December 16th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 8 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-15 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• What is seva
• Why should we be kind and what does kindness do to the world

Story time:

• Video - Kindness boomerang - life vest inside - One day (song)

Activity:

• making breakfast baskets for TASK - seva project
• making cards to accompany the breakfast baskets
• PS check

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Today was an especially special day at our class!  We did our initial prayers, meditation, gItaa chanting and hanumaan chaalIsa.  After that, we spoke about the seva project, for which we'd raised money.  We shared ideas about why we were doing this project.  We spoke about the importance of sharing what we are so fortunate to have.  Then, was the brainstorming session regarding kindness and its effects on us and as well as those around us.  Our awesome group came up with such wonderful thoughts that we couldn't believe they are little second graders!!  To establish how a little act of kindness cheers us the receiver and inspires him to pass on the kindness and how that little act boomerangs back to the initiator when in need, we watched our video in class!  There was pin-drop silence for those few minutes while watching the video :).  After that.... it was a whirlwind of thoughts and ideas from all!!  We the began putting together the bags, with all those good thoughts running in the minds.  We packed each bag with breakfast items for two people - cereal boxes, cereal bars, milk boxes, fruit cups, napkins, spoons, bowls.  Most important of all, the children made beautiful, thoughtful and heartfelt cards to accompany the bags.  They decorated them with sequence, colorful drawing and warm messages :).  We were so touched by the way they expressed their love and thoughtfulness in those cards.  Each one was so artistically and beautifully decorated!  We are so pleased that their love shall brighten someone's morning for sure!!

We had a few parent volunteers who came to our class to help us out with this project.  We can't thank them enough not only for their time, but their involvement and participation in the activity.  So, parents, once again, our sincere thanks to you for all the help in class today.  With such parents, no wonder we have such smart, kind and diligent children!!  Isn't that why we say, 'this class rocks' :).

We wrapped up the class with our ending prayers and parted for the winter break.  Have a happy time, celebrating the New Year.  We will see you all in 3 weeks.  

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

Hari Om

December 9th class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 6 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-12 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• Who is a messenger
• What is kumati and sumati

Story time:

• swallowing of the Sun (becoming hanumaan)
• who is anjani-putra/kesari-nandana/pavana-kumaara
• anjani's (punjisthalaa's) curse - curse/boon
• qualities of a messenger

Activity:

• Are you a good messenger
• PS check

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Looks like good progress in the gItaa chanting practice.  We had the kids rolling till the 4th verse all by themselves today!  We have worked on the next 2 verses as well.  Learnt few more new verse in hanumaan chaalIsa.  During story time, we learnt the meanings for a lot of words in hanumaan chaalIsa. We learnt that anjani-putra means devI anjanI's son.  We heard about the story of how punjisthalaa had disturbed the penance of a sage with monkey like pranks and was cursed to be born as a monkey.  When she realized her mistake, she did penance for Lord shiva and turned her curse into a boon.  The Lord promised to be born as her son and redeem her birth as a monkey.  Hence, Lord shiva was born as hanumaan.  His divine father was pavana, the Lord of wind and hence the name pavana-kumara.  His earthly father was kesarI, a very courageous monkey.  kesarI-nandana means kesarI's son, and one who made kesarI happy.  We spoke about what makes one a nandana(boy)/nandinI(girl).  We had a check list for that too.   The children came up with the idea that they want it put up on the blog so they can print it!  So here it is.  Click here to print the nandana/nandinI check list.
We then spoke about the many stories regarding kumati (bad intellect) and sumati (good intellect).  We saw how a jealous neighbor wanted to hurt his neighbor, even at the cost of getting hurt himself.  We have some very good children who said, they would not bother with what the neighbor has or not, but would be very happy to just have what they needed!!
We spoke about why hanumaan is called raama-duuta.  It means raama's messenger.  A good messenger is very focused, does not get distracted, alert and time conscious.  hanumaan had all these qualities.  To see if we are good messengers, we played a game of passing the message around the class.  If we passed the message correctly to the last person in the class, that means we have good messengers...  And, we did!
For parents who brought in the money today for the Seva project, our many thanks.  For those who haven't we encourage you to do so in the next class.
See you all next Sunday.  Until then, stay warm.

