Hari Om,
We started our classes with the opening prayers:
- Om chants (3 times)
- Shanti mantra - Sa ha navavatu
- Shri Ganeshaya Namah
- Shri Saraswatyai Namah
- Introduced Devi Dhyana Shloka – Sarva Mangala (Page 39 in My Prayers book)
We learned following topics in the class:
1. About India, India's riches, India and US independence and emblems:
In this section, covered the following points with the help of this presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14mE_yIecugwRgiD8rroDraJDgD8488MwdOg3E298diI/edit?usp=sharing
- Started with ice breaker questions:
- What are the other names of India
- How many states are in India?
- Independence Movements: USA vs. India (Bharat)
- India a Golden bird
- 2000 years of world economic history chart
- Why Was India Ruled by the British?
- Key Differences and Similarities between US and India's independence movement
- Indian Freedom Fighters: Gurudev, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru
- Indian Freedom Fighters: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bhagat Singh, Rani Lakshmibai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- Other Prominent Indian freedom fighters
- Flags of USA and India
- USA and India National emblems
- USA and India National flowers, national animal, national bird, national fruit, national tree
- USA and India Highest National Awards
- USA and India Country messages
- India's emblems convey to us these messages
At the end, we played a Pictionary game to reinforce what we learned, especially about National Emblems.
It was exciting to see that many students already knew a lot about India's Independence movement, freedom fighters, and facts about India compared to the USA. Many were pleasantly surprised to discover new information about the USA, including its national animal, fruit, and trees.
2. Scriptures, Guru, Introduction to Mahabharata:
We asked the class- why they come to Balavihar and shortlisted the answers on "Knowing about God and understanding about moral values".
All the worldly knowledge is gained by our senses. Spiritual knowledge cannot be gained by five senses. Hence we should have faith in our Guru who has already walked the path and have faith in our scriptures which give the knowledge of life and beyond.
Our scriptures are Vedas. They are eternal and not written by anyone. Vedas are revealed to prepared minds of Rishis which are very pure. Back then only via oral methods, these were taught to disciples. This tradition is called as Guru Shishya parampara. Guru gives the knowledge to his sishya. Sishya learns these well, later passes these to his disciples.
Among the Gurus we talked about Bhagavan Vedavyasa. He compiled vedas into 4 groups - Rig, Yajur, sama and Atharvaveda.. The knowledge in this was too subtle for the common man to grasp. Hence Vyasa bhagavan composed puranas and itihasa- Mahabharata which has 100.000 verses. As a review, we briefly talked about how Lord Ganesha became the scribe of Mahabharata. We talked about the story of King Shantanu, his wedding to Godess Ganga, the curse of the Vasus and birth of Devavrata.
We discussed with the class on the topic of "consequence of impulsive actions" , stating King Shantanu as an example of agreeing to all the conditions of Goddess Ganga without thinking. Class shared their experiences of how friends use chat messages to express their annoyances and getting into trouble at school. We cautioned them on using social media and phones appropriately.
We asked the class- why they come to Balavihar and shortlisted the answers on "Knowing about God and understanding about moral values".
All the worldly knowledge is gained by our senses. Spiritual knowledge cannot be gained by five senses. Hence we should have faith in our Guru who has already walked the path and have faith in our scriptures which give the knowledge of life and beyond.
Our scriptures are Vedas. They are eternal and not written by anyone. Vedas are revealed to prepared minds of Rishis which are very pure. Back then only via oral methods, these were taught to disciples. This tradition is called as Guru Shishya parampara. Guru gives the knowledge to his sishya. Sishya learns these well, later passes these to his disciples.
Among the Gurus we talked about Bhagavan Vedavyasa. He compiled vedas into 4 groups - Rig, Yajur, sama and Atharvaveda.. The knowledge in this was too subtle for the common man to grasp. Hence Vyasa bhagavan composed puranas and itihasa- Mahabharata which has 100.000 verses. As a review, we briefly talked about how Lord Ganesha became the scribe of Mahabharata. We talked about the story of King Shantanu, his wedding to Godess Ganga, the curse of the Vasus and birth of Devavrata.
We discussed with the class on the topic of "consequence of impulsive actions" , stating King Shantanu as an example of agreeing to all the conditions of Goddess Ganga without thinking. Class shared their experiences of how friends use chat messages to express their annoyances and getting into trouble at school. We cautioned them on using social media and phones appropriately.
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Please make sure children bring in My Prayers book, handbook, notebook, pencils etc (to take note in the class)
Regards,
Sachin and Sirisha
Sachin and Sirisha
