May

May 15

Hari Om We started the last class with 3 Oms and the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. We discussed that doing regular meditation helps our minds become sharper. We practiced the Ishta devata presentation and the chanting of the 8 shlokas. I am very excited for the upcoming annual presentation. We had a meditation session of 2 minutes and a game of hangman. I look forward to seeing you all in person next week. The program starts at 9:30 and at approximately 10:30 Dharma 2 will be giving our presentation. Please invite your friends and family to the event.

May 8

Hari Om. We resumed our online class today. We started the class with 3 Oms and chanted the assembly shlokas. We saw a presentation for Mother's Day. We saw how our scriptures sees Divinity in Motherhood. All the children shared what they did for their mothers on this special day. We finished the curriculum today. We finished Y for Yoga and Yajna. We saw the story of Swami Vivekananda - how the practice of meditating (Yoga) everyday will improve the power of the mind. The enabled Swami Vivekananda to read big volumes of books within minutes. The homework is for the children to pick any number of pages in the dharma book. Note the start and finish time and report the number of minutes it took for the kids to read the pages. Yajna is a worship ceremony where various items such as food, flower, herbs etc are offered to Gods by putting them in the Yajna fire. We believe that Agni God will deliver the things offered into the fire to the Devatas in heaven. Lastly we saw Z for Sleep (zzz). We saw that we should pray to our Ishta Devata before we sleep. We should be afraid of bad dreams or darkness as Bhagavan will always protect. We should go to bed early and get up on time. We finished the class with a meditation session and chanting of 3 Oms.

May 1

Hari Om, We had our last in-person class this week. We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. We chanted the prayers for the annual presentation and also practiced the individual Ishta Devata presentation. We visited the Deities in the temple. We had a mini quiz at each of the Deity shrine to review what we know about the Deity. We also had a quick look at the stage on which the kids will be performing on May 22nd. Then we had a story session and went over the story of Prahalad and Narasimha the avatar of Vishnu. We practiced the Shlokas and the presentation once more before finishing the class

April

April 24

Hari Om. We started the in person class with the chanting of 3 Oms. It was very nice to see all the children in person. We practiced chanting the shlokas for the annual presentation. Each of the kids also practiced their individual presentation of their ishta devata. We had a field trip like visit to the temple upstairs. We discussed the names, vehicles and various other details of each of the Deity that we visited in the temple. After our visit we had a story session about the Deities of Krishna, Subhadra and Balaraman at the Jaganath temple at Puri in Orissa India. We practiced the individual presentation of the ishta devata once again before ending the class

April 17

We started the class with chanting of the assembly shlokas and went over the presentation about Hanuman Jayanti. We looked at W for Worship and learned a story about Pundalika who worshipped Bhagavan Krishna by taking care of his parents. We also learned X for Kshamaa and talked about forgiving others. There was another story about Rishi Brighu who tested Bhagavans Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu on their Kshamaa. We finished class with hangman, meditation, and chanting of 3 Aums. Their homework is to help their parents with at least one task for two weeks.

April 10

Hari Om, We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We went over the presentation about Ram Navami and the Chaitra Nav Ratri. We saw the different stories behind this festival and how we can celebrate these festivals. All the kids shared the homework from last class - about which was their favorite festival and why. We looked at V for Vedas and V for Vishnu. We discussed about Bhagavan Vishnu. We looked at W for Work. We saw the story of Varadaraja who decided work hard and practice his lessons after school and became intelligent. We practice the annual presentation - the part about Ishta Devata. We finished the class with a game of hangman, meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums. There is no homework this week.

March

March 27

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We had a presentation of the Gudi Padwa festival. We discussed how the various regions of India celebrate the new year per the Hindu calendar in different ways and have different names- Gudi Padwa, Ugadhi, Baisakhi etc. We discussed the homework from last week. All the children shared how they helped their family/friends in different ways. We looked a T for Tilak and T for Teertha - Holy places. We also looked at U for Uma and Utsav. Uma is a different name for Parvati who is the Godesses for power. Utsav means festival. We saw how various festivals are celebrated. The homework is to come up with what is your favorite festival - why and how you celebrate it. We practiced the Ishta Devata part of the annual celebrations. We had game of hangman, a session of meditation and finished the class with 3 Aums.

