Hari Om! Parents,
Balavihar class began with the class doing a deep breathing exercise and Shree Ram Jayaram chanting. After opening prayers, children took turns as per their assignment and chanted Ganeshastavaha, Pancharatnam and Gita Chapter 2 - 30 shlokas.
We have assigned two shlokas each to make it easier for all for the next class. Please encourage the kids to practice Gita chanting with Swamiji's recording on YouTube.
Mahabharata
We covered the below episodes in today's class:
We continued with Vanaparva today.
1. Arjuna's return - The Pandavas were then living in the mountains of Gandhamadhana, which was the most picturesque of all the places through their exile. And this had been the one place where their stay was pleasant to all and Draupati had actually smiled. But they had been missing Arjuna very badly and impatiently waiting for his arrival, as predicted by Kubera. A bright, heavenly light had appeared atop the mountain and Arjuna landed in a chariot rode by Matali. The brothers and Draupati were so relieved and joyed to see Arjuna. Arjuan related all his experiences with excitement, how he had spent time with Indira, his father, guru Chitrasena and how he had helped Indhra defeat the Nivatakavachas to regain Amaravati and the kalakeyas to regain Hiranyapuri.
2. Nahusha , the cursed King - Bheema, when he went hunting was caught by a huge python, who was actually a King from heaven who was cursed by the Sage Agastya. He was cursed to be relieved by the one who answered his questions on Dharma correctly. The situation had been created then when he was clasped by Bhhema and Yudhishtira had come in search of Bheema. Yudhishtira answered all questions correctly and with utmost humility. The King got his majestic form back and returned to the heavens.
3. Duryodana's evil plan - The Kauravas had come to know about the life of Pandavas in the forest and Arjuna's chivalrous activities through their spies and had got jealous again. They hatched an evil plan to visit the forest under the excuse of inspecting their cattle station and thus irritate and insult the Pandava with their flamboyance.
4. The war with the Gandharva - Duryodana went to the Lake near which the Pandavas were living. But in the lake, there was a Gandharva. Duryodaana ordered his men to inform the Gandharva to make way for Durodana. This made the Gandharva furious and the armies of the Gandharva and Duryodana fought with each other. But the Gandharva was too powerful and took Duryodhana captive and tied up Dusshasana. Duryodana's men approached Yudhishtira seeking help to release Duryodana. Yudhistira, the epitome of Dharma that he was, could not deny helping and saw the enemy of his cousins as his own enemy even though they had wronged so much to the Pandavas. Though Arjuna and Bheema were upset they obeyed their brother and fought the Gandharva. Soon Arjuna realized that Gandharva was none other than Chitrasena from Indraloka, his guru.
5. Duryodana's repentance - Chitrasena revealed the wicked plan of the Kauravas and told that it was Indra who had advised Chitrasena to go and help the Pandavas escape the insult by Kauravas. Yudhistira was mature enough to forgive Duryodana and let him go. Duryodana felt very ashamed of his act and also felt very insulted that he had to be helped by his enemy. He felt so guilty and bad for himself that he wanted to starve himself to death in the forest.However, after spending the night alone in the forest, he had his inner calling not to give up. His evil thoughts were back urging him that he could kill the Pandavas with the help of Dusshasana, Rradheya, Shakumi, Ashwattama, Dhrona and Bheeshma by his side.
Saints of India
Today, we had presented and discussed the Life and Teachings of Mahatma Buddha. The four core values followed and taught by Mahatma Buddha were
Give Up Greed
Harm None
Hate None
Meditate
We talked about a couple incidents in his life . The four noble truths he realized were
1. Human Life is full of sorrow and sufferings
2. Suffering and sorrow are caused by people's greedy desires for power, possession and pleasure.
3. Suffering and sorrow will come to an end when people overcome their greed.
4. People can overcome their greed by adopting the eightfold path
5. The eightfold path is right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation
Geeta Chanting
Shlokas 1 to 30 of Chapter 2 have already been covered through Swamiji's Gita chanting videos in class since the beginning of this year. Children chanted two verses each and we revised shlokas 1-30.
Class material needed: notebook, pencil, Balavihar Handbook (Find the online version here : https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/images/Documents/2020_CNJ_BVHandbook_Sep_04_20.pdf),
My Prayers book. Your child can also read from C Rajagopalachari's "Mahabharata" or Kamala Subramaniam's "Mahabharata". Both these books are available on Amazon.
Pranam
Shanthi and Rashmi
