May

May 5

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We started Y for Yoga. Yoga is one way to worship of Bhagavan. Yoga is sitting in one place and thinking of Bhagavan. Meditation this way increases the attention power of the mind. We saw the story of Swami Vivekananda. Because of meditation his ability to focus is so high that he was able to read and understand entire volumes of books within minutes.

We then looked at Y for Yajna. Yajna is a way of worshiping by chanting shlokas, and putting various things like flowers, herbs etc in the fire.The Agni bhagavan - God of fire is like the postman and takes of our offerings to Bhagavan.

We finally finished with Z for sleeping. We saw that before sleeping we should pray to our Ishtaa Devataa. We should good to bed on time and get up early. We can sleep a little extra on weekends and holidays. 

We finished the class with a practice for the annual presentation. I am very happy to say that all the children did their individual presentation and also the chanting of 6 shlokas.

Looking forward to the presentation coming Sunday

April

April 28

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We reviewed the homework from last week- which was to help their parents with any chore. We started the class with work Kshamaa. Sanskrit does not have alphabet X. So we have ksha instead. Kshamaa means forgiveness. We discussed how forgiving is good for the person forgiving. We should not be taking revenge on people who hurt us. We discussed some examples in the book and came to the conclusion that while it is very difficult to forgive - it is easy to not want to take revenge. We saw the story of Rishi Brighu testing Brahma , Vishu and Shiva to see who is the greatest. Please ask your kids on what the test was and who was judged the best.

We had a practice session for the annual presentation. All the kids did very well for the part of reciting the 6 shlokas. Most of the kids are also ready with the ishta devataa presentation too. Again a few kids did not present the ishta devataa today. I will be reaching out to the parents for this.

April 21

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. We started with V for Vedas. There are 4 Vedas given by Bhagavan Brahma himself. It contains knowledge about many important things like nature of Bhagavan, how to be good , even knowledge about topics like medicine, music etc. Various shlokas we chant like the Gayatri Mantra are from the Vedas.

Next we covered V for Vishnu . We saw that Vishnu takes care of the world, sleeps on a snake called Sheshnag and rides an eagle called Garuda. He takes many avatars to protect us - the most popular are Ram and Krishna

We then covered W for work. We saw the story of Varadaraja who was a student who did not understand what his teacher taught him and was bullied by his classmates. We discussed various ways each kid would have dealt with a similar situation in their schools in today's world. We saw that Varadaraja saw how the soft rope of the well had made a mark on the hard stone of the well by repeated movement. This inspired him to keep practicing to learn his lessons. We saw that working hard is good karma.

We then covered the story of Pundalika. Pundalika initially did not treat his parents well. He had a change of mind after his parents left to visit Varanasi on their own. A changed Pundalika took very good care of his parents. Bhagavan Krishna wanted to see this himself. When Krishna visited him, he was pressing the feet of his parents. He gave Krishna a brick to take rest on while he finished taking care of his parents. This made Krishna very happy as taking care of parents is a way of worshiping Bhagavan. As a boon to Pundalika Krishna stayed standing on the brick as a Murti in the temple at Pandharpur. 

We had a practice session of the 6 shlokas and the individual Ishta Devata presentation.

Homework

Help your parents with at least 2 chores during the week as a form of worship to Bhagavan

Keep practicing chanting the 6 shlokas on the sheet and the Ishta Devataa presentation

Some kids are still not ready ( or not in a mood today) to perform the Ishta Devataa presentation. I will be reaching out to the parents separately

April 14

We started the class with 3 Aums. We covered T for Tilak. We saw that people wear tilak - mark on the forehead with different materials like kumkum, ashes etc. and in different shapes like dot, horizontal or vertical lines depending on the Bhagavan they pray to. Vishnu is a U or Y shape, Shiva - horizontal lines and a red dot for Devi. We also covered Teerth places which are Holy places- usually places where temples have been built in places where Bhagavan came before the Bhaktas- in caves, along the river. We then covered U for Uma - which is another name for Parvati. We had a quick pop quiz about the names of the sons of Parvati. We finished U with U for utsav which means festival. We saw the different ways we celebrate our festivals like Divali with firecrackers, Holi with colors and water etc.

We had a practice session of the chanting of the shlokas for the annual presentation. Most of the kids are also ready with their Ishta Devata presentaion. We finished the class with 1 round of hangman game.

