High Level Agenda:
· Chanting OM and opening prayer
· Guru Stostram (Verse 1, 2 , 3, 4, and 5)
· Geeta Chanting – Refresh verse 39, 40 and Attendance
· Recap of last class - Quiz
· Topics for today – Stories that show
o Wrong actions and their consequences - "As you sow, so shall you reap"
o Take good care of earth
o Arrogance will harm a person even if they are capable
o Creating Heaven on earth by being nice, loving and good to everyone
· Kahoot Game time – Recap
· Geeta Chanting – Verses 41, 42
· Chinmaya Pledge and Wrap-up
Request to Parents:
· Please take this short survey by end of this week - https://chinmayavrindavan.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d9a75361c487e6013eb8e8afe&id=188f5f5e50&e=bcfb4c63c0
· Please help your child practice Geeta chanting – links are shared below.
Details:
· We started by chanting OM three times, and our opening prayers
· We continued with Guru Stostram, verse 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Then learnt verse 5. Children took turns to say verses 1, 2,3, 4 and 5.
· As kids were coming back from Diwali break, we refreshed on the Geeta Chanting Verses 39 and 40 from Chapter 2. Link to the Verses to practice are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3pRQIaPdPE&list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy&index=19
· In today's lesson, we covered 7 stories that teaches us multiple moral lessons
· On Wrong actions and their consequences
o The story was about Sage Kashyapa and his wife Diti. This story was explained as appropriate for the third graders. Sage Kashyapa was a great rishi and his wife was Diti. One day Diti was bored and wanted to talk and spend time with the Sage. The sage tells her that it is time for his meditation and they can talk later. However, Diti disobeys this and behaves selfishly, disturbing the sage. She committed two sins, one was behaving selfish and secondly disobeying her husband. She soon realizes her mistake, but it's too late. As a result of her disobedience and selfishness, two rakshasas will be born to her, called Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu.
o We talked about the famous saying, "As you sow, so shall you reap". We explained this with simple examples about how if you sow an apple seed, you will always get an apple tree and never an avocado tree. If you do good things, you get good results and vice versa.
The kids then watched another short video, the story of an ant and pigeon...how one helps another and gets help back in return when needed.
o Both these stories illustrate that wrong actions and their consequences - "As you sow, so shall you reap"
· On taking good care of earth and how arrogance will harm a person even if they are capable
o The third story was about Hiranyaksha. There was a brief introduction to his birth in the previous lesson, when we talked about Sage Kashyapa and Diti. Hiranyaksha and his brother Hiranyakasipu are born to Diti after staying in her tummy for 100 years. Hiranyaksha grows up to be strong and powerful and also very arrogant and proud. He troubles everyone, and everyone including Gods are terrified of him. With his arrogance he wants to challenge the Gods to a combat. As no God including Indra and Varuna are brave enough for this challenge, he goes looking for Lord Vishnu. At this time the Lord in the form of Varaha had rescued mother earth. A fight ensues between both, and Hiranyaksha is killed by the Lord Varaha.
o We explained how arrogance is a bad quality, by telling a very familiar story of the Rabbit and Tortoise. The Hare, although very capable, still loses the race due to his arrogance.
o We discussed about a type of weight that we carry, which is invisible on a weighing scale. It is the weight of pride and arrogance. We have to be wise and let go of this invisible weight.
o We then talked about how Hiranyaksha tried to harm the earth, but Lord Vishnu protected her. Similarly, we also need to protect the Earth.
We had a brainstorming session of how we can do that. The kids mentioned keeping the earth clean, not littering, saving the natural resources including water, avoiding wastages, reuse and recycling.
· On Pride leading to Wrong actions:
o The next story was about Jaya and Vijaya. This is the background story for why Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were born. Jaya and Vijaya are the guards for the gates of Vaikunta where Lord Vishnu resides. One day the Sanat Kumaras, who were the mind born sons of Lord Brahma, went to Vaikuntha to visit Lord Vishnu. The guards stop them at the gate and insulted them, and made fun of them.
o To teach them a lesson, the Sanat Kumaras curse them to be born on the earth as demons. Lord Vishnu then appears before all of them. He tells Jaya and Vijaya that although born as demons, they will always be thinking about the Lord and he himself will redeem them when the time comes. Despite being devoted to the Lord, they had to bear the consequences for a wrong act committed.
o Lord Vishnu is so humble that he asks the apology of the Sanat Kumaras due to the way Jaya and Vijaya had behaved to them.
· On creating Heaven on earth by being nice, loving and good to everyone
o We told the kids another short story to demonstrate the importance of being good with each other. Once there was a party in heaven, with lots of yummy food, but there was a condition. The condition is that they have to eat without bending their elbows.
o Some people grumbled and left the party, thinking it was impossible to do so. The others did not grumble. They came up with a creative solution of feeding each other, They had faith in God and believed that if God gave a challenge, he would also give a solution. We will only need to work towards finding the solution.
o Heaven and hell are where we are. With our attitude and actions, we can create heaven or hell. The people who worked out the solution enjoyed the party by being nice with each other, and thereby created heaven.
o Instead of fighting with others and creating hell around us, we can avoid unnecessary fights and arguments by having a complete picture about things, and this is a way to create heaven.
To demonstrate this, we told a small story of an elephant and six blind men. Each blind man touches a different part of the elephant, and thinks that is what an elephant is. They start arguing with each other that their perception is only right. They could avoid such arguments by getting a complete picture.
· It was game time! We revised lessons taught today using a Kahoot game.
· Geeta Chanting: Then students worked on new Geeta chanting verses 41 and 42. @Parents, please help your child practice the following Geeta chanting verses and come to class next rime
· Verse 39-40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3pRQIaPdPE&list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy&index=18
· Verse 41-42: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCA0uDFICAQ&list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy&index=19
· Complete playlist of verses is here
· We wrapped up with Chinmaya Pledge led by the students
With sincere and warm regards,
Vasudha and Aruna
(Chinmaya Vrindavan Bala Vihar Grade 3 Teachers)