Children’s program Week 13
Tulasi arati : 10 minutes
Set up the Tulasi stand holding Tulasi in the middle of the room. Keep all the paraphernalia for
worshiping her ready in advance. Lead the kirtan as the children follow you. Perform the arati offering
Tulasi incense, ghee lamp, and flowers. Make the children offer water to Tulasi and also go around her
three times while singing the song.
Ice-breaker : 15 minutes
When you are seated in a circle, ask them one by one to speak for a minute on: “Which part of this
weekly program do you like very much? Why do you like it?”
Kirtana : 15 minutes
If any of the children know to play some musical instruments, you can ask them to bring it and play as
an accompaniment for the kirtana. Involve the children in kirtana by asking them to clap their hands
and to dance some simple steps. Also ask them to go up to the altar and offer some flowers or an
incense stick which all of them can use for offering to the Lordships.
Story : 30 minutes
Story telling has to be interactive for maximum effect.
This means that you have to ask them questions every now and then so that they remain alert and
learn all the important facts. With this in mind we have included questions after every few paragraphs.
You can read out the text of every paragraph, explain it in your own words and then ask the questions.
Ask them to raise their hands if they know their answer. No shouting or screaming out the answers and
no speaking out of turn. You have to emphasize this from the very beginning, so that they learn proper
discipline from the very beginning. Also you can encourage the quiet ones to participate. Speak
encouraging and appreciative words especially to the shy and quiet ones and also to all the others in
general. This will make them very enthusiastic and responsive.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes
Kaishora-lila
At the age of eleven, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began His teaching career. At the same time, the
Lord debated with all kinds of scholars about the conclusion of shastra. Although the Lord defeated
them all, because of His gentle behavior, none of the scholars went away unhappy. On the other hand,
all those who witnessed the Lord’s intellectual prowess were struck with wonder, and thus many
hundreds of scholars came to study under His direction.
Questions:
1) At what age did Lord Chaitanya start teaching?
2) Why did the scholar not feel unhappy even after being defeated by Lord Chaitanya?
3) What did the scholars do after being defeated?
After some time, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu journeyed to East Bengal, and wherever He went, He
introduced the Sankirtana movement.
While Lord Chaitanya was initiating the inhabitants of East Bengal into chanting Hare Krishna
Mahamantra and educating them to become scholars, Lakshmidevi felt great unhappiness in
separation from her husband. Indeed the snake of separation bit Lakshmidevi and the poison caused
her death so that she returned home back to Godhead.
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Children’s program Week 13
Questions:
1) What was Lord Chaitanya doing in East Bengal?
2) How did Lakshmidevi leave Her body? What was the real reason for Her leaving Her body?
After returning from East Bengal, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu continued teaching others, and on the
strength of his learning he defeated all kings of scholars and thus became greatly proud. Thereafter at
the request of His mother, the Lord married Vishnupriya, the goddess of fortune.
Questions:
1) What did Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do after returning from East Bengal?
One full moon evening, as Nimai Pandita sat on the banks of the Ganga, along with His many
disciples. Discussing literary topics, a great pandit by name Keshava Kashmiri happen to come there.
After traveling to many places of learning in India, challenging the scholars to debate on the basis of
the shastra, Keshava Kashmiri had arrived at Navadvip. Because he had conquered all other panditas
in all directions, this Kashmiri brahmana had received the name Digvijay.
Questions:
1) Who was Kesava Kashmiri?
The scholars of Navadvip considered themselves no match for him, so they left Navadvip on the plea
of having other engagements. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu received him with lot of adoration. Kesava
Kashmiri was very proud and so addressed Lord Chaitanya as a mere teacher of beginner's grammar
in sanskrit and not an expert in literature.
Questions:
1) Why did the scholars of Navadvipa leave when Kesava Kashmiri arrived?
2) How did Kesava Kashmiri insult Lord Chaitanya?
The Lord flattered Keshava Kashmiri and asked him to compose some poetry in praise of mother
Ganga. Keshava Kashmiri very proudly composed hundred verses on mother Ganga on the spot.
Questions:
1) What did Lord Chaitanya say to Kesava Kashmiri?