April 7

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We went over the homework from last class. Most of the kids had remembered to clean their book shelf to keep Goddesses Saraswati happy. A few of them had also remembered to ask their parents about Holi celebrations. We started with S for Sanskrit. Most of our shlokas, mantras and scriptures are written in Sanskrit. We went around the class to see how many languages each of the kids know. Most of the words that we have covered in our lessons till now - avatara, japa, dhaanam, dayaa etc are all sanskrit words. We next covered S for Sathya . Sathya means the truth. We saw the story of the shepherd who cried "wolf". We saw the there are many reasons to tell lies - to cover our mistakes, for fun , out of boredom etc. We also saw there are many reasons for telling the truth- lies will get caught. The biggest reason to tell the truth is that it is the right thing to do. The kids did have one exception to telling the truth- that is to protect a surprise or a secret. We talked about the concept of "white lies" - that is harmless lies. 

We then covered the concept of Svarga. Svarga is the place where people who have done many good deeds- Karma go to after their death. This is a good place- where nice things and good food are available. We quickly reviewed what we looked at N for Naraka where people who have created many bad deeds- karma go to after death. They are punished for their bad deeds. We made a quick review of good deeds that we need to do to go to Svarga.

We had a practice session of the shloka chanting. All the kids have received a page with 6 shlokas. Chanting these shlokas is part of the annual presentation. We repeated them 3 times. All the kids are already familiar with most of these shlokas. We also practiced the individual presentation of the Ishta devataas. A few kids are yet to be ready for the Ishta Devataa presentation Please help your kids practice.

The only homework is to practice the shlokas and Ishta devataa presentation.

March

March 24

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. We went over the presentation about the festival of Holi. We saw the stories behind Holi and the different ways it is celebrated in the various parts of India.

We continued with the curriculum S. We saw S for Shiva. We had a quick pop quiz about Shiva and his family. We then covered S for Saraswati. She is the wife of Brahma and is the Goddesses of Learning or knowledge. Her birthday Basant Panchami is celebrated as a festival and young children start learning their reading and writing. Since books are an important way of learning- Hindus consider books as a form of Goddesses. Therefore we should take good care of books.

We saw S for Seva. Seva means performing any help to others around us- our parents, grandparents, friends etc. Seva can be any type- small or big, lowly or important. We saw the story of Krishna - he was the chief guest at the Rajasuya ceremony of Yudhistra but he performed the lowly task of cleaning dirty dishes. He taught us that no task is big or small and we should do the tasks assigned to us.

We did a quick meditation session of 2 minutes

We saw the story of Krishna and Govardhan mountain. 

We finished the class with a game of hangman.

2 tasks for homework

To ask grandparents, parents, uncles aunts etc- about how they celebrated Holi while growing up in India

To clean/rearrange their books/book shelf

March 17

What we did in class:

• Since a lot of the students were gone watching the new auditorium inauguration, the remaining

students watched panchtantras while it was going on.

• When all the students came back, we kept watching, but we asked some students to write some

sentences from the video on the board.

• We went over a story from Hindi C, so the kids know what is coming for them next year in Hindi.

Homework:

• Make sure to memorize the Annual Day song.

• Watch any cartoon episode you like in Hindi, but not a Bollywood movie. Write five Hindi

sentences about the cartoon. Whatever you watch, Kaushal ji will ask you questions about it.

March 10

Hari Om parents. We started the class with 3 Aums. We chanted the assembly prayers. We discussed the homework from last week - which was to give your pita (Father)  a hug and do any thing to help father during the week. Most kids had done the homework. 

We did a quick practice of the Ishta Devataa. All but a few kids are ready. I did give out a sheet of 6 shlokas which will also be chanted during the presentation. The kids can add their Ishta Devataa presentation to that sheet. This way they will have the sheet with them during the presentation.

We discussed P for puja. Puja is a way to worship Bhagavan. We discussed various ways that we have already covered like japa. We discussed the various steps in the puja like chanting mantras, offering prasad and doing Aarathi. Most of the kids in the class did state that they are ones ringing the bell during aarati and wanted to bring the bell next week to show to the class.

We then discussed P for Pundit. Pundit is a person knowledgeable in matters of how to do a puja at home or in Mandir. We also saw Paapa - bad karma and Punya good karma. 

We saw the story of the mongoose and the brahman. We saw how the brahman lost his pet as he did not have patience. 

