Hari Om! Parents,
Week 22 Balavihar began with deep breathing 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). We listened to a Rama Bhajan and did 'Rama' likhita japa for Sri Rama Navami festival.
Mahabharata
The story continues with Duryodana performing the Rajasuya yagna on a grand scale. After the yagna, Radheya promises Duryodana that he will kill Arjuna. Eleven years of exile are up and the Pandavas are back in Kamyaka forest. One day as they are out hunting, the king of Sindhu, Jayadrata, happens to pass by the ashram. He sees Draupadi alone and proposes marriage. Darupadi refuses, but he kidnaps her against her will. The Pandavas pursue Jayadrata and defeat him along with his army. Bhimasena shaves off half of Jaydrata's hair and the ashamed king runs away. With revenge in his heart, Jayadrata does intense tapas and Lord Shiva appears before him. Jayadrata asks the boon to defeat all the Pandavas. Lord Shiva tells Jayadrata he can only defeat the Pandavas when they do not have Lord Krishna on their side. Meanwhile, the Pandavas spend the last few months of exile in Dwaitavana. One day a brahmana comes asking for their help. A deer had run away with the arani sticks used to start his yagna fire. The Pandavas pursue the deer into the forest, but cannot catch it. They are thirsty and very exhausted. One by one they set off in search of water, but do not return. The worried Yudhistira goes in search of his brothers, only to find them all dead on the banks of a lake. A yaksha appears and warns Yudhistira not to drink the water until he answers the yaksha's questions. Yudhistira respectfully agrees and thus begins the "yaksha - prashna". One after another Yudhistira correctly answers questions on ethics, dharma and the right path. In the end the yaksha is so pleased with Yudhistira, that he grants him the life of his brothers back. The yaksha is none other than Yama, father of Yudhistira. Yama blesses all the Pandavas with the boon that they will not be found during Ajnaatavasa, when they are incognito. Yudhistira is granted the boon to win over six enemies - lust, anger, avarice, possessiveness, arrogance and envy. Next the children did an activity. They took turns and tried to answer a few of the "yaksha-prashna". There were several interesting answers!
Saints of India
Amrita did a presentation on Maharishi Vasishtar and the children immediately connected with the Ramayana story from first grade! We also discussed how they are finding real life situations to use the values taught by the saints so far. Please 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.
Class ended early so we could join the third grade program in the assembly.
Geeta Chanting
Grade 5 children completed learning 30 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
