Hari Om Parents,
The sequence and summary of today's class are as follows
-Opening prayers and Om chanting
-Dashavatara sthotram
-Quick recap of previous lesson
-Today's lesson
Churning of the Milky Ocean - Sage Durvasa returning from Vaikuntha meets Indra. He gives a garland that he brought from Vaikuntha to Indra. Indra arrogantly puts it around his elephant's neck. The elephant thrashes it to the floor and tramples on it. Enraged, Sage Durvasa curses Indra that he and the three worlds he rules will become pale and lose all splendor and glory. Indra, Lord Brahma and other gods approach Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu advises them to make peace with the asuras and take their help to churn the milky ocean. Amrit will emerge from the churning, drinking which will make the devas immortal.
As per the Lord's direction, the devas take the help of the asuras. They bring Mount Mandara as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the King of serpents becomes the churning rope. Lord Vishnu assumes the form of a gigantic tortoise (Kurma avatar) and becomes the base to keep the mountain steady. The churning begins and the first thing to emerge is the deadly poison, Halahala. Lord Shiva absorbs this into his throat and. becomes Neelakantha. The churning continues and many emerge from the ocean like the Airavata, Uchaisrava, Kaustubha, Surabhi, Parijata tree and Apsaras. Goddess Lakshmi emerges in a glorious form, and soon accepts Lord Vishnu as her husband.
Finally, a young man, Dhanvantari, who is a form of Lord Vishnu emerges with a jar of amrit. The asuras immediately snatch the jar and start fighting. The devas turn to Lord Vishnu for help. The Lord then takes the form of Mohini, a beautiful maiden. She mesmerises the asuras and makes sure the devas get all the amrit and the asuras get none. It's very late by the time the asuras realise they were cheated. They wage a war against the devas, but are defeated. For being evil and greedy they get what they deserve.
Word wall activities - Word search game based on the lesson, Churning of the Milky ocean
Matching game based on names of people learnt in the previous lessons.
Gita Chanting practice - We practiced the first nine shlokas of Chapter 2. We asked the kids to do a "One a day" challenge for Gita shlokas.
Please remind them and encourage them to practice at least one shloka everyday. Link to the video playlist is below:
Arthi and Pledge
We look forward to seeing the kids in the class next sunday!
Pranaam,
Vasudha & Neelima
