May

May 4

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. Then, we did a practice session of the Shlokas and the individual Ishta Devataa presentation. All kids are doing a great job. Next, we watched videos on how Lord Krishna showed the whole universe in his mouth, how Hanuman ji flew to reach the sun thinking it’s a fruit and then learnt why Lord Shiva has another name “NeelKant”.

P.S: / Homework: We want all kids to practice Shlokas at home too. Also, please help kids to remember to bring the the paper on IshtaDevataas to the class next week.

April

April 27

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. We reviewed the story of Kshamaa from last class. We started with Y for yoga. Yoga is a way of worshiping God. It is meditating.. focusing all your thoughts on God. We saw the story of swami Vivekananda. Who was able to read entire books in a very short time as his mind was focused. Meditating regularly improves our focus. We then saw yajna which is a form of puja where the priests put various materials like ghee, food, herbs in the fire in the kunda while chanting mantras. It is our belief that these offerings are delivered to Gods by Agni the fire God. We finished the curriculum with Z for zzz sleep. We saw the importance of going to bed on time to get up early. We should pray to God before we sleep. The kids discussed their own sleep schedules. Good quality sleep is important for health. We finished the class with a practice session of the mantras and the individual Ishta Devataa presentation. All kids are doing a great job

April 20

Hari Om, We started the virtual class with chanting of 3 Aums and the shlokas from the assembly slides.  We started with a video story of Krishna and Kalia serpent. As the kids had done a good job with the annual presentation practice last class, I had promised to start this class with a video story. We then looks at Ksha . We do not have the alphabet X in sanskrit language. Instead we have ksha- we saw Kshamaa starting with Ksha. Kshamaa means forgiving others. We discussed that forgiving others is not easy, but doing is good for our mental and physical health. We should try and forgive others who hurt us instead of taking revenge and holding grudges. We saw the story of how rishi Brighu tested Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma and Vishnu won and was considered the greatest Bhagavan. This is because he was able to forgive Brighu even though he kicked him in the chest while Vishnu was taking a nap. We had a practice session and all the kids did a wonderful job of presenting about their ishta Devataa. We finished the class with another story of Krishna- Krishna and Govardhan parvat. No homework except to continue to practice for annual presentation. Please help the kids to remember to bring the ishta devataa presentation material to the class next week.

April 13

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We started with V for Vedas. There are 4 Vedas given by Brahma. The books give us knowledge about various things like Dharma, medicine, etc. The Gayatri mantra is from the Rigveda. We finished V with V for Vishnu who takes care of the world. We started with W for work. We saw the story of Varadaraja, who was upset because he did understand his lessons. He saw the marks of the soft rope on the hard wall of the well and understood the practice will help him be a better student and he became a famous Sanskrit scholar. We finished w with Worship. We saw story of Pundalika, who changed and did service to his parents. Bhagavan Krishna visited him even though he did not do any puja, because he considered this Seva to parents as a form of worship. So we should do all our work keeping Bhagavan in mind and it becomes a puja. The kids did a great job of reciting the shlokas for the annual presentation. They also did well in the Ishta Devataa portion.

April 6

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last class. We covered S for Sathya. We should always speak the truth. We finished S with Svarga. This is the place where people who have done good things like Danam, have Bhakti, do Seva etc go after death. There is a party all the time in Svarga. We looked at T for tilak, the different shapes of the tilaks depending on the Deity worshipped. We also looked at T for Theertha or places of pilgrimage. We also finished U for Uma. Uma is another name of Parvati. All the kids were able to answer the quiz about Parvati. We finished U with Utsav which means celebration. We continued with our practice for the annual day presentation.

March

March 23

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums.We discussed the homework from last week which was to color page 71 and clean up the book shelf . We started with S fo Seva . Seva means helping others. We saw examples of Seva and also the story of Krishna. Even though he was the special guest, he cleaned dirty dishes as Seva the the rajasuya ceremony of Yudhishtir. We then looked at S for Sanskrit. We saw that it was one of the old languages of the world. We have already learnt many Sanskrit words like Ahimsa, Dayaa, Danam etc. We continued with practicing for the annual presentation. We did not have time for a game of hangman.

