Hari Om!
Dear Parents,
Here is the summary of our class on Friday, Oct 9, 2020.
Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam (Krishna Shloka)
Quote of the day: For the senses wander, and when one lets the mind follow them, it carries wisdom away like a windblown ship on the waters.
Lessons: Origin Of the Mahabharata and the story narration from King Shantanu's time to Kauravas' and Pandava's Birth
Activity: 'My Vacha Journal', 'Jot It down' and 'House Sorting Survey'
Chanting: Gita Dhyana Shloka (revision)
Bhagavat Gita: Ch. 2 Verses 3-4
Aarati and Pledge : Zoom
Next Balavihar class: 10/30/20 ( no class on 10/16 and 10/23)
Summary: We had an engaging and interesting class. We started with the opening shlokas, followed by 'My Vacha Journal activity'. Very happy to share that all the kids reflected on their week on how they used the vacha. We also had a couple of kids share some of the instances where they thought they either used harsh /bad words or complained. This activity will continue throughout the year with a goal for the kids to become proficient in using their vacha (One's words/speech)
We then started the Mahabharata story with an introduction of how it originated. Through a fun Activity 'Jot it Down' the children learnt what it takes to be a scribe. This helped us to ease into the story of how Lord Ganesha served as a scribe for Veda Vyasa to record the epic of Mahabharata. Veda Vyasa dictated to Ganesha who as scribe, diligently wrote only after understanding what was spoken, without break, as was the condition set forth by both sides. Followed by this, we went into the story of Mahabharata. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the only epic work of this size, complexity, poetic beauty and depth of philosophical truth. The story begins with Shantanu's attraction to Ganga, his marriage to her, her drowning 7 babies and his questioning her just as she was going to drown the 8th child, Devavrata who finally survived and was made the Yuvaraja, the heir to the throne of Hasthinapura. Then the story continues with King Shantanu meeting Satyavathi, and how Devavratha fulfills his father's wish by taking the vow to be celibate all his life! Thus Devavrata got the name of Bheeshma. The son's great love for the father and his ability to go to any length to ensure the father's happiness was noted by the students.
We continued exploration of the Kuru dynasty family tree covering Sage Veda Vyasa blessing the daughters in law of Satyavati with children.Ambika being terrified of Sage closed her eyes and gave birth to blind son, Dhrtarashtra, Ambalika turned pale and had a pale son, Pandu. Ambika was frightened and sent her wise and devoted maid who gave birth to Vidura. Dhrutarashtra married Gandhari who chose to have a blind fold for the love of her husband. Pandu married Kunti and Madri. We discussed how Kunti gave birth to Karna by invoking Lord Sun and placed the baby in Sharayu river to avoid shame of being a Kumari Mata. We will continue the story next class.
We had brief discussion with interesting exchanges and analyzing the characters, the lessons learned were-
1.Desire makes one do strange things
2.Never commit to anything without knowing fully what it entails
3. Being emotional may lead to supporting adharma
We discussed last week's quote: "A person can rise through the effort of his mind, or draws himself down in the same manner. Each person is his own friend or enemy". The children had interesting points of discussion for this quote. We also related this to the characters discussed in the story. Next week's quote is given above and we look forward to an engaging discussion on it.
We had a guest from the House who sorted all the kids into different houses using a survey.
Bhagavad Geeta chanting proceeded further with the help of Swamiji's video .Please encourage them to practice at home too.
We look forward to seeing the children again on 10/30. Have a safe and happy Navrathri and Dussehra!
Pranaam,
Mythili Pendyala
Anandhi Ramachandran
