Hari Om! Parents,
Week 8 of Balavihar began with the class doing the deep breathing "Rama Nama' exercise and Om chanting. After "Sahana vavatu" the children learned the last two verses of "Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam" (pg 30, My Prayers book). The audio for the shloka is posted on the parents WhatsApp group. Please remind your child to practice regularly.
Geeta Chanting
Grade 5 is the Partha group and will be learning verse 1- 30 of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Geeta (pg 18, Balavihar Handbook). This week we completed learning verses 9 and 10 with our Swamiji. Please use the link on the Parents WhatsApp group for your child to practice Geeta chanting at home.You can also send your child's chanting recordings to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn Houses points.
Mahabharata
After a recap of the story so far, Adiparva continues with the Pandavas fleeing Varanavata. They manage to cross the river Ganga with the help of Vidura's loyal boatman. They begin to walk towards Siddavata, but soon are too tired. The strong Bheemasena carries all his brothers and his mother. The son of Vayu walks eight yojanas at a brisk pace throughout the night. Entering a forest called Hidambavana, Bheema puts down his family and goes in search of water. Finding a lake, he takes a quick refreshing bath and brings back water to drink. As his exhausted mother and brothers sleep, Bheema stays awake on guard. The rakshasa who lived in that forest, Hidamba, smells them and sends his sister Hidimbi to kill them for food. Hidimbi approaches the Pandavas and falls in love with Bheema. Disguised as a beautiful lady, she approaches Bheemasena, whois surprised to see her. After introducing himself, Bheema learns that Hidimbi has been sent by her brother to kill the Pandavas and Kunti. Hidimbi expresses her love to Bheema and asks him to escape from her brother and go far away with her. Bheemasena assures her that he can fight any rakshasa and that he will not abandon his family. Soon after a terrible battle, Hidamba is killed by Bheemasena. Hidimbi is accepted by Kunti and Yudhistira gives his blessings for Bheema to marry her. The Pandavas and Kuntidevi along with Hidimbi search to find a safe place to stay. We spoke about Bheema's loyalty and love for his family.
Saints of India
Today's saint presentation was by Siddarth on Saint Mirabai. He shared the life story and hardships faced by Mirabai. We spoke about how as a poet princess, a great devotee of Lord Krishna, Mirabai had all the luxuries in the world. She abandoned all of them, calling it 'maya' and chose Lord Krishna instead. We discussed the important values we can learn from Saint Mirabai - Be pious, Be contemplative, Be firm, Have faith. We listened to a Mira bhajan called "Payoji maine, Ram ratan dhan payo". In this bhajan, Mirabai speaks about the valuable treasure of "Rama Nama" that cannot be lost or stolen.We discussed how it is a treasure that the more you spend , the more it grows. Rama's name is like a boat that will carry us safely across the ocean of life. Mirabai thanks her Guru for giving her this special treasure, and we should all be thankful too! Here is the link to the Mira bhajan- Payoji maine Ram ratan dhan video link :- https://youtu.be/rM2rs_dDDPg?t=35
Reflection Journal: The students pick one value from the 20 values followed by our Saints covered so far in class and apply that in daily life. They write down one example of how they followed that value each day of the week. The children are given a chance to share their journal notes every class. This reflection will help them notice their behaviour and change their reactions to everyday situations.
Resources : If interested, your child can read Kamala Subramaniam's "Mahabharata", available on Amazon and Kindle. On the Youtube channel, "Epified- The Mahabharata", has bite-sized videos of the stories we are covering in class. The individual episodes are available, in case your child misses class. This is the playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5AjK1x6A8j5KPRft76yRbu3A5T_uxY7s
Class materials needed: Journal/ notebook, pencil, Balavihar Handbook, My Prayers book.
Pranaam,
-Rashmi and Shanthi
