Oct 30, 2022 - Grade 4 (Sunday AM)

Hari OM Dear Families,

Here is this week's update.

Week 5:

30th October 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)

Krishnashtakam - we continued learning with the fourth shloka.

Krishna Krishna

Continuing from the previous sessions- the limbs of Narayana

Truth - A little lamp in a dark room thinks that it is providing all the light and in its pride, thinks that it is greater than the sun. This is due to the ignorance of the glory of the Lord. When we realize the truth we become humble.

Physical and mental disciplines -

Physical disciplines - sitting straight, not talking when chewing the food and keeping the body neat and clean.

Mental disciplines - not lying, not hurting others, not thinking bad of anyone, not gossiping.

When we adopt these disciplines, our heart becomes pure and we are able to see and feel God in our heart.

There was a nice question: is it ok to lie when we are planning a surprise ? it does not amount to lying, and only hiding for sometime to give the other person happiness and it will eventually be revealed to that person. . There is a difference between when you hide a report card with bad grades from your parents, and when you hide a plan for a surprise, The intent and circumstances are relevant to decide if it is right or wrong.

Faith - Have faith in the Lord. Learn to share. Give to the needy and God will take care of us.

Kindness - Bhagavan is kind and forgiving to everyone. Let us also be kind to all and learn to forgive.

Forbearance - It means patience and tolerance and not reacting even when provoked, to refrain from quarrels or fights.

Sacrifice/Puja - The Lord loves when we do puja. We have to always do our daily prayers.

24 preceptors

A riddle was asked and Kids got the answer on the 4th chance.

I'm free flowing, You can't catch me, you can't live without me either. you can't see me, but I'm in and through you. What am I ?

Air by itself is ever pure and unattached. Air teaches us not to get attached. Air wanders around everywhere. Just like air, we wander around and mingle with a lot of different people. Learning from the air, we should take only what is necessary and should not pick up any bad habits from others and never forget our goal. Air teaches us to be pure and uncontaminated by the surroundings. Air teaches us to eat only what we need to keep the body nourished. Air is a symbol of non attachment, purity and humility. Moving in the world of Good and Bad, one should not be affected or influenced by them. Air is vital for the survival of all living beings. Pavan God arrested the air and did not release when His son hanuman was hurt by Indra's vajra. Then everyone pleaded with pavan dev to release vayu, as all beings were suffering without movement of air. Such is the power of Vayu which is vital.

Air remaining invisible and being humble serves all beings. Hanuman ji crossed the ocean and remained humble. And also, he showed his full focus on bhakthi towards Lord Narayana and won competing narada to test who has more bhakthi. Narada was so attached to his veena, that when all strings broke he could not sing further, but Hanuman ji just clapped His hands and sang with full heart longer and longer, that His divine music melted everyone. Hanuman Ji, son of pavan God has no attachment to anything but He only has the Bhakthi towards His Lord.

We learned verses 3 and 4 from chapter 3 in our earlier session. NO Gita Time today because of the house's inauguration event. We had some fun activities to gain house points. 

Please encourage the children to practice Gita chanting by watching the videos (link sent earlier). We will also be recording their chanting in the class soon, and submit the recording to get house points. They can read from the pages in the handbook for this purpose. 

Next class on 11/06/22

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

Thank you and Hari OM

Neelima Turaga and Vidhya Aiyer