March 20

Hari Om . We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week- to clean the book shelf as books are considered a form of Goddess Saraswati. A few did state that they had forgotten and should be cleaning/rearranging their book shelf today after class. We covered S for seva. Seva is helping others without expecting anything in return. We saw the story of Krishna doing the seva of cleaning the dirty dishes even though he was an important person. We covered S for Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the language used in ancient India. All the Vedas and Upanishads are written in Sanskrit. During Dharama 2 classes we have learnt many Sanskrit words like Daanam, Karma, paapa, punya etc. We also looked at S for Sathya- truth. We should always speak the truth. We saw the story of the boy who cried wolf and was not believed as he had spoken lies many times. We finished with S for Svarga. This is the place we go to when do a lot of punya. It is a nice place with lots of happiness and light. All the kids practiced facts about their Ishta Devata. We finished the class with a game of hangman, meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums. The homework is to do 1 act of seva for anyone- siblings, parents teachers etc. and state it in the next class.

March 13

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. We had a presentation for the festival of Holi. We saw the different stories behind Holi and also the different ways it is celebrated around India. The children shared the homework from last week. A few kids had forgotten to color page 71. They can color and share next week. We covered S for Shiva and S for Sarasvati. We saw the Sarasvati is the Goddess of Knowledge and is usually depicted as holding a Veena, books and japamala. We consider books- which are sources of knowledge as representing Goddess Sarasvati. We should always keep our books neat, in a proper place and treat the books with respect. The homework for the week is to clean each one's book shelf for next week. We practiced for the upcoming annual presentation. Many kids have been changing their minds about their Ishta Devata. That is okay. But I will not allow any changes after March 31st . We finished the class with a game of hangman, meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums

We have decided to have the annual presentation in person on May 22nd. It will be on the stage in front of live audience in the auditorium. As the format has changed , we will be changing what the kids will be presenting. They will be stating their name, age, and Ishta Devata and 2-4 facts about their Ishta Devata. After this instead of each child chanting reciting 1 shloka, all the kids will present a few shlokas together. These will be from the shlokas that are chanted every Sunday. I will be providing the list of shlokas as i am able to decide the time available for this.

It is the choice of the kids to dress up as their Ishta Devata- I have had kids wear cardboard crowns, spears, their mom's jewelry, dhoti, saree etc. in the past. Even if the child does not want to dress up- they should still be in an Indian dress. I am hoping to be able to hold at least 2 rehearsals in the temple before the presentation date. As stated, before the children are not required to memorize. They can read from a paper. I will be on the stage with the kids helping them by holding mike.

March 6

Hari Om We started the class with chanting of Aum 3 times and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. The kids came up with different strategies to wait patiently in a queue - play tic tac toe, make a drawing, deep breathing, pick objects with different colors etc. We went over Q for quiet. We should not be talking all the time. We should wait for our turn to share our stories and talk only when we have something meaningful to share. We saw the story of how the tortoise lost his life because he could not keep quiet. We saw R for respect- how we should respect our parents, grandparents and other elders. We also saw R for Rishi and R for Rama. The homework is to color the picture of the coronation of Rama on page 71. We practiced the annual presentation. A few kids are yet to prepare. Please help your kids to write down 2-4 facts about their chosen deity and also the shloka that they have chosen. They can read from the paper too. We will keep practicing in the upcoming classes. We finished the class with a game of hangman, session of meditation and chanting of 3 Aums.

A reminder to purchase the tickets for the Holi event to be held on March 26th at the Osseo High school.

