May

May 14

Hari Om We started the class today with chanting of 3 Aums. We had a great year and we celebrated the last class with 2 stories  of Matsya Avatara and Kurma Avatara- the first 2 avatars of the Dasha avatars of Vishnu. Please ask the children what they remember of these 2 stories. I hope to see all of the children in the corridors attending Dharma 3. All of the children did express excitement to start a new year with new stories.

May 7

Hari Om. We had a great annual presentation. All the children did a lovely job with the chanting of the shlokas and their individual part. It was very exciting to see all the dressed-up kids.

We started the class with the chanting of 3 Aums. We had a round of applause for the good job done by our class. We had a quick field trip upstairs. I had a short quiz at each deity and the children were able to provide answers for most of the questions. Later we had a Guess who game with each child getting a chance to ask questions to guess the name ( Deity names ) on their headband. We did distribute some snacks but had the kids get the parental permission before eating.

April

April 30

Hari Om We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We reviewed different words , concepts and stories that we had covered during the year. We then practiced chanting of the shlokas for the annual presentation and also the individual presentation for the upcoming annual presentation. All the children are well prepared. Many of the kids are planning to dress up as their Ishta Devata. The presentation will be during the later half of the assembly. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

April 23

Hari Om! We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We finished with the curriculum for the year with last week. So this week I picked random stories that we have covered during the year and quizzed the kids. I am very proud to state that all the kids remembered not just the stories but also the concept that was discussed when those stories were first told in the class. Everyone remembered the story about cat and Ganesha discussed during  Ahimsa which was taught at the very start of the year. We then practiced the shlokas for the annual presentation and also the individual ishta devata presentation. For the annual presentation the kids can choose to dress up as their Ishta Devata . If they are not dressing up- they should still wear nice Indian clothes. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

April 16

We started the class by recollecting last week’s lesson about Kshamaa and the story of Bhrigu and how Vishnu came to be considered as the greatest forms of Bhagavan. We then continued today’s lesson by talking about the 4 different ways of worshipping Bhagavan like pooja, japa and particularly ‘Y’ for yoga and yajna. We looked at how regular practice of yoga could make our mind and body healthier and increases our concentration by manifold through the story of Swami Vivekanand who could read through many volumes of books in a very short span of time and with utmost attention. We also learned about Yajna and how our offerings of grains, ghee and herbs to the fire were transferred by Agni Devata (Fire God) to the other Devatas in heaven. Yajna also makes the air around us pure and this could also help bringing in more rainfall for us. Finally, we completed our text book lessons by looking at the last alphabet Z zzz for sleep and how it is very important to get plenty of rest after a hard day’s work to relax our brain and body. While sleep is important and we should go to bed on time, we should also learn to wake up on time and not sleep in for too long as that can make us lazy. And practicing to pray to our Ishta Devataa before sleep can help us feel safe (from nightmares or darkness). 

Towards the end of the class, we did a round of ‘Ishta Devata’ presentations by all the kids who were in class today and recited the shlokas. We ended the class by playing a round of hangman!

April 9

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums Sanskrit does not have the alphabet X. So instead we study the alphabet ksha. We covered Kshamaa or forgiveness . We saw how it is our Dharma to forgive others who hurt us and not hold a grudge or take revenge. We discussed how doing Kshamaa is very difficult. However practicing Kshamaa is very good for our own mental and physical well being. We saw the story of how rishi Brighu conducted a test to find out who is the greatest God. He visited Brahma who was also his father. Brahma got very angry when Brighu behaved rudely with him. Saraswati had to calm him down. Next Brighu visited Shiva in Kailaash and told him that he was dirty and covered in ashes. Shiva too got very angry and Parvati had to calm him down.Lastly he visited Vishnu who was taking a nap in Vaikunth. He kicked his chest. But instead of getting angry Vishnu massaged Brighu's feet as his chest is very strong and the kicking would have hurt Brighu. Thus due to his forgiving nature Vishnu was considered the greatest God. Next we practices the chanting of the shlokas for the annual presentation. All but 3 kids are ready with their individual presentation. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

