Hari Om! Parents,
Our Chinmaya Vrindavan Geeta Chanting Yagna Regionals is on April 10th, 2021. Good luck to all our Grade 5 chanters!
Week 20 Balavihar began with the us doing deep breathing with "Sri Rama Naama'', followed by Om chanting, and "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). After that, the children chanted Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 2, verses 1 - 30.
Saints of India
We spoke about Narsinh Mehta. He was the famous Gujarati poet saint, whose "Vaishnava janato" composition inspired the likes of Mahatma Gandhiji. Few important values that his life taught us are: Speak ill of none. Help the needy. Be straightforward. Have no anger. The children listened to this composition, sung by the famous Lata Mangeshkar:- https://youtu.be/kIvCtJEispY. Next, Diya did a very informative presentation on the saint Muktabai. Muktabai was a Varkari saint and she wrote over forty abhangas. Remind your child to keep up with their journal writing on the values learnt from saints, and how they have applied it 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 by email with us.
Mahabharata
Our Vana Parva in Mahabharata story continues with Indra welcoming his son, Arjuna to Amaravathi. Indra sabha is magnificent and several celestial beings or apsaras entertain the guest of honour. The most beautiful of them all is Urvashi. She falls in love with Arjuna, but he ignores her advances. Angry at the rejection, Urvashi cursed Arjuna to lose his masculinity. However, Indra steps in and reduces the curse to one year. Indra advises Arjuna to use this curse wisely during the thirteenth year of incognito exile. Indra sent sage Lomasa to Yudhistira with a message of Arjuna's safe arrival at Amaravathi. Back in the forest, the other Pandavas and Draupadi are very worried. Sage Brihadaswa visits them, and consoles Yudhistira with the story of King Nala of Nishadha.The sage teaches Yudhistira, AkshaHridaya, the skill to never lose in a game of dice. After receiving news from Sage Lomasa, Yudhistira is relieved. Next Sage Narada visits them and advises them to go on tirth yatra or pilgrimage to all the sacred places in Bharatavarsha. Accompanied by sages Dhaumya and Lomasa, the Pandavas and Draupadi set off on a pilgrimage. They visit several important rishis' ashramas and get blessings. They are given a warm welcome by the Vrishnis and Lord Krishna in Dwaraka. They then travel north towards Mandara mountain, where they face harsh weather. Climbing the steep mountain is too strenuous and Draupadi faints of exhaustion. Bheemasena summons his son,Gatotkacha, who carries her the rest of the way. They finally arrive at the Badarikashrama, a safe place to rest. One day, a breeze brings a beautiful scented flower to Draupadi. She asks Bheemasena to bring her more of those flowers. Bheemasena's search leads him to the place where Lord Rama's greatest devotee, Hanumanji rested. Bheemasena mistakes Hanuman to be a monkey. He tries to move the monkey tail aside, but cannot even lift it. Defeated, Bheemasena realises his mistake and apologises. The two sons of Vayu recognise each other. Hanuman embraces and blesses Bheemasena. Bheemasena goes on to find the "saugandhika" flower and collects them for Draupadi.
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.
Pranaam,
-Rashmi and Shanthi
Class materials needed: Journal/ notebook, pencil, Balavihar Handbook, My Prayers book.
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
