balabhavan newsletter - Shiva Vishnu Temple

Balabhavan Coordinators 

Latha Sundar 

Venkat Maddipatla 

balabhavancoordinator@yahoo.com 

Electronic Communication 

Cooordinator 

Rama Srinivas 

ramasrini1@gmail.com 

Class Coordinators 

Super-Senior Class: 

Padmini Mylavarpu 

Latha Rajkumar 

balabhavansupersenior@gmail.com 

Senior Class: 

Vasantha Madavi Sudhakar 

Nalini Venugopal 

balabhavansenior@gmail.com 

Junior Class: 

Hema Rangaswamy 

Anupama Rajagopalan 

balabhavanjunior@gmail.com 

Toddler Class: 

Aparna Vemuri 

Vandana Santhanam 

balabhavantoddler@gmail.com 

Registration coordinators: 

Krishnaswamy Panneer Selvam 

selvam_panneer@yahoo.com 

Newsletter Coordinator: 

Krishna Meduri: 

Krishnameduri@yahoo.com 

Festivals of the Month: 

Please visit: 

www.shiva-vishnu.org for 

more details 

BALABHAVAN NEWSLETTER 

VEDIC CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL CENTER OF SAN DIEGO 

April 2012 

HARIVAMSA PURANA 

The Harivamsa is widely considered by most 

Hindus as an appendix to one of the most well 

known epics in Indian literature, the 

Mahabharata. As an appendix to the 

Mahabharata the Harivamsa is not one of the 

18 parvas but is widely regarded by most 

scholars to be closer to a purana, a religious 

text. The Harivamsa is not known to have been 

created by one person but rather is the 

collection of many different authors. However, 

according to Sanskrit texts, it has been 

attributed to the sage Vyasa. The most likely 

reason that the Harivamsa is equated with the 

Mahabharata is because it is said that they had 

both been recited to Janamejaya, during the 

same ritual by Vaisampayana. 

While both these texts contain some of 

the same Brahmic legends and rituals, the vast 

majority of their content is different. 

Harivamsa has been regarded as an important 

source of information on the origin of Visnu’s 

incarnation Krsna. The composition of the 

Harivamsa is made up of 16,374 verses and 

divided into three chapters knowns as parvas: 

Harivamsaparvan, theVisnupurana and the 

Bhavisyaparvan. 

Harivamsaparvan means the lineage of 

Hari, Hari being another name for Vishnu. This 

first chapter describes the creation of the 

cosmos and the legendary history of the kings 

of the Solar and Lunar dynasties leading up to 

the birth of Krishna. Vinsupurana deals almost 

exclusively with Krishna, the incarnation of the 

god Vishnu. It recounts the history of Krishna 

down to the events prior to the Mahabharata. 

Bhavisyaparvan means the chapter of the 

future and it provides the description of Kali 

Yuga. 

The Harivamsa is an important text 

because it contains accounts of Krishna not 

found in any other literature 

--Shreya Gopala 

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 

April 2012 Issue 4 

1 

BBC Announcements: 

Ramanavami Pooja 

BB will be celebrating 

Ramanavami Pooja on April 

8th at 4.00pm. Parents please 

attend the pooja with the kids 

and help them practice the 

Rama shlokas and bhajans 

daily at home. You must have 

already received the pooja 

handouts by now. Please 

request by email to us in case 

you have not received one and 

don’t forget to bring it to the 

temple on the day of the puja. 

Bhajan Volunteers please 

attend the training classes on 

Satudays 4-5pm. Please 

request for Bhajan CD’s from 

the BB coordinators. 

Announcements on Summer 

Camps and Field Trips will be 

made shortly. Please look out 

for these emails and enroll 

your kids in these camps. 

Parents and kids please leave 

your footwear on the shoe 

rack or in case of overflow on 

the left side of the temple 

entrance. 

BBC TEAM 

------------------------------------ 

April Birthdays: 

Toddler: 

Pranav Jayachandran 

Juniors: 

Kavya Raamkumar 

Seniors: 

Srujan Gutta 

Reetesh Sudhakar 

Sumana Srinivas 

Super Seniors: 

Keshav Tadimeti 

Srinidhi Malavalli

Class Schedules 

4-7-2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 


Story: Story of Lakshmi 

Vijayalakshmi Gujjaiah 

Sloka: Vasudeva Sutham 

Rajashri Balaji 

Bhajan: Durga Bhavani Ma (pg 

45); Review Rama 

Bhajans 

Rajashri Balaji 

Super Senior Class: 

Story: Garuda Puranam 

Latha Sundar 

Sloka: Subrahmanya Bhujangam 

25-30 

Latha Chandrasekaran 

Bhajan: Review of Rama Bhajans 

Bharathy Tridandam; 

Aswini Sangam 

------------------------------------------ 

4-21-2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 


Story: Story of Krishna 

Gayathri Vidyashankar 

Sloka: Ananyashcintayanto maam 

Gayathri Vidyashankar 

Bhajan: Govinda Harey Gopala 

Harey (pg 26) 