February

February 27

Hari Om . We started the class with chanting Aum 3 times and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We saw the presentation about Shivrathri. We looked at the stories for why this festival is celebrated. We saw the different ways Shiva is depicted. We also had a small quiz about Shiva. We finally saw a few ways of how we can celebrate Shivarathri- chanting Shiva shlokas, refrain from eating meat, eggs,etc and try to have only good thoughts. We discussed the homework from last week. Many children shared the OM that they had written . All the kids had also shared the Ishta Devata and recited a shloka and a few facts about the chosen deity. We will be practicing these lines and shlokas each class till the annual presentation. The kids need not memorize the lines. It can be written down too. We looked at Paapa and Punya and P for Pandit. We also covered P for Patience. We also saw the story of the Brahmana and the Mongoose and saw how one should be patient . The home work is to come up with just 1 idea of how you can be patient while waiting in a queue. We had a game of hangman, a session of meditation and chanted Aum 3 times to end the class

February 20

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. The children shared the amount of time they were able to hold the tapas pose. It is not very easy to stay in that pose with balance. We covered O for Om or Aum and O for obedience. We saw how Aum is the best name of Bhagavan the is used to meditate and do japa. We saw how being obedient to our parents, teachers and elders is the dharma of the children. We saw P for Pita - father. We should all listen to our father. We saw P for Parvati. We saw the story of how Parvati got married to Shiva. Shivaratri festival is celebrated for this. On Shivrathri, cekebrtions , pujas etc are done all night. We covered P for Puja. Puja is one way of worshiping Bhagavan at home or in the temple. Flowers, prasad, light, chanting of mantras etc is done during Puja. The homework for this week is to select any 1 script from page 63 and write Om 11 times in that chosen script. We ended the class with a game of hangman, session of meditation and chanting of Aum 3 times.

We also discussed the annual presentation. Each kid has selected 1 Ishta Devata. They have to come up with 2-4 facts about the chosen deity and 1 shloka to chant. The shloka need not be about the Deity. I will share the google sheet with the details. 3 kids are yet to decide the Ishta Devata. I also wanted to add that the children can choose to dress up as the Deity.

February 13

Hari Om Parents. We started the class with 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. Each of the kids stated the names of a few of the Deities whose murtis/pictures are in the pooja room. We saw M for Mantra andM for Muruga. We saw the story of Gayatri Matra. This is considered the most powerful mantra. We saw the story of Vishwamitra , Vashista and Kamadhenu. We covered N for Namaste, Naraka ,Nataraja and Narayana . We saw how doing bad karma will lead to suffering punishments in Naraka- Hell. We saw Nataraja - the dancing pose of Shiva. Shiva is considered the king of Dance. We saw the story of how Narayana saved the life of Gajendra. We discussed the murthi of Garuda in our Hindu Mandir. I have requested that the children should make a special namaste to Garuda and let me know when they visit the temple the next time. The homework for this week is to see how many minutes each one can stand in the tapas pose. It is the tree pose in the yoga asana language. I have also let the children know that if they do not feel comfortable to hold this pose, they do not need to do the homework. I do want them to injure themselves in any way. We ended the class with a game of hangman, meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums.

February 6

We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. We saw the presentation about Vasant Panchami celebration of spring season. We learnt of new facts of how Saraswati is worshipped during the spring celebrations in different countries. All the children shared their piggy banks as part of homework from last week. We looked at M for Ma mother. We saw how we should always respect our mothers. We saw M for Mandir . We saw templed of the different designs and the different rules followed in Mandir. We as M for Murti - and how we should do darshana of Murtis. We finished the class with a game of hangman, meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums . The homework is to list the Gods whose murtis/pictures are there in the pooja area of our homes.

January

January 30

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of Aum 3 times and the assembly shlokas. the children shared the Rama that they had written for homework. We continued the discussion of Krodha from last week. We discussed a few ways of calming our minds when we get angry like taking deep breaths, counting , involving adults etc. We covered L for Lotus, L for Linga. We discussed the different forms of Shiva. We saw L for Lakshmi. Lakshmi is Goddesses of Wealth. We saw that wealth comes in different forms like knowledge, bravery, etc. We saw L for Lobha. We saw the story of the Greedy traveller. We discussed how we should not be greedy. We finished the class with a game of hangman, session of meditation and chanting of Om 3 times. The homework for today is to share the piggy bank the kids have. It is okay if the kids do not have a piggy bank to share.

