Hari Om! Parents,
Welcome to Grade 5 Bala Vihar! We are Rashmi Kuroodi and Shanthi Chidambaram, the Friday PM Bala Vihar teachers. It was great meeting all your children!
*Reminder for Bala Vihar Meet and Greet event on Sep 18th, Saturday. You can meet all the Friday session teachers from 4-5 PM. You can also pick up Handbook and My Prayers book from 4-7 PM*
Week 1 Class started with Om chanting and Sahana Vavatu opening prayers. We went over the topics for this year, important Bala Vihar events and class etiquette with the children. The children did an icebreaker activity, and shared a few things about themselves. They had many things in common with their classmates and we got to know each other a little better.
We started the Mahabharata story with King Santanu of Hastinapura meeting the beautiful Ganga. When he proposes marriage, Ganga agrees on one condition that the king must not question her. Ganga says she would leave him forever if he displeases her any time. The king agrees and they are married. Soon a son is born to them, but the king finds Ganga throwing the newborn into the river. He is horrified, but cannot break his promise and question her. Seven of the king's sons were thrown into the river by Ganga and the king was getting impatient for an heir. When Ganga was going to throw the eighth child into the river, the king stopped her. He spoke harshly, demanding an explanation for the heartless behavior. Ganga tells him since he has broken his promise, she will have to leave along with their son. She names the baby, Devavrata and his other name would be Gangeya. The story behind this is that the eight Vasus were cursed to take birth in human form. Ganga promises to bear them and by throwing seven of them in the river, she relieves them of the curse. The last Vasu is cursed to spend a very long time on Earth, he is the king's son Devavrata. Sixteen years later the king meets his son again. Devavrata had been tutored by Maharishi Vasishta, Brihaspati and Bhargava in vedangas, politics and archery. He is a great kshatriya prepared to be king someday. Father and son spend four happy years together and Devavrata is made yuvaraja, heir to the throne of Hastinapura. One day, when the king was hunting, he smelled a unique fragrance that led him to a fisherman's daughter, the beautiful Satyavati. The king approaches her father and asks her hand in marriage. The fisherman tells the king that if he promises to make Satyavati's son the king of Hastinapura after him, then they could be wed. The dejected king returns back since he had already crowned Devavrata as yuvaraja. The king lost interest in everything and a worried Devavrata spoke with the charioteer to find out what happened. Devavrata immediately goes to the fisherman, tells him that he will give up his claim to the throne and asks for Satyavati to be wed to the king. The fisherman argues that Devavrata's sons may still claim the throne in the future. When he hears this, Devavrata makes a terrible vow that he would remain celibate his entire life. Voices from the heavens call him "Bheeshma" and he returns to the palace with Satyavati. In gratitude, king Santanu blesses that Devavrata could die only when it pleased him. King Santanu and Satyavati have two sons named Chitrangada and Vichitraveerya, but the king soon dies. Bheeshma takes over as regent and rules the kingdom on behalf of the young heir. Suddenly, Chitrangada is killed in battle with a Gandharva king and Vichitraveerya is made king.
We paused the story here and spoke about the other topic for this year, the Saints of India. The children shared their definitions of a saint, and we discussed how one of the great saints, Swami Chinmayananda, started our Chinmaya Mission. We discussed the "Guru Parampara" that is followed by our Chinmaya Mission. Bhagwan Shiva is the first Guru, seen in our Ashram temple in the form of Medha Dakshinamurthy. He is followed by Adi Sankaracharya, Tapovanji Maharaj, Swami Sivananda ji, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda ji, Swami Tejomayananda ji and Swami Shantananda ji. We ended class early to join the assembly for Swamiji's address and the aarti.
Thank you in advance for your support in helping us make this a successful Bala Vihar year for your children!
- Rashmi and Shanthi
Materials needed for every class: notebook & pen for likhita japa, My Prayers book for shlokas, Bala Vihar Handbook for Gita Chanting, aarti, pledge