The home work is to do any Seva during the week and give example next class

March 16

Hari Om! We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We covered R for respect.We should respect our parents, grandparents, teaches and other elders. We also saw R for Rishi- a person who meditates, worships Bhagavan and is learned in Vedas and Gita. We finished R with R for Rama- the 8th avatar of Vishnu who killed the evil king Ravana. We started S for Shiva. All the kids were able to identify all the Deities and their vehicles like mooshik, Nandi etc in the picture on page 72. We started with S for Saraswati. She is the Goddess of Knowledge and is represented by books. So we should always take good care of our books. We practiced the shlokas for the annual presentation. Many kids were ready with their individual Ishta Devata presentation. We finished the class with a game of hangman. The homework is 1- Color the picture of coronation of Rama on page 71 2- Clean up the book shelf at home as a mark of respect to Saraswati 3- continue practicing for the annual presentation

March 9

Materials covered in class: ‘ Q’ for Quiet. Practiced Shloka recitation and Ishadevataas for the annual day presentation.

Homework for this week: To practice asssembly Shlokas and their IshtaDevataas. 

                           Request you to spend sometime on writing few lines (3-4 lines) about their Ishta Devataas on the back of their Shloka recitation paper which I have attached for your reference so that it would be easier for the kids to practice.

Also learnt about ‘Q’ for Quiet. We should not  keep talking all the time and we should speak only when we have too. Also, Read the story  “ The tortoise and the two swans “ which highlights the importance of staying quiet even when others tease us.

February

February 23

We started the class by chanting 3 OM’s. We started with the letter ‘O’. We learned that O stands for OM and Obedience. Also, we learned that OM is the best name of Bhagvan. We saw how OM is written in different scripts. Obedience means listening to elders. It is the Dharma of children to be obedient to their parents and Gurus.

We also learned that the letter ‘P’ stands for Pita ( father) to whom should we give respect to. Also ‘P’ stands for Parvati. We learnt about Parvati getting married to Lord Shiva and that the wedding anniversary of Shiva and Parvati is celebrated as “ Shivaratri”. The letter ‘P’ also stands for Puja, where we sit in front of a murti of Bhagvan in our home or in Mandir. 

We also practiced the Shlokas and Ishta Devataas of kids who were ready to share today.

 Today’s H/W:

 1) Ask your kid to see if they can narrate the story of how Devi Parvati got married to Lord Shiva. 

 2) Kindly make your kids practice these Sholkas and Ishta Devataas as much as they can at home. 

February 16

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We chanted the assembly prayers. Many kids had remembered the homework from last week to give our mothers a hug. We continued with M for Mandir. Mandir is a place where we Hindus worship our Bhagavan. We can pray to Bhagavan anywhere- ours homes, in our hearts etc but it is more fun to do it at the Mandir. We saw the pictures of different Mandirs with different builds. We then saw M for Murti - the idol/ staute of Bhagavan. We pray to Bhagavan in the form of different muritis at home and at the temple. We covered M for mantra which is a prayer to Bhagavan. We saw the Gayatri mantra earlier when we covered G. We finished M for Muruga. Muruga is another name for Bhagavan Karttikeya. We then started with N for Namaste which we use to greet each other - it means i love and respect the Bhagavan in you. We then looked at N for Naraka. Naraka is a place where we are punished for our bad karma after our death. We saw the different ways to avoid going to Naraka example doing good Karma, practicing Ahimsa, doing danaam and showing dayaa. We then saw N for Nataraja - the dancing pose of Shiva - a form in which Shiva is worshiped in many temples. We finished N with Narayana - another name of Vishnu. We saw the story of how Vishnu/Narayana came to the rescue of Gajendra - the king of Elephants when he was being pulled into the water by a crocodile. We finished the class by watching the Gajendra Moksha story on you tube.

