Welcome to our first E Bal Vihar session. We loved teaching your children.
We started our class with the beginning prayers followed by singing a Ganesha Bhajan 'Ganapati Ganapati...'. The children sang along and participated well.
We then went on to our curriculum which is Hindu Culture.
We shared a document with the children and discussed the different aspects of our rich culture and heritage. We are sharing the document with you below.
We then discussed that to further understand our culture we need to understand the 2 terms Prakriti and Vikriti by giving the children some examples and asking them to differentiate between them.
Discussed our main goal in life which is to gain Self Knowledge
Asked the children about their goals and we are sharing some of their responses below
1. To be excellent
2. To be more organized
3. Self-knowledge is my goal as it will help me
4. All goals lead to Self-Realization
5. Educate myself well
6. Gain Self-knowledge as it will makes me a better person
7. To get an X Box
8. No goals right now
We will be continuing this topics next week.
This year we will be learning to chant Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita up to Verse 38 by chanting along with our Pujya Swamiji.
In this class we watched a primer video on how to chant correctly in Sanskrit.
Finally, we participated in the Arathi and the pledge which was conducted together with everyone.
Pranams 🙏
Nirmala Rajan
Uma Shankar
********** Material used for teaching **********************
Hindu Culture
Gurudev's quote
Man's control of nature external is Civilization. Man's control of nature internal is Culture
Famous Civilizations—Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Harrapan, Chinese
Our Indian Culture—Language, Religion, Food and Arts, Vedic
Division of the Vedas:
Karma Kanda
Upasana Kanda
Jnana Kanda
Goal of every Human Being: Gain Self Knowledge
What kind of changes can I make in my life
Our habits
Our behaviors
Our Attitude
We have total freedom to make changes in our life
What I cannot change
My siblings, parents, relatives etc.
My skin color
Weather
Brainstorm….
Wear the shoes of 'Culture' and roam around the globe without getting blisters on the heart:
We can achieve this only by taking control of our internal nature
When an individual behaves in a certain way ----Nature/Samskara
A community responds to different situations in a particular way ---Culture/Samskriti
The inherent nature of a particular thing is called it's Prakriti
When our desires grow out of proportion it is called Vikriti
Materialistic Culture—Focusses on what is seen, Bhautika Samskriti
Conquer and make use of nature for personal convenience
Spiritual Culture---- Focusses on what that is not seen-Adhyatmika Samskriti
Wants to live in harmony with nature and make transformations in life
Goal and Purpose in life---Live by our rich Culture, refine your thoughts and transform yourself
