Hari Om! Parents,
Week 7 Class
Children did this Likhita Japa 11 times at the start of class - " Sri Krishna Sharanam Mama ''. Please remind them to do likhita japa regularly at home.
Shlokas
We started with Om chanting, and then chanted Sahana vavatu, Vakratunda mahakaya, Saraswati namastubhyam, Sarva mangala mangalye (ref. My Prayers book pg 39) and the "Mahalakshmi Ashtakam" (ref. My Prayers book pg. 39).
Going forward, one child will be designated to lead the class in shloka chanting. Hopefully this will be an incentive for your child to learn the shlokas.
Mahabharata*
After a quick recap of Udyoga Parva, we moved on to the Bhishma Parva.
The night before the first day of war, sage Vyaasa visited king Dhritarashtra. The sage offered to give the king his sight so he could see the war. The king refused, as he could not stand watching all of his sons dying. So the king said that if someone else could see the war and describe it to him, he would be satisfied. Vyaasa granted Sanjaya the inner sight to watch the war during the day. Sanjaya would then narrate it to the king at night. Sage Vyaasa told the king of the ill omens prophesying the defeat of the Kauravas and left the palace after comforting his son. From the Bhishma Parva onwards, the story is an account of the war in the words of Sanjaya as he related it to king Dhritarashtra.
The warriors on both sides had agreed upon the rules for chivalrous fighting: only fights between two equals, one who withdraws or runs away will not be killed, and charioteers, animals, servants should not be attacked. The first day of battle, both armies converge on Kurukshetra. The Pandava army is on the west side facing east. Duryodhana placed several able warriors around Bhishma and ordered them to protect his grandfather well. The eleven akshaunis of the Kaurava army were led by Bhishma in front as the commander. His chariot was silver with white horses. His banner had his emblem of a gold palm tree with five stars. Dressed in white, with his white hair, Bhishma looked like a moon and struck fear into the hearts of the enemy soldiers. Duryodhana stayed close to his grandfather, and his chariot had the banner with the emblem of a serpent. Bhishma addressed his troops and told them to either win or die a glorious death on the battlefield as a true kshatriya.
The seven akshaunis of the Pandava army are led by Dhrishtadyumna as commander. Arjuna enters the battlefield on his beautiful chariot with white horses. His banner has Hanuman as the emblem, and Lord Krishna with a whip is his charioteer. The sight of Nara and Narayana together was thrilling to see. Yudhistira asks Arjuna to arrange the army. Arjuna decides on the Vajra formation, a favourite of Indra. Yudhistira suddenly removed his armour and dropped his weapons. He began to walk towards the enemy. The rest of the Pandavas and Lord Krishna followed him. Yudhistira went to Bhishma to seek his blessing. Bhishma gives his love and blessing to the Pandavas, saying they will be victorious since Lord Krishna is on their side. Next they took the blessing of all the elders. Lord Krishna said if a man gets permission from his elders he is sure to win, but if he does not care then he will certainly be defeated. Yudhistira asked if anyone from the Kauravas wanted to join them, and Yuyutsu came forward. Yudhistira accepts him and says he is glad that when his uncle dies there will be one of his sons alive to perform the funeral rites for him. The Pandavas returned back and took up their weapons. The battlefield echoed with the sound of Bhishma's conch, followed by sounds of Krishna's Panchajanya, Arjuna's Devadatta, Bhimasena's Paundra, Yudhistira's Anantvijaya, Nakula's Sugosha and Sahadeva's Manipushpaka conches.
Arjuna asks Lord Krishna to steer his chariot to the middle of the battlefield to take a good look at the enemy side. Lord Krishna placed the chariot in front of Bhishma and Dronacharya. Arjuna sees that the enemies are all well-known to him. He suddenly drops his weapons and is overcome with compassion for them. He tells Lord Krishna he can no longer fight those near and dear to him. Arjuna says it is a sin to kill one's own kinsmen and that he no longer wants to fight. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that he cannot be swayed by emotions in this critical situation. He tells Arjuna to face the crisis bravely and throw away this weakness. Lord Krishna commands Arjuna to get up and get ready to fight. Arjuna cannot shake away his compassion for the enemy and refuses to fight. Reduced to tears, the confused Arjuna asks Lord Krishna to tell him what to do. This critical juncture when Lord Krishna advises Arjuna is the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita. We paused the Mahabharata story here.
Next, the children learnt a bhajan: "Bhaja Mana Radhe Govinda" in praise of Lord Krishna.
India, the Sacred Land
Topic : Our Land / Ancient name of India - bha = the light , ratha = one who revels in , so the meaning of Bharatha is = one who revels in the light of wisdom
Class Activity - Drawing the map of India in their notebook, labelling important geographic features like rivers, mountains, and seas.
Our discussion started with a quiz to see how much the children knew about India. They answered well! Then the children were asked to list the sacred rivers from the shloka "Gange cha Yamune chaiva". The next part was guessing the mountain ranges from clues like: 'Bhimasena met Hanumanji on this mountain range/ this mountain range bowed down to Sage Agastya'. Next we spoke about modern day India with its States and Union Territories. We went around the class and each child shared all the places they have visited while travelling to India. We ended the discussion with fun facts about India and asked them to check out more places in India on Google Earth during their Thanksgiving break.
Geeta Chanting
We learnt Verses 5 and 6 today from our Swamiji (ref. Bala Vihar Handbook pg 17). This is Swamiji's Geeta chanting video link, for your child to practice with the correct pronunciation.
Geeta Chanting Yagna will be held in April. Grade 6 is in group Partha, and is assigned verses 1-30 this year.
We assembled in the Prayer Hall for the Aarti and Pledge recitation. Bala Vihar will take a break for Thanksgiving, so the next session is on December 4th.
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Venu Sadda
Supplies needed for every class:- Bala Vihar Handbook, My Prayers book, their special red notebook and pencils for likhita japa; everything in their Bala Vihar bag
*Reference books - Mahabharata by Rajagopalachari / Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam
