Hari Om Parents,
Today's class started with a short pranayam session followed by opening prayers and chanting "Om".
We practised Guru Sthotram after that.
To get the kids moving a little, we played an exercise wheel game. The kids did simple exercises like walking on heels, writing "Om" with eyes and super brain yoga (squats while holding ears).
We did a recap of the earlier lesson and proceeded to the lessons for today.
Today's first story is about Hiranyaksha. There was a brief introduction to his birth in the previous lesson, when we talked about Sage Kasyapa and Diti. Hiranyaksha and his brother Hiranyakasipa are born to Diti after staying in her tummy for 100 years. Hiranyaksha grows up to be strong and powerful and also very arrogant and proud. He troubles everyone, and everyone including Gods are terrified of him. With his arrogance he wants to challenge the Gods to a combat. As no God including Indra and Varuna are brave enough for this challenge, he goes looking for Lord Vishnu. At this time the Lord in the form of Varaha had rescued mother earth. A fight ensues between both, and Hiranyaksha is killed by the Lord Varaha.
We explained how arrogance is a bad quality, by telling a very familiar story of the Rabbit and Tortoise. The Hare, although very capable, still loses the race due to his arrogance.
There is a type of weight that we carry, which is invisible on a weighing scale. It is the weight of pride and arrogance. We have to be wise and let go of this invisible weight.
We then talked about how Hiranyaksha tried to harm the earth, but Lord Vishnu protected her. Similarly, we also need to protect the Earth. We had a brainstorming of how we can do that. The kids mentioned keeping the earth clean, not littering, saving the natural resources including water, avoiding wastages, reuse and recycling.
The second story is about Jaya and Vijaya. This is the background story for why Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipa were born. Jaya and Vijaya are the guards for the gates of Vaikuntha where Lord Vishnu resides. One day the SanatKumaras, who were the mind born sons of Lord Brahma, went to Vaikuntha to visit Lord Vishnu. The guards stop them at the gate and insult and make fun of them. To teach them a lesson, the Sanatkumaras curse them to be born on the earth as demons. Lord Vishnu then appears before all of them. He tells Jaya and Vijaya that although born as demons, they will always be thinking about the Lord and he himself will redeem them when the time comes. Despite being devoted to the Lord, they had to bear the consequences for a wrong act committed.
We told the kids another short story to demonstrate the importance of being good with each other. Once there was a party in heaven, with lots of yummy food, but there was a condition. The condition is that they have to eat without bending their elbows. Some people grumbled and left the party, thinking it was impossible to do so. The others did not grumble. They came up with a creative solution of feeding each other, They had faith in God and believed that if God gave a challenge, he would also give a solution. We will only need to work towards finding the solution.
Heaven and hell are where we are. With our attitude and actions, we can create heaven or hell. The people who worked out the solution enjoyed the party by being nice with each other, and thereby created heaven.
Instead of fighting with others and creating hell around us, we can avoid unnecessary fights and arguments by having a complete picture about things, and this is a way to create heaven. To demonstrate this, we told a small story of an elephant and six blind men. Each blind man touches a different part of the elephant, and thinks that is what an elephant is. They start arguing with each other that their perception is only right. They could avoid such arguments by getting a complete picture.
We then did a quick "What did we learn today?" It is a recap of the takeaways - values that we learned from the lesson today.
After today's lesson, the kids did Likhita japa for a few minutes. We then proceeded to Gita chanting. We learned shlokas 7 and 8 today. The link to the video is below. We will also send the links to today's chanting and earlier videos to your whatsapp as well. Please encourage the kids to practice the shlokas a few times before the next class.
Also, in case your kids do not have a physical copy of the balavihar handbook, the link to the online handbook is below.
The handbook has all the Gita shlokas the kids will be learning in the class.
The class concluded with Arthi and pledge.
We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
There is no Balavihar next week. We look forward to seeing the kids on December 6th.
Pranaam,
Vasudha & Neelima
