Lord Ram slays Taataka and Subahu

Hare Krsna!!

Dear Parents,
We would like to inform you that kids from Sunday school will be putting on a show for Lord Ram's pleasure on April 21st (sunday) after arati. We kindly request all of you to attend and enjoy and encourage the kids.

Last week,
Prayers: Radhika Mataji revised the prayer about Lord Ram taught last week.
'Sri Rama Rama Rameti
Rame Rame Manorame;
Sahasra nama tattulyam
Rama nama varanane!’
Translation: Lord Shiva addressed Devi PArvati: “O Varanana (lovely-faced woman), I chant the holy name of Rama, Rama, Rama and thus constantly enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Ramacandra is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Vishnu (Vishnu-sahasra-nama-stotram).
AudioLink: Sri Rama Rama Rameti Mantra

Story: King Dasarath enjoyed watching his sons Rama, Lakshmana, Bharath and Satrughna grow before his eyes. He did not say it in so many words, but he did have a special place in his heart for Rama.
One day the sage, or wise man, Vishvamitra came to Ayodhya to see the king. The king had great respect for him and welcomed him.
"Greetings, oh, wise one. What brings you to my kingdom?"
The sage said, "I have come to ask you a favor."
"How can I help? No wish is too great to ask," the king responded.
"It pleases me to hear those words from you, " said Vishwamitra.
I have been trying to perform an important sacred rite which is again and again being interrupted by Ravana's demons. My vows prevent me personally from fighting these demons."
The king listened intently.
"I pray, Dasaratha, that you allow me to take Rama with me to protect my sacred rite."
"But Rama is only a child. He is but sixteen years of age. I shall send you my armies to battle these demons. I will even accompany you. I shall fight these demons with my own hands. But please do not take Rama. Without Rama I cannot live even a few minutes."
The king began to weep.
Vishwamitra understood the king's pain. But the sage also had no choice and he was getting angry. Sage Vasishta advised King Dasarath to send Rama with Vishwamitra. Then, the king told Rama about Vishwamitra's request. Rama understood and willingly went with the sage.
"I shall go, too, father," declared Lakshmana. The king did not protest.
Rama and Lakshmana, weapons slung over their shoulders, and followed the sage along the Sarayu River bank.
The journey was a long one. Whenever the three stopped to rest, the sage took the time to teach the boys how to use the powerful weapons of the gods to fight the demons. They journeyed until they reached the foot of a frightening forest. They paused. The sage said, "This was once a beautiful and prosperous country. Now the terrible she-demon, Tataka, lives here. She attacks and kills anyone who enters."
Neither Rama nor Lakshmana were afraid.
The sage turned to Rama and said, "Now it is up to you to rid this forest of these demons. By doing so, you will restore the land to the prosperity and the peace it once enjoyed."
Rama clutched his bow and removed arrows from his quiver. Rama and Lakshmana followed Vishwamitra into the forest. They heard many strange and frightening sounds. Each step they took brought them deeper into the forest.
Suddenly there was an unearthly roar. The three men stopped. From nowhere a huge rock came hurling out of the sky heading straight for Rama. He slipped an arrow in place and drew his bow. He fired just as the rock was about to hit him. The arrow split the rock in two. The pieces fell harmlessly to earth.
Then appearing out of between two trees, Rama saw a horrible sight. It was the hideous form of the demoness, Taataka. She was enormous. She had sharp claws on her hands. She looked at Rama and made a growling noise. Lakshmana decided to wait no longer. He fired his arrow and gravely wounded the demoness. A strange look came over her face as she felt the arrow pierce her flesh. Placing her hand to the wound she moaned. Then taking careful aim, Rama fired his arrow into Taataka's heart killing her.
No sooner had the she-demon died, than the gods in heaven rained lotus blossoms down on Rama blessing him. The three continued on their journey deeper into the forest. Along the way, Rama and Lakshmana killed many demons.
Vishwamitra delighted with Rama presents Him with several astras and sastras (divine weapons) that will be of use to him in the future, and Rama masters the knowledge of all the weapons and their uses. Vishwamitra then tells Rama and Lakshmana that soon, he along with some of his disciples, will perform a yagna for seven days and nights that will be of great benefit to the world, and the two princes must keep close watch for the two sons of Taataka, Maricha and Subahu, who will try to defile the yagna at all costs. The princes therefore keep a strong vigil for all of the days, and on the seventh day they spot Maricha and Subahu coming with a whole host of Raakshasas ready to pour bones and blood into the fire. Rama points his bow at the two, and with one arrow kills Subahu, and with the other arrow flings Mareecha thousands of miles away into the ocean. Lakshmana deals with the rest of the demons. The yagna is completed successfully.

