Hari Om Parents,
The sequence and summary of today's class are as follows:
-Opening prayers and Om chanting
-Recap of previous class.
-Guru sthotram practice
-Story - Vamana avatar
Bali, the grandson of Prahlada is the King of asuras. He is defeated by Indra many times. Bali wants to take revenge and defeat Indra. As per his teacher Shukracharya's advice, he performs a yagna, from which he receives powerful bow and arrows, a golden chariot, horses and a divine armor. Armed with all these, he attacks Indra and defeats him. Bali now becomes the Lord of the three worlds. Aditi, the mother of Indra is very sad about the defeat of her son. As advised by her husband, Sage Kasyapa, she prays to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is pleased with her sincere devotion and gives her a boon that her wish would be fulfilled, and he himself will be born to her.
At the right time, Lord Vishnu is born to Aditi in the form of a dwarf called Vamana. All the Gods rejoice the birth of Vamana.In the presence of all Gods, the thread ceremony of Vamana is performed and he is initiated into Brahmacharya ashrama.
Meanwhile, Bali is doing the ashwamedha yagna, to which many brahmins are invited. Vamana too goes there. Everyone, including Bali, honour the radiant looking Vamana. Bali with lots of respect asks him what he wants, land, wealth, cows or gold. Vamana says that he just wants 3 paces of land with his feet. The wise never asks for more than what they need. Bali, looks at the tiny feet of Vamana and laughs. He offers to give anything more, but Vamana is firm about his wish. Shukracharya suspects that something is wrong and warns Bali that Vamana is none other than Lord Vishnu, and he came to cheat the asuras. Bali replies that whoever it may be and whatever happens, he would not go back on his word. He gets ready to give the three paces of land to Vamana. Vamana soon becomes gigantic. With one step he occupies the whole earth and with the second step he occupies the entire sky and heavens. He then asks Bali where he should place his third step. Bali very respectfully offers his head as the third pace. Bali becomes one of the seven immortals, as the Lord's divine foot touched his head.
We discussed the line "The wise never asks for more than what they need", meaning one should take only as much as fits oneself. Too much would be very difficult to manage and becomes cumbersome. It also leads to wastage.
Exercise wheel game - The kids moved around for a few minutes, and did small exercises like super brain yoga, hopping and eye exercises.
Online jigsaw and word puzzles - Based on the Dashavataras
Likhita japa
Aarthi and Pledge
We look forward to seeing the kids in class next Sunday!
Pranaam,
Vasudha & Neelima
