Week 2
Hari Om Parents,
Welcome to week 2 of Balvihar.
Once all the kids were in, we started with prayers.
Shlokas:
"Om Saha navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
"Vakratunda mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book) .
"Gurur Bhrahma" (page 60-61 in My Prayers book)
Every week we will repeat the Shlokas we did last week and introduce one new Shloka. Please practice the Shlokas everyday at home. We told kids just like Pledge , they can lead in the Prayers.
Story:
We asked kids what place we were at when we last stopped our story. Kids knew Ayodhya and that it is located North in India. We reviewed the name of our king and his guru. And why was he sad?
We continued the story. King Dasaratha had three queens. Queen Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra.
King Dasharatha was getting ready for the Putrakamesti Yagya, that his guru, Sage Vashistha suggested for him. (It was Eshwars birthday , so kids related the preparation of a birthday celebration to yagya celebration ) The king started the preparations for the Yagya. Everyone in Ayodhya was helping to get ready for doing the yagya. Some were helping cleaning up, some were helping decorating with rangolis and flower garlands and paints. Some were helping with cooking delicious sweets for offering to gods and for the guests invited by King Dasharatha. (Kids shared their favourite indian sweets.) Guru Vashishth was preparing for the fire kunda , putting the herbs and wood in it , for creating the fire.
As Guru Vashitha started the yagya , with chanting and invoking goodness , with his words and his energies. There appeared a yagya purusa out of the fire with a bowl of payasam. He said to the king , give it to your queens and they shall have kids. Kaushalya dn Kaikeyi were present there so the king gave them their share. When Sumitra returned , both Kaushalya and Kaikeyi shared their share with her.
In course of time all the three queens had sons. Kaushalya had Rama , Kaikeyi had Bharatha and Sumitra had Laxmana and Shatrughna. Now the king was very happy. The queens were very thankful for such a miracle.
We continued the story on the happiness and joy that had spread around Ayodhya for having the princes. The king's joy was boundless. He gifted horses and cattles to the poor and needy. (We asked the kids what's a cattle ? Why were horses given as gifts ? ) All of Ayodhya was celebrating.The celebration lasted for days.
Now the princes were growing up. They were taught all the arts for becoming a better warrior as they grew up. They were taught the art of archery and warfare. Also they were taught the scriptures Vedas and Upnishads. All the princes excelled in all princely qualities. But Rama out shone his brothers in all fields. He was very swift at archery. He was very kind and calm all the time. He soon became the favorite of all. The king was very proud of all his sons. ( We said as your parents are always proud of you all. ) The queens adored them.
While Dasharatha was enjoying his sons and his kingdom , he got a message that Sage Vishvamitra was coming to meet him. Sage Vishvamitra was the most powerful rsi. (We talked about what a rsi is. The one who is very powerful by gathering knowledge and tapas. We told kids that one can become powerful with knowledge, not only by having physical strength. Kids were curious to know why they can't have both knowledge and physical power to become powerful. We all had a view that yes you can have both.) He felt very honored that such a powerful sage was visiting his kingdom.
He welcomed the king with honor and pride. He said that "I am very fortunate that you have come to my court. Everything I have is yours , please let me know if there is anything I can do for you." Sage Vishvamitra was very happy to hear it from the king. He said , "you have said yes to anything I ask for before I have asked". He continued the reason for his visit. I was performing a sacrifice , but we are troubled by raksasas. ( We told the kids what were rakshasas (demons). The kids were very curious on how they looked. And we all tried to imagine the demons , bad and ugly and huge creatures. They asked if we can show them the pictures of demons)
These raksasas were throwing flesh and blood in the sacrifice. The sages would curse them but that would be a waste of their tapas. ( We talked about tapas. That it is meditation practice. When the sages have hours and hours of meditation practice they become very powerful) For that reason he would like to take Rama with him to fight the demons. Hearing this, King Dasaratha was shocked. He said but Rama is not even 16 years old. How can he fight such mighty demons ? Instead the king himself will join the sage with his strong army to fight. The king couldn't think to send Rama in such a fight.
Sage Vishvamitra was fierce in hearing a 'no' for an answer. He said the king had offered him help before even asking and now he is not keeping his word. Guru Vashishtha stepped in after listening to this conversation. He told the king that it would be good for Rama's fame to join Sage Vishvamitra on this mission. Laxmana can accompany Rama for this and help.
With a heavy heart , King Dasharatha said yes to Sage Vishvamitra , that Rama and Laxmana will go with him.
Geeta Chanting:
We did chanting primer 2 as a part of Geeta Chanting. We play a Geeta Chanting video that kids listen to and follow along.
Activities:
We did marble mediation. We closed our eyes , then chanted Om three times and kids counted the marbles as I dropped it in a container. Total of 12 marbles were dropped. Then kids opened their eyes and we guessed the number of marbles. This time all kids said 12. Then we counted the marbles together. We cheered as we all got it correct.
We all became tigers (one of the kids' suggestions) as part of our movement snack. We all made ourselves into a tiger and roared and used our hands as claws . Kids got really excited and also showed four legged tiger walks.
We continued with the fourth line of Bhajan - Khate bhi Ram kaho(My Prayers Book ,Page:144-145 ).
We colored in our coloring books. We colored the padukas at Ayodhya and colored Chapter 2 , Yagya.
We sang Janmadeen Geet (My Prayers book ,page 23 ) for Eshwar. We all wished him Happy Birthday.
We ended with Aarti and Pledge. We played the recording to Aarti and we all sang with it. Eshwar led the pledge for us. If kids can, we will be led by different kids for our Pledge every week.
Weekly updates:
Pls check the link below to see pics taken during the class:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9UdwTrFcBKAYqGEg8
Zoom Link:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75507967979?pwd=Mk8vK0NxQmpkY29VZm1ORDVkVWorQT09
Books we will use:
My Prayers Book
Bala Ramayana Coloring book
Handbook
See you all next Sunday. Class starts promptly at 9:15 A.M. We will start Aarti and Pledge at 10:40.
Regards,
Dipti Chauhan and Nancy Thakkar