We finished the class with watching the video of Hanuman going all the way to Himalayas to bring the Sanjeevini medicinal herbs to save the injured Lakshmana. The mountain is called Dronagiri and our Mandir has the Murti of Hanuman carrying the Dronagiri mountain.

No specific homework for the week except for continuing to practice the shlokas and Ishta Devataa.

March 3

Hari Om We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We chanted the assembly prayers and went through the slides for Maha Shiva Rathri - which is on March 8th. We had a quiz about Bhagavan Shiva. We saw that we can celebrate Maha Shivaratri by praying to Shiva all night and not eating meat or eggs.

We went over the homework form last week - which was to choose a script and write Om 9 times from page 63. Many children shared their homework. The kids who did not do the homework can complete it and share next week in person.

We covered P for Pitaa which means father. Father is a very important person in our life and we should love, respect and listen to our fathers. The homework is to give a hug to your father and so at least one thing during the week to help him.

We then saw the story of how Parvati married Shiva. Parvati was the daughter of king Himavat. She meditated in the forest for many years on Shiva because she wanted to marry only him. One day a young rishi asked her why she wanted to marry Shiva when he did not have fancy cars, clothes etc. Parvati got angry on hearing this and said she wanted marry Shiva because of his qualities and the fancy things did not matter. On hearing this answer, the young rishi changed his form to Shiva and agreed to marry Parvati. Their marrige anniversary is celebrated on Maha Shiva ratri 

We saw the video of the last part of the story of Hanuman's visit to Lanka in search of Sita. He meets Ravana, burns the city and returns to Rama with news of Sita.

We had a meditation session for 2 minutes and finished the class with a game of hangman.

Homework

Give your father a hug and do at least one thing to help him during the week

Continue to practice the presentation of your Ishta Devataa

February

February 25

We had a virtual class today. We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. We completed the chanting of the assembly prayers. Per the announcements, we will have virtual class next week also before resuming regular classes at the temple on March 3rd. I am really proud of the kids for quickly adjusting to the change in the class format.

 We did a quick review of the homework from last week- which was to find the differences between alligator and crocodile- from the story of Gajendra Moksha.

We covered O for Om. Om is a beautiful name of Bhagavan. We saw Om written in different scripts on page 63. The homework is to pick any one script and write Om 9 times on a paper.

We covered O for Obedience. Obedience is following instructions of our parents, teachers, and other elders. We saw a video of the story covered under Hanuman through you tube and briefly discussed the super powers of Hanuman. 

We had a round of practice of the annual presentation of Ishta Devataa. Most of the children have presented at least once. We do have very few kids who have not yet started. 

We had a meditation session of 2 minutes followed by a game of hangman.

Homework 

Write Om in your chosen script 9 times on a paper. This paper can be shared on the camera next week

Continue to practice your ishta Devataa presentation

February 18

We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We reviewed the homework from last week. Many kids had counted the Murtis in our temple. We discussed how in each mini temple there is a big idol and a much smaller idol for the same Bhagavan. The smaller idol is used in that part of the worship when the idol is placed in a palanquin and taken in a procession. We did a count and found that there were 39 main idols of various Bhagavan in our temple

We quickly covered M for mantra and M for Muruga. We started N with N for namaste. Bhagavan is in each and every one of us. By doing Namaste we are saying " I love and respect the Bhagavan in you". We then saw N for Naraka. We saw that Naraka loosely translates as Hell and is a place where Bhagavan sends the Atmas of persons who have done a lot of bad karmas. To not go to Naraka we should do good Karamas, like Daanam (sharing) Show Daya (kindness) and practice Ahimsa (non violence)

We then saw N for Nataraja. This is the dancing pose of Shiva. There are many temples where Shiva is worshipped in this form.

We then saw N for Narayana- this means Nara -human and Ayanam means shelter. This means Bhagavan is the shelter for all beings during times of trouble. We saw the story of Gajendra- The elephant king whose leg was caught in the jaws of a crocodile in the ocean. When Gajendra realized that none of his wives, friends or children could save him, he prayed to Bhagavan Vishnu. Bhagavan Vishnu came on Garuda and saved Gajendra.

The children then took turns to speak about their ishta devataa - practice for the annual presentation. Most kids are ready. A few kids are still to strat their preparation. I will be reaching out to the kids' parents individually who are yet to start.

Homework for this week.

Find the difference between crocodile and alligator

Continue to practice for the annual presentation. Have your lines written down.

