Hari Om Parents,
We started our class by writing Likhitha jaapa (writing the name of any ishta devata god's name). This would help children to settle down in class before we begin the class then followed by daily prayers (Page 11 of My Prayers book). We would like every kid to lead the prayers every class. Ridah led the class this week. We request parents to help children to learn the Daily Prayers.
We discussed the festival of Navaratri and what everyone did in their homes. Few mentioned doing Durga puja, going to Dandiya/Garbha few mentioned about Ayudha Puja, Keeping Golu, doing Saraswathi puja.
We had a discussion in class on what is belief and does god exist, what is Nirvana, how to attain Nirvana.One of our students was very eager to understand and get nirvana.
Shivram ji spoke with our swami shantanand ji and asked how this needs to be explained to 5th graders about Nirvana, the below was what we discussed.
Nirvana can be attained by chanting lord Krishna's name with belief and faith. Nirvana means not being entangled anymore in the cycle of birth and deaths. Hinduism believes in the cycle of birth, death and being born again is nothing but attaining Nirvana. In order to attain nirvana we need to meditate on the lord Krishna and have faith, believing there is Krishna everywhere.
Then one of the students said how do we believe there is Krishna everywhere, do we touch and feel him. For this we went to talk about a small story as below.
In a village there lived a small boy and his mother, the boy was 5yrs old and his mother registered him in a school which was a little far and required to cross a forest. The mother told the boy to walk to school alone as she had to go to work to make a living. The boy being little was scared to walk alone in the forest, somehow he made it through the first day. He expressed his fear to his mother. His mother said he had an elder brother named Krishna who lived in the forest and whenever he needed help he just had to call out for his help and he would help him.
The next day the boy was very happy that he had an older brother and he could call him out when he needed help. While coming back from school as it was getting he was scared and remembered what his mother mentioned and called his brother Krishna, after sometime a young boy dark in complexion came from behind the trees and this little boy was very happy to see his brother. They both chatted on the way back home. This went on for months together, whenever the boy needed any help he used to call for his brother Krishna.
One day everyone had to bring something to school as a gift to the teacher. The little boy knew his boy couldn't get anything as it was very hard to make ends meet for his mother.He took help of his brother Krishna who gave him a potful of butter. After the school year was completed, the boy mentioned to his mother that the teacher was happy with him and he also loved his gift of a pot full of butter which he took. The mother was surprised and said how he was able to get a pot full of butter. The boy said that his brother who was in the forest every day walked him to school and helped him if there was any help he needed. Since he knew that his mother could not help getting gifts to the teacher he asked Krishna, his brother, to help him.
The mother was surprised and asked the boy to take her to the forest and show Krishna.
When they went to the forest the little boy called out for Krishna many times but he didn't come as he would every other time. After waiting for hours the boy started crying as his mother would not believe him. Then they heard a voice and it said that since the boy had full faith in Krishna he was able to see him, but the mother didn't truly believe she was not able to see Krishna.
It was about time for our saraswati puja and we all headed to the prayer hall and performed saraswati puja.
Few important notes and points.
We request everyone to be present in the class a few mins before 7pm.
The curriculum for this year is
1. Mahabharata by Sri Raja Gopala Chari (please check in the ashram bookstore or it can be purchased in Amazon as well).
2. India the sacred land (no textbook).
3. Ganesha Panchratnam (Page 30 in My Prayers).
3.1. Link to rendition with lyrics in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lZCKxeJFE or
3.2 Link: https://youtu.be/Oyo0FWP9fB8?si=ZaYVDepNkX0YWShI (play at lower speeds for kids to follow lyrics and hear clearly
4. Nirvana Shatakam( we will handover Printout in a few days.)
4.1 https://youtu.be/rKx7K13OvQ4?si=lM6g_ZtX0kdF5Sfo - Uninterrupted Line Guided Chant - YouTube
5. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 (1-29 shlokas) is available in the 2024-25 year handbook. The handbook was given to all kids. If not please collect from the book store.
Please make sure to send the below to every Balavihar class.
1. An empty notebook to write Likhitha jaapa and notes.
2. Two sharpened pencils.
3. Daily Prayers book.
4. Balavihar Handbook
Please join the class WhatsApp group by using the link below
https://chat.whatsapp.com/E0cfUe3NUDYCBwYVKD7tyg
The WhatsApp group will be our primary medium of communication. Please feel free to reach us on our phones/ via WhatsApp or you can reply to this email as well
With Regards,
Shivram & Anuradha
