HARI OM EVERY ONE!
We started our session with breathing exercise and chanting Om 3 times. We recited Sree Ganapathi Stotram and learnt Sree Govinda Damodara Storam - first 4 verses . We talked about last week's homework and what kind of service kids had performed over the week. There were lot of questions about difference between service, help and duty. That brought us into the discussion of Karma. How one should perform their duty with out expecting any favors.. What happens when one performs their Karma and Karma Phala..
This discussion lead us to the Krishna Lila's story time..and we had a perfect story of "Egoistic Indra and Krishna The Govardhan Giridhar"... People in Gokul didn't perform yagna to please Indra as Krishna convinced them that Indra is just performing his duties and he doesn't need to be pleased to do his duties..Egoistic Indra becomes offended and drowns Vrindavan with storms. Krishna rescues people of Vrindavan by lifting the mount Govardhan. All the people and cattle of Vrindavan took shelter under mount Govardhan for 7 days. None of Indra's wicked actions affected them. They were happily enjoying the company of Krishna .. This made Indra realize his mistake. He figured out that the blue boy was no other than lord Vishnu and comes down to apologize.
We practiced Geeta chanting -- recited the first 9 verses. Please encourage kids to practice Gita chanting at home. Kids did Likhita japa in their books before they continued on their fun project, which was started two weeks back. Kids wrote the virtues of Krishna that they learnt so far on each finger of their palm cut out. They could decorate the palm in coming sessions and also at home.
PS- Please make sure to remind your kids to file the hard copies of bhajan's provided in class.
See you all in our next Balavihar session on Dec 16th 2012.
-Grade 4B teachers