Finally, the class was concluded with coloring pictures.

Haribol!!
Gopala Class Teachers,
Radhika Mataji

 

 

Birth of Lord Rama

Hare Krsna!!

Dear Parents,
We sincerely appreciate your effort in bringing your kids to Sunday Class during Spring break. Thank you!!

Last week,
We started hearing the pasttimes of Lord Rama as we are approaching Rama Navami. Rama Navami celebrations will be held on April 19, 20 and 21st.


Prayers: Radhika Mataji taught a new prayer about Lord Ram.
'Sri Rama Rama Rameti
Rame Rame Manorame;
Sahasra nama tattulyam
Rama nama varanane!’
Translation: Lord Shiva addressed Devi PArvati: “O Varanana (lovely-faced woman), I chant the holy name of Rama, Rama, Rama and thus constantly enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Ramacandra is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Vishnu (Vishnu-sahasra-nama-stotram).
AudioLink: Sri Rama Rama Rameti Mantra

Story: Radhika Mataji narrated the story of the Birth of Lord Rama.
On the banks of the Sarayu River stood the beautiful city of Ayodhya, the capital of Kosala. In the city there were magnificent palaces decorated with precious stones. Spires of great temples rose above the city as if to touch the sky. For protection, the city was surrounded by a great moat. The people of Ayodhya were peace loving and happy. No one was ignorant or poor. Everyone had faith in God and read the scriptures daily. Even thoughDasharatha had everything that he desired, he wasvery sad at heart; he had no children.
At the same moment many of the demigods were growing more and more angry with Ravana, the ruler of the rakshasas, or demons. Ravana was no ordinary looking demon. He had ten heads and twenty arms. Years ago Ravana was granted a boon, or promise. This boon protected him from demigods and demons. But he was using his power to prevent the demigods and holy men from performing sacred rituals. All the demigods went to Bramha who gave the boon to Ravana. Bramha took them to Vishnu and all of them offered prayers to Vishnu. Vishnu assured them that he will take care of them.Vishnu thought, "Ravana, in his arrogance, protected himself only from those beings whom he thought could hurt him. He failed to protect himself from humans and monkeys."
Vishnu decided to be born as a human who could kill Ravana. The demigods and holy men were pleased with his decision.
The childless Dasharatha was advised by his family priest Vashishtha to perform a fire sacrifice ceremony to seek the blessings of God for children. Vishnu, the preserver of the universe, decided to manifest himself as the eldest son of Dasharatha in order to kill Ravana. While performing the fire worship ceremony, a majestic figure rose from the sacrificial fire and handed to Dasharatha a bowl of　rice pudding, saying, "God is pleased with you and has asked you to distribute this rice pudding(payasa) to your wives - they will soon bear your children."
The king received the gift joyfully and distributed the payasa to his three queens,Kausalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra. Kausalya, the eldest queen, gave birth to the eldest son Rama. Bharata, the second son was born to Kaikeyi and Sumitra gave birth to the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna.

Finally, the class was concluded with the coloring picture.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!
Gopala Class Teachers

Mahaprabhu's Lila withTwo thieves

Hare Krsna!!
Dear Parents,
Please prepare your kids for sloka/ story recitation in the next class. Story telling need not to be so elaborate, maybe just few lines. [Note: Please find the stories and slokas in the older posts]
Please mark your calendar for Easter Egg Hunt on March 31st @ 6 PM in the Temple.

