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 (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.