March

March 26

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We started with W fpr wprk. We saw how we should work hard and not be lazy. We saw the story of Varadaraja. He was a weak student .When he noticed that the the soft rope had made a mark on the hard stone in the wall of the well- he realized that he can become more intelligent with practice. We all should work hard and practice more to achieve our goals. We saw W for worship. We can show our Bhakti for Bhagavan in many ways. Doing our work sincerely will make our work as a way to worship. We saw the story of Pundalika. We saw how he changed and started taking very good care of his parents. When Bhagavan Krishna came to visit him, he was massaging the feet of his parents. He asked Krishna to wait on a brick as a stool till he was done. Bhagavan was very happy with his service to his parents and became a Murti - which is now a temple at Pandharpur. We chanted the shlokas as practice for the annual presentation. All the children who were ready also practiced their presentation about their Ishta Devata. We ended the class with a game of hang man.

March 19

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We finished S with Svarga. We discussed how people do a lot of punya go to Svarga after death. We discussed how nice it is in svarga and hwo we should do Danaam, practise ahimsa, show dayaa do japa etc to go to Svarga. We then covered T for Tilak and discussed how people worshiping different Gods wear different styles of Tilak. Please as the kids about this. We finished T with Theertha- which means a holy place. We saw U for Uma - which is another name of Parvathy. We finished U with U fot Utsav - utsav means celebrations. We briefly discussed different festivals- utsav. We then covered V for Veda . There are 4 vedas given by Brahma. We finished V with V for Vishnu. We saw how Vishnu has 10 main avatars and sleeps on the bed made by the Snake Sheshnaga. Majority of the children are ready with talking points about their Ishta Devata. We practiced the chanting of the shlokas for the annual presentation. We finished the class with a game of hangman

March 12

Hari Om! We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week. Many children had remembered and cleaned the book shelves at home. We saw S for Seva today. Seva means helping other - including parnets, friends, and others. Each of the children shared the chores they do at home to help their parents. Many kids do seem to help with dishes. We saw the story of Krishna - who was the chief guest at Yudhistrar's coronation ceremony so the dirty dishes as seva. We also saw the story of Krishna lifting the Govardhan mountain as that was the picture in the book. We then covered S for Sanskrit - this is the language of Devas. Most of the words learnt in Dharma 2 are from Sanskrit for example Karma. japa, bhakti etc.We then saw S for Sathya. Sathya means truth. We must always speak the truth even when it is difficult. Tellling lies is a sin or paapa. We saw the story of the boy who tells lies all the time for a joke and no one helped him when the wolf really came to eat the sheep. We then practiced reciting the shlokas for the annual day presentation. Please help your kids come up with 2-4 sentences about their Ishta Devata. Have them write it down on the same page as the shlokas so that they have 1 page to refer to during the presentation. Only 1 child was ready with the talking points.

March 5

Hari Om.

We started the class with 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week.- it was to color the Rama coronation picture on Page 71. Many children had forgotten to do it. They can color it this week and show next week. We started with Shiva. We saw how Shiva is in charge of destruction of the world when the Yugam is going to end so the Brahma can create a new world. There was a picture of Shiva with his family and various animals. All the children identified each of the deities in the picture along with identifying the connected animal like Nandi the bull for Shiva etc. We then covered S for Saraswati. We discussed the various items she has in her hand. She is the Goddesses of knowledge and is also represented by books. So we Hindus always treat our books with respect by not touching books with our leg, keeping on the ground etc. We had a quick trip to the Saraswati deity upstairs for darshan. The homework for the week is for the children to clean the bookshelves in their room/home. We did a practice of the shlokas that we will be chanting for the HATS annual presentation. There are 8 shlokas and all the kids have a copy of the list. Please help your kids practice the chanting at home. Also help your kids to come up with 2-4 sentences about their Ishta Devata. This can be written on the same page as the shlokas. We will start practicing the part of the Ishta Devata from next week. We had a game of snowman/hangman. We also did a quick review of the story of Prahalad due to the upcoming Holi festival tomorrow.

