Hari Om Parents,
Below is a recap of what we did during today's class. As always, we began our class with 3 OMs and the following shlokas.
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2."Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)
8. "Brahmarpanam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
9. "Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
10. "Sri Rama Rama" (page 129 in My Prayers book)
11. "Budhir Balam" (page 152 in My Prayers book)
12. "Kara Charana" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
Krishnashtakam : We practised the first four shlokas and learnt the fifth shloka : Uthphulla patra padmaksham- Neela jeemootha sannibham - Yaadavaanaam shiroratnam-Krishnam vande jagadgurum
We explained the meaning - One with eyes like the petals of the lotus and skin like the blue sky, and who is like the precious gem among the Yadavas, salutations to the teacher of the universe.
Today's lesson - Gokula
Gokula wakes up to the cries of the newborn baby at Nanda and Yashoda's house. Everyone is rejoicing in the birth of little Krishna. People are decorating their houses with flower garlands and flags. All the Gopas(cowherd men) wear new clothes. The gopis wear their best and brightest dresses and they all go to Nanda's house with many many gifts, including milk, butter and curd. They are all eager to see the baby and hold him. Everyone is singing, dancing and rejoicing.
While this is going on, Kamsa, finds out from his spies that a baby is born in Gokula and he is determined to kill the baby. He sends a rakshasi, Putana for the job. Putana disguises herself as a beautiful gopi and mixes with the crowd. She takes baby Krishna into her hands, and starts playing with him and when no one is looking, sneaks away from there. Her plan is to feed the baby poison and kill him. She starts feeding him poisonous milk. She feels slightly guilty doing this wrong act of trying to kill a baby, but continues as its the King's order. Soon, Putana is choking and getting suffocated, and falls down dead. Yashoda ma, who comes out looking for Krishna, is stunned to find him playing next to the dead rakshasi. She runs to him, picks him up and hugs him. The villagers burn the dead rakshasi, and surprisingly, the fumes that came out have a fragrance in them. The Kind Lord had forgiven her and liberated her.
Kamsa, who heard this news, sends Trinavarta, another rakshasa, to kill the baby. Trinavarta comes to Gokul as a sand storm or a tornado, that can sweep away the heaviest of objects. Ma Yashoda is sitting with Krishna in her lap. Suddenly she realizes that the baby is growing heavier and heavier, until she could not hold him any longer. She puts him down and frightened, runs to call the villagers. In the meantime, Trinavarta attacks with all his might as a swirling tornado. He lifts Krishna high up into the air. Krishna catches Trinavarta by his throat. Trinavarta is choking and in pain and falls to the ground dead. The dust settles and the air clears. Yashoda runs to Krishna and holds him hard. She takes him home and when she is cleaning him of all the dust, she sees the entire universe in his open mouth. She is overwhelmed at this, but her divine son is yet to show her many more wonderful things.
Today's lesson - 24 Teachers
Like always, we started with a riddle : I am brilliant in appearance. I have many colors. I can do a lot of good to you, but if used improperly, can destroy as well. It is better not to come too close to me. .Who am I ?
There were a few guesses- rainbow, sun, stars and then came the right guess- Fire. Yes today's teacher is Fire.
Fire is brilliant and bright and it teaches us to be bright and shining as well.
Fire takes in everything, whether pure or impure, whether dirty or clean and reduces them all to ashes. It does not get impure by taking in bad things. It always remains pure. Fire teaches us that we can mingle with anyone, but we should not let any vices or bad things enter us.
Fire has no shape of its own. It takes the shape of the firewood or the container. Similarly, God also does not have any particular form. God is everywhere and he is there in every form, and all forms are his!
Once Buddha was walking with his disciples. One of the disciples, who did not like Buddha, set a wild elephant free. The elephant was creating havoc and everyone was running away for their lives. Even Buddha's followers, except the ones who had firm faith in him, ran away. Buddha, seeing this confusion said that if we don't harm anyone, no harm will come to us. True to his words and to everyone's surprise, the elephant became very calm as soon as it saw Buddha and even bowed down to him with respect.
This short story tells us about the greatness of such saints and their power to purify one and all.
Once Swami Chinmayananda was giving a discourse in the USA. As everyone in the hall was listening to him, a man entered the hall noisily. He was a filthy looking man with dirty clothes and hair and was drunk. Everyone was disgusted and wished that he would leave immediately. But Gurudev lovingly asked that man to go sit next to him. To explain to the the crowd who was surprised at this, Gurudev told them that the filthy man needed him more than everyone else. This story shows us that great people like Gurudev accept everyone equally.
We then talked about Swami Tapovan Maharaj ji, who was our Gurudev's teacher. He used to travel in the Himalayas by foot. He never used to carry any food with him, as he believed that God would provide what is necessary, when it is necessary. Once it so happened that Swami was walking in a forest. It was noon and he was hungry and tired. He sat down to rest. He was sure that God would somehow take care of his hunger, but was curious how it would happen in a forest at midday. Within a few minutes a farmer came with his son. It was the son's birthday and the farmer served a nice feast to Swami right there.
We learn from this story that we need to have faith in God. There is no need to hoard. He will provide what we need, when we need.
We concluded this lesson with another story about the discovery of fire.
Once a man picking up fruits and leaves in a forest sees a cloud of smoke at a distance. He does not know what it is, so he goes closer to observe. He sees bright fire burning in a small area of the forest floor. He has never seen fire before and thinks it's probably a star fallen to the earth. He tries to go closer, but is unable to, due to the heat. He thinks it's a powerful being and greets the fire. The fire greets him in return and tells him that he can stay near the fire to keep himself warm and also cook some corn on the fire, as cooked food tastes much better. The man does what the fire tells him. He soon gets used to the light, warmth and cooked food, all which came from the fire and wants to get more of them. He asks fire if he can take him home. The fire politely refuses, saying that it could be dangerous to move him from where God intended it to be, the forest. The fire offered that the man could come to the forest whenever he wants to cook his food, but warns him not to tell anyone of it's whereabouts. The man and his wife keep going to the forest once in a while and started enjoying the cooked food and the warm fire. Once a neighbor follows them secretly to the forest and sees the fire. Once the man and his wife are asleep, he steals a twig of fire and runs across the forest. Unknowingly, he drops sparks of fire all over on the dry leaves on the forest floor, and soon the forest is in flames. Terrified, everyone jumps in a nearby river and swim to safety. Then fire tells them, "As long as I am contained and respected, I do you a lot of good, but out of it, I can be a monster destroying everything". The moral, do not be greedy and treat everyone with respect.
This was followed by an interesting discussion with the kids giving their opinions and asking questions about the lesson.
Krishna ashtakam practice - The Kids have been learning Krishnashtakam the past weeks and they have three more shlokas to learn, out of eight. Today we asked the kids to chant the shlokas upto where they learnt. Many kids were able to recite the first two, some were able to do the first four. Please encourage the kids to practice in their free time. We will practice again in the next class.
Gita Chanting - We followed Swamiji's videos to learn Shlokas 43 and 44 of Chapter 2.
Aarti and Pledge - We concluded the class with Aarti and pledge.
Looking forward to seeing the kids in class next Sunday!
Pranam,
Neelima & Keerthi