January 23

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of Aum 3 times and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. Each of the kids stated their Ishta Devata and a few facts about their ishta devata. We covered J for Japa and Japa Maalaa. We saw how Japa can be done by chanting, thinking or writing. We also saw how a Japa Maalaa is used to keep count of how many times we do the Japa. We saw K for Karma and K for Krodha. We saw the different types of Karma. We saw the story of Pariksheet - how he became angry and suffered bad consequences . We had a game of hangman and a session of meditation and ended the class. The homework is to write Rama 18 times in the lines on page 44 in the Dharma book. We should also think of Bhagawan when we write this name.

January 16

Hari Om. We started the class with the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We had a session for the parent teacher conference. We discussed the homework from last week. We covered H for humility. We saw the story of how Ravana's pride was crushed by Shiva. We saw that we should not be proud because Bhagavan is the one who is most powerful, beautiful and knowledgeable. We then covered I for Isvara- another name for Bhagawan and I for ishta Devata. We saw the story of Narahari the goldsmith who refused to see the idol of Vithoba- Vishnu because his ishta devata was Shiva. We saw how Narahari learned that all Gods are one. We had a game of hangman, a session of meditation and finished the class with 3 Aums. The homework for next week is to state who each one's ishta devata is and a few facts about the chosen God

December

December 19

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. We had a meditation session with Ashwini aunty. We had a session of the wiggling hands to show we have control of our body. We discussed 2 goals for 2022 for our health. We saw the story of John Roebling and his son Washington. How they had the idea of building the Brooklyn bridge and followed their idea even though they had many difficulties. We had a 5 minute meditation session and finished the class with chanting of 3 Aums.

December 12

Hari Om We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums and the Assembly shlokas. We saw the presentation for Gita Jayanthi and looked at various facts about the Bhagavad Gita. We covered G for Ganesha and G for Ganga river. We saw the story of how Ganga came down to Earth from Heaven. Bhagirath prayed to Shiva to first take the force of Ganga falling from Heaven on his head and then the river flows gently to other places on earth. The homework is to find out names of 2 other rivers that flow in India. We finished the class with a meditation session, game of hangman and chanting of 3 Oms.

December 5

Hari Om We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums and the Assembly shlokas. We had a special meditation session with Ashiwiniji. We saw that we make better choices when we have a calm body and mind. We saw the story of the Chinese scholar.We discussed how to meditate and the benefits of meditation. We had a meditation session for 7 minutes. We closed the class with chanting of 3 Aums

November

November 21

Hari Om. We started the last class with chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly shlokas. Many kids shared the pictures colored by them. We covered F for faith and F for friendship. We saw the story of the friendship of Sudhama and Krishna. We discussed many activities we like to do with our friends and how we help our friends.We also saw G for Guru and G for Gayathri mantra. We saw the story of how sage Vishwamitra was given the Gayathri mantra. We also looked at G for Gita- the song of Krishna as told to Arjuna during the big war in Mahabaratha. We discussed about the spirit Thanksgiving. The homework for the week was to find out the story of how the tradition of Thanksgiving started. We finished the class with a meditation session, game of hangman and 3 Aums

November 14

HariOm. We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the shlokas. The kids shared examples of how they showed Dayaa and Daanam (sharing). We covered E for Ek, Ekta and Earch. We saw the Bhagavan is One (Ek) and all the different names - Ganesha, Shiva etc are forms of the same God. We saw how we should show unity Ekta with our family, friends countrymen. We saw the story of Devtas and Asuras - of how Devatas passed the test from Brahma by showing ekta- by thinking of others before them. We finally saw E for earth. How earth provided us many things like a mother and so is called mother Earth. We saw different ways of helping keep Earth a nice place by saving water, not wasting electricity. The homework is to color the pictures on the story of the Asuras and Devas . We completed the class with a game of hangman, session of meditation and chanting of 3 Aums

