Hari Om parents,
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Here is the summary of our yesterday's class -
1. We started the class with 3 Om's followed by Sahna Bhavtu, Vakratunda Mahakaya for Lord Ganesha, Saraswati Namastubhyam for Devi Saraswati & Guru Bramha for our dear Guru. Kids did an amazing job chanting the shlokas.
2. We then recited the Dhyaan shloka & revised the concepts covered in last classes i.e., visible & invisible backbone and the meaning of Buddhi. We also cleared doubts/questions.
3. Brainstorming - Meaning of Balam - Balam means strength. Here we talk of physical & mental strength.
4. Story time - Bheema's Arrogance. Here is the link - https://youtu.be/EVtpsH5LV-Q
So after that story we had a brief discussion about Bhima & how he was physically very strong. Why, then, could he not move Hanuman ji's tail? Bhima was temporarily blinded by the arrogance of his own strength and, therefore, became mentally weak. The moral is physical strength without mental strength is not effective.
5.Game time - We took a brief movement break with Hanuman vadati. Amazing to see how kids are quickly catching on to Sanskrit words.
6. Story time - We just celebrated Gandhiji's birthday on Oct 2nd and here is a perfect story in line with our class topic. Cheating is wrong. When Mahatma Gandhi was a student, an inspector, in charge of reviewing classes, came to school. A dictation was given to the pupils to see how proficient they were in their studies. The class teacher was very anxious to get good reviews. As the dictation was going on, the teacher suddenly stopped near Gandhiji. He secretly signaled Gandhiji to look at the neighbor's notebook and copy it. Gandhiji understood what the teacher wanted him to do but he refused. Why did he refuse to copy? Because Gandhiji knew copying from another is morally wrong. He was mentally very strong and did not resort to cheating to get good grades.
7. Geeta Chanting - We chanted shlok # 39 & 40. Here is the link if the kids want to practice at home - https://youtu.be/R3pRQIaPdPE
8. We closed our class with Shaanti mantra & Pledge.
9. We invited the parents for a virtual meet & greet with teachers. It was so nice to meet all of you. So glad to see that we had a wonderful start to our balvihar classes. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us.
*Before we forget, here is the link for the online bookstore - https://www.chinmayapublications.com/books. In the search bar type Hanuman Chalisa book and you can follow the steps from there on. It is an $8 book. It is a kid friendly book and would be very helpful when we start Hanuman Chalisa.
**Also the Zoom link details like meeting id & password are shared in the description of the whatsapp group.
Next Sunday we do not have a class due to Navratri celebrations! Happy Navratri to all of you in advance! Take care.
Regards,
Chitra & Rupa.