February 9

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting 3 Aums together. We started with L for Lingham.Shiva is worshipped in 3 forms. The Lingam is one of them. It is in the shape of a mountain. We then looked at L for Lakshmi. She is the goddess of wealth. We covered the concept of wealth which is not just currency and jewelry, it also includes things like prosperity, knowledge and even our children. We finished L with L for Lobha which means Greediness. We should know that the difference between need and wants. We saw the story of the greedy traveler. Please ask your kids to explain the story. We started M with Ma which means mother.We saw that we should always respect and obey our mothers. We had a practice session of the shlokas.Many kids also practiced their Ishta Devata also. Please help your kids with their Ishta Devataa presentation if they are not already ready. We finished the class with a game of hangman.The home work is to give a hug to your mother and to continue practice for the annual presentation.

February 2

Hari Om, We started the class with 3 Aums. We completed K for Krishna and Karttikeya. Karttikeya is another name of Murugan who is another son of Shiva and Parvati and younger brother of Ganesha. Most of the kids were able to tell the 2 pictures apart with Krishna's flute. We started with L for lotus.  The lotus closes itself without letting the dirty water inside. Similarly, we might be surrounded by people with bad habits , we should not allow evil thoughts and bad habits to affect us. Many deities hold a lotus in the hand or sit on the lotus. The list of 6 shlokas that we will be reciting for the annual presentation was given to each of the kids. We practiced the shlokas a few times. A couple of kids were also ready with their ishta devataa presentation. If the kids write down their ishta devataa presentation on this same paper, it would be easy to carry just one sheet on the stage. We will continue to practice for the coming presentation at the end of each class. We finished the class with a game of hangman. Please help your kids come up with 2-4 sentences about their ishta devataa and have it written down in the sheet of paper with the shlokas

I have shared the list of kids-Ishta Devataa. We do have a couple of kids who have to confirm their choices.

January

January 26

We started the class with 3 Oms. We noted down the Ishta Devata chosen by each student. The kids have been asked to come up with 2-4 sentences about their Ishta Devata. We the started with J for Japan, which is repeating OM, or any Bhagavan name or even mantra with Bhakti. It can also be either written, or chanted aloud or just within the mind. We also took a look at Japaamalaa. It usually has 108 beads made of Rudraksh or tulasi seeds or any other bead. It helps us keep count of our Japaa We then started with K for Karma. We looked at different types of Karma and examples of good and bad karma. We finished with K for Krodha or anger.we discussed the effects of Krodha. We saw the story of king Pariksheet. Please ask your kids to tell you the story of how he became angry and did bad things even though he was a good person. The kids came up with many ideas to calm ourselves when we get angry like counting, moving to a different spot, etc. The home work is 

1. Work on Ishta Devata presentation 

2. Write Rama 18 times either on page 44 or on a Separate page

3. Discuss ideas to control anger

January 19

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We chanted the assembly prayers. We had a parent teacher session. The Key points of the session -

 1. We have covered A to H in the Dharma 2 curriculum. We had a test last week and all the kids did well. For the kids who did not make it, I will be giving the test printouts next week when we meet in person.

2. We will start preparation for the annual presentation. The kids will pick an Ishta Devataa and come up with 2-4 sentences about their chosen Deity. They will have chance to individually present on the stage about their Ishta Devataa and as a group the kids will chant 6 shlokas. The annual day presentation date is TBD and i will be providing the printouts for the shlokas. 