February 11

We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week. Many children had cleaned their rooms as they wanted to keep Goddesses Lakshimi happy. The kids who had forgotten the homework were encouraged to clean their rooms. We started with M for Mother. We saw that mother is the most important person in child's life. We went through many ways we should love and respect to our mothers.

Then we looked at M for Mandir. We saw that even though we see the same game on our Television or live in the stadium, watching the game in the stadium is more fun. Similarly, we can pray to Bhagavan in our homes, but it is more fun to pray at the Mandir- temple. We saw many ways of being respectful at the temple. We also saw that temples in different places are of different sizes and shapes. 

We then covered M for Murti. Murtis are idols of Bhagavan that we can offer our prayers to. We saw that we should offer our Bhakti - love to God. We also saw that  Murits can be of various sizes. 

We then had the children present about their Ishta Devataa. Many children are yet to finalize the presentation. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

Homework

Count the number of Murtis in our temple

Present 2-4 sentences about their Ishtaa Devataa. They can have it written down in a paper.

February 4

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We finished K with Krishna and Karttikeya. The kids were easily able to differentiate between the pictures of Krishna and Karttikeya - Krishna is an avatar of Bhagavan Vishnu - he has a peacock feather in his head and plays flute. Karttikeya is the younger brother of Ganesha and the son of Shiva and Parvati. 

We covered L for Lotus. Even though the lotus lives in a muddy water, the lotus does not allow the dirty water to get inside. During night, it closes and goes under water and opens up and goes above water during day. Similarly, even when we are surrounded by people with bad habits and thoughts, we should not allow our hearts and minds to be affected by them. 

We covered L for Linga- a mountain shaped form of Shiva. We made a quick field trip to take darshan of Shiva and observed the snake over the Shiva Linga and Nandi sitting in front of Shiva. We also made a quick stop to see the Murti of Durga attacking the demon, Mahisha. 

Next, we saw L for Lakshmi. Lakshmi is the goddess of Wealth. We saw there are various forms of wealth- land, vehicles, animals like cows, and even children. We saw how there are different forms of Lakshmi worshiped for different types of wealth. We saw that if we want to be blessed by wealth- we should keep our homes clean and do puja to Lakshmi. 

We finished L with L for Lobha- lobha means greediness. Greedy means we desire for more things than we need and do not share the extra things we have. We saw the story of the Greedy traveler. In his greed for the bangle his mind did not work properly and he believed the tiger and the tiger ate him.

We finished the class with a game of hangman.

Homework

Clean your room to make Lakshmi happy

Come up with 2-4 sentences about your Ishta Devataa. 

January

January 28

Hari Om parents !. We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums together. We reviewed the homework from last week. Many children had completed the homework and displayed it to the class. We started with K for Karma. Karma means doing action- it could be with our hands and legs- physical Karma, with words or signs - verbal karma or with thoughts and mind - mental Karma. We saw that doing good Karma makes Bhagawan happy and others like us. We completed an exercise of identifying different types of Karma.

We then started K for Krodha. Krodha means anger. We saw that when we become angry or upset, we start yelling, our face becomes red and we do things we know are wrong. This is because when we are angry, our minds are not able to work properly. The children came up with different techniques to calm ourselves when we are angry - for example counting numbers, taking deep breaths, Diverting our mind by reading a book or playing a game or talking about the issue to our teacher or parent.

We saw the story of the good king Pareekshit who in his anger and thirst put a dead snake around rishi Shamika's neck. We also saw how in anger Shringi - Rishi Shamika's son on getting to know about the incident cursed the king. We saw how becoming angry created bad things to happen. 

We talked about the annual presentation and have asked the kids to come up with 2-4 sentences about their Ishta Devataa. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

January 21

Hari Om . We started the class with the parent teacher conference. I have summarized the discussion separately below. After the parents left we chanted Aum 3 times together. We covered J for Japa. Japa means repeating Bhagavan's name with Bhakti. We saw that Japa can mean chanting in the mind, loudly or even writing Bhagavan's name or even a Mantra. The number 18, 108, 1008 are considered Holy numbers and people like to the japa in these counts. We covered Japa mala which are strings of 108 beads. One of the beads is different from the other other beads. This helps the person chanting to keep count, The person chanting will move the bead one time for every time they day Bhagavan's name . This way they will be able to know when they have completed chanting 108 times. The homework is to write rama on the lines on page 44 18 times. I gave out a beaded long necklace to the kids to pretend it to be a japa maala for fun.