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu found five good points in his composition and five faults as well. Keshava
Kashmiri could not believe that his poetry could not have any fault. One of the faults which Chaitanya
pointed out was: “You have used the word "Bhavani bharta". Bhavani means the wife of Lord Shiva. So
if you say the husband of the wife of Lord Shiva, it sounds as if mother Ganga has another husband.
Questions:
1) How many faults did Lord Chaitanya find in Keshava Kashmiri's poetry?
2) Mention one of the faults that He noticed.
Keshava Kasmiri was completely defeated. That night mother Saraswati appeared to him and
explained to him the true position of Lord Chaitanya as the Supreme personality of Godhead. He
surrendered to Lord Chaitanya the very next morning and became a pure vaishnava.
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Children’s program Week 13
Questions:
1) Why did Keshava Kashmiri surrender to Lord Chaitanya?
Yauvana-lila :
When Lord Chaitanya reached His youthful age, He who was known as Gaurasundara or the beautiful
golden one, decorated Himself with ornaments, dressed in fine cloth, garlanded Himself and smeared
sandalwood paste over His body.
Questions:
1) How did Lord Chaitanya decorate Himself in His youth?
He defeated all kinds of learned scholars, without caring for anyone. At age sixteen, He started His
own village school or Chatuspathi. He taught all grammar using Krishna's names. He showed great
love for Krishna.
Questions:
1) At what age did Lord Chaitanya start a school?
After some days, the Lord went to Gaya to offer pinda-dana or offerings to Lord Vishnu for the benefit
of His father. While in Gaya Lord meet Ishwara Puri, and immediately initiated by him and he began to
exhibit the symptoms of love of God.
Questions:
1) Why did Lord Chaitanya go to Gaya?
One day after returning to Navadvipa he was sitting on the altar of Lord Vishnu in the house of Srivasa
Thakura. In the mood of his own the Lord said, "My mother has offended the lotus feet of Advaitha
Acharya unless she gets forgiven for the vaishnava offense, it will not be possible to achieve the Love
of Krishna". When Vishwarupa, the brother of Lord Chaitanya, had left home to take Sannyasa, mother
Saci accused Advaitha Acharya of having influenced her son. In this way she had commit so called
offense.
Questions:
1) What offense had mother Sachi committed?
2) What punishment did Lord Chaitanya give her because of that?
When Advaitha Acharya heard this he started to glorify mother Saci and felled down on to the ground
in great esctasy, so Saci devi took advantage of the situation and touch Advaitha Acharya's lotus feet.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was pleased and said that her offense had been rectified, and now she
may obtain love for Krishna without difficulty.
Questions:
1) Was Adwaita Acharya offended by mother Sachi? How do you know?
2) How did mother Sachi please Lord Chaitanya?
3) How did Lord Chaitanya bless mother Sachi?
Then one day Srivasa Thakura performed the abhishek ceremony as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sat
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Children’s program Week 13
on the cot and all devotees worshiped the Lord with all kinds of paraphernelia. In return, the Lord bless
them according to their desire.
Questions:
1) What did Srivasa Thakura do as Lord Chaitanya sat on the cot?
2) What did all the devotees do then?
3) What did Lord Chaitanya give them in return?
Japa :15 minutes
You can make them chant 108 times or one mala together. Before giving them beads to chant and
teaching them to chant together both the Panca Tattva Mantras, please read the following text to them.
After that you can ask them if they have understood it and need any further explanation before they
start chanting.
Read
The Nectar of the Holy Name :
There are nine processes of devotional service : sravanam, kirtanam, smaranam, pada sevanam,
arcanam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam.
All these processes should be accompanied by kirtana which is the most important devotional service.
Lord Chaitanya told Satyaraja: “One can complete the nine processes of devotional service simply by
chanting the holy name."
The nine devotional processes such as sravana and kirtana can all be attained at once if one simply
chants the holy name of the Lord without offenses. Out of the nine processes of devotional service,
kirtana is very important. Srila Jiva Gosvami therefore instructs that the other processes, such as
arcana, vandana, dasya and sakhya, should be executed, but they must be preceded and followed by
kirtana, the chanting of the holy name. We have therefore introduced this system in all of our centers.
