Dear Parents,
Harih Om!
The following material was taught to your child on Sunday, November 14, 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.
1. We began class with by chanting OM three times followed by opening prayers.
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 43, 44 and 45 to the children today. The children who individually chanted a verse each from this chapter were: Satvik (verse 43), Vikram (verse 43), Anvita, Kavin and Hasini chanted verse 44 independently and verse 44 was chanted by Reya and Anish independently.
3.Geeta Dhyanam: Today we chanted the first four verses of Geeta Dhyanam. Verse 5 of Geeta Dhyanam was taught to the children. Yahswi chanted verse 5 of Geeta Dhyanam by herself.
4. Symbolism of Goddess Saraswati:
The word Saraswati is split up into "Sara" (meaning essence) and "Sva" (meaning one's own). Saraswati is the one who gives knowledge of one's own Self.
Mother Saraswati is the consort of Brahmaji the Creator.
All though there are many types of knowledge, it is the knowledge of the Self that is true Knowledge. And this Knowledge is represented by Goddess Saraswati.
Mother Saraswati is seen seated on a rock near a flowing river to remind us that only through knowledge, through understanding and right living can a person remain as steady as a rock despite all the situations and problems.
In Her hand Goddess Saraswati holds a japa mala: the mala symbolizes meditation, concentration. Mala is a tool to put our mind at ease. A mind that is calm is capable of learning. In the second hand She has a book (scriptures). The two other hands are playing the veena representing that She is the diety of all arts, music, and technology. She is also depicted as sitting on the Peacock and Swan, which are well known for their beauty. They represent a human being's real beauty which is the inner beauty of knowledge. Swan also stands for discrimination. It is a special bird with the ability to separate milk from water. The Hamsa bird represents a discriminative intellect which is required to have Self Knowledge.
She is seen wearing a white saree which is a symbol of purity. The study of scriptures is fruitless and cannot bring about spiritual awakening if one does not have a pure heart.
Let us invoke Durga Devi to remove the impurities of our mind, and then Goddess Lakshmi to cultivate noble values so that with the blessings of Goddess Saraswati, Self-knowledge will be ours.
5. Will continued Mahabharata story – Vidura tactfully warns Yudhisthita about Lac palace. When Pandavas reached Varanavata, they saw that the palace was made with combustible material. They had a tunnel dug from the palace to the forest and escaped from the palace, after it was set to fire. They lived in a village disguised as brahmins. Eventually they heard about Draupadi's swayamvaram and went to King Drupada's court to witness it. Arjuna eventually won the contest in the swayamvaram– shooting an arrow into the eye of revolving fish, while looking at the reflection in water. Draupadi eventually got married to all the Pandavas, with blessings of Lord Krishna and elders – due to a boon she asked in previous life from Lord Shiva. Dhritharastra lears that Pandavas were alive and invites them back to Hastinapura. He divides the kingdom into two and gives Kandavaprastha/Indraprastha portion to Pandavas.
7. Pandavas ruled Indraprastha, which was initially a barren land and was made fertile by their hard work; eventually establishing a vast and prosperous kingdom. They performed Rajasuya yagna, which was done with lot of pomp & show. Seeing their wealth, prosperity and the incredible Maya Sabha Duryodhana gets very jealous, in addition he gets humiliated in the Maya Sabha. So he wants to seek revenge – he plans with Sakuni to defeat them in a dice game. Dhritharastra invites Pandavas to Hastinapur for game of dice. Because Sakuni has magical power over the dice he wins all the way – and Yudhisthira loses everything in a very short time – all the kingdom, his brother and himself become slaves of Duryodhana. In fact Draupadi gets humiliated by Duryodhana and Dushasana – he tries to disrobe her. But she prays to Lord Krishna who protects her! This goes on despite Vidura's vehement opposition, and silent presence of Bheesma, Drona, Kripa & other elders – all due to Dhritharastra's blind love for his son and deep attachment to the Kingship.
8. Duryodhana's actions during the dice game was analyzed – wrong and evil minds will only find evil company, which will results in wrong & evil actions ultimately leading to more unhappiness and self-destruction. Lesson learned (LL) – do not keep wrong company, avoid evil/wrong acts as it will ultimately hurt you more.
9. Yudhisthira was epitome of Dharma in his words, deeds and actions yet one vice, gambling, caused significant problems to Pandavas & Draupadi – resulting in loss of their entire kingdom and wealth. In fact not learning from his first loss he gambled again. LL – even one bad habit can cause lot of trouble for us, refrain from gambling.
10. When Draupadi was in trouble in the Kauravas court, she remembered the Lord and prayed/surrendered to him. She was rescued by Lord Krishna. LL – Bhagawan answers sincere prayers; we have to do our part (self-effort) and then surrender to thr Lord, His grace will automatically flow.
11. Yaksha story – one day when Pandavas were in forest one Brahmin approached them to fetch his Arani sticks( wood sticks which help to lit up fire for their daily rituals) which was taken by a deer. Pandavas chased the deer but unfortunately could not catch the deer. They rested under a tree and looked for a water source to quench their thirst. Sahadeva who found a pond nearby was sent to fetch water for them. When he was about to drink water from this pond a crane sitting on a tree stopped from drinking and said that the pond belonged to him, and Sahadeva can drink the water only after answering his questions. Sahadeva did not heed to the crane's words and drank the water from the pond. He immediately fell unconscious. After this Nakula, Arjuna and Bheema came one by one and met the same fate. Finally Yudhisthira came, saw all his mighty brothers unconscious/almost coma like state and got very sad. When he was about drink the water from the pond, the crane again stopped him and asked him to answers his questions before drinking. Yudhisthira paid respect to the crane and asked him to ask the questions.
6. Videos: In addition, towards the end of class we shared the following videos by Swamini Supriyananda about "Titiksha" and "Sthairyam" .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFh83rSY-qw&list=PLm6DKuwwu5zp_gmpEGjVmVGiETi6pBA-r&index=11 endurance
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