Last week,
Prayers: We are happy to see kids voluntarily leading the class in prayers. HARIBOL!!!
Bhajan: We started learning few lines of bhajan " Sri Nama Sankirtan"

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ
yādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥ

Translation: Hari! Obeisances to Lord Hari, unto Krsna, and Yadava. Obeisances to Lord of the Yadus, Madhava, Kesava.

Audio link: Hari Haraye Namah

 

Sloka: Radhika Mataji taught the second verse  of Siksashtakam.

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis
tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ

Translation:  O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names, like Krsna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.

Audio Link: Sikshastakam-second-verse

 

Story: We heard another wonderful childhood pasttimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was a child, He was called Nimai and His mom Saci mata would beautifully decorate Him with gold ornaments. Once, when the Lord was playing outside His house, two thieves saw the Lord with all the gold ornaments and thought to rob Him. So, they took Him on their shoulders giving Him some sweets. The thieves thought that they would carry the child to the forest and take away the ornaments. The Lord, however knew their minds and showed His power so that instead of carrying Him to the forest, they came right back in front of His house and had fun ride at the same time. When the theives came before Nimai's house, they saw that everyone was busy searching for the child. So the thieves being afraid to be caught, left Nimai and ran away. Then the child was taken inside the house and given to mother Saci, who was very happy to see Nimai unharmed.

We concluded the class with the coloring picture of the above story.

Eagerly, looking forward to the next class.

Haribol!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha

 

Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Childhood Pasttimes

Hare Krsna!!!

Dear Parents,
As we are approaching Gaura Poornima on March 26th, we started hearing stories about Caitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krna Himself and we will continue hearing about the pasttimes of merciful Mahaprabhu.

Sloka: We learned the few lines of first verse of Shiksastakam.
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaḿ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaḿ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaḿ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaḿ prati-padaḿ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaḿ
sarvātma-snapanaḿ paraḿ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-sańkīrtanam
Translation: Glory to the sri-krsna-sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.
Audio: Sikshastakam-First-Verse
Video Link: http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/video/sri-krishna-caitanya-siksastakam-bhajan-music

Story: We heard the pasttime of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a little boy stealing the offerings of a brahmana.
 A brahmana who was touring all over the country, traveling from one place of pilgrimage to another, reached Navadvipa and became a guest in the house of Jagannatha Misra. Jagannatha Misra gave him all ingredients for cooking, and the brahmana prepared his food. When the brahmana was offering the food to Lord Vishnu in meditation, child Nimai came before him and began to eat it, and because of this the brahmana thought the whole offering had been spoiled. Therefore by the request of Jagannatha Misra he cooked for a second time, but when he was meditating the child again came before him and began to eat the food, again spoiling the offering. By the request of Jagannatha Misra the brahmana cooked for a third time, but for a third time the Lord came before him and began to eat the food, although the child had been locked within a room and everyone was sleeping because it was late at night. Thus, thinking that on that day Lord Vishnu was not willing to accept his food and that he was therefore ordained to fast, the brahmana became greatly agitated and cried aloud. When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw the brahmana in that agitated state, "I am very much pleased by your devotion. Therefore I am eating the food you have prepared." Understanding the favor offered to him by the Lord, the brahmana was greatly pleased, and he was overwhelmed with love of Krishna. He was thankful to the Lord, for he felt himself greatly fortunate.

Finally, we concluded the class with the story's coloring picture.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha

Parikshit Maharaj

Hare Krsna!!!

Dear Parents,
Last week, we started the class with prayers and we revised the previous sloka.
[Note: Please visit the older posts for the prayers and the sloka]

Story: We heard the story of Parikshit Maharaj.

Maharaj Parikshit was the son of Abhimanyu, who was the son of Arjuna. Arjuna was one of the five Pandavas and was the best friend of Krishna. During the battle of Kurukshetra, Parikshit was still in the womb of his mother, Uttara. At the end of the war, Asvatthama, the son of Dronacarya, tried to kill the child in the womb by throwing a weapon called brahmastra. The Supreme Lord Krishna saved Parikshit by entering into the womb of his mother.

After the Pandavas left this material world, Maharaj Parikshit became the ruler of the entire planet. He was a just king. There were no social problems, no crime, no poverty and no disease in his kingdom.

