Hari Om, greetings and Namaste.
This is the summary of the two session on Oct 15th.
This years curriculum consists of two cantos of Srimad Bhagavatam
- Canto 10 deals with the birth and childhood happenings of Lord Krishna - Sree Krishna Leelas
- 11th Canto also known as Avadhoota Gita is a dialog between Sage Dattatreya and a king Yadu as retold by lord Krishna to his favourite disciple Uddhava, just before lord Krishna's end of his avatar.
- Krishnashtakam https://youtu.be/-OqY_ZbIT-k
- Shree Govinda Damodara stotram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--3BXJuMVQ0
- Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 - Sankhya yoga verses 39-72 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy
The routine of the Balavihar session is we start with
Balavihar session routines:- Likitha Japa
- Invocation of Santi mantra
- Daily Prayers
- Krishnashtakam
| We greeted the kids and jumped right into inquiring about what the kids and their families did for Navratri and significance of Navratri. Except for a couple, most knew the significance of Durga Navratri. Navaratri is the nine day celebration of slaying of Mahisasura demon by Durgaji. Mahisasura was a demon who was born with the blessings and had acquired immense power through his tapas from Devas that nobody could destroy him. It is said that the trimurti's ( Lord Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu) combined their strength took the form of Durga and slayed Mahisasura. We need to be cognizant that, here Mahisasura represents the ingrained ignorance in each one of us and it takes immense strength and krupa of the divine to get over it, and understand the true meaning of our lives. The discussions with the kids taught us some very interesting things each of the house holds do as their tradition. It gave us immense pleasure to know that one of the 4th grader can recite Lalitha Sahasranama and inspired me personally to learn Lalitha Sahsranama which is one of the difficult ones. The discussions lead to some very interesting questions from kids Can I see god? Where do gods get their super powers from ? These are some great and profound questions and tells us that kids are paying attention, are curious, so satisfying to teachers!! We tried our best to answer the questions Can I see God - Yes you can, but just like to attain any thing in life you need to have dedication and practice - to see god you need to do "Tapas". Tapas is not just going away to some remote place and holding your breath. While it is one great way to quickly realize god, it is not the only one. We all can do tapas by being focused in every thing that we do and doing the best at each and every step. Kids were still curious and retorted that many people do daily pujas and rituals but they cannot see god!!. Do we see electricity running in the wires - does that mean electricity does not exist ?, of course not - because when we switch on - the bulb glows, the oven heats up or the TV turns on!!. So surely we may not see god - but his manifestations or affects are all around us. God manifests in each one of us except that in most of us the divinity manifests as a night lamp but in a few, the divinity manifests as a 10,000 watt bulb - people like adi Sankara, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, swami Chinmayananda, Gandhiji, Neslon Mandela etc. Where do gods get their super powers from ? - As swamiji replied to me on this very question - God's derive their powers from the supreme divine, just like the constitution grants powers to presidents, governors and judges, so do gods derive their different powers from the supreme divine. Please engage your kids in these topics and explore along with them Today's class was a short class as we all had to regroup to perform Sarswati Puja at 8:00 PM. Sarswati Puja. is part of Durga Navaratri also known as Saran Navaratri and falls on the fifth day - Panchami of the Navratri's 9 days. Traditionally Durgaji is worshiped as maa Sarswati on this day and we seek blessings from her to bestow upon us knowledge, wisdom and viveka - the ability to discriminate between good and bad, dharma and adharma. Until we meet next Shivram & Meena (sevaks) |