Sept 29th Class

Beginning prayers

• 3 times ॐ chanting, Meditation
• Daily Prayers (click here for script)

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 5 shlokas

Brain Storming

• Review from last class with a quiz

Story time

• paaNDava-s and kaurava-s
• droNa enters (intro)

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Today we did a shloka competition between the two tables and had a tie. Then we reviewed some shlokas and learned new ones too. After that we learned a little about how to read Sanskrit. Then we did gItaa chanting. We went over the last week’s three shlokas and learnt 4 and 5.

After that, we learnt more of Mahabharata. Satyavati who was married to king Shantanu had two sons. Their names were ChitraaNgada and VichitravIrya. Sadly ChitraaNgada died in war. Then VichitravIrya married Ambika and Ambaalika, but unfortunately died of illness. So Satyavati went to Veda Vyaasa so Ambika and Ambaalika could have gifted children. When Veda Vyaasa gave them a blessing, Ambika gave birth to Dhritaraashtra who was blind by birth. Ambaalika gave birth to PaaNdu. The, daasi, a servant of Ambaalika gave birth to Vidura. Since Dhritaraashtra was blind PaaNdu became king and Vidura became minister. Then Dhritaraashtra married Gandhari. Gandhari had a boon from Lord Shiva to have a hundred sons. She had a hundred sons and a daughter. Three of the most important sons in the story were Duryodhana, Dushshaasana, and VikarNa. The daughter’s name was Dushshala. The 100 sons were called the Kauravas. PaaNDu got married to Kunti and Maadri.

When Kunti was young, she took care of Duurvaasa maharshi. Then he taught her a mantra that could invoke any god to give her a son that had similar powers of that God. So Kunti, wanting to know if the mantra worked, she tried it on the Sun god. He appeared and Kunti said she was just trying the mantra. But the Sun god gave her a son and left. The baby was born with natural earrings and armor. Kunti didn’t know what to do with the baby, so she put him in a box and let it float away in the river. A charioteer found him and named him Vasusena (who became karNa later on). Then, after Kunti married PaaNDu, she had three sons - Yudhishtira by invoking Yama, BhIma by invoking Vaayu, and Arjuna by invoking Indra. She also taught this to Maadri and she had two sons who were born by invoking the Ashwini Devatas. Their names were Nakula and Sahadeva. These five sons were called the PaaNDava-s. The whole Mahabharatha was started by Duryodhana’s jealousy when both the Kauravas and PaaNDavas were young. Duryodhana was jealous of BhIma’s strength, so he poisoned him!!!!!! Then BhIma fell into PaataaLa-lokam. There, the snake god gave him ambrosia. BhIma drank eight cups of the syrup and got the strength of eight thousand elephants. So what we can learn from this is that there is a consequence for every action.  Either good or bad, one HAS to face the consequences of his deeds!

Then we spoke briefly about how guru DroNa entered into the picture.  We will discuss more next week.

Written by Sukruthi Thunga 

Sept 22nd Class

Beginning prayers

• 3 times ॐ chanting, Meditation
• Daily Prayers (click here for script) 

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 3 shlokas

Brain Storming

• What is the significance of mahaabhaarata in our current day life

Story time

• shantanu
• bhIShma

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:
Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

On Sunday 9/22, in balvihar we learned 3 shlokas.  The shlokas we learned were - what you say when you get up in the morning, what you say when you put your feet on the ground, and the shloka you say before eating food. We learned the first 3 verses of the bhagavadgeeta chapter 14. We added lines underneath the letters where we emphasise the sound (mahaapraaNa-s).

We then learned about the first 2 chapters of the mahabharata - story of King Shantanu and the River Ganga. In the story, King Shantanu was taking a walk when she saw a beautiful lady and fell in love with her instantly. King Shantanu went to her and asked her hand in marrige. She agreed, but only on one condition-- King Shantanu never questioned her about anything she did! He agreed and they got married. After King Shantanu and River Ganga got married they had there first child and right after they got there first child River Ganga took the child and threw him right into the river. She continued this pattern with 7 children that she gave birth to. King Shantanu never questioned her until he finally got fed up and stopped her on the 8th child.  He asked her why she was doing this to all their babies. She said, now that you questioned me, I will have to leave you.  But before I go I will answer your question. These kids were vasus. Long ago, a sage named Vasishta, who had a beautiful cow named Nandini.  The wife of a vasu named Dyu wanted the cow.  So he decided to get 7 Vasus to help steal the cow. When Vasishta heard this, he cursed all the Vasus.  They fell at his feet immediately, asking for forgiveness. So Sage vasishta modified his curse such that the Vasus could be liberated as soon as they were born, but dyu on being born, had to lead an entire life on earth.  He would do good deeds and make a lot of sacrifices during that time. After Ganga explained this to the King Shantanu, she left with the baby and said" I will bring him back to you when he is grown up". One day King Shantanu saw a river flowing with a dent in it, and on the other side, he saw a young 16 year old boy, stopping the river from flowing, using arrows. The King wanted to know who the boy was and upon asking, River Ganga appeared and said" this is your son, I took with me.  His name is devavrata". King Shantanu was very pleased to see his son and crowned him as his heir, the next King.
After many years, King Shantanu went on a walk and saw another beautiful lady (satyavati) who was the daughter of a fisherman and wanted to marry her. King Shantanu approached the fisherman who agreed to the marriage on the condition that his daughter's child would be the crown prince. King Shantanu didn't know what to do and he left the fisherman's place.When devavrata heard about this, he went to the fisherman's home promised that he would sacrifice his chance to become King.  He would never marry nor have children, so there would be no challengers to satyavati's children.  It was a very bold and intense promise.  Henceforth, he was called 'bhIShma', because of the vow his took!  When he returned home, His father was pleased and gave him a boon that it would have the ability to choose his time of death!

We did our ending prayers after this.

written by Aditi Suresh.

Sept 15th Class

Hari om!

Welcome to the first day of balavihar.  The curriculum for our 6th graders is - mahaabhaarata.

We started the class with a prayer to Lord gaNesha, the remover of all hurdles, to bless us so that we will have a very productive, fun and growing year ahead of us.

After a brief introduction of the aunties and uncle working with the 6th graders, we had a brainstorming session regarding bhagavadgeeta.  We spoke about the contest we will have sometime in apr/may.  But for that, we need to start learning the verses from day 1, of course!  We briefly discussed about the chapter we will be learning, that is, the gist of chapter 14 - guNa-traya-vibhaaga yoga.  Then we went on to learn the first 2 verses.  Our class is required to learn 25 verses.  But our awesome class has decided to learn the entire chapter, that is 27 verses in all!  We are also planning to win the class with most registrations award as well!!  Keep up the spirit guys!

We discussed the events that to lead to the story of mahaabhaarata and the values in the epic - How exactly is it relevant to us today!  What part of the story can we relate to ourselves, etc. We also learnt who the author and scribe are for the epic, what their significance is, etc.

Before ending our first and brief class at balavihar, we split the classes into 2 sections, based on their selection of the chit - kRuShNa/arjuna.

We will meet in our respective classes from next week onwards and learn the stories in detail.  Until then, have a nice week everyone!