Dear Parents and Students,
Hari OM! Welcome to 2021-22 Bala Vihar .
It was wonderful to have the students back in class!
Below are the details of what was covered in today's class.
- We started our class with chanting OM 3 times and saying our prayers
- We prayed for another productive year for students
- We played some ice breaker game by going around the virtual classroom saying a god/goddess we like, why we like and a super power that we wish we had. We found commonality in most students wanting to have super power to fly like Hanuman, and have teleportation skills
- We spoke about our Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda. We told the kids that we are all together in Bala Vihar and learning all the good things due to one special person, and we asked the kids who he was. A few of them guessed his name.
- Next, we introduced them to the curriculum for this year, Bala Bhagavatam.
- We discussed on what the word Avatar mean, 'Coming Down'
- We discussed on why God had to come down to earth, 'This is to remove evil and protect good'
- Teach lesson - why is God trying to teach a lesson - So, we don't do mistakes and follow the right path
- Save someone nice
- Remove evil
- We reviewed the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu (The pictures of the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu were shown. The kids were able to recognize some of them. We asked them to note down the names of all of them)
- Matsya Avatara
- Kurma Avatara
- Varaha Avatara
- Narasimha Avatara - Half man and half lion
- Vamana Avatara
- Parashurama Avatara
- Rama Avatara
- Krishna Avatara - 8th Avatara of Vishnu
- Buddha Avatara
- Kalki Avatara
- We played a jam board game to refresh the names of the avatars and some details on each Avatara
- We then joined our common assembly and received Swamiji's message for the children
- Listening to the stories of God itself is a great privilege and it helps to make the mind clean
- When our body is dirty, we take a bath. Whereas, when our mind gets dirty, it is hard to clean it
- In order to get the mind clean, we need to diligently listen to the Godly stories from Bala Bhagavatam
- When our mind is clean:
- We can get closer to God
- We feel more energetic, happy and more enthusiastic
- Noble thoughts are 'IN', and evil thoughts are 'OUT'
- We received Swamiji's blessing for a happy successful year
We look forward to seeing the kids next week.
With sincere and warm regards,
Vasudha and Aruna
(Chinmaya Vrindavan Bala Vihar Grade 3 Teachers)