The Day We Led The Pledge!

Let me begin by saying I am very proud of my first graders - they did an awesome job leading the Jersey City Balavihar in reciting the Chinmaya Mission Pledge! High five kiddos! Good job :)

As far as the class goes, we started with the attendance followed by a run through of the Dhyaana Shloka - Om Sahanavavatu (pg 9) and the daily prayers (Karaagre Vasate, Vakratunda, Saraswati Namastubhyam, Bramhaarpanam, Shubham Karoti, Kara Charana - pages 14-17 of the My Prayer Book) as well as the Guru Sthothram (pg 85-86), the bhajans Rama Naama Thaarakam (pg 211), Atma Nivasi Ram  (pg 209-210) and  Radhe Radhe (pg-169). We skipped the new bhajan and concentrated on Gita Chanting as the kids seem to be struggling with memorizing whatever we have done so far. So, we revised the first three verses of the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagvad Gita and learnt the fourth one.

In Ramayana, we learnt about how the search party that went south returned home and celebrated their success of having found Sita. Rama was overjoyed when he heard Hanuman mention that he had seen and spoken to Sita. He was overcome with emotion when he saw Sita's jewellery that she had sent through Hanuman. He hugged Hanuman with gratitude and happily received all the messages that had been sent to him.

After this, the vanara sena, with the help of Hanuman, started discussing and making plans to go to Lanka and defeat Ravana.

In the Lanka, Ravana's brother Vibheeshana advised him to return Sita to Rama and ask for forgiveness as it was wrong of him to kidnap another person's wife. But all foolish ministers of Ravana gave him wrong advice and encouraged him to not return Sita and prepare for battle instead. Though Ravana was a bit concerned by what Vibheeshana said, he chose to ignore him and threw him out of his court by declaring him a traitor. So, Vibheeshana, along with a handful of his loyalists, left Ravana's kingdom.

We practiced our consonants in Sanskrit. As a part of homework, the kids have been asked to write the second line of consonants 5 times. Those who did not finish last week's homework, please do that as well.

We ended the class with the concluding prayers Om Poornamadah (pg-20) and Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha (pg-19) and also practiced the Chinmaya Mission Pledge.

There will be no class the next two weekends. That gives enough time for the kids to prepare for their test of the Gurustrotram when they come back on the 27th of April. Please make the kids practice well.

See you at the next class. Please be on time and bring your folders.

Second Make Up Session

The previous balavihar class was another make up session for one of the lost snow days.

Our class progressed with the attendance followed by a run through of the Dhyaana Shloka - Om Sahanavavatu (pg 9) and the daily prayers (Karaagre Vasate, Vakratunda, Saraswati Namastubhyam, Bramhaarpanam, Shubham Karoti, Kara Charana - pages 14-17 of the My Prayer Book) as well as the Guru Sthothram (pg 85-86), the bhajans Rama Naama Thaarakam (pg 211), Atma Nivasi Ram  (pg 209-210) and  Radhe Radhe (pg-169). We also started a new bhajan.

In Ramayana, we covered the chapters involving Hanuman creating havoc in Lanka by uprooting trees, destroying the gardens and streets and causing an uproar all around. We saw how Ravana sent his most powerful rakshasas as well as two of his sons to fight Hanuman. While one of his sons, Akshaya, got killed, the other son, Indrajit, used the Brahmastra to subdue Hanuman. But Hanuman had a boon from Brahma that the Brahmastra would not kill him but would instead make him weak for a little while. During that time, the people of Lanka tied him up and presented him to Ravana who ordered that Hanuman's tail should be set on fire as a punishment. When this is done, Hanuman breaks his bonds and jumps all around Lanka setting everything on fire and destroying everything. Later, he feels sorry for having caused so much destruction and realizes that innocents could have been hurt. Then he douses the fire in the sea, makes sure Sita is fine and crosses the sea back to  his waiting friends. 

We also read the story about how Hanuman got his name - do ask the kids about this.

We practiced our consonants in Sanskrit. As a part of homework, the kids have been asked to write the first line of consonants 5 times. Some of the children are still having trouble writing their names in Sanskrit, please practice the same.

We revised the first and second verses of the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagvad Gita and learnt the third verse. We ended the class with the concluding prayers Om Poornamadah (pg-20) and Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha (pg-19).

Apart from homework, please make sure that the children revise the Chinmaya Mission Pledge, it will be the first graders' turn next to lead the pledge.

See you at the next class. Please be on time and bring your folders.