feb 23 (Cancelled)
Next Balavihar Weekend
Sun March 1st – Team spirit day. We are Arjuna's arrows. Color Green. Please make sure kids wear Green
Regards,
Indira/Raji