February

February 26

Hari Om! We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We covered Q for Quiet. We discussed how it is not easy to keep quiet for everyone. We saw the story of the tortoise and 2 swans. We saw how it is difficult to keep quiet when someone is teasing us. We had a small experiment of having everyone keep quiet for 2 minutes with a timer. All the kids did a great job keeping quiet. We then covered R for respect. We discussed how as kids we should show respect to our parents, grandparents etc. We looked at R for Rishi. A Rishi is a person who leads a simple life worshiping and meditation on Bhagavan. We looked at Bhagavan Ram. Ram is the 7th avatar of Vishnu and killed Ravana. The homework is to color the picture of Rama Coronation on page 71. We had a practice session of the shlokas that we will be chanting for our annual day presentation. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

February 19

Hari Om! We started the class by taking about our names for respected elders, such as Didi, Bhayya, and Ji.  Afterwards, we took turns reading from the book. We covered what P for Pooja is, why it is done, and how it is done. The kids all did very nicely in reading from the book. We then learned about P for Punya and Paapa (good karma and bad karma). We discussed examples, and all of the kids contributed very well. Then we learned about P for Pandits and what we can learn from them. Next we looked at the virtue of P for Patience and its importance. We learned this through the story of The Brahmin and the Mongoose. You can ask your kids to tell you the story. We learned the moral of having patience and thinking before we act. After that, we practiced our shlokas for presentation. Also, just a reminder to contact Archana Ji if potential presentation dates of April 23rd, April 30th or May 7th do not work for your child. We ended the class with a short game of hangman.

Today's homework is to sit in front of your murtis at home after taking your shower each day and pray to Bhagavan to bless you with a great day.

February 12

Hari Om! We started the class with the chanting of 2 Aums. We had a little discussion about Shiva Ratri in continuation of the presentation in assembly. We covered P for Pitaa- father. We discussed how everyone in the class called their father differently in different languages. We discussed that we should always obey our fathers. All the kids candidly agreed that they obey their fathers MOST of the times. We then covered P for Parvati. We saw the story of how Parvati meditated for many years to get married to Shiva and how we celebrate Shivaratri festival in honor of their marriage. We then practiced the chanting of the shlokas from the list of shlokas for the annual presentation. We will be practicing every week . Please help your child to bring the paper printout of the shlokas to the class. The homework for the week is to help your child come up with 2-4 talking points about their chosen ishta devata. These can be written in pencil in the same page as the list of shlokas. This way all that needs to be recited can be referred to from just 1 paper on the annual day. We finished the class with a game of hangman/snowman.

Only Ishani and Aayushi are not able to come on April 30th. I have not received any negative responses for the other dates of May 7th or April 23rd. I will be forwarding these dates to Bhakti/Jalpa for annual presentation.

 I have shared a list of the student name and the Ishta Devata chosen. Many kids have selected Krishna. It is okay for the kids to have similar talking points about Krishna. Some kids also stated they wanted to talk about more than 1 Deity . They can do that too

February 5

Hari Om ! We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week. All kids had tried to stand on 1 leg like Shiva in the Nataraja pose. We started O for Om. We saw that Om is a very beautiful name for Bhagavan. It has been given in many different scriptures on page 63. The homework for to choose any script from that page and write Om 5 times in the blank space on that page. We covered O for obedience. Obedience means we should listen and obey what ever our elders tell us. So we should be obedient to our parents, grandparents, teachers , older siblings and other elders. We went on a field trip to have darshan at the Mandir upstairs. We identified where Garuda Murti is situated. I have given the children a list of shlokas for the annual presentation. We will be practicing the shlokas for the annual presentation every week. The children can write 2-4 sentences about their ishta devata on the same page. Dharma 2 will be having their annual presentation during the assembly  at the end of April. The possible dates are April 23rd, April 30th or May 7th. Please reach out to me if you think your child will not be able to make any of these days due to vacation. We will choose 1 date that can accommodate the  most number of children.We finished the class with a guessing game.