I gave a brief summary of the history of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. All of the children understood the importance when they realized that the temple is being built after more than 900 years. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

Parent teacher conference summary:

All of the kids do pay attention (even though it may not seem so) and are comfortable with participating in the discussions after the story,

All the children will select an Ishta Devataa and will present 2-4 sentences about their chosen Deity. While the parents can help the kids form the sentences, I want the ideas to come from the kids. It can be simple sentences like Krishna played the flute. This is part of the Annual presentation.

The second part of the annual presentation will be chanting of some shlokas all together.

The kids may choose to dress up as their chosen deity if they wish.

I request the parents to discuss with the kids about what was learnt in the class and help them do their homework.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the classes or the annual presentation.

January 7

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last class. None of the kids did the homework but a few were able to recollect that it was to measure the maximum length each child could jump. This was a fun activity connected with the story of Hanuman Jumping from India to Lanka. We reviewed the super powers of Hanuman and how he dealt with his tail being set on fire. We started with I for Ishvara. We discussed that Bhagavan has many names and Ishvara is one of them. All the different forms of B - the names denote the same Bhagavan. We then covered Ishta Devataa. This means favorite form of Bhagavan, We saw the story of Narahari the goldsmith of Pandharpur. His Ishta Devataa was Shiva and he disliked worship of Vishnu. We saw how to take the waist measurement of the Vithoba (form of Vishnu) in the temple, He used a blindfold- to avoid even looking at the murti of Vishnu !. Lord Shiva created a miracle wherein he was able to feel the Murti of Shiva. When he removed the blindfold- he saw Vithoba- but when he put the blindfold back on he was able to feel the murti of Shiva. By this miracle he was able to understand that all forms of Bhagavan are denoting the same supreme God. The homework is to decided what the Ishta Devata of each kid will be. We will be using the answers to start preparing for the annual presentation. For the presentation each child will come up with 2-4 sentences about their Ishta Devata. This will be discussed at the parent teacher meeting next week. We had an activity of coloring a page of Matsya Avatara of Vishnu. Please ask your kids about the specialty of the fish- it is a form of Vishnu, has a horn and was pulling a big boat. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

December

December 17

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums and discussed the homework from last class which was to chant the Gayatri mantra and take darshan of the Bhagavad Gita if available at home. We covered G for Ganga the holy river flowing through India. We saw the story of how Ganges came from heaven and landed on Shiva's head before flowing in India. We took a look at the various holy places along the banks of Ganga. The homework is to find the name of 2 other rivers that flow in India. We then looked at H for Hindu. We discussed how we are all practicing Hinduism by coming to temple, practicing Dharma, non violence Ahimsa, We looked at H for Holi. We took another look at the story of Prahalad and Holika and how Holi is celebrated with colors and water. We looked a H for Hanuman. We saw how he has super powers of being able to change his size to big and small. How is jumped across from India to Lanka to look for Sita. We covered the story of Ravana ordering the tail of Hanuman to be lit on fire, and how Hanuman used this to set the city on fire. The second fun homework for the week is to measure how much each child can jump. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

December 10

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week. it was about the discussion of the colors on the Indian flag. We also had a quick discussion about the flag of U.S.A. We started with G for Guru. Guru is a teacher. We have Gurus in schools, colleges and other places and help us learn new things and become more intelligent. We discussed ways of showing respect to our Gurus. We then looked at the Gayatri mantra which is a prayer to the Sun who gives us warmth and light and does not expect anything in return. I shared a short story of the origin of the Gayatri mantra- This mantra was presented to sage Vishwamitra who then shared it with the world. We all chanted the mantra together. We then looked at the Gita. This is a book which has all the knowledge that Lord Krishna gave to Arjuna just before the war. Almost all the puja areas of the homes of Hindus will have a copy of the Gita. We then looked at G for Ganesha. We can learn many things from Ganesha - such as Large ears for hearing, small eyes for concentrating etc. We made a quick field trip upstairs to have darshan of Durga, Ganesha, Shiva Linga , Muruga and Hanuman. The homework is to chant the Gayatri mantra every day. The second homework is to see if the house has a copy of the Holy Bhagavad Gita and take darshan of the book.

December 3

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Oms. 

We discussed the homework assigned in previous class.

