Full house, Samskrithi Practice & more

We had quite a lengthy assembly and we got to the class by 10:40 AM. We had an hour for our class.We had a full house this weekend. We practiced for Samskrithi. Everyone has their roles assigned and we timed our practice. We need more practice sessions. Aparna aunty has graciously agreed to be the host on June 4th so we can practice. Please watchout for the email, she will send out a two hour time window as to when we can meet. Please memorize and practice your lines with slow & delivery with emotions.

On June 5th, we will have the stage in the high school. We get to rehearse it on stage! Please bring your clothes for the role. You can change and practice.

With 15 minutes left after practice, we went through the stories and symbols of Lord Krishna.

Watch out for the email from Aparna aunty for June 4th. Donuts & Pizza too..

May day, Samskrithi & more

Hari OM all. I met with parents of Diya, Anupriya and Seema and discussed regarding Samskriti. We had everyone but Diya today in the class. We will finalize the roles by next class, so it will be good if all the parents can confirm their availability for June 11th, saturday. We don't have too much costumes but whatever little, will finalize and communicate.

Today, we went over exhaustively through all the Six qualities that will enable us to appreciate and realize GOD. Please ask your children what these qualities are? and we went through the common qualities of all the GODs we discussed so far and that is communicated through these various symbols. Snake represents time and how GODs are beyond time; they experience the extremeties but still maintain equipoise. Then we discussed how we can be GOD or realize him if we follow the six qualities. In the process we saw various stories on self-control, belief - faith, unwavering strength, calmness of mind and how to attain tranquility & peace of mind.

We discussed Goddess Saraswati, the concept of Navarathiri. We pretty much covered majority of our topics for this year. We have some important symbols left (Rama, Krishna...) and we will go through it the next couple of weeks. Today, we had a dumb-charads game. I wrote a bunch of names from our symbolism class this year and one by one they picked up and acted out the words. This was good. We will try to have this for the next few classes.

See you all next week.

Six qualities & Bhiksha

This past Balavihar class we had only Three kids and two were blessed to attend the Bhiksha. We had an extended assembly and a shortened class as the Bhiksha was advanced to 11:30 instead of the usual 12:30 as Swamiji had a commitment to go to another place.

In our class we continued our journey on the Godesses and concentrated on the six important qualities Shama (Faith), Dhama (Self-control), Uparama (self-withdrawal),Titiksha (staying unwavered - capacity to endure) , Shradda (belief in teacher, scriptures & oneself) and Samaadhaana (tranquility). These are so important that we will continue on this for atleast one more class. Please talk to your kids about these six qualities.

We practiced Guru Stotram in the class and along with Sixth graders as well. Kids from both classes recited Guru Stotram in front of Swamiji and asked questions.

We are planning for a play in this years' samskriti. I would like to meet all the parents tomorrow. Please see me in the class.

Symbols of Goddesses

Our special mention goes to Dhruv for taking the initiative and joining the Bhagavad Gita Yagna by chanting the Gita. We (Aparna and I) had the blessing of participating as judges. It was a wonderful experience and blessing!

We continued our journey and transitioned from Lord Ganesha, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva into Goddess. Last class, we started with Mother Durga and her various forms (Kali) and Mahishasura mardini. The symbols carried by her and what do they symbolize actually. The word Mahisha stands for the lazyness or our Tamo Guna and killing of that asura stands for killing the tamo guna in ourselves. We saw the story of the Cow and we had a lively discussion on how various living beings communicate. Talk to your kids about this discussion. In addition to that, last class we had a practice of the play for Samskriti.

Today we had our Yoga class and continued on to Mother Lakshmi, the Godess of wealth. We saw the story of her origin, what she stands for and what is the wealth stands for. We don't seek the physical wealth but mental well-being. While Mother Durga stands for killing all the tamo gunas and bad qualities in us, when we devoid our mind of all bad qualities, it will be empty. Now, we need to fill it with good qualities. By praying to Mother Durga and Lakshmi, we can achieve mental equipoise.

Next class, we have Biksha for our Swamiji. You will be receiving emails on Pot luck. Please signup generously. We have asked kids to come up with questions for Swamiji. Parents, you can do so too! This is a wonderful opportunity. We also seek to give Guru Dakshina of minimum $5 to Swamiji next week. We would love the kids and parents to Serve food to Swamiji. Feel free to reach out to us for any clarifications.

Maha Shivarathiri - Lord Shiva Continued...

We had a full house this class on Sunday, March 6th. Great job Kids & Parents!

We started our class with reciting the Geeta chapter 16. All the kids were able to remember and read out loud the first two verses while they learnt the next three. Today, all were able to read the first five. We encourage all the kids to participate in the Geeta Yagna on April 16th. 

We continued our journey into learning the symbols of Lord Shiva.  We learned about Lord Shiva's characteristics through the various symbols of blue neck that is filled with poison, the crescent moon that symbolizes the blessing nature and with the snake around his neck symbolizes time similar to the Adisesha of Lord Vishnu. In both the snake "Sesha"  symbolizes that the Lords Shiva & Vishnu are "beyond time". Lord Shiva has three eyes as rightly pointed out by the kids, the two eyes represent justice, kindness, and the third eye the wisdom.  The point that is driven across with these contradictory characteristics is that you should stay "undisturbed" or in equipoise without getting affected by the positive or negative thoughts. We all should remember that these various qualities are symbolized by the GODs using various tools & stories. We saw the story of three idols. 

