Class review (Section 1) 10/21/2012

hari Om,
  Dashera weekend.We had a lot of our friends missing. Our next balavihar is at the Mercer Park. We will have the Cord Walkathon on October 28th at 10:00 am.

 The children got settled in and started with likitha japa. 'Sri Krishnam Saranam Mama'. After we finished the morning prayers, we learnt one more stanza of Achutham Kesavam hymn. Aunty taught the children how to break up the complex sankrit words into simpler words, so it is easy to pronounce.

We learnt two more verses of the Geeta Chapter 13. Please visit http://www.geetachanting.net/ for the online audio and tools. The audio can be played line by line or verse by verse and the text can be viewed side by side in English.

We continued with the Krishna Lila. Krishna is growing up as a loving boy, the darling of all. We heard about the Dhenukasura vadham. Near the Vrindavan was a talavan forest where sweet tala fruit grew. The gopas wanted to offer these to Krishna and Balarama. But the forest was guarded by a herd of ferocious donkeys. The leader was an asura called Dhenuka. The donkeys had instructions from Kamsa to guard these fruits. We see the cowherd boys, they were not interested for themselves. They wanted to simply offer to Krishna and Balaram. That was their great happiness. But they could not offer them to Krishna and Balaram as long as Dhenukasura was there. This is our problem. Krishna says all the fruits of your works should be offered to Supreme God. But this ass demon in our heart constantly wants to lustfully enjoy everything we come in contact with we can not do it. Please remove the demons of selfishness, pride and jealousy from our hearts so that we can offer everything to you for your pleasure and in your pleasure we will enjoy the highest. Balarama went into the forest shook the trees. Hearing the fruit falling the demon attacked Balarama with his hind legs. But he was no match for Balarama.

We then heard the story of Kalia the snake who was poisoning the lake by river Yamuna. No fish could live in the contaminated water. The fumes from the poisoned water killed even birds flying overhead. Krishna leaped into the waters and fought the seperent. He wriggled out of the serpent's deathly hug and started dancing on the serpent head. The worried gopas and residents of Vrindavan were thrilled to see the heavenly   dance. When the wives of Kalia begged for mercy, Krishna forgave the serpent and his family but banished him to far off island.
We then ended our class with closing prayers and pledge

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/21/2012 - Class Room # A108

HariOm Every one!

We started our session with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times.After our morning prayers of guru stotram, we recapped the Krishna story we learnt so far. Reviewed last week's home work of writing sentences we used for Kali words. We also reviewed the reason behind why we got our names -- kids gave lot of interesting details .. Very impressive. We continued the story line and learnt how Krishna liberated Kubera's son's.. The move from Gokul to Vrindavan..How Krishna killed Vatsasura ( Asura in Cow's form), Bakasura ( Asura disguised as crane).. How Krishna was considerate to animals and people in need. How Krishna helped the poor fruit vendor and blessed him with riches.. Why it is important to help the unfortunate people.

We recited  Sree Ganapati Stotram.  Click here for the text and audio version. Kids did Likhita japa. It's very impressive to see how neatly they wrote the mantra. Since this week is Navratri, we did our japa on Sri Durga. 

We started practicing first 2 verses of chapter 13 for Geeta chanting. We already handed over hard copy of Geeta, please ask your kid to practice and bring the sheet back to class.The online audio version can be found in http://www.geetachanting.net/bvg13v01-10/ .

 We also went over CORD walkathon and the enrollment process. Please encourage your kids to participate in CORD walkathon on coming sunday Oct 28 in Mercer county park. Additional info can be found at http://cord.cordusa.net/ . We ended our session with Aarti and pledge.

See you all in our next Balvihar session on 10/28 at CORD Walkathon in mercer county park.

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/14/2012 - Class Room # A108

HariOm Every one!

As usual we started our session with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times. We turned off lights in our class so that kids will settle down and also as an indication for kids who came in late to wait outside until the morning prayers are done.It's really important to bring your kids on time by 9.55AM. Thank you to parents and kids who helped me arrange the chairs. Your help is appreciated!

 After our morning prayers, we recapped the Krishna story we learnt so far. Had a small pop quiz.We continued the story line and learnt how Krishna's birth was celebrated in Gokula, Kansa's evil plan to destroy his nephew failed.. Putana's futile attempt to poison baby Krishna, how forgiving Krishna was .. purified and gave moksha to Putana with his touch..Kansa's trickery..demise of asura trnavarta in Krishna's hands.

We completed learning Sree Ganapati Stotram. Recited couple of times . We already handed over hard copy of this stotram, please ask your kid to practice and bring the sheet back to class.Click here for the text and audio version. Kids did Likhita japa. It's very impressive to see how neatly they wrote the mantra. We reviewed last week's pending home work about Kali's influence and how kids overcame Kali.. what phrases they used..etc.