3. It is up to the kids/parents to dress up as the Ishta Devataa for this presentation which will be in May 2025-

We continued with the class and saw the story of Narahari whose Ishta Devataa was Shiva. He refused to even take darshan of Vithoba murti (form of Bhagavan Vishnu) to take measurement of the waist to make a gold waistband. He had a blindfold on . But when he touched the murti - he felt the elephant skin of the murti of Shiva. He was surprised to take his blindfold off and see Vithoba/Vishnu. He understood that this was a miracle of Shiva to make him understand that all forms of Bhagavan are one and the same. We finished the class with a 2 minute meditation

January 12

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We had the test today. The kids exchanged the tests to get it corrected as we discussed the correct answers. They all did a great job. The kids have been asked to erase the pencil markings on the test and administer it to either the parents or younger siblings if possible. All the kids were able to recollect the stories of Prahalad etc but did have difficulty remembering the names like Hiraramyakashipu. We started I with Ishvara. Ishvara is another name of Bhagavan. We also started on I for Ishta Devata means favorite God or chosen Deity. We saw that as we all have different favorite colors, people have different favorite Gods. But this doesn't mean that we can disrespect the other forms of Bhagavan as all forms represent the same Bhagavan.

January 5

Hari Om. Happy New Year 2025 to everyone. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. We had our 2nd Meditation session with Ashwiniji today. She gave a story of 2 friends Ram and Shyam. She explained the concept of bridges of relationship between friends, relatives etc. We have to work hard to maintain these bridges. Meditating is a way of maintaining the bridge to reach God within ourselves. We had a 5 minute meditation session. The kids did a wonderful job of being awesome listeners.

There will be a simple test of matching from the material we have covered till now. From A to H next week.

December

December 15

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. We discussed the home work from last class. Today we reviewed different topics from the material we have covered till now from A to H. We covered some festivals like Diwali, Holi like how and why we celebrate. We covered some concepts like Ahimsa, Dayaa, Daanam etc. we will be having a test on the material covered till date when the kids come back from Winter break. Most of the kids were able to recollect at least some parts of what was discussed. We finished the class by watching the story of Hanuman flying to Lanka to look for Sita. Happy Holidays.

December 8

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums together. We briefly discussed the homework from last class. We started H for Hindus. We covered the examples of festivals, different ways of praying and different Bhagavan forms that Hindus worship. We then looked at Holi festival. I am very proud that many kids were able to recollect Prahlad story from B for Bhakti. We then looked at H for Hanuman. We went over the story of how Hanuman jumped over the ocean to search for Sita and returned back after burning down Lanka. We did make a field trip to the mandir upstairs to take darshan of Hanuman and also Vishwakarma. Please have your kids explain to you who Vishwakarma is. We finished H with H for Humility with a story of how the pride of Ravana of being very strong was humbled by Shiva. We finished the class with a game of hangman. We do have a fun homework of finding out the maximum distance in feet that the kids can jump. Hanuman jumped over more than 100 yojanas to reach Lanka.

After the winter break, there will be a simple test of simple tasks of matching the pictures to words from the material covered from A to H. I will be reviewing the material in the coming class. Please encourage your kids to review the concepts we have covered so far. 

November

November 24

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We quickly discussed the homework from 2 weeks ago. We started with G for Gayatri Mantra. We chanted the Gayatri Mantra which is a prayer to the Sun God Surya Bhagavan. We saw the story of how this mantra appeared before Sage Vishwamitra. We saw G for Bhagavan Gita. Bhagavan Krishna gave the Gita to Arjuna in the middle of the battlefield. I gave a very brief summary of the story of Kurukshetra war. The Gita gives us many concepts of Bhagavan, duty, detachment, meditation etc. Every Hindu House usually has the book. The Gita has been translated into more than 100 languages. We then covered G for Ganesha. We saw all the things we can learn from Ganesha. I went over the story of how Ganesha got the head of an elephant. We finished G with G for Ganga. We went over the story of how/why King Bhagiratha had the river Ganga flow from the heavens to earth. We saw how the river first falls on the head of Shiva and then flows down to earth. Ganga is a very holy river and a dip in the river is believed to be very beneficial to us. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

