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 made everyone led the class this week. We request parents to help children to learn the Daily Prayers. We started Ganesha Panchratnam. We learnt the first three stanzas. The link is given at the end of the email.
We recapped what we did in the last few classes. Shantanu & Ganga's marriage and later Shantanu and Satyavathi. Vichitravirya's marriage and Amba's vow to defeat Bheeshma. We continued with watching short clips of Mahabharata. After the death of Vichitraverya the throne of hastinapura was heirless, Satyavathi asks Bheeshma to father the wives of Vichitraverya i.e. Ambika and Ambalika, but Bheeshma refuses. Then Satyavathi tells her past, that she has a son named Vysya originally named Krishna dwaipayana.
When Satyavathi was very young Sage Parashara visits them and she requests him to relieve her from fishy smell, then he grants her that boon and her body odor becomes so fragrance-full and it used to be spread until a yojana distance. Hence she gets the name of Yojana gandhi. She begets a child due to her union with Sage Parashara as soon as the child was born he grows into fully grown adult and Satyavathi is blessed with Sage Parashara that she would retain her youth even after the child birth.Vyasa tells Satyavathi that whenever she needs his help and think of her he would be right away. Satyavathi tells Bheeshma that time has now come to take Vyasa's help.
Vysya appears before Satyavathi and asks how he can help her. She tells him to father Vichitraverya widows. He tells his mother to send them. When Ambika sees Vysya and looking at his appearance is shocked and closes her eyes. Vyasya who just comes out of meditation has locks and matted hair which scares Ambika. Then Satyavathi is told by vysya that Ambika will have valourful son but he will who is blind who was named as Dhritarastra. Satyavathi asks Vysya what and how could a blind king rule a kingdom.
Next Ambalika is asked to visit Vyasa but is strictly instructed not to close her eyes. Looking at Vyasa Ambalika get perplexed and becomes pale. Vyasa tells Satyavathi that Ambalika will have a son who will be a pale and not very healthy child who is named as Pandu.
Satyavathi requests to bless Ambika once again. But a fearful ambika sends her maid instead of her. The maid is very wise and intelligent and is blessed with a wise child and he is named Vidur who is the wisest of all.
Dhritarastra Pandu and Vidur grow under the wise guidance of Bheeshma. Dhritarashtra is married to Gandhara princess Gandhari who comes to know that her husband is blind from birth and decides to blindfold herself.
Surasena had a daughter named Pritha who was given as adoption to the childless kuntibhoja who was the brother of Sura. Since then Pritha was named as kunti after her father kuntibhoja.
One day sage Durvasa visited Kunti Bhoja in his palace. Kunti was devoted to sage Durvasa and Durvasa was very pleased with Kunti's service and granted her a mantra by using which she could invoke any god and they would grant her boon of son. Foreseeing the future of Kunti Sage Durvasa granted this boon. After the sage left back, Kunti out of her curiosity wanted to test the mantra. One morning she saw the rising beautiful son and wanted to test it out. Chanted the mantra looking at Sun god. Then the sun god appeared before her and granted her a son, who was born with golden armor and earrings. The son was beautiful and radiant as Sun god. Kunti tells the sun god that she is a young unmarried girl and the society will laugh at her for having a child without being married. Sun god tells her that the son would not bring her any bad name. Sun God also tells that this mantra will be useful to her in her future. Kunti then takes the little child wrapped in a cloth and then puts the child in a box and lets it float.
Later when Kunti becomes a young woman, Kuntibhoja arranges for a Swayamvara for her. King Pandu also is invited to this Swayamvara. Kunti is well known for her beauty and also her intelligence. Kunti on the day of Swayamvara put the garland in the neck of King Pandu and later they are wed in ritualistic manner. After some days King Pandu married Madri, the sister of Shalya.
It was time for our Gita Chanting by Swami Ji, we learnt shlokas 4, 5 from chapter 5. It was time for our Parent teacher meeting followed by our Aarthi and pledge and hence we stopped our class.
Thank you all the parents for stopping by to meet us.
IMPORTANT LINK:-
1. Ganesha Panchratnam (Page 30 in My Prayers).
1.1. Link to rendition with lyrics in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lZCKxeJFE or
1.2 Link: https://youtu.be/Oyo0FWP9fB8?si=ZaYVDepNkX0YWShI (play at lower speeds for kids to follow lyrics and hear clearly
2. Nirvana Shatakam (we will handover Printout in a few days.)
2.1 https://youtu.be/rKx7K13OvQ4?si=lM6g_ZtX0kdF5Sfo - Uninterrupted Line Guided Chant - YouTube
3. 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