January

January 29

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums and the assembly prayers with the announcements. We discussed the previous homework about the Murtis in everyone's puja room. As it was a virtual class, most of the kids shared the view of the prayer alter at their home. We finished M for Mantra - which is a prayer to Bhagavan. We saw M for Muruga which is another name for Kartikeya. We started  N with N for Namaste. It is a way to greet each other especially our elders to show respect to the Bhagavan in each one of us. We then saw N for Naraka - a place where people who do many bad Karmas will go after their death for punishment. We discussed how if we do repent our bad karmas and sincerely pray to Bhagavan- we will be forgiven. We then covered N for Nataraja - a form of Shiva in the dancing pose.The fun homework was for the kids to see how long they can stand on one leg like Nataraja. We lastly finished N with N for Narayana - another name for Vishnu. We saw the story of Gajendra Moksham where Bhagavan helps the elephant king from the crocodile. We then discussed the ishta devata and the anuual presentation. We had a 3 minute session of meditation and a game of hangman.

January 22

Hari Om We started the class with 3 Aums. All the children wore very colorful clothes in celebration of Vasant Panchami . We had a special class for meditation by our guest meditation teacher Ashwini aunty. She told the story of the wise saint in a village who was always happy and seen meditating. A passerby villager asked him how he was happy all the time even though he did not have many things. The wise man replied that he was content with what he had and he was connecting with the light through meditation in his inner eye region and that was the secret of his happiness. When the villager went inside the wise man's house, he saw that there was a big diamond. The saint happily gave the stone to him. The villager took the big diamond to his home. He and his wife decided to hide the diamond in the home. They kept the windows and doors shut to keep the diamond safe from thieves and did not invite people to their home in fear. They realized that the stress of keeping the diamond was robbing their happiness and decided to return the diamond back to the wise sage. It was then the wise man explained to the villager that connecting to God through meditation was the ultimate treasure and this cannot be taken away from anyone. We then paired the kids and had 1 kid meditate while the meditation buddy observed the meditating kid and then switched roles. The children were able to sit still with their eyes closed for the entire 5 minutes.

January 15

Hari Om ! We had a parent teacher conference at the start of the class. Information was given about the annual presentation. It will be a 2 part presentation. In the first part each of the kid will talk about their chosen Ishta Devata. After the individual presentation , all the children will recite some shlokas together. I will be giving the list of shlokas in the coming week.  We will be practicing for about 10 minutes for this each week. The kids can choose to dress up as their chosen deity. In the past i have had kids wear a cardboard crow, jewelry etc.I want the kids to come up with their own talking points. The parents can help- but the original idea should come from the kids. After the conference we chanted Aum 3 times and covered M for Ma or mother. We saw that we should always respect our mother. Next we covered M for Mandir- we saw that Mandir is a special place where we worship Bhagavan in the form of Murtis. We saw the different rules to follow in a mandir- like removing the shoes, not running and shouting etc. We then covered M for Murti is the statue of Bhagavan. We saw that we should do darshan of the Murtis with Bhakti. We discussed how we should not show our backs to the Murti when we move from one deity to another during darshan. We had a game of hangman at the end of the class.

The homework for the week was for the children to note down the names of the Bhagavan whose idols or photos are kept in their home's puja area

I have shared the list of the ishta devatas currently chosen by the kids. We will keep adding to this as the children who are not present today will make their choices.

January 8

Hari Om . We started the class with 3 Aums. We covered K for Krodha. Krodha means anger. We saw how being angry affects our body and mind. We saw the story of Pariksheet - how he became angry and suffered bad consequences. We discussed various ways we can calm ourselves when we get angry and upset like taking deep breaths, counting, diverting our minds by playing a game or reading a book etc. The homework of this week is for the kids to discuss techniques of dealing with being upset and angry with their parents. We started L for lotus. We saw how the flower lotus does not allow muddy water to enter it. similarly, we should keep our Chitta clean even when we are surrounded by people with bad habits. We covered L for Linga. Lingam is the form in which God Shiva is most commonly worshiped. We saw L for Lakshmi Goddesses for wealth. We saw the Ashta Lakshmi for the different types of wealth. We completed L for lobha. Lobha means greedy. We saw the story of the traveler who was killed by the tiger due to his greed for the golden bangle.

We finished the class with a game of hangman. Gentle reminder for the parent teacher conference next week. The first 20-30 minutes of the class will be dedicated to the conferences. Please bring any questions or concerns you may have. If any of you need to have a one-on-one conference, please reach out to me separately and I will arrange some time as needed.

