Hari Om Parents,
The sequence and summary of today's class is as follows
-Opening prayers and Om chanting
-Guru Stotram
-Quick recap of last week's class.
-Today's lesson
Today's main story was of Dhruva. We started off by reading an online story book of Dhruva. The kids took turns reading each page aloud. The story in short is that there was a king called Uttanapada. He had two wives, Sunithi and Suruchi. Sunithi had a son called Dhruva, and Suruchi had a son called Uttama. The King was partial towards Suruchi and her son Uttama, and ignored Sunithi and Dhruva. One day, the little boy Dhruva sees Uttama sitting on their father's lap. Dhruva also wants to sit on his lap, but is rudely pushed away by Suruchi, his step mother. She tells him that Dhruva has to pray to God and be reborn as her son, to have the right to sit on the king's lap. Little Dhruva is upset and runs to his mother crying. His mother consoles him and tells him to pray to Lord Vishnu and he will surely bless him. Determined to see the Lord, Dhruva goes to the forest to do penance. Sage Narada, seeing the boy's resolve, teaches him the Narayana mantra and the way to do tapas. Dhruva does intense tapas for many months. The worlds are heated up with the intensity of his tapas. The Gods go to Lord Vishnu and ask him to bless Dhruva, and save the worlds. Lord Vishnu appears before Dhruva, and blesses him. The Lord tells him that not only will he gain everyone's affection, he will also become a great king, and after his life on earth will become the Dhruva nakshatra or the pole star and shine high up in the sky forever.
We discussed how one can be like Dhruva(meaning "Firm" in sanskrit), and how one can achieve anything with determination and focus.
We discussed the story of a poor man and a genie. The genie wants some work continuously. He cannot be idle. If left idle, he can devour the man himself. The man panics, and runs to his teacher for help. The teacher advises him to erect a bamboo pole in his backyard. If he cannot think of any work to give to the genie, he must order him to keep going up and down the bamboo pole. That way the genie is always busy, and is happy. In comparison, our mind is also like the genie. It has to always be engaged in a meaningful activity. If left idle, it can create unnecessary mischief. An empty mind is a devil's workshop. The mind should then be given the bamboo pole, which is nothing but the name of God. Chanting the God's name can keep the mind focussed and pure.
Another related story was of a monkey who wants to fast. A monkey decides to fast for one whole day and pray. Thinking he might become weak after the fat, he collects many bananas and keeps them right next to him. After some time the monkey becomes hungry and the smell of the bananas makes him hungrier. He is not able to meditate anymore, and decides to eat first and then meditate. He fills up with bananas and soon falls asleep. Our mind is also like the monkey, which keeps changing and jumping here and there. It's important to train the monkey mind, so it calms down and remains stable and focussed.
We also watched a video of the Dhruva story.
-Gita Chanting : Today we learnt Shlokas 13 and 14. The link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkemj50C3xY&feature=youtu.be
Please encourage the kids to practice a few times before next class.
-Aarthi, Pledge and closing prayers.
Our next Balavihar session will be on January 10th, 2021. We look forward to seeing the kids in the new year!
We wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
Pranaam,
Vasudha & Neelima
