Hari Om Parents,
Welcome to our Grade 4 class, Today is the fifth class. We all met in our classroom -- "Murari" and after all the kids came to the class.
Opening Prayers: We all sat straight, criss cross, hands folded, chanted together 3 Oms, then Sahana Vavatu, Ganesha Slokha -Vakra Tunda, Saraswathi Slokha- Saraswathi Namasthubayam, and Guru Slokha - Guru Brahma.
Krishna Ashtakam : This year we will be learning sloka Krishna Ashtakam.
We chanted Krishna Ashtakam once together and it's in Page 109 of the My Prayers book.
Recap: We had a recap of King Parikshit story and his curse.
Then we discussed the below stories from Bala Bhagavatham.
Bala Bhagavatam - Mother Earth in distress : Mother Earth was deeply hurt seeing the sins being committed by people on earth and by the increasing number of Asuras troubling everyone. Then Lord Narayana promised Mother Earth that he will come to the Earth as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva and cleanse the Earth of Sins and Sinners.
Prophecy: Devaki 's marriage with Vasudev in Mathura, Kamsa hears the divine prophecy that the eighth child of Devaki and Vasudev will kill him.
Kamsa shattered by the divine Prophecy. An angry Kamsa puts Devaki and Vasudev in prison and vows to kill the eighth child. He mercilessly kills all of the seven babies of Devaki and Vasudeva. And also puts his father Ugrasena in prison and takes over the throne.
Sri Krishna's birth: Soon Devaki is pregnant with her eighth child. Lord Narayana appears in front of the dejected Devaki and Vasudev and informs them that he himself will be born as their child and after his birth Vasudev should take the baby and go to Gokul and exchange the baby with his friend Nandakumar's baby girl and bring her come back to Mathura.
And at midnight which is the darkest hour of the night when it was Ashtami and Rohini nakshatra, Lord Sri Krishna was born. Devaki and Vasudev were mesmerized by the beauty of baby Krishna.
Then Vasudev took the baby in a basket and carried the basket over his head, while SeshNag was protecting Sri Krishna with his hood and River Yamuna bowed in reverence to the Lord and made way for Vasudev to cross over. Vasudev crossed river Yamuna and went to Gokul and entered Nandakumar's house, kept baby Krishna beside Yashoda, who had given birth to a baby girl and took the baby girl and carried her back to Mathura and kept her bedside Devaki. Hearing the newborn baby's cries Kamsa comes rushing and tries to kill her, when the baby girl takes the form of Goddess and says No one can protect him now and he cannot escape God's wrath as the baby is born and will surely kill him. Kamsa is in shock and is in deep thought.
My 24 Gurus - We started to learn about Next 2 Gurus - Air and Space
We learnt that Air is the teacher who teaches us not to get attached to anything, Flows freely everywhere, teaches us to mingle with everyone without losing sight of our goal.
Also, we need to learn to be DeAttached like the Air, which moves on and surrounds itself with whatever is around it, but does not keep it for long.
And then we learnt Space has no boundaries, and teaches us that God is Omnipresent and present everywhere, in everyone and in everything.
And that God is in each one of us, and we understood this more with the below story.
Story: Rama Rama everywhere : we learnt that Rama's monkey army got scared of Ravana's rakshasa army at one point in the war, that's when Rama suddenly changed everyone on both sides to see his form in each other. The Monkey rejoiced and felt empowered to see Rama near them and fought with more vigour, While the rakshasa saw Rama in each other, starting fighting amongst themselves and killed each other. Through this we learnt that Bhagvan is in everyone and if we see God like the monkey army with love and devotion, then fear will vanish.
Class Attendance was taken after this.
Diwali sweets and gift: Kids were given one dress -kurta(i) set from India and sweets from India.
Yoga: They did some free style yoga poses, whichever ones each one wanted for a couple of minutes.
Likitha japa : Kids did Likitha japa for a few minutes and some kids did some meditation.
Bhagvad Geeta : Gītā Chanting Yajna telecast Bhagavad Gītā - Chapter 15 - Puruṣottama yogaḥ -Yoga of The Supreme Spirit, Verses 9, 10 we all chanted together.
Please make kids practice at home.
Then we all went to the prayer hall for Aarthi and Pledge.
Another wonderful session with kids actively participating well and were excited while hearing the Rama Rama everywhere story!!
Pranaams
Mahalaxmi
Anurag
