Hari Om Parents,
Welcome to 4th Grade Bala Vihar! Our first class got off to a fabulous start!
It was nice to see all those enthusiastic returning kiddos and the excited (and slightly nervous) faces of the new kids here at Bala Vihar for the first time! Once we had most of our kids join our zoom meet, we began class with 3 OMs, followed by Om saha navavatu (page 8 in My Prayers book), Om Sri Ganeshaya Namaha, Om Sri Saraswathyai Namaha, Om Sri Sat Gurubhyo Namha. We then had an ice breaker activity. We had the kids introduce themselves, tell us which school they are attending, something fun they did over the summer and finally, we all shared a shloka that we like. We got a sampling of My Prayers, "Buddhirbalam", topped the charts as the overall fan fav :)
With all the discussion about Summer fun, we needed to calm down a bit before moving on to the next part of our class. We played the Concentration Game. After the chanting of 3 Om's, kids keep their eyes closed. They counted the number of stones being dropped into a metal box during the quiet time. Later they give the count of the stones dropped. The game quiets the mind and improves concentration. We had everyone on mute so that the kids wouldn't have any potential distractions from each other. Once we were done, the kids were asked to put their count in the chat. Most of our class got the count correct! The rest were off by one! Impressive how the kids are able to keep their eyes closed and concentrate. They all received a virtual high-5.
We asked the kids if they knew what we'd be learning about this year. Most of them had their hands up saying, "about Krishna!" The kids were asked if they knew how to count to 10 in Sanskrit. Most of them were not sure. So they were given a quick Ekam - Dasha run through, then were asked if they remember what the number 8 was, Tarun responded, "Ashta". Then the kids were told that they were gonna be learning the "Krishnashtakam" and that The Shri Krishna Ashtakam is one of the popular hymns on Lord Krishna, which is composed of simple lyrics yet with beautiful meaning and explains several aspects related to Lord Krishna. Sri Krishna Ashtakam is a hymn of 8 stanzas and each one ending with the verse 'krishnam vande jagadgurum' signifying that Lord Krishna is the greatest guru of the world. Also, this ashtakam explains the divine qualities, stories, and appearance of Lord Krishna in a simple way. We introduced the first shloka, "vasudev-sutam" (page 109 in My Prayers book). We explained the meaning of the shloka and repeated it a few times.
We spoke about our Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda. We told the kids that we are all together in Balvihar 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. One of our friends mentioned that he has not been inside the ashram to have seen Gurudev's picture! We then showed Gurudev's picture and briefly narrated the story of his life. As part of the narration, we told the kids that Gurudev was very curious even as a child and asked many "Why?" questions, he grew up and became a journalist and that eventually took him on a quest for knowledge. This worked as a segue into 24 teachers. The kids were asked, "Who is a teacher?" We got a lot of very good responses. The kids agreed that anything and everything around us have lessons to teach and we have a ton to learn from them. A brief intro to the various teachers was given. We will be examining them in more detail soon.
We then rolled into "Krishna Everywhere." Our topic for the day was the birth of Kaliyuga. The kids who were with us for Bala Vihar last year were asked if they knew who King Pariksit was. Anirudh, Neel, Giri and Shree did an awesome job introducing King Pariksit! Our new kids got a taste of 3rd grade and it was a perfect intro. One day, King Pariksit was strolling along the Saraswathi river and witnessed a wicked looking man in royal attire, torturing and cutting off the legs of a bull. He also saw a a cow helplessly weeping and witnessing that torture. King Pariksit was furious and warned the man to stop immediately or would be severely punished. He realizes that the Bull is none other than Dharma, the cow is the Mother earth and the wicked man is Kali. Dharma (in the form of the bull) previously had four legs namely, purity, austerity, kindness and truthfulness, and three of them were cut off by Kali. The bull was now standing on just one leg, truthfulness. Kali begged the King for forgiveness. The King forgave him and allowed him to reside in five places (where Bhagavan is forgotten). They were places where lies were told, arrogance, cruelty, running after wealth and overwhelming desire existed. King Pariksit allowed Kali to stay and hence Kaliyuga was born. Even in Kaliyuga, one can avoid the influence of Kali by being truthful, kind, humble and charitable.
The class was then introduced to the Hindu Creation Cycle of four yugas.
Satyayuga
Tretayuga
Dvaparayuga
Kaliyuga
We explained that we are currently living in Kaliyuga, where Kali/Kalaha means, "to fight". We discussed why people fight.
They want something
Someone has taken something
Someone else got something instead of them
Kali usually brings his sister Durukti with him. Durukti means "bad words". We then discussed what happens when we use harsh language. The 4th graders brought some interesting discussions to the table.
We asked the kids how we could avoid fights and escape from the influence of Kaliyuga? After a brief discussion, we came up with the following.
Keep God in the center of our life
Don't use harsh language
Work hard to achieve what we want
Keep anger in check if we don't get what we want
Acceptance
Maybe God has a better plan
We then had a mini talk about
What words should be used often?
What are respectful words?
What words should we avoid?
We concluded the topic with a "Thirukural" (with a brief intro of Thiruvalluvar, thinking that the kids might be totally lost, but had Neel say that if he passes the current level of Tamil language class, he would be learning Thirukural - 2 line poems of 7 words each!!!)
"Theeinal sutta poon ullaarum aaradhey
naavinal sutta vadu"
Basically translates to burns have the tendency to heal over time, but the pain caused by harsh words, once they leave your mouth never heals. One of our students immediately said that a they are still hurt by what a bully said to them in 2nd grade! These kids were so great at making connections during class! We all vowed to think before we speak.
We shared Swamiji's video message about the benefits of chanting the Bhagavad-Geeta. We then joined the main link and listened to Swamiji welcome us all back to Bala Vihar and concluded with Aarti and pledge in Swami Shantanandaji's presence.
Pranam,
Keerthi and Neelima