We have 2 home works this week 

1. To take darshan of the Bhagavad Gita if you have it at home and to note the language it is in. 

2. To find out the names of 2 more rivers- 1 from India and 1 from the U.S. 

Archana and Lakshmi

Dharma 2 teachers

November 17

Hari Om. Today we had a meditation class with Ashwini Ji. She started the class by teaching the kids what it means to be an “Awesome Listener” (eyes on speaker, listening, quiet voices, hands to yourself, staying in personal bubble space). She then told the students a story relating to mediation. Following the story, we had the students practice mediation for 5 minutes, which everyone was excellent at! We finished the class with awarding everyone with a round of applause for being “Awesome Listeners”

November 10

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting aum 3 times. We finished E with e for mother Earth. We discussed how like a mother Earth gives us many things like water, plants, etc without expecting anything in return. We discussed various ways of saving precious resources like water, electricity and keeping earth clean. We started F for faith. Faith beans belief and Shraddha is our faith in Bhagavan..that Bhagavan will take care of us. In F for friendship we saw the story of Krishna and his friend Sudhama. Sudhama's gift of poha was special to Krishna because of the love behind the gift. Also Krishna understood the needs of Sudhama even though he did not tell Krishna about his troubles. We started G for guru. Guru is anyone from who we learn something. Our first teachers are our parents. We should respect our Gurus. Homework for the week. 1. Give a friend a big hug. 2. Find out what percentage of human body is made of water

November 3

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We briefly shared how we celebrated Diwali. We continued with D for Daanam. Daanam means sharing what we have like toys, clothes etc. We saw the story of king Svetha who gave Daanam of everything but food. So while he lived in heaven, he had to come to earth to eat garbage. He spread the message through sage Agasthya that we should do anna Daanam. We then covered D for Dayaa. Dayaa means being kind to others around us. Ask the kids the story of Prince Siddharth and the swan. The homework this week is to do any 2 acts of Dayaa...that is being kind. We started E for Ek. Ek means One. Bhagavan is one even though he has many forms. Next we saw E for Ektha - unity. When we think of others before we think of ourselves we can be united. We saw the story of how Devaas won the contest of eating ladoos without bending the elbows by feeding each other. We also shared the different costumes everyone wore for Halloween. We finished the class with a game of Hangman.

October

October 27

Hari Om, We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the home work from last class.. cleaning our homes/ area to make Goddess Lakshmi happy. We then looked at D for Diwali. We saw the different ways of celebrating Diwali, by lighting crackers, wearing new clothes, eating Diwali sweets, making rangoli designs and lighting lamps. We did a Diwali craft project. The kids colored the lamp which was then put together by the teenage assistants. We have shared the picture of the kids holding their Diwali lamps. We also saw the story of how lamps were lit on the Amavasya night of Ram's return to Ayodhya to help the safe landing of the Pushpak Viman in which Ram, Lakshman, Seetha and Hanuman travelled. No home work for this week.

October 13

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the home work from last week. We finished C with Chitta and Clean. Chitta means our heart where our Aatma and Bhagavan reside. We saw that Lakshmi - Goddess of wealth likes cleanliness. That is why we clean our homes before doing Lakshmi Pooja on Diwali. The home work for the week is to clean their personal space. We started D with Dharma. Dharma means our duty. As a student we discussed that it was the kids duty to do homework, study, listen to the elders etc. We then saw D for Durga. We saw the story of the asura Mahisha who thought women are weak and got a boon to be killed only by a woman. We saw how all the Gods gave their special powers to Durga who rode on a lion and killed Mahishasura after a 10 day battle which is celebrated as Navrathri and Dushera. We had a quick field trip to pray to Durga in the upstairs Mandir. We finished the class with a game of Hangman

