Hari Om Parents,
Here is a summary of our Balavihar class activities on January 23, 2022.
1. We started our class with three OMs followed by the opening prayers.
2. We then did a few basic yoga poses. Children enjoyed standing up, stretching, bending, trying to balance and getting into these poses.
3. We then talked about Makar Sankranti and the children were excited to share how they celebrated this festival with their family and friends. This festival is dedicated to the sun god Surya. Sun moves to the zodiac sign Capricorn, Makara marking the beginning of the sun's northward journey (the uttarayana). It is celebrated differently across the Indian subcontinent. We shared some pictures of the celebration.
4. We practiced Ajam Nirvikalpam and Ganesha Pancharatnam stotram. Children took turns repeating the stotram a couple of times. Please remind children to practice reciting this at home.
5. Mahabharata: Children took turns and recapped the story covered so far.
6. We then continued with our journey on learning about the Saints of India.
In today's presentation, we learnt about Samartha Ramadas. He was born in Maharashtra on Rama Navami. He had extensive literature written during his lifetime. One of his popular aarti dedicated to Lord Ganesha that he composed is known as Sukhakarta Dukhharta. We then went over a story of a farmer and baker. The farmer sold a pound of butter to the baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter and found that it was less than a pound. He got angry and went to the judge. The farmer replied that since he did not have a proper weighing scale, he was using the one pound of bread that he was buying from the baker to weigh the butter. If anyone must be blamed, it is the baker for not being fair. The children were asked how they would connect the moral of the story with the teachings of Samartha Ramadas. They all agreed that we get back in life what we give to others.
Class ended with aarti, shanti mantra, and pledge.
Our next class is on January 30th.
Reminders:
§ Please have the My Prayers Book and the Balavihar Handbook handy during our Balavihar session.
https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/balavihar/parents-corner/handbook
§ House Points: Please send your child's individual chanting recordings for earning house points. The recording video link can be shared with geeta@chinmayavrindavan.org with your session, and grade.details
§ Registration for other house contests including Story Telling, Shlokathon, Art Contests is open. Please check chinmayavrindavan.org/House Events for details.
Pranaam,
Subha and Rekha