Arcana, arati, bhoga offering, Deity dressing and decoration are all preceded and followed by the
chanting of the holy name of the Lord—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta Madhya-lila 15.107
Tell them to chant one round of japa together. Tell them how they should chant loudly and listen to the
words and should also plead with Krishna to make them better devotees. Tell them to chant in a
prayerful mood. Hand over the beads to them. Make them repeat the Guru pranam mantra and Sri
Panca tattva mantra. Then begin to chant loudly and quickly the Hare Krishna Maha mantra together
on the beads. If they feel restless to keep sitting down chant, you may permit them to also walk and
chant. At the end of the session, inquire from those who have started chanting at home daily about
how their chanting has been. You can also ask the others if they would like to start chanting also at
home.
Slokas : 20 minutes
Children have good memory power and learn the slokas easily too. But you must make it interesting
for them to learn and most important they should have some understanding of the meaning. It is good
to have a drawing describing the sloka. We have attached these drawings in the CD enclosed. Keep
the drawing ready for this sloka. Put it up on the board.
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Children’s program Week 13
First read out the sloka and the translation to them and then read out the explanation. Then with the
help of the drawing, explain it once again in your own words what you just read out. You can ask them
if they have understood it and if they have any doubts or questions about it.
Only after this you teach them to repeat the words and then whole sentences of the sloka. Make them
repeat it many times. If they are old enough to copy it on their own, they can do so in their note-books.
Otherwise, you can ask each of the older children to write down in one of the smaller kid's note-book.
If they are all young and unable to write, you can make photo copies of the slokas and file it for them.
So that their parents can help them to memorize them at home. Every week, if you recite the previous
week's slokas as well, they will learn it by heart it very quickly.
Bhagavad-Gita Text 6.47
yoginām api sarveṣāḿ
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māḿ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
SYNONYMS
yoginām — of yogīs; api — also; sarveṣām — all types of; mat-gatena — abiding in Me, always
thinking of Me; antaḥ-ātmanā — within himself; śraddhā-vān — in full faith; bhajate — renders
transcendental loving service; yaḥ — one who; mām — to Me (the Supreme Lord); saḥ — he; me —
by Me; yukta-tamaḥ — the greatest yogī; mataḥ — is considered.
TRANSLATION
And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself, and
renders transcendental loving service to Me — he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is
the highest of all. That is My opinion.
Explanation :
Krishna says that the best yogi is he who is always rendering devotional service to Him with love and
faith, or one who is performing bhakti-yoga. If one refuses to serve the Lord, then he is thoroughly
condemned, because we are parts of Krishna and are meant to serve Krishna. So the yogi who does
that is the best of yogis.
There are other yogis like karma yogis, jnana yogis and dhyana yogis. Karma yogis do their prescribed
work without expecting any returns for their work. When karma yogis develop more knowledge and
detachment and renounce their work, they are jnana yogis. When the jnana yogi increases in
meditation on the supersoul in the heart he is a dhyana yogi / astanga yogi. Finally when the dhyana
yogi comes to the point of bhakti-yoga or surrendering to the Supreme Lord Krishna, he has reached
the final goal. Bhakti yoga is the path of all good fortune.
In bhakti yoga, the yogi concentrates on Krishna who is called Syamasundara. Krishna is beautifully
colored like a cloud. His lotus face is as bright as the sun. He wears a flower garland and a dress that
is brilliant with jewels. On all sides is His brilliant radiance, called brahmajyoti.
Activity :15 minutes
Continue with the skit this week as well. The children should have learnt their parts. So you can fine-
tune their acting while also engaging the others in their respective activities connected to the skit.
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Children’s program Week 13
SKIT :
1. The bundle of Sticks
Narrator : One time there was an old Brahmana who lived in a holy place in an ashram with his seven
disciples. There they worshiped very ancient Deities of Sri Sri Radha and Sri Krishna. Many people
would come to see the Deities and make donations for Their worship.
Brahmana : My dear disciples, I am growing weak due to old age. Last week, a pilgrim donated a
large ruby for the Deities.
Disciple 1 : I think it should be sold for money.
Disciple 2 : No, no! I want to put it on Radharani!
