Hari Om! Parents
Week 11 Bala Vihar class started with children writing 11 times likhita japa, 'Om Gam Ganapataye Namah'. As Bala Vihar heads into winter break, it is a good time for your child to catch up on daily japa writing, and to do shloka/ Gita chanting practice. This is the Bala Vihar Houses Contests registration link. Please encourage your child to participate.
Shlokas
Om chanting, Sahana vavatu (pg 8, My Prayers Book). The children took turns to chant all the verses of Sri Ganesha Stavah (pg 28, My Prayers book).The class has now learnt 1-4 verses of the Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam (pg 30, My Prayers book). Both MP3 audios were shared with you in the Parents WhatApp Group. Children will take turns to lead the shloka every week, so encourage your child to practice these shlokas everyday.
Bhagavad Gita
We are learning part two of the Gita Chapter 2 this year, from our Swamiji. Grade 5 (Partha group) assigned verses are 39-63 (Bala Vihar Handbook). The children take turns to lead the Gita chanting. Today we covered Verse 39 - 55 (pg 22/23, Bala Vihar Handbook).
Your child must use this YouTube Gita Playlist to practice pronunciation of the Gita correctly.
Mahabharata
We did a comprehensive review of all the prasangas covered from Adi Parva till now. We continued to the conclusion of this part of our Mahabharata story. News of Subadra and Arjuna reaches Balarama, who flies into a rage. Blaming Lord Krishna for the incident, he vows to destroy Arjuna and Indraprasta. Lord Krishna pacifies his brother by pointing out that Subadra had driven the chariot herself. He tells Balarama that she had chosen Arjuna and left of her free will. Lord Krishna then praises Arjuna's great qualities and concludes that there could be no better husband for their sister. Making peace with the situation Balarama prepares for the Vrishnis to go to Indraprasta and celebrate the wedding.
Arjuna, worried about Draupadi's anger, asks Subadra to enter the palace first as a milkmaid. Subadra goes to Draupadi, who welcomes her as she is Lord Krishna's sister. Soon the two of them bond over stories about the Lord and afterwards Arjuna makes his entrance. After sharing the news about his marriage to Subadra with his brothers, he hesitantly turns to Draupadi. She gives her approval instantly and blesses Subadra. Soon the Vrishnis arrive with gifts and a grand wedding celebration takes place in Indraprasta. Lord Krishna stays back to spend time with his cousins.
One hot summer day, Lord Krishna and Arjuna are enjoying the cool breeze on the banks of river Yamuna near the Khandava forest. A brahman appears, he is glowing like molten gold with red eyes and hair. He demands to be fed and says he is very hungry. The Lord and Arjuna agree and ask what he would like to eat. The brahmana reveals himself as Agni, God of fire. He says that he needs to eat the Khandava forest, and that he has tried but has failed several times. In the forest lives Takshaka, serpent king and friend of Indra deva. Whenever there was fire in the forest, Indra would send rain and extinguish it. Agni asks Lord Krishna and Arjuna to help him fulfill his wish and they agree. Arjuna points out that they do not have the weapons to do battle against the king of devas. Agni immediately summons Varuna, who gives Arjuna Soma's Gandiva bow, two quivers that would never become empty, a strong chariot and swift white horses. Arjuna does pranaam to the gods for the gifts and gets into the chariot ready for the task. Agni gives Lord Krishna the Sudarshana chakra and Kaumodaki mace. Arjuna builds a blanket of arrows over the forest and Agni begins to swallow the Khandava. The terrible sound of the destruction reaches far and wide.
News reaches Indra, who is angry on seeing that his son and Lord Krishna are responsible for the situation. He sends his favorite rain clouds, Pushkala and Avartaka, with a deluge of rain. The fire is so intense that the water turns to steam and the arrow shield protects the fire from the water. An enraged Indra attacks Arjuna with his Vayuvastra. The battle between father and son begins with Arjuna stopping even Indra's Vajra weapon. Yama with his mace, Kubera with his club, Varuna with his noose, Rudra with his trident all try to but fail to harm Lord Krishna and Arjuna. A voice from the heavens calls for the battle to stop, it says that Takshaka is not in the forest, and tells Indra that he cannot win against Nara(Arjuna) and Narayana(Lord Krishna) personified. Realizing his mistake, Indra stops the battle and he blesses Arjuna. He is very proud of his son's skills and says he can ask for a boon. Arjuna asks for the divine astras, which Indra promises to give once Arjuna gets the Pasupata from lord Shiva.
Agni reduces the forest to ashes and leaves after blessing Arjuna. One of the asuras, Maya, escapes the fire and Lord Krishna raises his chakra to kill him. Maya immediately runs to Arjuna, who promises to protect him. Lord Krishna allows him to live since he is under Arjuna's protection. After the hard battle, Lord Krishna and Arjuna refresh themselves in the Yamuna waters and rest for a while. They return to Indraprasta carrying all the gifts given by the devas. This concludes the Adi Parva, next is the Sabha Parva.
We paused the story here for a break and Brahmacharini Akalka ji joined the class to spend some time with the children. She narrated a story of Akbar and his wise minister Birbal and the class discussed the moral of the story. Here is a YouTube link if your child was absent. Next Brni. Akalka ji asked the children who their favorite Mahabharata character was and why. Lord Krishna was by far the most popular one! The reason given as to why - "He is Bhagwan after all!"
India, the Sacred Land
Saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born in Bengal in 1836. He was the priest at the Kali mandir at Dakshineshwar. Guru Totapuri initiated him into Vedantic meditation. Saint Ramakrishna was the guru to Swami Vivekananda and taught profound Vedanta with simple stories and parables. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the living message of Godliness and died in 1886. We discussed his messages - 'You can reach God by any religion.' and 'Deliberately do what is good and be happy.' Some important values we can learn from his life are - Be Simple, Be Pious, Be Godly, Be Faithful
The children were asked to keep a journal about how they used the saint's values in their everyday life. It will be our weekly discussion topic going forward.
Class ended early so we could join the main assembly to watch the monthly program.
Wishing Grade 5 families a fun, safe winter break and a happy new year!
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Shanthi Chidambaram
Materials needed for every class: notebook & pen for the likhita japa, My Prayers book for the shlokas, Bala Vihar Handbook for the Gita Chanting, aarti and pledge recitation.