Hari OM Students and Parents
Hope you all had a good break! I know this got delayed. But below are notes from our last class. Request kids to be tuned in for a quiz today.
High Level Agenda:
· Opening Prayer
· Dashavatara stotram
· Geeta Chanting and Attendance
· Recap and quiz from last class
· Topics for today:
- Churning of the milky ocean and quiz
· Aarthi, Pledge and Closing prayers
Today's Class in detail
Prayers:
· We started by chanting OM three times, and our opening prayers
· Dashaavatara Stotram: we learnt verses on Vamana avatara of Vishnu
· Geeta Chanting: Verses 57 & 58 from Chapter 2. This completes Grade 3 chanting portion
· Refreshed on what we learnt on Gajendra Moksha story
Story time: - Churning of Milk Ocean
Sage Durvasa returning from Vaikuntha meets Indra. He gives a garland that he brought from Vaikuntha to Indra. Indra arrogantly puts it around his elephant's neck. The elephant thrashes it to the floor and tramples on it. Enraged, Sage Durvasa cursed Indra that he and the three worlds he rules will become pale and lose all splendor and glory. Indra, Lord Brahma and other gods approach Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu advises them to make peace with the asuras and take their help to churn the milky ocean. Amrit will emerge from the churning, drinking which will make the devas immortal.
As per the Lord's direction, the devas take the help of the asuras. They bring Mount Mandara as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the King of serpents becomes the churning rope. Lord Vishnu assumes the form of a gigantic tortoise (Kurma avatar) and becomes the base to keep the mountain steady. The churning begins and the first thing to emerge is the deadly poison, Halahala. Lord Shiva absorbs this into his throat and. becomes Neelakantha. The churning continues and many emerge from the ocean like the Airavata, Uchaisrava, Kaustubha, Surabhi, Parijata tree and Apsaras. Goddess Lakshmi emerges in a glorious form, and soon accepts Lord Vishnu as her husband.
Finally, a young man, Dhanvantari, who is a form of Lord Vishnu emerges with a jar of amrit. The asuras immediately snatch the jar and start fighting. The devas turn to Lord Vishnu for help. The Lord then takes the form of Mohini, a beautiful maiden. She mesmerises the asuras and makes sure the devas get all the amrit and the asuras get none. It's very late by the time the asuras realise they were cheated. They wage a war against the devas, but are defeated. For being evil and greedy they get what they deserve.
We did a quiz on what we learnt today, and refreshed all the items that came out of the milky ocean when the churning happened. We also discussed what we learnt today. We listened to Swamiji's Geeta chanting and chanted with him. We did our aarti, pledge and closing prayers.
Request to Parents:
- Below is the link to Dashaavatara stotram until verse on Vamana avatar (Page 94 in MyPrayers book) audio file – Help your child practice the link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xfCHENKsa66MYiKsLnMJMchFCrGWD5mu/view?usp=sharing
- Geeta Chanting links : @Parents, please help your child practice the following Geeta chanting verses and come to class next time
o Verse 57 and 58: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLPKuERyzc&list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy&index=25
o Complete playlist of Link to all the verses is here
We look forward to seeing the kids in the next class.
With sincere and warm regards,
Vasudha and Aruna
(Chinmaya Vrindavan Bala Vihar Grade 3 Teachers)