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

Hari Om

December 2nd Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 5 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-10 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• Why should we pray

Story time:

• Who is pavanakumaara
• Serving silently like pavanakumaara
• guNa saagara meaning
• God is everywhere!
• TASK seva project

Activity:

• Cleaning the heart
• PS check please

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge - at auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

We had TOO many stories in today's class!  We started with our invocation prayers and meditation.  Children remember to bring your japa-maala to EVERY balavihar class.  Most of you did, but for some that missed, please be reminded to bring it.

We are learning the meanings of the words in hanumaan chaalIsa and the importance of praying.  We compared current day's technology to connect with the world through wi-fi, to prayer :).  Just the way the internet is the channel to connect to the world of information, prayer is the means to connect to the Lord!  When we were on the topic of connection, the children came up with questions like, how can prayer connect us to God?  How can we ask Him questions and how will He answer them to us?!!  We learnt that prayer is just like the alphabet.  Once we learn the alphabet, we can learn words and then make sentences, progressively.  Similarly, prayer, japa, meditation and contemplation are the steps towards attaining the Lord (getting our questions answered :).

We learnt about hanumaan's attribute of invisible service.  Just like the wind serves all the time, without bragging about his presence, hanumaan serves the Lord continuously, with humility and devotion.

We learnt why hanumaan is called 'guNa saagara'.  The only way to hold the most amount of water on earth is, in an ocean (saagara).  Similarly, hanumaan holds the most 'guNa's, meaning 'virtues' (goodness).  That means, He is an 'ocean of virtues' and by praying to Him, we attain virtues as well.

While discussing about prayer, the children questioned - how does God, who is in our heart, answer the questions we have in our head?!!  Wow!  These children are awesome thinkers!!  To establish this, we heard an extra story -

A teacher once had a group of students.  The students thought that the teacher favored one student than the rest of them.  When they questioned the teacher, he posed a test for them.  He gave a banana to each of them and told them that they had to eat it where NO ONE saw them.  They all went to find isolated places.  Someone ate it behind the door, one ate it under the bed, another ate it behind a couch, etc.  But this one student (on whom the others were complaining), brought back the banana.  All students made fun of him.  But when the teacher asked why, he replied that he couldn't find a single place where there was no God and the condition was, to eat the banana where 'NO ONE' saw!!  This made others realize how wrong they were in teasing that student.  This established to us, that God who is in the heart is in our head too!

We then spoke about the Seva project our class will be doing for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.  A lot of children came prepared with the donation for the task.  Our sincere thanks to all those who have already contributed.  If you haven't already made the contribution, we would encourage you to do so in the next class.  In connection to this we were discussing about why we should give?  When we give, we make someone happy.  That someone in turn, makes someone else happy... Like this, the chain of kindness and giving continues, making a world a happier place.  We were referring to a particular video in this regard.  Here is the link to see this wonderful circle of kindness.  Enjoy!

See you all next week.  Until then, stay warm!

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

1. starting prayers
2. Gita chanting
3. Bhajans
4. Dhyana sloka
5. Hanuman backbone project

The hanumaan backbone project was completed.

As madhuri aunty sent out the email to all for the seva project fund, parents who were unable to pay last week kindly do so in the upcoming class. Children will be putting together the gift bags.

Hari om.

November 18th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 4 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-8 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• What is sweet speech
• What is untainted heart

Story time:

• Strong ox and the farmer

Activity:

• Order raamaayaNa incidents according to chronology

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge - in the auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

In today's class, we did japa during the meditation time.  We worked on using the japamaala, the correct way.  Some of us were fine and some are still working on the flipping when the guru bead was reached.  But in no time, we will get good at it.  We then did the gItaa chanting, hanumaan chaalIsa, etc.  For our activity, we had a game of ordering the events from raamaayaNa in the correct sequence.  We had fun recollecting all the lessons we had learnt in 1st grade!

We already learnt the meanings of the individual words in the shlokam - 'buddhirbalam'.  In the second section, we will be spending quite some time learning the meanings of the chaupas in hanumaan chaalIsa.  To begin with, we learnt that it was written by 'tulasIdaas' in a language called 'avadhi'.  It is said that one gains sweetness in speech by chanting hanumaan chaalIsa.  To establish how 'sweet words' can have a profound impact on others, we listened to the story of 'The strong ox and the farmer'.
Then, moving on to learning the meanings of the verses, we saw that in the first verse, it speaks about having 'untainted hearts'.  We brainstormed what untainted meant.  We learnt it with the example of a lotus.  It grows in dirty, murky waters but never lets itself be tainted by the grime.  Similarly, when a heart is pure and unaffected by the surroundings, just like the lotus, we would have untainted hearts.