December

December 18

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Oms. We discussed the homework from last week. A few kids will be reviewing their test paper with their parents during the holidays. We covered I for Ishvara. We saw that Ishvara is another name for Bhagavan. We saw how even though Bhagavan has many names - all the names mean the same Bhagavan. We saw I for Ishta Devata. We saw how people can have a favorite form of Bhagavan that we can choose to pray to. However we should recognize that all forms are the same Bhagavan and not disrespect another person's Ishta Devata. We saw the story of Narahari a goldsmith who only worshiped Shiva and did not even want to see the Murti of Vithoba ( an avatar of Vishnu) and wore a blindfold to measure the waist of the murti to make a waistband in gold. However when he felt the Murti he was able to feel the elephant skin of Shiva . He finally realized tha Shiva was teaching him the lesson that Shiva and Vishnu are one and the same. We covered J for Japa- Japa means repeating a name of Bhagavan or a mantra thinking of Bhagavan. We saw that Japa can be done by chanting, thinking or writing of the name or mantra. We also saw J for japamalaa- a string of 108 beads that helps keep count of the japa done. We started with K for Karma. Karma means action and we saw how Karma can be good Karma or bad Karma. We discussed that doing bad Karma is like mixing mud in water and doing good karma is like mixing sugar in water. Bhagavan becomes happy when we do good Karma. We finally covered K for Krishna and K for Karttikeya. We finished the class with a game of hangman. The homework is to write the name of Rama 18 times in the lines provided on page 44.

We just started the discussion for the annual presentation for this year. It will be coming up in April /May. For the presentation each child has to come with the name of their Ishta Devata and come up with 2-4 sentences about their Chosen Deity and we will also be chanting a few shlokas on the stage. We have a lot of time to prepare but i did want the children to start thinking about performing on the stage. Happy Holidays to all. Be safe and stay warm.

December 11

Hair Om ! We discussed the homework from last week which was to review the course material for alphabets from A to H. We had the tests. I was very impressed to see the amount of focus the children had during the test. Some of them did take time to understand what was required. We then had the children correct each others' test papers. The main purpose of the test was to do a deeper review of the topics covered. The homework for today was for the children to erase their answers to the questions and administer the test to their parents. The children were really looking forward to doing this.

December 4

Hari Om, We started the class with 3 Oms. We discussed the homework from last class. Each of the kids did come up with 2 river names from around the world. A few kids had also measured how much they could jump. We completed H fo humility. We saw that humility means not being proud. One of the reasons we should not be proud is that Bhagavan is better than all of us in all aspects. We saw the story of Ravana's pride. We saw how he was proud of his strength and tried to uproot the Kailash mountain. We saw how Bhagavan Shiva was able to crush Ravana under the mountain by pressing the little toe of his right leg lightly. Ravan learnt humility from Shiva. As stated in the last class- we will be having a test next week covering what we have learnt from the beginning of the year.. A to H. We did a quick review of the words and stories till H. The homework is to review pages 3 to 40. We completed the class with a game of hangman.

We will have a test next week. It will be simple like matching words with pictures, circling the right answer etc. Please have the children bring a pencil next weel.

November

November 20

Hari Om We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. We discussed the homework from last week- to find out why we celebrate Thanksgiving. It is to be thankful for everything we get and celebrates the occasion of the Pilgrims and Native Americans being united. We covered G for Ganesha. We saw the story of the birth of Ganesha and how he got an elephant head. We also discussed how we pray to Ganesha as the start of anything to remove obstacles. Then we covered G for Ganga. We saw the story of how the Ganges river came from heaven and first falls on the head of Lord Shiva before flowing on the ground. We started with H for Hindu. We talked about Hinduism being the oldest religion and that people who are Hindus living all over the world. We also covered Holi for holi festival- we referred to the story of Prahalad and his evil aunt Holika. We finally finished with the story of Hanuman. We saw how Hanuman helped Ram by finding out where Sita was kept by Ravana. We saw how Hanuman had many super powers like expanding his size, reducing his size, jumping from India to Lanka and having lots of strength. He increased his size, jumped to Lanka and then reduced his size to look for Sita. When he found Sita he let her know that Rama is on his way to rescue her. He then destroyed the Ashoka garden and allowed the police of Lanka to capture him. When Ravana got angry after knowing that Hanuman was the messanger of Rama, he has fire set to the tail of Hanuman. Hanuman then reduced his size, escaped from the palace and then set fire to various buildings in Lanka. He then putout the fire on his tail by dipping it in the ocean. We finished the class with a game of hang man.