Disciple 3 : You are both wrong. Let us cut it into many small rubies to make a nice necklace.
Brahmana : (to himself) I think the Deities would never get Their ruby. I am getting old and I am not
confident to hand over the ashrama services to my disciples. I want to teach them how to manage the
ashram themselves.
Brahmana : That’s enough. Now each one of you go to the forest and bring back one stick not more
than one inch thick.
Narrator : The disciples stopped quarreling and set out to collect the sticks silently worrying that their
guru did not like their arguing very much. They quickly returned with the stick and the Brahmana tied
them in a bundle with some rope.
Brahmana : Which one of you can break this bundle of sticks? (each one of them tried in turn, but
none of them could break it into two)
Disciples : (exclaimed) It is not possible.
Guru : Watch. (he cut the rope with a knife. He took each stick and broke it in two very easily.) Snap!
Snap! Snap!
Guru : You see. I am getting very old. Soon I will die. You are like a bundle of sticks. If you try to help
each other and work together, you will be strong and serve me well. But if you fight, you will become
weak like these separate sticks. And then what will happen to my Radha Govinda? (tears came in the
guru’s eyes) Remember united we stand, divided we fall.
Narrator : Realizing their foolishness, the seven disciples agreed to set the ruby in a gold ring and
they put it on Govinda’s finger everyday. Their guru was very pleased and soon after felt ready to leave
this world and he peacefully returned to the spiritual world.
Home-work :
Prasadam : 15 minutes
ááááá*********
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[Link]
The Nine Processes of Devotional Service
1. HEARING (sravanam) [Link] (vandanam)
Maharaja Pariksit (the last seven days of his life, he constantly heard the Akura offered prayers to Krsna when he was traveling to Vrndavana in order
Srimad Bhagavatam). to see Krsna.
2. CHANTING (kirtanam) 7. EXECUTING ORDERS (dasyam)
Sukadeva Goswami (spoke the Bhagavatam to Maharaja Pariksit) Hanuman, the intimate servant of Ramacandra executed all of Sri
3. REMEMBERING( visnu smaranam) Ramacandra's orders despite all kinds of difficulties.
Prahlada Maharaja (never forgot Krsna despite constant tortures from his 8. SERVING AS A FRIEND (sakhyam)
father- Hiranyakashipu) Arjuna was so close to Krsna, that the Lord offered Himself to become his
4. SERVING THE LORD'S LOTUS FEET (pada sevanam) chariot driver and serve Arjuna and his brothers in various ways.
Laxmi, the Goddess of Fortune, is always engaged in serving the lotus feet of 9. COMPLETE SURRENDER (atma nivedanam)
the Lord. Bali Maharaja gave Sri Vamanadeva his entire kingdom, his possessions as
5. DEITY-WORSHIP (arcanam) well as his own body, although his own spiritual master was against it.
Maharaja Prthu used all of his royal possessions in order to offer them in pure
devotion to the Lord.
Keshava Kashimiri surrendered to Lord Chaitanya When Lord Chaitanya reached His youthful age, He
who was known as Gaurasundara or the beautiful
golden one, decorated Himself with ornaments,
dressed in fine cloth, garlanded Himself and
smeared sandalwood paste over His body.
one day Srivasa Thakura performed the abhishek ceremony as
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sat on the cot and all devotees worshiped
the Lord with all kinds of paraphernalia.
In return, the Lord bless them according to their desire.
(jaya) śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Nityananda,
Sri Advaita, Gadadhara Pandit, Srivas Thakur, and all the devotees of Lord Caitanya.
Wherever Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu journeyed, He introduced the Sankirtana movement.
Wherever Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu journeyed, He introduced the Sankirtana movement.
Lord Sri Caitanya debated Those who witnessed the Lord’s intellectual
with all kinds of scholars about the prowess were struck with wonder, and thus
conclusion of Shastras. many hundreds of scholars came to study
under His direction.
Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga & Bhakti Yoga Bhakti yoga is the path of all good fortune
Bhagavad-Gita Text 6.47 TRANSLATION
And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who
yoginām api sarveṣāḿ
always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself,
mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā and renders transcendental loving service to Me-
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māḿ he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.
The bundle of Sticks