We then went to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.  Have a happy long weekend everyone.  We will see you in two weeks.

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

1. Began the class prayers with meditation using the japa mala
2. We also revised the first five geetha chanting with madhuri aunty and learnt the 6 and 7th one
3. Madhuri aunty also talked about arogatha and ajaadyam.
4. We played fun game of P and S - posture and smile to see how many of us are really practising ajaadyam
6. We also moved on to the next backbone quality of vakpatutvam and shared a story of hanuman and socrates and learnt how important is vakpatutvam.
7. We also did likitha japa today.

Reminders:
1. Please ensure to bring the following to your class every week.
Japa mala, gita chanting paper, super hanuman book,notebook oly for likitha japa, pencils and color markers and most importantly lots of energy!

Timing:
Meditation time begins at 10:00 am in the class for 5 min and the lights will be turned off when the meditation is in session.

Please be kind enough to wait outside until the japa is completed to avoid noise and distraction to other kids who are doing this meditation.

Wishing you all a very happy thanksgiving weekend!.. will see you next class.

November 11th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• none

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam

Brain Storming:

• What is eloquence

Story time:

• Socrates

Activity:

• Making of sandal paste, putting the sandal paste and kumkum(vermillion) on the japamaala boxes and sanctifying them

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

We had a blast coming back to class after a long break.  (We had walkathon one week and then due to hurricane Sandy, we had a cancelled class too.)  Today, we learnt about japa and the use of japamaala to do the japa.  We also learnt about how sandal paste is used as an offering to God.  We had a fun activity where we all even learnt how and made with our own hands, some sandal paste!  We saw how the sandal wood is rubbed on a stone, with a little water and it gave out some very cool, fragrant paste of sandalwood.  Each child came up and experienced rubbing the sandal stick on the stone themselves.  Then, they were all getting their special 27 bead (quarter) japamaala-s which we will be using through out the year.  So, they put a dot of the sandal paste on their boxes, put some kumkum on top too.  They were already blessed by our Swami Shantanada-ji, now they prostrated to Goddess Saraswati, Swami Chinmayananda-ji and Swami Tejomayananda-ji and received their blessings as well.  We promised to take good care of our maala-s, be respectful to them, handle them well and do japa the right way.  We all learned that there is a 'meru' bead or the 'guru' bead at the beginning/end of the maala.  We learnt that the right way of doing japa, is by putting the string on the ring finger and moving the beads towards us, one by one, with the thumb.  We also spoke about how the meru/guru bead should never be crossed. When we reach the meru, we need to flip the string 180 degrees and continue with the japa.  We practiced quite a few times, how to do this, without dropping the beads :).  We had so much fun doing all this that, we just had time for one little story about eloquence, the last word in our shlokam!

We learnt that 'vaakpatutvam' means 'eloquence'.  To be effective communicators, we need to be eloquent.  To be eloquent, we need to know what to speak when!  All these are attained by praying to hanumaan.  Do talk to your children about the story of Socrates and his talkative visitor :).

We will see you next week.  Until then, enjoy meditating with the japamaala.  

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

This week we did the following in the classroom

1. Began with morning prayers.
2. Madhuri aunty handed out the japa malas to all the children and taught them how to hold the beads and do the japa.
3. There are few more kids who did not receive it last week and will receive it this week
4. Please remember to bring the japa mala every week. It will not be replaced by the teachers if lost
5. we also completed the first 4 verses of chapter 13 in bhagavad gita
6. We recited hanuman chalisa and and read story of swami  tapovan ji, guruji of swami Chinmayananda di and also story of the sleeping rabbit. The story carried the moral of “nirbhayatvam” – fearlessness
7. We ended the class with prayers and pledge
8. Likitha Japa – Please keep a separate notebook for likitha japa. We are currently writing : Sri Ram Jaya ram Jaya Jaya Ram. The idea is to keep this notebook beneath the Hanuman idol in the new temple – ashram in cranbury.
 