We do have 2 homeworks for this week

1. To find out the names of any 2 rivers in the world.  

2. To measure how long each person can jump. This homework is from our discussion of how Hanuman was able to jump from India to Lanka.

We are going to have a small test covering all the material that we have learnt in the class from A to H. We have asked the children to just read all the pages that we have covered till date. The test will be very simple like matching pictures etc.

November 13

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. 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. We started on G for Guru. We saw that Guru is one who teaches us various things to make us more intelligent. We should always respect our teachers. We Saw G for Gayatri Mantra. We chanted the Gayatri mantra together in the class. We saw the story of how sage Vishwamitra got this mantra from Bhagavan. We finished with G for Gita. Gita is the book that Krishna gave to Arjuna that teaches us about many things. We had a game of hangman. We discussed the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving. Just like we saw that there is a reason why we celebrate various Hindu festivals like Diwali, Holi etc. we also need to know why we celebrate Thanksgiving. The homework for this week is to find out why Thanksgiving is celebrated.

November 6

Hari Om, We started the class with 3 Oms. We had a brief discussion about the security training and noted the nearest exit to our class room. We discussed the homework from last week. We covered E for Ek Ek means one and we saw how the many different deities represent ONE Bhagavan. We looked at E for Ekta- unity. We saw the story of The asuras and devatas. Brahma kept a contest where the asuras and devatas were asked to eat ladoos without bending the elbows and backs. Asuras were not able to any even after many tries. Devatas were able to eat the ladoos as they fed the person sitting next to them. Thus, by thinking of other before thinking of themselves they showed unity or Ekta. We covered mother Earth. We saw the various ways we can save earth by taking care of plants, conserving water and electricity. The homework for this week is to color the pictures on page 27. We had a game of hangman and a short meditation session of 2 minutes.

October

October 30

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms and the chanting of the assembly shlokas. We discussed the homework from last week- cleaning our rooms for Goddess Lakshmi. We started D for Dharma. We saw that Dharma is doing our duty and doing good things. As students it the kid's dharma to do their homework regularly, respect their teachers and parents and eat healthy. We also saw D for Durga. We saw the story of Mahisha the asura . How he got a boon from Brahma by doing tapas that he could be killed only by a woman as he thought women are weak. We saw how Durga got the different strengths from different Gods and killed Mahisha after a fierce battle on Dusshera. We had a small field trip to see the Durga in the Mandir in 2 different places. We also discussed how and why we celebrate Diwali festival. We then covered D for Daanam- sharing. We saw the story of king Svetha who had to eat garbage as he did not do any daanam of food. We saw that we should do daanam of food, toys, clothes etc. We finished D with D for Daaya . Daaya means kindness. We saw the story of prince Siddarth who got to keep the bird he helped heal and not Devadutt who hurt the bird by shooting an arrow at it. We had a quick meditation session of 2 minutes. We finished the class with a game of hangman.The homework of this week is to time how long the kids can stand in the tree pose.the pose in which Mahisha did tapas for many years to get the boon.

October 23

Happy Diwali to Everyone !! We started the class with 3 Oms. We briefly discussed Diwali celebrations. Everyone was in their new Diwali clothes. We covered C for Chitta. We saw that Chitta is the place in our heart where the Atma lives. Bhagavan lives in everyone in their Chitta. So we should not hurt other's chitta by saying nasty words etc. C for clean. We saw that Goddess Lakshmi likes us only if we keep our homes clean. The homework for this week is to clean our rooms and help the parents clean our homes. We had a game of Diwali Bingo. The kids had fun identifying the picture called out and marking it on the Bingo card. We then distributed the gifts collected from the children.

