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). Sravas led the class this week. We request parents to help children to learn the Daily Prayers. We started Ganesha Panchratnam. We learnt the first two stanzas. The link is given at the end of the email.
We recapped what we did in the last few classes. Shantanu and Devarata taking the vow of celibacy. We continued with the Mahabharata.
Shantanu was married to Satyavathi and they had two children, Chitrangada and Vichitraverya.
Bheeshma taught them art of war fare along with politics to Chitrangada and vichitravirya. Bheeshma was like a father to his two brothers after the passing away of shantanu.
Chitrangada fought a gandharva and was killed in the combat. Vichitraverya was also not in good health, Satyavathi was worried that the throne of hastinapura would be heirless and wanted Bheeshma to find a bride for Vichitraverya. King of Kasi had three daughters Amba, Ambika, Ambalika.Bheesma went to Kasi where the swayamvaram was organized for the Princesses of Kasi and defeated all the kings and princes who came for Swayamvara and took the three beautiful princesses. On the way to Hastinapura Bheeshma was stopped by Salvya and was defeated badly by Bheeshma in this fight and Salvya felt very insulted. Amba had secretly given herself to Salvya. When the three princesses were brought to hastinapura Amba expressed her concern about her secret love to Salvya.Vichitraveera sent Amba to her love back and mentioned he could not marry her as she had loved Salvya and knowing it he cannot accept her as his wife.
Amba went to Salvya, who was defeated in battle, felt insulted and told Amba to go back to Bheeshma. Amba went to Bheeshma and told him to accept her as his wife and neither Salvya and nor vichitravirya were ready to accept her. Bheeshma tells her that he vowed to be brahmachari for life.
Amba feels very miserable and vows to avenge this insult to her and wants to defeat Bheeshma. She seeks help from various kings and princes; everyone is scared to fight Bheeshma. She goes to Parasurama who is the guru of Bheeshma, taking pity on her he wants to help and there is long battle between Parasurama and Bheeshma, since both are equal no one gets defeated and Bheeshma with his boon of iccha mrityu does not get defeated. They finally call off the battle. Parasurama gives a garland to Amba and says that anyone who wears it would be the cause of defeat of Bheeshma,
She does not find anyone and finally puts the garland in the entrance of king Drupada palace. She does penance to lord Shiva and asks him to grant liberty from this life and finally jumps into prey giving up her life and is reborn as Shikandi to King Drupada and wears the garland which is hanging in front of the palace. In the Kurukshetra war Bheeshma is defeated by Shikandi.
Meanwhile Ambika and Ambalika are married to Vichitraverya. Vichitraverya died without leaving an heir to the throne.
It was time for our Gita Chanting and we learnt 2, 3 shlokas from chapter 5. It was time for our class's turn for Aarthi and we practiced in class before performing the Aarthi in the Prayer Hall.
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 some 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