Reminders:
 Please remember to bring the following to the classroom.
-          Folder, my prayers book, japa mala, pen , pencils, super hanuman book, a notebook for likitha japa.
 Thank you,

October 28th Class - CORD Walkathon

Beginning Prayers:

• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• none

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan bhajans

Brain Storming:

• What is giving

Story time:

• Glass of milk

Activity:

• 5k Walk!!

Ending Prayers:

• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

Today was a special day for balavihar!  We all assembled at Mercer County Park as we were all raising money for CORD.  We had already learnt that CORD stands for Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development.  We spoke about why we wanted to raise money and why we had to participate in the walkathon.  When we questioned the children, why do we have to walk, now that we have given the money, why can't we just go back home?  The children did have an answer for that!  They said, we want to show that we are a whole big team working for a cause, hence the walkathon!!  Here's proof that we have a bunch of really kind hearted, intelligent and knowledgeable kids.

To go with our theme of giving, we listened to the story of 'A glass of milk'.  There was once a poor boy who was very hungry and cold.  He did not know where to go and stood in the cold for a long time.  Finally, not able to bear it anymore, he thought of asking someone for food and knocked on the door of a house near by.  A kind looking young lady opened the door.  At that moment, the boy hesitated to ask for food.  So, he ended up asking for just a glass of water to drink.  But that lady brought him a tall warm glass of milk instead.  With that, not only his hunger was quenched, he felt warm and energized!

Many years later, that same lady was admitted to a hospital with a grave disease.  When a doctor was looking through her charts and saw the name of her hometown, his eyes lit up.  He went to see the lady and, lo and behold, it was the same lady that had energized him on a cold winter day, years ago!  He was a doctor now!  He immediately took over her case, gave her the best treatment and took special care of her.  After a long battle, she was cured and well enough to go home.  When the bills were being made, the doctor asked to see the bills for his approval.  When it came to him, he wrote something on the bottom of the bill and sent it to the lady.  The lady could not hold her tears back, for, it said, 'Paid in full, with a glass of milk'!!  The deed of kindness she had sown had come right back to her!  Even if you never see the deed again, atleast you would have made the world a better place.

We related to this story, our act of giving to the needy.  We have just assisted in making the world a better place for someone we may never come to know.  But atleast, we know we did our share in helping them.

The children were even more energized and enthusiastic about the walk after hearing about the role they were playing.  We all promised that if we felt fatigued during the walk, we would remind ourselves about all the children that would be able to buy books and clothes, because we were walking today.

We finished off with chanting hanumaan shloka and a couple hanumaan bhajans to make us all the more energetic!  It was a great walk and even mother nature held off for the walkathon today.  The way the predictions are going, hurricane Sandy may be here anytime now.  All of you please be safe and we will see you all next week.

October 21st Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 3 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1- 6 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• What is health
• What is alertness

Story time:

• If 'something' is lost.... quote
• Lazy Misty
• How Leo learned to be King

Activity:

• 'PS check please' - Police, catch the thieves game

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Oh, what a fun class it was today!  These are a set of super smart 2nd graders!  They already know the 1st verse of the 13th chapter!!  When we started the gItaa chanting, we thought they would fumble and falter after 'arjuna uvaacha'... but, lo and behold, they very fluently continued into the whole verse and went into the beginning of the 2nd verse as well.  We were so pleasantly surprised!  Good going kids and parents, nice encouragement and home :).

Proceeding on to learning the meaning of the hanumaan shloka, we learnt about the meaning of the word 'arogataa' -> 'without diseases'.  We had a little Sanskrit lesson too, as in, we learnt how easily our wrong pronunciation can give the complete opposite meaning.  We spoke about 2 kinds of health - mental and physical.  Both are essential for our well being.

To learn about 'ajaaDhyam', which means 'without  laziness', that is - being alert.  To understand better, we heard two different stories - Lazy Misty and How Leo learned to be King.  We had interesting conversations during this time :).  Please ask your children what they remember from those conversations.  To make sure we are all alert, we have come up with a game, which we shall keep playing time and again during our next class.  It is called 'PS check please' game.  Pssst... It stands for 'Posture and Smile check please' :).  The whole class has to be police.  If they see someone who does not have good posture or is not happily participating in the class, they would be caught as thieves!  There is a little twist to the game.  If aunty or didi say 'PS check' with their right hand raised, then the police get to work.  But if they raise the left hand and say, then all the alert police say, 'false alarm'!  If someone catches thieves for the left hand raise, then they themselves shall be thieves :).  We all strive to not become thieves and remain police, police our own posture and smiles that is...  This keeps us alert and attentive.  We had a lot of fun playing this game today.