October 16

Dharma 2 class summary 10-16-2022

Hari Om We started the class with chanting of 3 Oms. We covered the story of bhakta Prahalad. We saw how after getting the boon from Brahma with conditions ( not during day or night, not by animal or man, not with any weapons and not inside or outside) attached to his death, the asura Hiranyakashipu became wicked and wanted everyone to stop praying to Vishnu. His own son Prahalad however was a big bhakta of Vishnu. This angered Hiranyakashipu and he tried to harm Prahalad in many ways. Vishnu always protected him from all the dangers. Hiranyakashipu took the help of his evil sister Holika who had a magical fireproof coat. She forced Prahalad to sit on her lap on top a burning fire. But Vishnu made the wind blow so hard that the magical coat covered Prahalad instead and Holika got burnt. This is celebrated as Holi in the spring time. Hiranyakashipu struck the pillar to show Prahalad that Vishnu was not in it. A mysterious creature half Lion and half man - Narasimha came out of the pillar. Dragged the asura to the entrance off the palace and killed him with his nails. It was the evening time and all the conditions of Brahma's boon were satisfied. This was an avatar of Vishnu taken to protect his bhakta Prahalad. We also covered C for cows. We saw how a cow provided man with milk, cheese, etc without expecting much in return. We saw that most Hindus do not eat beef - meat of cows and bulls as we do not want to hurt Krishna and Shiva who love cows and bulls. Next, we covered C for conch and chakra- held by Vishnu. We saw the story of king Ambarish who was a bhakta of Vishnu. We saw how rishi Durvasa tried to harm king Ambarish by setting a demon on him. Vishnu then set the Sudarshana chakra on the demon. The chakra killed the demon and then chased the rishi Durvasa to Vaikunth. Vishnu made Durvasa apologize to Ambarish. We saw how Vishnu always takes care of his bhaktas. There is no homework this week. For HATS Diwali celebration, it is suggested to have all the children buy a small gift of anything under 5 dollars. The children will then exchange the gifts between themselves. The class was concluded with a game of hangman.

October 2

Hari Om We started the classes with chanting of 3 Oms. We finished A with covering A for Atma. We saw how all living beings have Atma in them. We started B with discussing B for Bhagavan. Bhagavan has many names and chanting Aum is good as Aum represents all the names of Bhagavan. We discussed the homework from the first week of HATS. All the kids gave the meanings of their names. We then covered B for Brahma. Brahma gave us the 4 vedas. We also saw how Brahma is not usually worshiped in Temples or mandirs. We do yajnya to pray to Brahma. Next we looked at Bhakti. Bhakti is our love for Bhagavan. We saw how we show our love to our siblings, friends and parents. We saw how our way of showing love for Bhagavan is different from how we show our love for Bhagavan. We discussed the 9 ways of showing our Bhakti to Bhagavan as given in our scriptures. The homework is to color the pictures on page 14 and 15. These pictures represent the 9 ways of showing our Bhakti. Lastly we discussed B for Buddhi meaning intelligence. We can use our Buddhi to make the correct choices. Buddhi is like a super computer placed in our head by Bhagavan. We should always protect our head from head injury that could damage our Buddhi by doing things like wearing helmet during driving bike, playing sports etc.We finished the class with a game of hangman.

September

September 25

We had a meditation class conducted by Ashwini ji. In the class, kids learned how meditation could be a wonderful gift for everyone through a beautiful story about a king and his two sons, Brian and James. They also learned how meditation can be very relaxing, even if done for only 5 mins, by being absolutely quiet, relaxing their body, closing their eyes and focusing on the space between their eyes to look for a white light to appear.

Before ending the class, kids were reminded to work on their Ravana craft/drawing along with their parents, as part of their Dussehra Project and also revise the A for AUM, Ahimsa and Avatar words from last week.

September 18

Hari Om. We had a great first Dharma 2 class today. We started the class with 3 Oms. We had a brief introduction session with the kids sharing their names, grades and school name. We covered A for Aum- one name representing the many names of Bhagavan. We saw how AUM is taken from the names of Bhrahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. We covered A for Ahimsa - we saw the story of Ganesh, Parvati and the cat. We discussed how we should practice Ahimsa to make Bhagawan happy. Lastly we covered A for avatara and saw how Bhagawan takes many forms because he loves us. We finished the game with a hangman's game. The homework for the week is to find out the meaning of the student's name and also the meaning of the names of the parents and siblings if any.

Thanks!