November 7

Hari Om. We started the class eith 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. We talked about the amount of effort and devotion to get the blessings of Bhagavan. We covered D for Danam and Dayaa. Danaam means sharing . We saw the story of King Svetha who had to eat garbage because he did not do any ann danaam. We also saw the story of Buddha - how the king decided that prince Siddhartha who showed dayaa to the wounded bird had more right to the bird than Devadutta who hunted the bird. We saw that we should practice both Dayaa and Danaam to make Bhagavan happy. We finished the class with a game of hangman, a session of meditation and 3 Aums.

The homework for this week is to come with examples of how the students have practiced Dayaa and Daanam - sharing.

October

October 31

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We covered the presentation of the Diwali. We discussed the homework from last week. All the kids shared what they did to keep their room/home . We covered D for dharma, D for Durga and D for Diwali. We saw the story of Mahishsura who stood on 1 leg for many years praying to Brahma and got a boon. The homework for this week is to see how long they can stand on 1 leg. We discussed the various ways Diwali is celebrated. We finished the class with a game of hangman, a meditation session and 3 Aums

October 24

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums and the assembly prayers. We saw the presentation for Dussera. We discussed the homework from last class. Everyone shared their helmet and the Raavana project ( kids who participated). We looked at the story of king Ambarisha. How Bhagavan protected his bhaktas all the time. We also saw C for Chitta and C for clean. We saw how Godesses Lakshmi will shower wealth on people who keep their homes and chitta clean. The homework for the kids is to share ways of how they help keep their home/room clean. We had a game of hangman and a session of meditation. We concluded the class with 3 Aums

October 10

Hari Om We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the shlokas. We saw the presentation about Navratri and how the 3 Devis are worshipped. The children shared the different ways of how they helped their parents this past week- as part of homework. We then covered B for Buddhi.- intelligence given by God. We saw how we should wear a Helmet to protect ourselves from brain injury. We covered C for Cow. Cows are gentle animals who are loved by Krishna. That is one of the reasons Hindus refrain from eating Cow meat.We also covered C for conch and C for chakra- carried by Lord Vishnu. The homework for next class is to share your helmet. We finished the class with a short meditation session, a game of hangman and 3 Aums.

October 3

Hari Aum. We started the class with the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We saw a presentation about Gandhiji and how he promoted Ahimsa. All the kids shared their drawing/coloring of their favorite Devata. We looked a B for Bhakti- our love for Bhagavan. We covered the story of the greatest Bhakta Prahalada- how Bhagavan Vishnu came in the form of Narasimha to protect his bhakta. We also saw the 9 forms of how we can show our love to Bhagavan. Today's homework is for the kids to come up with 2 ways of how they helped their parents during this week. The kids have already agreed that helping our parents is one of showing our love for them. We had a meditation session, a game of hangman and finished the class with 3 Aums

September

September 26

Hari Om We started the class with 3 Aums and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week. All the kids discussed the meaning of their and their family member's names. We covered A for avatara and A for atma. We saw how Bhagavan has different forms and avataras. We also covered B for Bhagavan and Brahma. The homework for this week is for the children to draw and color a picture of bhagavan. It can be any form . The kids could also download a picture of any God/Godesses from the internet and color it. They can share the pictures by holding it in front of the camera next week. We has a session of meditation. We finished the class with a hangman game and 3 Aums

September 19

We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums and assembly prayers. We had a round of introductions in the class.We covered A for Aum and A for Ahimsa today. We saw how God has many names and chanting Aum is equal to chanting all names. We looked that story of Ganesha and Parvati and discussed how practicing Ahimsa makes Bhagavan happy. Today's homework is to come back with your and the names of the members of your family and the meaning of those names. We had a game of hangman. We completed the class with a meditation session and chanting of 3 Aums