Hari Om! Parents,
Reminder:
Please sign up if you can bring Prasad to Bala Vihar using the link posted in the Parents WhatsApp group.
Week 9 Class
12/15/24 - We began with likhita japa, followed by opening prayers and chanting the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram.
Mahabharata
Bhishma Parva signals the beginning of the war. We discussed the meaning of: Dharmayuddha = war of righteousness and Kuru = action, Kshetra = field.
Duryodhana appoints Bhishma as the commander-in-chief of the Kaurava army. It is an 11 Akshauni strong army. As long as Bhishma is the commander, Karna cannot fight in the war.
Yudhistira appoints Drishtadhyumna as the Pandava army leader, which has 7 Akshauni. Lord Krishna vows not to take up weapons and is the charioteer to Arjuna. Hanuman ji resides in Arjuna's flag.
Both armies meet at Kurukshetra, and both sides blow their conches to signal the start. Yudhistira gets down from his chariot and bows down to his elders asking for their blessings. The rest of the Pandavas also follow him and the elders and gurus bless them wholeheartedly. Next, Arjuna asks Lord Krishna to take him to the middle of the battlefield, where he gets a closer look at the enemy. When he sees that the enemy is his kith and kin, Arjuna becomes sad. He drops his weapons and a depression takes over. He does not want to kill his own clansmen and asks Bhagwan why he must commit such a great sin. This leads to Lord Krishna's advice to Arjuna, Srimad Bhagavadgita, the Song of the Divine. We discussed the importance of the Bhagavad Gita to Hindus and how our Pujya Gurudev spent more than 40 years performing Gita Gyana Yagnas across the world. We spoke about just a few important messages found in the Gita due to time constraints.
The Bhagavad Gita will be discussed in detail from BV grades 10 through 12. The children concluded that Bhagwan's advice was not meant only for Arjuna, but meant for all of us and the Gita can guide us through tough situations we may face in our lives.
Activity:
The Bhakti workshop guided the children through introspection about the importance of devotion in their day-to-day lives. We discussed the several forms of devotion and examples of where to see them in the Mahabharata. We also spoke about finding Bhagwan in nature and appreciating the wonders in the natural world around us. After this, the class watched this video on the effect of sound on water molecules. Experiments by Masaru Emoto reveal that there is a big difference in the shape of the molecules exposed to positive sounds and words vs negative words and sounds. The conclusion was that since our body is 70% water, we will see the benefits of chanting shlokas and doing Bhagwan's japa regularly.
India, the Sacred Land
Topic - Indian Classical Music and Classical Dance. We spoke about the different forms of Indian classical dances, their origin, and the history of music in India. The class watched a video describing the difference between the Carnatic and Hindustani classical music styles.
Gita Chanting
Today we learned verses 8 and 9 from our Swamiji. We also revised verses 1-7 of chapter 5.
The class ended with closing prayers and pledge recitation.
Week 10 Class
12/22/24 - Due to Winter Break there were just 4 children in class today. The Grade 6 and Grade 8 classes were combined.
Mahabharata
We did a short review of the Mahabharata story and its characters. The common topic between Grades 6 and 8 was the Yaksha Prashna episode from Vana Parva.
We discussed the Dharma questions, including the cause and effect of actions. The children also shared the lessons they learned from the Mahabharata story.
The Grade 6 children also played the Hangman game with the Mahabharata characters.
Gita Chanting
This year, the children will learn Chapter 5 of the Bhagavad Gita from our Swamiji. Grade 6 is group Partha, and is assigned verses 1-26 to memorise.
We learned verses 10 and 11 from our Swamiji today.
More details at: https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/activities/geeta-chanting
The session ended with aarti and pledge recitation. Wish you all a safe and happy holidays!
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Sangeetha Srikanth
Supplies needed for every class:- Bala Vihar Handbook, My Prayers book, the Junior Class Workbook Part 1 & 2, a notebook and pencils for likhita japa; everything in their Bala Vihar bag
*Reference books - Mahabharata by Rajagopalachari / Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam
