October 20th, class review (Nirmala and Lakshmi)

Hari Om,
    After likitha japa and starting prayers, we continued to learn more of the Achutham Kesavam  bhajan. Many of the asuras we came across in the Krishna stories like Dhenukasura and Pothana feature in this bhajan. We thoroughly enjoyed singing this song. One of the verses we completed is devoted to Lord Rama. So please help children learn this bhajan.

We learnt more verses in geeta chapter 14. The children should be practicing these verses everyday at home. Please use the free online tool when you practice.

We reviewed the lessons learnt from previous week about Karma and Karma Phlan. We continued the story with Krishna. Indra get very angry when the villager stop thhe yagjna aang. He send torrentlial rain and kill. Welearnt Indra behaved this way due to his arrogance. When he repents for his mistakes the Lord forgive him. We learnt of the rasa lila dance and how Krishna plays a trick on the gopis

Please enjoy the break and we will see you in November

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/20/2013 - Sangeeta & Suma 's Class

HariOm EveryOne!

We started our class with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times. We did our morning prayers, Gurustotram and Sree Ganapati Stotram. we practiced Geeta chanting first 3 verses of chapter 14 and learnt the 4^th verse. It was amazing to see how kids were all excited to start chanting. Several kids volunteered to recite in solo. We are going to take turn for solo recital in our next class. 

We revised what was taught in our previous session Brahmaji's maha Bhanga-- Brahmaji tries to trick Krishna and took all gopas and cows away into a cave. Krishna with his Maya created look - a -likes of Gopas and cows and took them home to Vrindavan. No one including parents of gopas realized this maya.  

Ashamed Brahmaji apologized to SriKrishna and released the gopas , cows.  We talked about the humility and humbleness of Krishna for not showing off but making Brahmaji realize his mistake. This weeks's home work is to write a sentence about how you or someone you know are humble or showed humility.

We also heard about the tale of silly turtle which lost it's life by trying to show off when his friends "the two cranes" were carrying him to a pond.

We went over the great qualities of Krishna which made darling of all and discussed how we can be nice to others and be every one's darling. This week's home work is to write a sentence about "Why you are loved by others".

The next story of this session was the death of Dhenukasura  - the asura in the form of donkey, how Balarama and Krishna killed him when he harmed them when they tried to get tala-fruits. Thus Kansa's evil plans have failed again.

In our story time we moved on to the most  interesting Krishna Lila's  of  Kaliya Mardhanam-  The poisonous serpent Kaliya lived in lake Madu and contaminated the whole lake. All the birds and other living things in that area died because of the poisonous fumes in that area. Some gopasunknowingly went to that lake and died. Krishna jumped into the lake .. all the gopas worried and called NandBaba and Yashoda. Krishna grew large and jumped on top of the egoistic Kaliya and danced merrily. Exhausted Kaliya and his wives prayed Krishna to pardon their mistakes. Forgiving Krishna asked them to leave that place and move to an island far away.

We discussed about Kaliya -- how everyone has a taint of Kaliya in them .. difference between consciousness and egoism .. how we all can fight the Kaliya in ourselves by being good  and helpful to others.  

See you all in our next Balvihar class on Nov 10th.

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/13/2013 - Sangeeta & Suma 's Class

HariOm Every one!
We started our session with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times. After our morning prayers, Guru stotram and Sree Ganapati stotram, we practiced Geeta chanting first 2 verses of chapter 14 and learnt the 3rd verse.

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/bvg14v01-10/

We reviewed last week's home work and learned lot of interesting facts about how kids practiced sharing last week and their experiences.

We recapped the Krishna story we learnt so far and continued with Krishna Lilas.. Killing of Tranavartha and the move of Yadavas 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 her with riches..

See you all in our next session on 10/20.

October 13th, class review (Nirmala and Lakshmi)

Hari Om,
       Since it was Vijaya Dasami, we started the class with Saraswathi Namasthubyam. We continued learning the achutham kesavam bhajan. A lot of tongue twisters, please help the children learn this important prayer.  Some of the new prayer books do not have this bhajan. The following link make help you

http://bhajanlyrics.com/?p=54

Aunty taught us verse 1, 2 & 3 of geeta chapter 14. Please ask the children to practice using the the geeta chanting.net website.