October 6

Happy Navratri to everyone 🙏 We started the class with 3 Aums. We had the children who finished coloring homework from last week to display their works to everyone. Please remind your children about the HATS homework during the week. We finished B with B for Buddhi. Buddhi means intelligence - the power to make decisions. We discussed that children who listen to their parents, teachers etc get the Buddhi to make good choices. We also talked about how our Buddhi is placed by Bhagavan in our brains in our skull. We discussed different ways to keep our heads safe from injury by using helmets during sports, not head diving in a shallow pool etc. We started C with Cow. We saw how Krishna loved cows and Shiva loves Nandi- a bull. This is the reason many Hindus do not eat beef which is cow meat. We then covered C for conch and C for Chakra. I have asked the children to note the things that are held by Vishnu in his hands the next time they visit the Mandir upstairs. We saw the story of king Ambarish who was a devotee of Vishnu. Please have your children recount the story of how Vishnu used the Sudarshana Chakra to save king Ambarish.  The fun homework for the week was to note down the time each kid took to take a shower. In the story Sage Duravasa took hours to return from his bath to create mischief for king Ambarish. We did not have time for a game of hangman.

September

September 29

We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the home work from last week. Many kids stated the names and the meaning of the names of the parents and siblings. The kids who forgot the homework can share next week. We started with B for Brahma the creator. He had 4 Vedas which has a lot of knowledge in it. We looked at B for Bhakti. Bhakti means the love for God. We saw the many ways we can show our love for God. We then saw the story of Prahalada. His father Hiranyakashipu wanted everyone to pray to him and not Vishnu. He thought he was more powerful than Bhagavan as he had 4 conditions attached to his death in a boon from Brahma. Ask the kids how Vishnu satisfied the conditions and how he protected Prahalada from harm. We saw the story of Holika. We saw how Vishnu came as Narasimha to kill Hiranyakashipu. The homework is to color the pictures in page 14 and 15. We finished the class with a game of Hangman 

September 22

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums. We did a quick review of last week's class. I am very proud to say that between them the kids were able to answer all the questions. The textbooks were distributed today. We continued with A for Avatara- This when Bhagavan takes a form to protect the devotees from evil people. We talked about the popular Avatara- of Vishnu such as Ram, Krishna etc. We finished A with A for Atma- Atma is what gives life to any living thing. We did a review of how living things are different from non living things. Please take the time to ask you children about these differences. We concluded that we should take good care of living things and non living things. We started B for Bhagavan. We saw that Bhagavan has different names and forms that we can worship. Each of these names and form has a unique meaning and significance. The homework for the week is to gather the meaning of the names of everyone in the family- parents and siblings if any. We finished the class with a hangman's game. Please help your child to bring the text book and 1 pencil to the class.

September 15

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums. After a brief session to introduce everyone, we started the curriculum with A for Aum. Aum is a name for Bhagavan. Bhagavan has many names and it is difficult to remember all the names. So we can Chant Aum instead. A is from BrahmA the creator, U is from VishnU the preserver and M is from Mahesh (another name of Shiva) the destroyer. We learnt some cool facts about each of these Gods. Please have the children share these facts with you. We also saw A for Ahimsa which means non violence. We must practice Ahimsa as Bhagavan lives in each of us. We saw the story of Ganesha and Parvati. As Parvati is the mother of the entire universe, when Ganesha hurt the cat, Parvati also felt the hurt. We finished the class game of hangman. There is no home work this week. We hope to get the textbooks by next week.

Archana and Lakshmi

Dharma 2 teachers

September 8

Namaste parents,

Welcome to Dharma 2. Here is a summary of what was discussed at the meet and greet session yesterday. My name is Archana and I will be the Dharma 2 teacher. The textbooks will be distributed over the next 2-3 weeks. The curriculum includes simple concepts from Hinduism explained with a lot of age appropriate stories. I closely follow the book and do give simple homework tasks. I will provide class summary in this group each week by Monday or Tuesday. Right now I only require bringing the textbook and a pencil to the class. Reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. Looking forward to seeing all the kids next Sunday.