Once when Maharaj Parikshit went into the forest for hunting, he became very tired and thirsty. He entered the hermitage of sage Shamika Rishi who was meditating at that time. The king again and again requested for water but the rishi deep in meditation did not hear him. This enraged the king and he completely lost his intelligence. In his anger, the king picked up a dead snake and placed it on the shoulder of the sage.
The rishi’s son Shringi came to know about this incident and angrily cursed the king. He cursed that on the seventh day from that day, a snake-bird would bite Parikshit Maharaj. When Shamika Rishi came to know about the curse, he chastised his son. When king Parikshit received the news of his death, he accepted this curse as good news. 
Maharaj Parikshit was a great devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna. He had full faith in the protection of the Lord. He did not try to make any arrangements to protect himself. Instead he immediately gave up his royal duties and went to the banks of the Ganges.
He knew that one who engages in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Lord gets liberated from the cycle of birth and death. He desired to associate with great saintly devotees who could speak to him about Krishna. By the arrangement of the Lord, many great saintly devotees also came to the banks of the river Ganges. The great sage Sukhdev Goswami, the son of Vyasadev appeared on the scene. Maharaj Parikshit accepted him as his spiritual master and requested him to narrate the transcendental, glorious pastimes of the Lord.
Being very pleased by the submissive and devotional attitude of the king, Sukhdev Goswami then narrated the nectarean pastimes of the Lord and His various expansions. These are recalled in the book Srimad Bhagavatam. 
Maharaj Parikshit was completely absorbed in hearing about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. Anyone who regularly hears Hari Katha becomes eligible to get liberated from the cycle of birth and death. After hearing the katha for seven days and nights without sleeping, eating or drinking, Parikshit Maharaj fixed his mind on the Lord and meditated on Him. The snake-bird Takshaka bit the king. The body of the kind immediately burst into flames and burned to ashes due to the fire of the snake-bird’s poison.
Parikshit Maharaj went back home, back to Godhead by perfecting his life by hearing the transcendental glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Thus all of us can perfect our life by regularly hearing and reading about the beautiful and transcendental pastimes of Lord Krishna and His different avatars.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha

 

Vidura - a Mahajan

Hare Krsna!!

Dear Parents,
Thank you for training the kids at home to recite slokas and lead the class in prayers. It gives us so much joy to see so many kids confidently willing to come in front of the class to recite. We would like to see all the kids to do the same. If anyone has any questions or needs more help, please don't hesitate to talk to us.

Last week,
Sloka: Radhika Mataji taught the Bhagavad-Gita Sloka (chapter 10: Verse 9)
mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Translation: The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.

Audio Link: BG 10:9

 

Story: We heard about Vidura - a gread devotee of the Lord.

Vidura was the younger brother of King Dhritarastra and Pandu and a chief advisor of King Dhritarastra. Dhritarastra was partial to his sons Kauravas and did not treat Pandavas, the sons of Pandu equally. Kauravas out of envy tried to kill Pandavas. Vidura hated injustice, but he couldn't persuade the king to control his sons.

Vidura's sense of fairness was because he had been Yamaraj in his last life. It was Lord Krsna's plan for Yamaraj to be born as Vidura.

Once upon a time. Manduka Muni was in deep meditation. A group of soldiers asked him if he had seen thieves. Since the Muni didn't answer them, the soldiers were very angry and went to search the thieves and found them hiding in the Manduka Muni's ashram.

The soldiers thought that the sage must be the leader of the thieves, so they bound him and took him to the chief judge. There Manduka muni was sentenced to death. When he was about to be executed,  knowing abouth the sage, the king came just in time to save Manduka Muni. The king begged forgiveness and released him.

Manduka Muni did not blame the king, knowing that suffering is the result of his past sins. As he looked back over his life and considered that he was sinless, he went ot Yamaraj to find out what had he done wrong. Yamaraj told him that the reason for his difficulty was, as a child he had stabbed an ant with a thorn and killed it.