We then spoke about CORD walkathon.  We will be meeting at the Mercer County Park next week and have an open air (short) balavihar session and proceed to the walkathon.  It is load of fun!  We will see you all there.  Remember, it counts for the attendance prize :).  If you have not already registered, please do so at the above link, in the announcements section.

See you at the park next week!

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

 Whole class did Japa Mala Shri Rama jaya Rama jaya jaya Rama
Brainstorming : What is Fame? How do we achive it?
Activity: What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up
Bhajan Parijatha Tharunivasa
Dhairyam Courage
What is Courage?
Tale: The Transformation Of Ratnakara
Rosa Park's Courage
Bhagavad Gita Verses: 1-4
Hanuman chalisa Chanting
 Oct 28th :CORD

October 14th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 3 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-6 chaupas

Brain Storming:

• What is Courage
• What is Fearlessness

Story time:

• Story of ratnaakara (vaalmIki)
• Story of Rosa Parks
• Tapovan-ji maharaj
• The timid rabbit

Activity:

• None

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge in the auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

We are doing our initial prayers, meditation and chanting very well.  Parents, please encourage them to practice their shlokas regularly.

We revisited the meaning of the hanumaan shloka we are learning.  We have already learnt the meaning of a few of the words and the children did remember all of them!  Good going kids!!  We moved on to learn the meaning of 2 more words today, with illustrations through stories.  We learnt that 'dhairyam' means Courage.  Also, we learnt 'nirbhayatvam' means fearlessness.  We learnt that these two words are supportive to each other.  When we become fearless, we automatically become courageous!  We heard 4 different stories to establish how these aspects help us to lead a life of honesty and righteousness.  The brainstorming session was quite interesting.  We went on to discuss about daily issues like bullying, etc and how we have to face such situations with courage.

We then finished off with our ending prayers and proceeded to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.  We will see you all next week.  In the meanwhile, do not forget to register yourself for the CORD walkathon which is on the 28th.  The link to register is available above, in the announcements section.

See you soon!
________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

Hari Om

October 7th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1- 2 shlokas

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa 1-6 chaupas
• hanumaan bhajan

Brain Storming:

• Difference between physical and mental strength

Story time:

• bhIma and hanumaan's tail
• Gandhi-ji and cheating
• Swami Chinmayanandaji

Activity:

• None

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Welcome new-comers, to our class.  Our class is still very young, but our youngsters are already grooving along very well!  They know our routine well and tell us the order of things we follow in class already!

After our beginning prayers and chanting, we went on to learn about the next aspect of hanumaan in the verse 'buddhirbalam...'.  We have already learnt 'buddhi = intellect'.  Today we learnt about 'balam = strength'.  To illustrate that, we heard a couple of stories.  First was about bhIma and hanumaan, where bhIma became arrogant about his physical strength and lost his mental humility and focus.  That deterred his mental strength as well.  But he became humble in front of hanumaan and regained his strength.  This showed us mental strength is equally important as physical strength.  Then, we heard the story of Gandhi-ji where he refused to cheat in an exam.  This showed us that, even if one is not physically strong, his mental strength can prove greater sometimes!  Ofcourse, praying to hanumaan gives us both these strengths!!

We went on to learn about the next word of the verse 'yashas = fame'.  To understand that, we heard the biography of our beloved Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda-ji.  We learnt about how he went as Balakrishna Menon, a journalist and became so engrossed with the teaching the guru-s were giving.  He then became Swami Chinmayananda-ji as we know him and he became famous due to spreading the spiritual knowledge among the masses.

We then finished with the ending prayers.  Parents, please encourage the children to practice the gItaa chanting we have been learning, as well as the other prayers.  

See you all soon.

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

Likitha  japa: started the class with ' sriram jayaram' likitha japa.

Starting prayers:

Sahana vavathu
Saraswathy namasthubyam
Guru brahma
Vakrathuda

Classroom: we have quite a few new comers! and welcome all!.