We continued our Krishna storyline and learnt about the naming ceremony of Krishna and his big brother Bala Rama.. why they were given those names by Garga Rishi..We also went over the mischiveous actions of the two brothers.. how they stole butter and annoyed Gopis..how they apologized to mom Yashoda. We had a discussion on "why would Krishna steal butter?" . We had lot of interesting answers..Pose this question to your kid to know more.. We also discussed about one more virtue of Krishna  "Sharing". . We talked about about the importance of sharing and how we can help others. We also went over CORD walkathon in this context of sharing and the enrollment process. Please encourage your kids to participate in CORD walkathon on Oct 28 in Mercer county park. Additional info can be found at http://cord.cordusa.net/ . After the attendence, we headed to auditorium for Aarthi and pledge.

See you all in our next Balvihar session on 10/21.

Class Review (Section 1), October 14th 2012

Hari Om,
    Today was a glorious October day. Blessed are we to enjoy the day with your children. Once everyone got settled in we started the class with 3 loud oms, sahana vavathu. We then practiced the Sankashtnashna Ganesh sthothra.

We learned 2 more paras of the Achutham Kesavam. Please ask your child to sing it for you. The lilting melody had me singing the whole of last week. It is a beautiful song and we wish we could bring you in to class to hear the children sing it.

We started the first 2 verses of the geeta chapter 13
 http://www.geetachanting.net/bvg13v01-10/ . It contains an excellent online learning tool, newly developed to make it easier to learn the right pronunciations of the verses. Do check it out and start your weekly practice right away.

Our Krishna Lila retelling continued and we covered the move from Gokulam to Vrindavan. The tatasura (calf), bakasura (crane), aghasura (snake) were destroyed by the child Krishna. Brahma ji tests Krishna by kidnapping the gopas and calf and hiding them in a cave. But Krishna succeeds in fooling Brahma ji.
Krishna multiplies himself and makes copies of boys and calves that looked exactly like the originals, and he then returned to the village with them. No one could tell the difference, but families showed increased spontaneous affection to their sons.
When Brahma ji returned he was shocked to see the boys and calves playing with Krishna, as though nothing had happened. Krishna knew Brahma was perplexed so He transformed all the boys and calves into four-armed Vishnu forms. Brahma heard music and saw many Brahmas, Shivas, demigods and jivas (souls) singing God's names and dancing. Brahma's mind opened at first to the vision, but then he became bewildered, so Krishna ended the dazzling scene. Brahma immediately got down from his swan-carrier and fell prostate at Krishna's feet to beg forgiveness. 

Class review, Oct 7th 2012

Hari Om,
     This is a recap of the Sunday class for section 1. We started the class with likitha japa. After our opening prayers we reviewed the Sankashtnashna Ganesh sthothra. 

We started a new bhajan. Achutham Kesavam. It is in the old my prayers book. Page 79. For those who have the new my prayers, please print out the prayer from here

Following a question from children about seva projects scheduled for this year, we discussed the upcoming Cord Walkthon. Please register your child at cord.cordUsa.net
The deadline for entering the raffle for fun electronics is this Sunday, October 14th.

We then reviewed Krishna Lila. Kamsa's cruel attempts to kill the baby in Gokula. The children we quite thrilled when the story moved to the pranks of Krishna and Balarama. Please ask the children the significance behind the butter, why Krishna stole the butter?

We ended this session of the story with Krishna liberating the sons of Kubera. Please contact us if you have any questions.
The next balavihar is October 14th. We plan to start learning the Chapter 13 Gita verses.

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/07/2012 - Class Room # A108

HariOm Every one! 

 First let us thank you for enrolling your kids in Balvihar and welcome to our blog. We are planning to update this blog every week, giving highlights of what we taught and learnt in that week's class. Yes I said "learnt" :)  "One who dares to teach should never cease to learn".  Today was our third session and should say that we have a bunch of curious and brainy kids in our class. We started our class with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times. We did our morning prayers and learnt Sree Ganapati Stotram. We gave handout to kids, please ask them to practice and bring the sheets to class.Click here for the text and audio version

We revised what was taught in previous 2 sessions ( Kali yuga, How we should avoid the bad influences of Kali yuga -- by controlling anger and not using bad words) . We started today's story -- How mother Earth approaches Trimurthy's to rescue her from distress.. Lord Vishnu promised that he will take avatara on Earth very soon.. Story of Kansa -- Devaki, Vasudeva's wedding, Akasavani's alert to Kansa that his sister's son will kill him .. Vasudeva's promise and Birth of Lord Krishna. 

We also learnt about the limbs of Sri Vishnu.

• Vedas, people who know Vedas
• Cows
• Austerity
• Truth
• Physical, Mental discipline
• Faith,
• Kindness
• Tolerance
• Sacrifice and worship.

We also heard some short stories -- Story of Oak tree& Grass which gave us the moral of tolerance and the story of young boy who always had a cow which gave us the moral of the Faith.

We ended our session with closing prayers -- Aarathi & Pledge.

Please make sure to drop off your kids on time at 9.55AM and ask them to keep their bags ready the night before with folder, notebook, pencils, crayons, glue stick, My prayers book.

See you all in our next Balvihar class on Oct 14.