Parent Portal 2020-21: Sept 20, 2020

Following is summary of Balavihar session on "September 20th, 2020 - Grade 5 (Sunday PM)"

Maha Bharat – Part I, we cover stories till Virat Parv. Learning rich and complex epic to understand Dharma
India Sacred Land: Sage
Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2 (Slokas – 1 through 30) (Balavihar Hand Book)
Ending Prayers (My Prayer's Book / Balavihar Handbook)

Books - Balavihar Hand Book, My Prayer's book, Mahabharat Part 1 by Chinmaya Mission OR Rajagopalahchari. Books could be purchased / picked up from Ashram - Ashram timings are provided to the parents.

He was the greatest sage amongst the sages.
He is the son of Parasara.
He understood the mystery of this universe and he conceived in his mind the great saga Mahabharat.
He began to think of ways to make it known to mankind,
He meditated / Prayed to Brahma Ji for help. Upon arrival of Brahma ji (vision of Brahma ji), Veda Vyas explained his vision to compose Mahabharat to help the mankind to explain nature of the universe (past, present, future, decay, death, fear and disease, what is & what is not, etc)
Bramha Ji was pleased and told him to invoke Lord Ganesh and beg him to be your scriber.
Veda Vyas meditated up on Lord Ganesh, who appeared before Veda Vyas. Vyas received him with due respect and sought his aid.
Veda Vyas's requested Lord Ganesh "Lord, I have conceived an excellent work, but cannot think of one who can take it down to my dictation."

"Lord Ganesh ji, I shall dictate the story of the Mahabharata and I pray you to be graciously pleased to write it down."
Ganesh Ji replied: "Very well. I shall do as you wish. But my pen must not stop while I am writing. So you must dictate without pause or hesitation. I can only write on this condition"
Vyas agreed, guarding himself, however, with a counter stipulation: "Be it so, but you must first grasp the meaning of what I dictate before you write it down."
Ganapati smiled and agreed to the condition.

Sivaguru and Aryamba were devotees of Lord Siva.
Sivaguru was well versed in Vedas and Sastras.
Prayed to Lord Siva (performed Austerities) to grant them a Son
Lord Siva was pleased with their prayers and appeared to Sivaguru in his dream and asked him and asked him, whether he desires to have a child

Sivaguru requested for a pious and intelligent child even if he will not live long.
Lord Shiva pleased with Sivaguru's request and said, I myself will be born in your house.
Shankaracharya was born 1500 Years ago
Place of Birth – He was born in a village of Kaladi, in Kerala
Parents – Sivaguru and Aryamba

Shankaracharya was gentle by nature, very intelligent.
He could learn by heart whatever he heard from his parents (he could reproduce word by word whatever he heard)
He could read books at the age of 3 (when he was 3 years old)
His father passed away when Shankaracharya was 4 years old.
His Mother became everything for him and arranged for his Upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony) when he was 5 years old.
He was an extraordinary boy, his intellect and memory helped him master all the shastras within a couple of years.

Sankaracharya's Childhood and his compassion and one of his famous composition - Kanakadhara Stotram

In olden days, it was practice for students to collect alms from different houses for their daily meals (Bhiksha)
One day, Shankara was on his rounds and reached the house of a poor lady
She had nothing to offer to him, but she did not want to send him away empty handed.
She had small Amalaka (Gooseberry) fruit, which she hesitated to give him, as it is very small.
But, she was compelled to give him as she did not want to let him go empty handed.
Shankara noticed her devotion and closed his eyes and prayed to Goddess Lakshmi
He composed a Stotra begging Goddess Lakshmi to shower her grace on the poor lady.
In answer to Shankara's prayer, Goddess Lakshmi poured golden amalaka fruits into the poor lady's courtyard.
The stotram composed by Shankara is called "Kanakadhara stotram".

Hari Om

CMTC - Sevaks and Sevikas.

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