Dhyana sloka was chanted few times. A recap of the invisible back bone qualities and the story discussion of first quality buddih was done for all the new kids.

We discussed about the second quality of the invisible backbone 'balam'. How food, exercises and a healthy living can give us visible balam and what are the ways to achieve invisible balam.

The story of Bhima's first encounter with Hanuman and how hanuman taught  Bhima 's pride was his weakness and his real strength ( balam) is he has to be humble so that he could be more stronger was narrated to the kids.

We then chanted the maha mruthyunjaya mantra for children celebrating their birthday that week praying for their longer and healthy life.

Also revised the Doha and first 6 chaupais in hanuman chalisa since there were new kids in the class this week.

Special thanks to Mira aunty who also helped us in the classroom and also chanted the first 2 verses in bhgavad Gita.

The class came to an end with the ending prayers.

Lots of enthusiasm amongst kids. They love listening to stories and also participate in discussions.

Reminders:
Note book, pencil/pen, color markers, my prayers book, super hanuman book, balavihar handbook, Gita chanting printout. - All of these must be brought to every balavihar session.

We kindly request the parents to drop off kids by 10:00am. Other kids easily get distracted during likitha japa or meditation when other kids walk in late. Parents, please bring kids on time.

Will see you all next week.

September 23rd Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1st shloka

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam
• hanumaan chaalIsa

Brain Storming:

• Vitamins for healthy mind

Story time:

• Akbar Birbal story - crows in the city (depicting Intellect)

Activity:

• Copycat commands

Ending Prayers:

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH
• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

We had a fun 2nd class today.  Our initial prayers and meditations went very well.  We will be practicing these through out the year.  Children, make sure you come in time for the beginning prayers and meditation.  It is very important to be there on time.  During meditation, the lights will be turned off in the class.  If by chance, any of you come during that time, please wait outside the class till the lights are turned on.  This will help the children in class, from getting distracted.  We will open the door once the lights come on.  Parents please help them to come to class on time, so they do not miss out on the meditation time.

We then proceed to learn chanting of the gItaa, hanumaan shlokas and hanumaan chaalIsa as well.  Parents please encourage them to practice at home.  You have the verses in the book that you've 'The Super Superman Hanumaan'.

It was time for our recap then.  We sure have an attentive bunch of children.  They had all the answers and then some thoughts to share after that!  We have started learning about the 'vitamins' that nourish our 'invisible' back bone!!  They are the 8 characteristics of hanumaan, that we can also acquire by praying the Lord hanumaan.  We learnt that the first of them is 'buddhi', meaning 'intelligence'.  To understand the meaning of intelligence, we heard a couple stories of how Birbal was intelligent and solved very difficult problems.  Hence, he was King Akbar's favorite.  Ask you children to narrate the stories to you.  Hint: It involves crows in the city :).

We then learnt about japa maala.  The japa maala would have (108 or 54 or 27 beads).  We learnt that the 'guru' bead or the 'meru' bead should never be passed over while doing japa.  By doing japa, we can gain more intelligence due to hanumaan's blessings.

We played 'Copycat commands' game to see how intelligent we are...  and sure enough we could not trick the children into doing wrong actions!!  We had a lot of fun playing this game.

We then finished the class with our ending prayers, aarati and pledge.

We will see you all in two weeks time.  Until then, keep practicing the verse and sharing the stories :).

________________________________________________

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

1.Beginning prayers

2. Slokas For Ganesha, Saraswathi and guru.

3.We are planning on celebrating birthdays of everyone including teachers by chanting the mana mrithyumjaya mantram in the class. On that note we chanted 3 times for the children that had birthdays this week.

4. Dyana sloka- we spoke about what kind of power hanuman has and all that constitutes this power which forms the invisible backbone of buddih, balam, yasas, dhairyam, nirbhayatvam, arogatha.


5. Detail explanation of each quality will be discussed every class with a story. This week we discussed what is buddih and how well it can be used. We shared a Akbar Birbal story about the count of crows in the kingdom. Please ask your child to narrate the story.

6. We started learning hanuman chalisa  with the Doha and first 6 chaupais

7. We ended the class with ending prayers and pledge.

A good group of kids and fairly interactive. It is still beginning of the year. Stay tuned for more .!

