Hari Om Parents!
Please find the summary of the content covered in the October month's Balavihar classes. We have been having engaging classes with Kids having thoughtful questions around the story and the values we discuss in each class.
After completing the opening prayers, we also encourage kids to do Likhita Japa in the class whenever possible. In the past 3 classes, we also covered Balakanda and Ayodhya kanda from Nama Ramayanam until now. We will continue to work on these in the upcoming classes. We covered 4 verses of 3rd chapter, Karma yoga from Bhagavad-Gita. Please encourage your kids to practice these verses ( Nama Ramayana and Gita) at home as well. As part of Oct 25th Bala Vihar class, all the kids performed Saraswathi puja on the occasion of Navaratri's. It was quite a sight to see all the kids participating in the divine puja.
We completed the Bala Khanda and part of Ayodhya khanda from Ramayana story covering the following topics in the last month's classes.
- Story of Sita's birth and the swayamvara announcement
- Vishwamitra taking the young princes to Mithila
- Story of Ganga avatar and how Bhageertha brought Ganga over to earth ( explained by Vishwamitra to Rama and Lakshmana)
- Story of Ahalya and how she was brought back to human form by Rama's grace
- Rama winning Sita's hand by completing the challenge in the swayamvara
- Parasuram's discomfiture with Rama stringing Vishnu's bow
- King Dasaratha's desire to crown Rama as Yuvaraj
- Manthara's evil counsel to Kaikeyi
- Kaikeyi's demands – Bharata's coronation and Ram's exile
- Rama's dharmic behavior to honor his father's promise
- Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana's journey into exile
As we were going through the topics, we emphasized on many values and life lessons these incidents from Ramayana teaches us. We discussed Vishwamitra's anger and how his ego impacted his growth as a Brahmarshi. We also learned about perseverance he demonstrated and how that is important in one's like to achieve our goals. The same was highlighted when we briefly reviewed the story of Bhageertha. Through different examples from the stories shared above, we talked about the importance of Dharma, speaking truth and integrity. Rama's personality is an embodiment of Dharma. His role as a son, brother, husband, student and prince serves as a model for all of us on how to lead our life, how we respect our parents and how we stay composed and balanced in all situations. Always choose to do that right thing even though it's not the thing that we desire. Ahalya's story teaches us the consequences of getting carried away by desires. Through the story of Manthara, we learned the importance of having good company and how Manthar's counsel transformed Kaikeyi's whole nature. She lost her ability to discriminate between right and wrong. So, we all should be beware of Manthara's in our lives! Also, we learnt that we should practice values not for power but to elevate ourselves
We will continue with the story discussing Rama's departure to Forest along with Sita and Lakshmana. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments.
Pranams and Regards,
Mythili and Nirmala ( 7th grade Balavihar sevaks)
