Dear Parents,
Harih Om!
The following material was taught to your child on Sunday, October 17, 2021, in the 8th grade Sunday a.m. Balavihar class.
We request you to make sure that your child joins the zoom session for Balavihar on time, with webcam enabled and with Bala Vihar 2021-22 handbook open. Please understand that if your child is late, it is a distraction for the children and the teachers.
Required reading: Mahabharatha by C. Rajagopalachari (available at the Chinmaya Vrindavan bookstore and online vendors/book sellers.)
Teacher's handbook is "Yato Dharmah tato Jayah"
1. We began class with by chanting OM three times followed by prayers in praise of Lord Vishnu, Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Lakshmi and Gurus. Brief recap of last class content was done.
2. Bhagavad Geeta Chanting: This year we are teaching verses 39 till the end of Chapter 2 which will commenced from the week of October 3rd. We taught the children verses 39 and 40 today. The children who individually chanted a verse each from this chapter were: Satvik (verse 39), Anvita (verse 39), Srividya (verse 40) and Anya (verse 40).
3.Geeta Dhyanam: The first three verses of Geeta Dhyanam were taught to the children. The following children individually chanted a verse each from Geeta Dhyanam. Vikram R (verse 1), Nithya (Verse 2) and Anish P (verse 3).
4.Symbolism of Goddess Durga Devi was taught:
To gain noble qualities, all evil tendencies of the mind must be destroyed. Durga is "durgati harini" one who destroys all bad tendencies. These tendencies are the enemies within like selfishness, pride, jealousy, anger, prejudices etc. Durga Devi is also known as Mahishasura Mardini: the destroyer of the demon Mahishasura. She is pictured riding a tiger, having an unsheathed sword in one hand and a discus in another. It is believed that the Gods in heaven felt powerless against Mahishasura. They were asked to part with a portion of their divine power and all this culminated into the form of Mahishasura Mardini (Durga Devi) who is believed to have the combined strength of 33 crores of Gods. Again, we pray to Durga Devi to destroy the enemies within. Mahisha refers to the buffalo and this represents "tamoguna"- the quality of laziness, ignorance, darkness and inertia. The destruction of Mahishasura represents the destruction of tamoguna within us. Mother Durga rides the tiger and this is representative of the ego. Taming the ego gives us the power as shown by Mother Durga riding a tiger.
Durga Devi is also known as Kali. She is pictured with a dark body with a hanging tongue, a garland of skulls and a sword dripping with blood. When we invoke Kali, she gives us the strength to fight all low tendencies within us.
Story Of Mahabharata:
One day while walking on banks of river Ganga King Santanu saw a beautiful lade, charmed by her beauty he asked her to marry her. She agreed with one condition that he should never question her actions; if he did she would leave immediately. They lived happily for some time. When first son was born King Santanu was very happy, but to his horror the queen threw the baby in river Ganga. She repeated same action for next six sons. King was horrified but did not protest as he was afraid of losing her. When eighth son was born she was about to throw him also in the river, when king stopped her, protested her cruel actions and questioned her motives. She revealed to him that she was Goddess Ganga. The eight children that were born were Vasus in previous life. Since they committed the mistake of stealing the Kamadhenu cow from Sage Vasistha's ashram they were cursed to be born on earth. Ganga Devi agreed to be there mother, and throw them into the river so that they can return immediately to their celestial forms and realms. The eight born son was Dhyu, the leader of the vasus, who was directly responsible in stealing the Kamadhenu, while others facilitated his action. So Dhyu was cursed to be born on earth and lead a long life on the earthly plane. Ganga Devi tells the King Santanu that she will raise the child for few years and when it is appropriate time she will return him back to the king. After few years King Santanu was astonished to see a boy stopping the flow of Ganga river by building a bridge of arrows. Ganga Devi appeared and told the king that the boy was his son, Devavrata. King was very happy and took him to the palace and made him Yuvaraj, an heir to the throne of Hastinapura.
Few years later Santanu meets Satyavati, the fisherwomen and wants to marry her. But her father wants Satyavati's son to be the next king, which Santanu could not agree to as he wanted Devavrata to be the next king. Devavrata notices that is father is sad, finds out about Satyavati and her father's wish. He takes a vow that he will never marry and always be loyal to Hasthinapura throne – he is then conferred the title of Bheesma (one who took a terrible vow). Santanu gives him icchaa mrutyu boon.
House Sorting: last class children were sorted into different houses – Arjuna Arrows, Bajarangi Bolts, Krishna Cowboys & Durga Daredevils. Being in 8th grade they will be acting as Captains in their respective houses – meaning they will be guiding and actively participating along with younger kids in their house activities. There are many activities planned throughout the year – stay tuned … teams & individuals are allocated points based on the activities, they get exciting prizes and house with the most points gets a big trophy at end of the year.
Today it was an abbreviated class as all children participated in Saraswati Pooja in later half of the class – we hope you all had the opportunity to be part of it.
Pranam,
Mekhala Girish
Devender Akula