Next Balavihar is on Oct 7th.

September 16th Class

Beginning Prayers:

• 'om' chanting - 3 times
• meditation
• shuklaambaradharam, saraswati namastubhyam, gururbrahma

gitaa chanting:

• 13th adhyaaya 1st shloka

hanumaan shlokas/bhajans:

• buddhirbalam

Brain Storming:

• None

Story time:

• Empty Pot

Activity:

• None

Ending Prayers:

• pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Prajna didi:

Madhuri Aunty and Shilpa Aunty:

HARI OM PARENTS!!!

We hope your children really enjoyed their first day today at balavihar! We sure did!!
As many of you may know, this year, we will be talking about hanumaan, the SUPER superman! As part of the curriculum, the children need a book called Superman Hanuman, which is available very conveniently at the book stall, which is present every week at Crossroads School during our Balavihar classes!

So, we began today's class the same way we will begin every class-- with 3 OMs, a short meditation period,  sahanaavavatu, and three shlokas: shuklaambaradharam viShNum, saraswati namastubhyam, and gururbrahma.

The children learnt about the immense change a small variation in a sanskrit word can make, by noting the difference between 'saraswati namastubhyam' and 'saraswateee namastubhyam'.  'saraswati namstubhyam' means, 'saraswati, I pray to you', but if it is elongated as 'saraswatee', it becomes, 'saraswati IS, I pray to you', which doesn't make a correct sentence.  Hence we have to keep in mind to pronounce the words correctly.

We also began the bhagavadgItaa chanting practice today! This year, for the competition, the second graders need to learn shlokas 1-15 of Chapter 13 of the gItaa, or kShetra-kShetrajna yoga.

We then learnt the shloka of srI hanumaan, 'buddhirbalam', initiating our learning about the Super Superman, hanumaan.

Today, we also listened to a wonderful story that taught us that we should always be courageous and honest, and we should never be afraid to tell the truth, even if others don't. Ask your children about it! Hint: it involves seeds!  This story taught us one of the important characteristics of our Super Superman, hanumaan - Courage!  One needs to have a spine to stand up tall (like vertebrates).  But then, there are a few characteristics like this, that constitute for an invisible spine.  We shall learn more about them as the days go by.

We have split the children into two sections today.  From next class onwards, you can drop off your children in their respective class rooms - C107 or C108.  (Ask your children which section they belong to).

See you all next week!

Hari Om!

Welcome to the Chinmaya Vrindavan 2nd Grade Balavihar blog.

Please continue to regularly visit this online journal to learn about our weekly Sunday morning class activities, as well as other important announcements pertaining to the Second Grade Class.

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Teacher Contacts

Below are the email id.s of the sevikas of 2nd grade class. Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any questions or concerns. Hope to have a wonderful experience with the 1st graders this year :).

Rashmi Kashi -- rashmikashi [..at..] yahoo [..dot..] com

Prajna Madhusudhan -- prajna [..dot..] madhusudhan [..at..] gmail [..dot..] com

Madhuri Waghulde -- madhuripw [..at..] yahoo [..dot..] com

Shilpa Venkatesh -- cssandhya [..at..] gmail [..dot..] com

Note : The e-mail addresses above have been ciphered ;), to prevent automatic e-mail parsing software from deciphering for mass e-mailing purposes or spams. Please translate them accordingly.

Video on kindness

During the 'Seva project', for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, our class watched a very nice, heart warming and touching video regarding kindness.  Through this video, the class saw that their one little act of kindness had the potential to trickle down to many people at many levels!  Below is the link to that video.  Enjoy... and be kind :).

Life vest inside - Kindness Boomerang - One day...!

Check list for our little nandana-s / nandinI-s

nadana (boys) / nandinI (girls) means one who gives delight to their parents.  

If a child responds with a 'Yes' to all the below questions, he qualifies to be a nandana/nandinI to his/her parents.

1. My room is never messy.
2. I never throw papers and clothes on the floor, especially in my room.
3. My desk is all organized.
4. I never throw tantrums.
5. I always help my mom/dad.
6. I have a good report card.
7. I never use bad words.
8. I have good manners.
9. I am always responsible.
10. I am always polite and speak nicely to all.

Are you a nandana / nandinI?!!  

Hanumaan - The Super Superman