The kids remembered the various forms Lord Shiva is depicted - Linga, Nataraja, with the moon & snake & Ganga. We will be looking at the other forms in our next classes.

Monday, March 7th is Maha Shivratri. Please visit your nearest temple and pray to Lord Shiva and get his blessings!

We got Chapter 12 of the parables story and please read it and form an idea of the script.

Thanks you Seema for sending us the write up. You get the opportunity to write our next class blog.

Symbolism - Lord Shiva

We had a full house this weekend class. We met after almost a month but for our field trip. Having completed the section on Lord Mahavishnu, we continued our journey to learn about Lord Shiva. The students participated enthusiastically and pointed out the various forms of Shiva and the items adorned on his body, his abode. It was a very lively class. We saw a story, played a game and we discussed about our Pujya Gurudev, his Guru Swami Sivananda and Shri Tapovan Maharaj. Please ask the kids about the class. We discussed about Samskriti, our year-end program which falls on June 18th, Saturday in our ashram in Cranbury. The students volunteered to read the short stories book "Parables" to pick a story for a play for samskriti. For now, I like story 9 "Many in one". I encourage you to read and come up with suggestions. We need to pick a story that no other class have picked.

In the class, we stressed the significance of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and the benefits of chanting. We practiced the first two slokhas. We encourage the kids to practice at home. www.geetachanting.net, is a great resource, where it has recording for every line for all 18 chapters. Please check it out. It is not just for kids, we encourage the parents to learn this as well. Please make use of the available resources and benefit.

Good job by Diya and it is pretty close between Isha and her on the prayer log.

See you all next weekend.

Yoga & Shri Maha Vishnu

This week, we had our Yoga combined with 6th graders. Some of our students didn't bring the yoga mat. We had a great session. Our Yoga teacher shared a very good thought with us. Yoga is not just doing various poses, but it is the process of preparing one body to be receptive and be able to reach meditative stage. Lot of us are not able to maintain any posture for beyond few seconds! With the advent of so many electronic gadgets, we have no dearth for distractions. The best thing is for you to stay / sit in one posture on the floor with a straight spine for Five minutes every day. Please practice this alone or along with your kids. But please practice. To make this a practice, we are asking all the kids to bring their Yoga mats to every class. So they can sit in the floor for a specific period. After Yoga, we revised the details on Lord Shri Vishnu and how "Shantakaram bhujaga Sayanam.." is a Dyana slokha. Please ask the kids and we want them to be able to recite this slokha next class. We didn't have Isha and Anupriya in the class. Great job by Diya and she is catching up to Isha on the prayer log. We have three participants for the prayer log and we want other kids to join too. Please have your kids fill up the Prayer log.

The coming sunday, the class is a field trip to the Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ. Please sign up on the invitation you received and be there promptly by 9:45. The temple tour starts @ 10 AM, followed by a video, Arathi and lunch.

Symbolism - Sri Maha Vishnu continued

Hari OM,
Happy new year and because of the event in the high school, we had only four students in the class. We started the class with assembly bajans, arati and pledge. We reviewed the prayer logs - great job on the part of Dhruv and Diya. We encourage the other students to do prayer log as well. This is an activity to log your prayers. We want everyone to develop the habit of spending time with GOD. We continued in our journey into understanding Sri Maha Vishnu through the various symbols. Dhruv helped us with "Shantha karam.." and we reviewed the various aspects of Vishnu - How purity, refreshing and nourishment are conveyed through the symbol of "Kheerabdi Sagara - milky ocean". We saw few stories that reinforces showing kindness, using sweet words in dealing with others and being compassionate. We saw why milky ocean is used to symbolize the abode of Vishnu that it is refreshing, nourishing and pure. We saw the meanings of Conch - Panchajanya, maze - Kaumadhi, Sudharshana chakra and the Lotus. Sri Vishnu gives a clarion call using the conch to make us pay attention and follow the noble values & the righteous path, treats us with disappointments, failures that hit us like being hit with a maze and annihilates the qualities or those who don't follow the noble values with the Sudharshana Chakra and finally offers the benefits of following the righteous path through Lotus. Lotus grows in muddy pond but the mud never affects or alters the flower. It symbolizes that we like Lotus should not let the unwanted thoughts to muddy our lives and be pure.

We concluded our understanding of Sri Maha Vishnu through these various symbols. It is not just the kids, it has been a great learning experience for Aparna and I. This is a wonderful concept / perspective and I encourage the parents to read the book "Symbols of Hinduism" that you bought for your kids. Maha vishnu chapter is around page 96.

We need to start planning for this year Samskriti. Kids came up with the concept of having a skit with some folks approaching Pujya Gurudev with questions on Symbolism and some chosen topics could be explained through contemporary movies / happenings. Kids can either collaborate and prepare some ideas around it.

In addition to this, we would like every one to specify a "role model" for them and explain why they are their role models. what quality inspired, excited and tinkled their mind.

Next weekend Jan 17th - we are meeting in our Cranbury ashram for Chinmaya Mahatsov. please check your email.

Thanks,
Aparna
Rajesh