We are introduced wives of the rishies peforming yagna, one of the most devoted followers of Krishna. We learn of how they are willing to leave their husband and stay with Krishna. We learn of the taming of  Kalia the hundred headed snake, polluting the waters of Lake Madu.

We talked about how our actions will have consequences or results. Our actions are called karma and the results or consequences are called karmaphalan. Karma can be selfless or with out concern for results. This sort of karma is nishkama karma.  Selfish Karma is called sakama karma. By laws of nature, an orange seed will only get orange fruit not an apple. In the same way what we sow, we shall reap.

Homework for the week was to practice service and sharing like the rises wives or the trees. The children also need to reflect on their actions and words.

October 6th, class review (Nirmala and Lakshmi Aunty)

Hari Om,
    We reviewed the Sankashtnashna Ganesh sthothra that we finished previous week. The children have the printouts in their binders, so you can ask them to sing this song any time. We are now learning Achutham Kesavam. This sings the praise of the Lord Narayana in his various forms. It is in the old my Prayers book (page 79). The children would be happy to sing this song as well.

We have now started teaching the children the geeta chapter 14. Every year in Spring the balvihar children participate in free competition for reciting the verses from memory. There are various tools available to learn these verses.
  1. website   http://www.geetachanting.net/bvg14v01-10/

  2. Handbook and printouts in the binder

 3. Youtube. Bramhmananda audio.

The children learnt the first verse of the chapter 14 in class.Please help them practice at home.

We then learnt about Krishana and the many pranks he plays on the villagers. The children thoroughly enjoyed the story of Krishna stealing butter and sharing with the monkeys. We shared the story of asuras and rakshasa like Vatsaasura, Bakaasura, Aghaasura, sent by Kamsa to kill little Krishna. We learnt of Brahma ji's trick and how Krishna taught the creator a valuable lesson in humility. We ended with the Dhenukasura's vadham.

We look forward to seeing you all next week.
Pranam

Class Review- 4 Grade Section B - 10/06/2013 - Sangeeta & Suma 's Class

HariOm Every one!

We started our session with breathing exercises and chanting Om 3 times . It's really important to bring your kids on time by 9.55 A.M.  This will help us in starting class on time.Thank you to all kids who helped us in arranging the chairs. Your help is appreciated!

 After our morning prayers, we recapped the Krishna story we learnt so far. What happened to the 7th child of Devaki..Kamsa'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..

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.

 We finally opened our treasure chest containing last month's kids hand written good deed phrases. It was so impressive to see how kids are appreciative of their, parents, friends and animals.

We started learning 14th chapter of Bhagavatgeeta. Completed first 2 verses. Please encourage kids to practice using online tool.

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. This week's home work is to practice sharing and write a paragraph ( hand written or typed) to next class. So excited so go through your little ones work.

See you all in our next Balvihar session on 10/13.

September 29th, 2013, Class Review (Nirmala and Lakshmi Aunty)

Hari Om,
  What a glorious day. Beautiful fall colors bursting from trees. Warm sunshine falling on us while we walked into the school. We appreciate the classroom, and students on all days and definitely this day.

We started the class with 3 loud oms followed by om sahana vavathu. Aunty completed the Sankata Nashna Ganesh strotam today. Please ask the children to sing it for you.Singing this prayer will help destroy all obstacles.

We reviewed the stories from previous week. How Kamsa thought he was killing the eight child of Devaki, but it was actually Maha Mayi. She escapes easily and warns Kamsa that his destroyer is being raised elsewhere.
 Kamsa gets more agitated. His advisers suggest using Pootha a rakshasi to kill all the new born babies in Mathura and Gokul. But the plan fails miserably. Krishna the baby sucks  the poison out of Pootha and kills her, leaving her body with a wonderful aroma of sandalwood and jasmine. Thus we leaned that one of the ways to reach Sri Hari is through forgiveness,. One of the homework for the week is to practice sharing and forgiveness.

We also learned of the Trnavratha the wind demon who comes to Gokul to kill the baby Krishna. The pranks Krishna play on the villagers and how Kubera's sons receive moksha.

We look forward seeing you all next week.
Pranam