Hari Om Parents,
We started our class today with the chanting of Govinda Damodara Stotram.
The topic of the day from Krishna's story was a tale of The Salvation of Sudarsana and the story of Samkhachuda. We had a couple of kids read these stories to the entire class and the kids listened to them with rapt attention. When Krishna was twelve years old, his father Nanda took a vow to offer special prayers to the family goddess Ambika. After all the rituals were performed everyone decided to spend the night in the temple and after they lay down to rest, they were awoken by the loud screams of Nanda to see that his foot was in the mouth of a big Python and when Krishna came and touched its back with his leg, the huge Python turned into handsome person, who went by the name Sudarsana in his previous life. He was cursed by a rishi for his pride of good looks and his arrogant behavior of making fun of others.
The moral that this story teaches is not be proud or arrogant of one's talents, skills or looks.
The story of Samkhachuda is about how the Gopis were seized by an Yaksha and were eventually rescued by Krishna and Balarama.
We also talked about control of the senses and how to use them wisely, like for example, though the tongue wants to gossip, we will not do that as its not good to bad mouth others and though it feels like eating a whole box of candies we should not as its not good for health.
The topic of My 24 teachers is about an Osprey bird. It teaches us that the source of misery is indeed the acquisition of whatever we love the most. Once an Osprey was carrying a big fish in its beak. It was then attacked by a few stronger birds and they all were troubling the Osprey until it let the fish go. Similarly, man becomes fond of some objects in his possession, and that very object causes him unhappiness. Kids read a couple of stories that emphasized the same concept.
The moral taught is, Let go and be happy, instead of, Hold on and be unhappy.
We chanted Bhagavad Gita slokas 1 through 12 in the class. We will be recording 5-10 in our next class. Please have the kids practice them at home.
Announcement
Kindly remember the date for Annadanam Seva Project, Saturday, February 15th.
We sent out a sign up sheet in our last email, please sign up for the items you would like to contribute. Its an amazing opportunity to teach the kids about the importance of Giving to the needy.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or Roopa at roopab77@yahoo.com or post a message on our WhatsApp group.
Thank you,
Purna and Roopa.