We covered mother Earth. We saw the various ways we can save earth by taking care of plants, conserving water and electricity. 

We started with F for Faith today. Faith known as Shraddhha is total belief in Bhagavan. We know that Bhagavan lives in our Chitta and knows everything we do and speak. We should have complete faith that Bhagavan will always protect us. We covered F for friendship- we discussed how we like spending time with our friends. We saw the story of the friendship of Krishna and Sudama. 

Then the kids drew and colored Indian flag.

The homework for this week is to find out what the 3 colors - orange, white and green, in Indian flag represent.

November

November 12

Hari Om . We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed about Diwali celebrations- many kids were yet to burst fire crackers and many had decorated their homes and made rangoli. We covered D for Danaam. Danaam means sharing what we have with others. Danaam can be of anything- clothes, toys, food etc. We saw the story of King Shvetha who was generous and did Danaam of eveything but food. As he did Danaam he got go  to heaven- Swarga. But he could not eat the food there as he did not do any food danaam. He had to come to earth to eat garbage. We learnt from this story that sharing of food is the most important danaam that we can do. We finished the class with a game of hangman. The children got to go the mandir and participate in the Diwali pooja. The homework fo the week is to come up with one example of how they shared with others during the week- it could be anything- candy, food, toys colors etc.

November 5

Namaskaram, 

today Ashwini G came to Level 2 to teach meditation. We started the class with chanting OM 3 times. We than talked about what it means to be an “Awesome Listener”, which means that eyes should be on the teacher, ears should be listening, hands should be to ourselves, mouth should be closed,and we should be staying in our own bubble space. We talked about what a bridge is and its purpose and then we talked about how we can have an invisible bridge with others that can be burned or built at any time. Ashwini G then told the students a story about two friends that experienced a bridge between them being burned and then rebuilt through understanding each other. Students then practiced meditation to help build the bridge between themselves and Gods light. After meditation, the students played interactive focus and listening games. We finished the class by applauding all of the students for meditating incredibly well and being “Awesome Listeners”! Each of the students were rewarded stickers for their participation in todays class and their excellent behavior from last class.

Homework: Practice Meditation 

October

October 29

In class

* We reviewed the C chapter

* We read the D chapter and learned about the meaning of Dharma, Durga, Dussehra, and Diwali

homework

*  What weapon did goddessDurga use to kill Mahisha, the Asura ?? (or also known as Mahishasura). The kids could draw the weapon on the paper and bring it to next class.

D Chapter Words Recap

Dharma: When we are doing our duty and doing good things, it is called Dharma.

Durga: A devi formed by the strength of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, to kill Mahisha, the Asura.

Diwali: A festival we celebrate 20 days after the festival of Dussehra. On this day, Bhagavan Rama had returned to his kingdom after defeating Ravana.

Daanam: Sharing good things with others.

October 22

We started the class with 2 Oms. 

We covered B for Buddhi last week but was not included in the summary . Buddhi means our intellect which helps the person know the right and wrong. Our Buddhi is in our brain which is situated in our head. So we should always protect our heads by wearing helmets, not hit others on the head etc. 

We covered C for Cow. We saw how Cow gives us milk, cheese yogurt etc. It is a peaceful animal and teaches us Ahimsa. Krishna loved cows and was also called Gopal meaning caretaker of Cows. Bull is a male Cow. Shiva has a Bull called Nandi. We see that Krishna and Shive loved Cows and Bulls and so Hindus do not eat beef which is meat from Cows/Bulls

We also covered C for Chakra and Conch. We reviewed what Vishnu holds in each of his 4 hands. We covered the story of  king Ambarish a devotee of Vishnu. We saw how the rishi Durvasa was once a guest of king Ambarish during his fasting day. He made Ambarish agree to eat only after Durvasa returned from his bath. However Durvasa was away for hours and the time for breaking the fast was approaching. At the advise of his priest Ambarish sipped water to break the fast. Then Durvasa returned and was angry and created a demon to kill Ambarish. Vishnu then sent his chakra called Sudarshana chakra which killed the demon and chased Durvasa. Durvasa ran to Vishnu who agreed to take back his chakra after Durvasa said Sorry to Ambarish. We saw in the story how Vishnu protects his devotees or Bhaktas. The homework for the kids is to keep track of how many minutes they take to take a shower/bath

We covered C for chitta which is our mind or heart where the Atma lives. We saw that Bhagavan lives with the Atma in our Chitta. So we should not hurt anyone as it will also hurt the Bhagavan in them.

