Hari Om! Parents,
Reminders:
* Our Grade 5 Annadanam is on Saturday, March 20th. The sign up sheet is posted on Parents WhatsApp group. Please donate generously to those in need.
*Geeta Chanting Yagna Regionals registration is now open online at chinmayavrindavan.org. and closes on April 4th, 2021.
Week 17 Balavihar began with the class doing deep breathing with "Sri Rama Naama'', Om chanting, "Sahana vavatu". The children took turns to chant all the verses of "Sri Ganesha Stavah'' and "Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam" (pg 28, 30 My Prayers book).
Mahabharata
The Sabha Parva of our Mahabharata story continues with the Pandavas, Kuntidevi and Draupadi being welcomed cordially by Kauravas. At an opportune moment, Shakuni suggests a game of dice. Reluctantly and not to insult the host, Yudhistira agrees to it. Duryodana appoints shakuni as proxy and says that he will match any wager that Yudhistira places in the game. Yudhistira begins by putting small things like precious stones, gold coins and all his jewels. The skilled Shakuni manipulates the dice, leading Duryodana to win at every wager. Yudhistira then goes on to place his treasury, granary and army as wagers, only to lose them all to the skilled Shakuni. Duryodana is overjoyed, but Vidura tries to interrupt the game. He advises King Dhritarashtra to stop it, but the king ignores him. Not willing to give up and hoping to win back his losses, Yudhistra wagers all his brothers and loses them to Duryodana. Finally he wagers himself and Shakuni claims the win. Not satisfied, the cunning Shakuni proposes Yudhistira wager Draupadi in return for all that he had lost till then. In hopes of turning his fortune, Yudhistira agrees and loses again. Duryodana claims the Pandavas as his slaves and orders Dusshasana to bring Draupadi to the assembly. We discussed how insult upon insult is heaped on the Pandavas, but the great warriors are helpless in the situation. Upon Radheya's suggestion, Dushasana tries to disrobe Draupadi. Her devotion to Lord Krishna prevents that from happening. King Dhritarastra allows Draupadi three boons and she gets back the Pandavas their freedom and possessions. Bheemasena takes an oath to kill Dushasana and Duryodana. Arjuna promises to kill Radheya and his allies. Sahadeva swears to kill Shakuni and Nakula swears to destroy Shakuni's progeny. After the Pandavas take their terrible vows, they leave for Indraprasta with revenge in their hearts, Duryodana is furious with his father. He convinces the king to invite the Pandavas back for a rematch of the dice game. Once again Yudhistira accepts the invitation and returns to Hastinapura. It was decided that the winner would have the entire kingdom and the loser had to be in exile for twelve years. One more year had to be spent in disguise. During which, if the identity was revealed, they had to return to twelve more years of exile. Shakuni uses his prowess with the dice to defeat Yudhistira. The Pandavas along with Draupadi begin their exile. Sage Narada visits King Dhritarashtra and shares the prophecy about the end of the Kauravas. The sage warns that they will pay for their treachery at the end of fourteen years. For the first time the king begins to worry for the safety of his sons.
Saints of India
Meera did a great presentation on the saint Lahiri Mahasaya. The class shared their values journaling. We discussed how each of us can make a difference with simple acts of compassion. Remind your child to keep up with their journal writing on the values learnt from saints that they have applied in their everyday life.
We would like to save and archive all the amazing saint presentations made by the children. Please share your child's presentation via this email with us.
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). Last week we completed learning all verses with our Swamiji. Going forward children will do turn by turn review in each class. Please use the link on the Parents WhatsApp group for your child to practice Geeta chanting at home. You can email your child's Geeta chanting recordings to cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn Houses points for Arjuna's Arrows.
Pranaam,
-Rashmi and Shanthi
Resources : If interested, your child can read Kamala Subramaniam's "Mahabharata", available on Amazon and Kindle. On the Youtube, "Epified- The Mahabharata" channel, 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.