Manduka Muni said that he cannot be blamed for the act of an innocent child and was so furious he cursed Yamaraj to live on earth for one hundred years. Yamara being a great devotee of Lord Krsna could have easily counter-cursed him but accepted the curse as the arrangement of Lord Krnsa.

So. Yamaraj was born as Vidura on earth , tried to be just with everyone, always thinking of Krsna and after 100 years went back to his planet Pitriloka to take up his position again as the Lord of Justice, Yamaraj.

 

Finally, we concluded the class with the coloring picture of Yamaraj.

 

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.

Haribol!!

Gopala Class Teachers

Radhika Mataji

Amutha

 

Brahma's test and realizations

Hare Krsna!!
Dear Parents,
Last week, we started the class with prayers to Lord Krsna and His devotees.
Prayers : We learnt the invocation prayers of Srimad Bhagavatam(SB 1.2.17)
srnvataam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana kiirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadraani
vidhunoti suhrt sataam
Translation: Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramaatma[Supersoul] in everyone's heart and  the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire fro material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.
Audio link :  srnvatam sva kathah

Story : We heard the story of Brahma testing Lord Krsna.
Lord Brahma, the granfather of the gods, was reluctant to believe that His Supreme father, Lord Vishnu would come as a child and live in Vrndavan.  Lord Brahma thinking if Lord Krsna is his master then Lord Krsna must be more powerful than him. So, he wanted to test Lord Krsna.
Lord Brahma flew on his swan carrier to the place where Krsna and His cowherd friends were having lunch near the banks of river Yamuna. Lord Krsna was sitting in the middle of the boys sharing their lunches and eating.  The cows were grazing near by and moved further away from the boys. Lord Brahma used this oppurtunity to put the cows in magical sleep and put them in a cave. One of the cowherd boys noticed and said that the calves were not there.  All the boys were frightened about the calves being lost and how would they explain this to their parents.
To relieve His friends fear, Lord Krsna stood up with a handful of rice and yogurt, told them to continue with their lunch and went in search of the calves.  As soon as Lord Brahma decided to test Krsna, the supreme Lord Krsna was aware of this and the reason behind it. But to play along with Brahma's test and to have some fun, Lord Krsna acted as if He didn't know about it.  Krsna searched for the calves but appeared unable to find the calves, came back to the picnic area looking worried.
When Brahma saw that Krsna couldn't find the calves and looked worried, Brahma believed that Lord Krsna was not Lord Vishnu after all. To be certain, Brahma wanted to conduct one more test. So, he placed all the cowherd boys in magical sleep and put them in the same cave along with the calves.
When Krsna returned and couldn't find His friends, He looked worried and didn't want the parents of His friends to be sad. Brahma noticed that Krsna had failed to find both the calves and His friends and decided to give more time to Krsna and returned to his own planet - Brahmaloka - for one second, which is equal to one year on earth.
As Brahma left the Earth, Krsna created a duplicate set of his friends and their calves  to keep His friend's parents happy and at the same time play along with Brahma's test. They all  went home and all the parents experienced an overwhelming feeling of love in their hearts for their sons. Not only the human parents experienced this love, but the cows also felt the same for their calves.
After one year, Brahma returned riding on his swan carrier. He went to the cave and saw them still lying in their magical sleep, Brahma proudly thought that if Krsna could not find them then he couldn't be his master. He wanted to see how Krsna was doing and flew to the riverbank. There, he couldn't believe that Krsna was playing with his friends and their calves. He was completely confused and went back again and again to check on the boys and the calves in the cave.  He thought the best solution is to go to Krsna and talk to him. As Brahma landed on the bank, he watched something amazing - each boy and calf changed itno Lord Vishnu's form and merged into Krsna. Now there was not the slightest doubt in Brahma's mind that Krsna was the source of everything.
With palms together, he fell at the feet of Lord Sri Krsna and begged forgiveness. He said sorry for trying to test Krsna and prayed for His mercy. When Krsna smiled and nodded affectionately, Brahma respectfully circled Krsna three times, bowed to him once more and flew to Brahmaloka on his swan.

Finally, we concluded the class with the coloring picture of Lord Krsna with Brahma.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha