Hari OM Dear Families,
Here is this week's update.
Week 9 :
18th December 2022 / 9:15 AM
Opening prayers and Shlokas
Slokas: Class began with 3 OMs followed by
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 finished learning the sloka.
Today's lesson - Krishna Everywhere - Krishna, The Divine child
One day Krishna and his friends are playing outside. Balarama and a few other friends go to complain to Maa Yashoda that Krishna ate a handful of mud. Yashoda gets very angry and starts scolding Krishna. But the little Krishna with his cute little face denies this and asks her to look inside his mouth. Krishna opens his mouth wide for his mother to look. Maa Yashoda is astonished to see the entire universe in the little boy's mouth. She is dazed and bows to Krishna in awe as she recognizes that he is none other than the Lord of the Universe. But she soon returns to her normal self as Krishna makes her forget all this. He wants to make sure he enjoys all the aspects of a mother's love. Yashoda, forgetting everything, picks up Krishna, hugs and kisses him and showers him with all her love.
Here we talked about a mother's love and what all she does for us. We asked the kids how they experience their mom's love. There were few different answers. A mother's love is expressed in different ways - hugs, kisses, cooking, shopping, helping with homework, driving you around, teaching you different things and even scolding.
It is festival time in Gokul and everyone is making preparations for the same. We talked about what are the different preparations people generally do for festivals. Could be hanging festoons, cleaning and decorating homes, cooking delicious foods, etc. One day, Yashoda put a pot of milk on the stove to boil and sat nearby to churn the curd. As she is churning, she is also singing about the naughty pranks of little Krishna. Nothing gave her more happiness than thinking over and over again about Krishna. Just then, after his mischievous deeds, Krishna comes home hungry. He climbs onto his mother's lap and starts asking for food. As she starts feeding him, she suddenly remembers that the pot of milk is on the stove and is about to boil over. She places Krishna down and runs to the milk pot. Krishna is really annoyed at this. He breaks the pot of curds and starts eating up the butter. After having his fill, he plays and teases the monkeys for a little while, and then generously feeds them butter too. He is very happy and is dancing in joy. But Mother Yashoda is not so happy to see the broken pot. She finds Krishna playing with the monkeys. She runs to catch him, but Krishna runs away. Holding a stick in her hand, she chases him and atlast, catches him. She brings a rope to tie him up to the mortar, but the rope falls a bit short. She goes back to get a longer rope, but that too falls short. She keeps trying with longer ropes, but with the same result. She is exhausted. Seeing his mother's plight Krishna allows himself to be bound by the rope. As Yashoda goes back inside the house, little Krishna, tied up to the mortar, looks at the two Arjuna trees at a distance. Dragging the enormous mortar, he waddles towards the trees. The mortar gets stuck between the two trees and as Krishna pulls hard, both the trees come crashing down. Two glowing beings emerge from the trees. They are Nalakubera and Manigriva, the sons of Kubera, who were cursed by Sage Narada due to their arrogance. They were to be imprisoned in the Arjuna trees until Krishna freed them. Hearing the loud noise, Yashoda comes running and is shocked to see the two fallen trees but is happy to see her little one unhurt and playing.
24 teachers -
Today's Riddle : I am brilliant in appearance. I have many colors. I can do a lot of good to you, but if used improperly, can be destroyed as well. It is better not to come too close to me. .Who am I ?
There were a few guesses- sun, water, air and then came the right guess- Fire. Yes today's teacher is Fire.
"Just as Fire burns bright, so also the sage glows with splendour of knowledge and Tapas"
"Just as fire gives color to what it burns, a guru gives His qualities to His disciples"
Fire is brilliant and bright and it teaches us to be bright and shining as well.
Fire takes in everything, whether pure or impure, whether dirty or clean and reduces them all to ashes. It does not get impure by taking in bad things. It always remains pure. Fire teaches us that we can mingle with anyone, but we should not let any vices or bad things enter us.
Fire has no shape of its own. It takes the shape of the firewood or the container. Similarly, God also does not have any particular form. God is everywhere and he is there in every form, and all forms are his!
Stories
1.Once Buddha was walking with his disciples. One of the disciples, who did not like Buddha, set a wild elephant free. The elephant was creating havoc and everyone was running away for their lives. Even Buddha's followers, except the ones who had firm faith in him, ran away. Buddha, seeing this confusion said that if we don't harm anyone, no harm will come to us. True to his words and to everyone's surprise, the elephant became very calm as soon as it saw Buddha and even bowed down to him with respect.
2.This following short story tells us about the greatness of such saints and their power to purify one and all.
Once Swami Chinmayananda was giving a discourse in the USA. As everyone in the hall was listening to him, a man entered the hall noisily. He was a filthy looking man with dirty clothes and hair and was drunk. Everyone was disgusted and wished that he would leave immediately. But Gurudev lovingly asked that man to go sit next to him. To explain to the crowd who was surprised at this, Gurudev told them that the filthy man needed him more than everyone else. This story shows us that great people like Gurudev accept everyone equally.
3.The story of Swami Tapovan Maharaj ji, who was our Gurudev's teacher. He used to travel in the Himalayas by foot. He never used to carry any food with him, as he believed that God would provide what is necessary, when it is necessary. Once it so happened that Swami was walking in a forest. It was noon and he was hungry and tired. He sat down to rest. He was sure that God would somehow take care of his hunger, but was curious how it would happen in a forest at midday. Within a few minutes a farmer came with his son. It was the son's birthday and the farmer served a nice feast to Swami right there.
We learn from this story that we need to have faith in God. There is no need to hoard. He will provide what we need, when we need.
4.We concluded this lesson with another story about the discovery of fire.
Once a man picking up fruits and leaves in a forest sees a cloud of smoke at a distance. He does not know what it is, so he goes closer to observe. He sees a bright fire burning in a small area of the forest floor. He has never seen fire before and thinks it's probably a star fallen to the earth. He tries to go closer, but is unable to, due to the heat. He thinks it's a powerful being and greets the fire. The fire greets him in return and tells him that he can stay near the fire to keep himself warm and also cook some corn on the fire, as cooked food tastes much better. The man does what the fire tells him. He soon gets used to the light, warmth and cooked food, all which came from the fire and wants to get more of them. He asks fire if he can take him home. The fire politely refuses, saying that it could be dangerous to move him from where God intended it to be, the forest. The fire offered that the man could come to the forest whenever he wanted to cook his food, but warned him not to tell anyone of its whereabouts. The man and his wife kept going to the forest once in a while and started enjoying the cooked food and the warm fire. Once a neighbor follows them secretly to the forest and sees the fire. Once the man and his wife are asleep, he steals a twig of fire and runs across the forest. Unknowingly, he drops sparks of fire all over on the dry leaves on the forest floor, and soon the forest is in flames. Terrified, everyone jumps in a nearby river and swims to safety. Then fire tells them, "As long as I am contained and respected, I do you a lot of good, but out of it, I can be a monster destroying everything". The moral, do not be greedy and treat everyone with respect.
Gita Chanting : We learnt slokas 11 and 12 today. Please encourage the kids to practice often. We will again record the chanting in a couple of weeks for house points.The link to Swamiji's video - Verses 11-12 Ch.3 BG - YouTube
The Gita chanting is on 4/22. We will share the link to register as we open the registration. Chapter 3 karma yoga is this year's topic and we have to memorize verses until 25 (learned until 12 this week) All the verses links are sent in the weekly email. The description box of the whatsapp group has the playlist for our class.
Likhita Japa - Writing the Lords' name to focus our mind in control, the few minutes of quiet writing. The details are given in the class whatsapp group and the pic sent has the details. Please make the children do this activity each day for at least 10 minutes, completing one page each day. We will be given house points based on our writing.
House contests Balavihar house contests are lined up one after the other. The link to register is given in the class whatsapp group. First comes the story contest in January, Slokathon in March, bhajanotsav group bhajan singing contest at the end of April. Please register accordingly and start practicing.
