Sept 18, 2022 - Grade 4 (Sunday AM)

Hari OM Dear Families,

With Pujya Gurudev's Grace and our Swami ji's blessings we have started our Bala Vihar year today. We all assembled in the temple mantap until grades were dispersed to their respective classes in a sequence.

Here is this week's update.

Week 1:

18th September 2022 / 9:15 AM

Opening prayers and Shlokas

Slokas: Class began with 3 OMs followed by

     "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)

Om shrI Ganeśaya Namaha,  shrI Saraswatyai Namaha,  shrI Sat Gurubhyo Namaha.

"Vakratunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)

"Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)

"Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)

Ice breaker session and getting to know each other. This was a fun activity as we got to know each other and their past summer. Most of them had big stories to share with profound happiness.

We then slowly went to share our lessons.

Lessons - My 24 preceptors -  Intro

Who is a teacher? and Why do we need a teacher?

1.Who we are and what we know, is because of our teachers. We are indebted to them.

2.Anyone or anything can be our teacher.

3. We need to have the right attitude and humility to recognize them and learn. By sharing our things to the needy, we indirectly learn from them- the act of sharing. By helping anyone, we indirectly learn the act of helping at the right time. We have to infer about the context and understand our guru from any form.

4. Nature is one of our greatest teachers.

We all need a coach or mentor to bring orderliness and discipline in our life. Imagine 'a student with no coach in a swimming class' or 'a soccer team with no coach'. They will have no target and no direction to move forward. With a coach's instructions the team or an individual will move towards victory.

We all need a teacher to gain knowledge or wisdom. A teacher is a coach. Listening to the coach is the recipe for success.

How can we be a disciple ?

● Have humility

● Listen, learn and follow with discipline.

There are teachers everywhere...anyone or anything can be a teacher !

When a disciple is ready, the teacher appears.

Who is our Guru?

We learned a slokam,

Dakshinamurthy samāramabhāṃśaṅkarācāryamadhyamām..

asmadācārya paryantāṃ vande guru paramparām..

Salutation to the lineage starting with lord Dakshinamurthy, the form of Siva, with Adi Sankara in the middle and continuing up to my immediate teacher. (Gurudev and our Swamiji Shantananda Ji)

Swami Chinmayananda Ji

Gurudev was a student of Swami Sivananda Ji and Swami Tapovan Maharaj ji. Gurudev founded the Chinmaya Mission in 1953. He conducted the Gita Jnana yagna worldwide. He established sandeepany sadhanalaya at Mumbai. Gurudev wrote commentaries on Bhagavad Gita and upanishads and authored many books.

Krishna krishna -

 One day, King Pariksit was strolling along the Saraswathi river and witnessed a wicked looking man in royal attire, torturing and cutting off the legs of a bull. He also saw a cow helplessly weeping and witnessing that torture. King Pariksit was furious and warned the man to stop immediately or would be severely punished. He realizes that the Bull is none other than Dharma, the cow is the Mother earth and the wicked man is Kali.

(we will continue in the next class)

After which parents came to meet with the teachers who were informed about this year's class proceedings etc.

Next class on 9/25/22

Class Rules and requirements: 

1. Class starts at 9:15am sharp with the opening prayers. We will not let children in when the prayer is going on. Please, kindly send them before 9:13/14 for a minute to settle down before the prayers.

2. Children should bring their own copy of "My prayers" book, Balavihar handbook (we provided today), Notebook, pencils and erasers. Bala Bhagavatam book is the prescribed textbook. 

3. Children may bring their own "spill proof water bottles"

4. NO snacks please.

Links and Reminders:

1. We will update the class blog for the parents through an email and at the parent portal - https://cmnjparentportal22-23.blogspot.com/

2.  Please refer to the Balavihar Handbook-  for the various House contests and Geeta Chanting Yagna information. (given to the kids today)

3. Please join the class WhatsApp group if you have not already- https://chat.whatsapp.com/E2LGJkJh01kBaq0tNQsuDM

Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Hari OM

Best regards

Neelima Turaga and Vidhya Aiyer