Hari Om, greetings and Namaste.
This is the summary of the two session on Oct 22nd.
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
After the initial greetings, likitha japa, we performed our daily prayers and then completed Krishnashtakam. Please help your kids in memorizing the slokas, we will have pop quizz going forward on their ability ot remember the slokas. After that, we jumped right into the birth of 8th child of Devaki, Vasudeva in the prison.
Lord Krishna's birth is very dramatic and the circumstances surrounding the event are even more dramatic. Just before the lord's birth, lord Vishnu appears before Vasudeva and Devaki. The lord is resplendent in his fully glory dressed up in pitambaram - the finest silks and adorned with Shankha, Chakra, gada and padma in his four hands. The entire prision cell was filled with bright light and magically all the guards dozed off and had no clue what was happening!. Vasudeva and Devaki's joy knew no bounds at their joy of lord's darshan, felt blessed and offered their obsolescence to the lord. Lord instructs them to switch the boy that will be born to Devaki with a girl baby born to Yashoda and Nand in Vrindavan across the river Yamuna. Lord Vishnu blesses Vasudeva, Devaki and disappears.
At the stroke of midnight of Shravana month on the eighth day of waning moon and when the star Rohini was the brightest in the sky, Devaki delivered a beautiful baby boy. The whole prison was absolutely quiet and filled with silence - the guards were fast asleep .. Vasudeva, put the baby boy in a basket and carried on his head, as he walked towards the gates of the prison, they opened automatically and as he stepped out of the prison - the weather was horrendous - gusty winds, lightning and torrential downpour. Vasudeva taking lord Vishnu's name stepped out, and soon out of nowhere appeared the celestial Sheshnag with it's thousand hoods, providing protection to the baby and Vasudeva. Vasudeva reached the banks of Yamuna, only to see it overflowing and in spate. Once again, as per divine intervention, Yamunaji provided a safe passage for the divine child that Vasudeva was carrying. Having crossed the river successfully, Vasudeva reaches Nanda's house only to see that everybody sound asleep. He approaches Yashoda and switches the boy with the baby girl that was born to Yashoda and quietly returns to his prison cell and puts the baby girl beside Devaki and soon the baby starts crying..
As this was the eight child of Devaki, Kamasa was extra alert and put his best guards to keep an eye on Devaki and Vasudeva. Kamsa was terrified and was having bad dreams as the time of birth was nearer and nearer. He saw ominous signs - dogs wailing, crows crowing and bad dreams of him being in prison etc.. He could hardly sleep.. On hearing the baby's cries, the guards woke up from their sleep and ran to tell the news to Kamsa. Upon hearing the guards about the birth of the eighth child, Kamasa leaps out of his bed with his sword drawn and rushes madly towards the prison cell that was holding his mortal enemy. He grabs the baby girl from the clutching hands of Devaki . Devaki pleads without any affect with Kamasa. Kamsa raises the baby girl in his left arm and was about to smash her on the floor, but .. the baby girl slips out of hands and vanishes. Suddenly akashvani with a thundering voice laughed boisterously and says - you fool Kamsa, your destructor is already born and will avenge you for all the cruelty you have inflicted on the earth, henceforth you will live every second of your life with fear knowing that your destroyer is living somewhere unknown to you, growing up and waiting for opportune time to kill you!! Hearing this Kamsa screaming with anger, confusion and frightened returns to his palace and summons his ministers
As it was past 8:15 PM, it was time for Bhagvadgita, we covered slokas 41 & 42 and practiced along with Swamiji's video. We concluded with aarati and pleadge. Please note the coming Friday is a house inaugural day and will be full of fun activities for kids!!
Until we meet next
Shivram & Meena
(sevaks)