We finished with C for Clean. We saw that Devi Lakshmi who is the Goddess of wealth and riches likes us only when we are clean. So we should always keep our homes and ourselves clean. It is tradition to clean our homes during Diwali before Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped.

October 8

Hari Om,

We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. We started the class with the homework from last week. Most of the children had colored the pictures on pages 14 and 15 and got to display to the class their work. We discussed each of the 9 pictures - depicting the 9 methods of showing our Bhakti to God- 1. Listening  2. Singing 3. Remembering4. Worshipping 5. Serving 6. Praising  7. Companionship  8. Servitude 9. Archana . We reviewed the story of Prahalad. How Vishnu saved him from Hollika and Hiranyakashipu . Vishnu came in the for of Narasimha - half Man, Half Lion. We finished the class with a game of hangman.  There is no homework this week. There is no HATS next week for the HATS Diwali Program. Happy Navratri to everyone.

October 1

Hari Om,

We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms together. We finished with A with A for Atma. We discussed how all the living things have Atma inside of them. We then discussed the homework from last week - it was to find the meaning of their names and the names of their parents and siblings if any. Most of the children had come prepared and had fun sharing it with the class. We then started with B for Bhagavan- how Bhagavan has many names but all the names refer to the same God. We then covered B for Brahma the creator. We discussed how Brahma is not worshipped in Murty form but through Yajna. We then covered Bhakti- it is the love that we have for God. We saw the story of Prahalad who was the biggest Bhakta of Vishnu. We saw how he was very devoted to Vishnu even though his father Hiranyakashipu thought of Vishnu as his enemy. We saw how Hiranyakashipu had a boon from Brahma having many conditions regarding his death. Hiranyakashipu tried to kill his own son through many ways including using his sister Holika. However each time Vishnu protected him. We finally saw how Vishnu came in the form of Narasimha- Half lion and half man to kill Hirnyakashipu and protect his Bhakta. 

We will be reviewing the story again next class. Please discuss with your children and see if they are able to recollect the conditions of the boon that Hiranyakashipu got and how Narasimha worked around each of them. The homework for the week is to color the pictures on pages 14 and 15. These pictures depict 9 ways of showing our Bhakti for God which we will discuss in the next class.

Some kids forgot the homework from last week- help them remember the homework. It is usually a small activity connected to our curriculum .

September

September 24

Hari  Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. The text books were distributed. I had the children write their name on the front page. Please remember to have the kids bring the text book to the class every sunday. The kids also need to bring at least 1 pencil. We started with A for Aum. How A represents A in BrahmA ( the creator). U from VishnU  (the carer )and the M from Mahesh (Shiva) (the destroyer). We talked about how we can identify each of these Deities in the pictures in page 3. We covered A for Ahimsa and saw the story of Ganesha and the cat. We learnt that when we hurt others in any way, we hurt the Bhagavan in them. We looked at different activties to identify  which are Ahimsa.We also looked at A for Avatara which is when Bhagavan comes to earth in a seperate Form to destroy evil forces. The kids did match the pictures to the Avatar names on page 7.  We did a quick review of all the words learnt. We finished the class with a game of hangman. The homework for the week is to find the meaning of the name of each child's , parents' and siblings' if any.

September 17

Hair Om, We started the class with chanting of Om 3 times together. We went around the class and had all the children introduce themselves with their name, age and grade. Since the Dharma 2 class textbooks are not available for distribution yet, I did not start the curriculum today. Instead, we started with discussion of how much the kids already know about the Murthys at our temple. We started with Ganesha, who is also called Vinayak. 

We had a quick round of every one's nick names and established that the nick name and full name represents the same child. Similarly each of the Deity has many names. 

We talked about Hanuman Murthy who carries a mountain and is usually opposite to the Murthy  of Ram Bhagavan 

We talked about Durga who rides a lion. Many kids also identified Saraswati who carries a book. We talked about Shiva's special form of Lingha. 

We finally discussed the main Deity Varadharajar, who is a form of Vishnu. For the question of Vishnu's number of arms, we had a range of answers from 2 to 45. The homework is for the kids to find out the number of arms Vishnu has. They can ask their parents or take darshan and observe. 

We completed the class with a game of Hangman. Hopefully we will get the textbooks next week