Latha Sundar 

Super Senior Class: 

Story: Review Garuda Puranam 

Latha Sundar 

Sloka: Subrahmanya Bhujangam 

31-33 (Revise completely) 

Rama Srinivas 

Bhajan: Nanda Nandana (pg 31) 

Latha Sundar; Anandhi 

Krishnamoorthy 



April 2012 

GARUDA PURANA 

Garuda Purana is one of the Vishnu 

Puranas. It is in the form of a dialogue 

between Vishnu and Garuda, the King of 

Birds. This Purana deals with astronomy, 

medicine, grammar, and gem stone structure 

and qualities. The Garuda Purana has 

nineteen thousand shlokas. It is a mediumsized 

Purana. The latter half of this Purana 

deals with life after death. Following this is 

an account of funeral procedures, including 

rituals, the astrological timing of the postdeath 

observances, and ritual gifts. The 

Hindus of north-India generally read this 

Purana while cremating the bodies of the 

dead. 

Garuda Purana tells about different 

types of hells and about what deeds should 

be done to avoid them. The final part of this 

Purana is an appeal to self-knowledge as a 

key to liberation. This has given great 

importance to the origin of Garuda. There 

are nineteen thousand verses describing the 

ways to the Lord. Garuda Purana explains 

the makeup of the physical body as well as 

the subtle body with the six Chakras, and 

advises that we breathe 21600 times during 

24 hours and that each inhaling and exhaling 

be made into an act of japa mala with such 

mantra as Hare Ram. 

Once, on being requested by sage 

Kashyap, Garuda narrated the divine tales of 

Garuda Purana to him. Sage Kashyap had 

once brought a dead tree back to life and 

Garuda too had brought numerous dead 

creatures back to life with the help of Garudi 

Vidya- a sacred mantra found in Garuda 

Purana. This book should be given as gift 

along with an image in gold of a swan to get 

prosperity. 

-- Tejas Srinivasan 



2 

Class Schedules 

4-14-2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Junior Class: 

Story: Sudhama - Krishna relieves 

his friend/devotee Sudhama from 

poverty 

Padmaja Gadde 

Sloka: Achyutashtakam 4-6 

Hema Kalyanaraman 

Bhajan: Review -Ramachandra 

Prabhu 

(pg 15), Bhaja Mana (pg 16); 

Anantha kalyana (pg 15) 

Srilekha Krishnamurthy/ 

Chandrasekhar Sundarraman 

Senior Class: 

Story: Ashfaqulla Khan 

Rashmi/Madukara 

Sloka: Shiva sadakshara stotram & 

Bilvashtakam 

Rama Srinivas 

Bhajan: Jag sukh Karini (pg48) 

Latha Sundar 

----------------------------------------- 

4-28-2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Junior Class: 

Story: Ahalya- Vishnu in the form 

of Lord 

Rama redeems Ahalya from the 

Curse 

Prasanna Kannan 

Sloka: Achyutashtakam 7-9 

Srilekha 

Krishnamurthy/ 

Chandrasekhar Sundarraman 

Bhajan: Sharanam Siddhi Vinayaka 

(pg.10); Madhurapuri Nilaye 

(pg.50) 

Hema Rangaswamy 

Senior Class: 

Story: Yudhistira 

Seema Madan 

Sloka: Namaramayana 

Sangeetha Prahalad 

Bhajan: Anantha Kalyana (pg 15) 

Hema Kalyanaraman

Questions of the Month 

1. What is Rama’s janma 

nakshatra (birth star)? What 

was the ‘thithi’? 

2. What was the name of the 

boatman who ferried Rama, 

Sita, and Lakshmana across the 

Ganga? 

3. What was the name of the 

bow that Parashurama gave 

Rama? 

-------------------------------- 

Answers: 

1. Punarvasu; Navami 

2. Guha 

3. Vishnu Danush 



April 2012 

KURMA PURANA 

Kurma Purana is one of the major eighteen 

Puranas. It is believed to have been narrated by 

Lord Vishnu to the sage Narada, and it contains 

the details about the Kurma avatar. Narada 

later stated the Purana to Suta ji. Lord Vishnu 

had stated the Purana, in the regions below the 

earth, to Indradyumna and the rishis in the 

proximity of Sakra. 

Essence of Kurma Avatar 

In the Puranas, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu 

descended as the Kurma to restore the mystic 

nectar or the amrita to mankind along with the 

essence of life and truth as well as other 

precious things needful to humanity, which had 

been lost. Vishnu ordered the Gods to churn the 

sea of milk so that they might procure once 

more these precious things, and he promised to 

become the tortoise on which the mountain 

Mandara should rest in the form of a churning 

stick. Out of the sea of churned milk arose the 

14 precious things, and with these the gods won 

their authority over the demons once more. 

--Siya Sharma 

Newsletter Editors 

Kamakshi Ramanarayanan 

Keerti Tadimeti 

Topics of the Month 

Shreya Gopala 

Siya Sharma 

Tejas Srinivasan 



3 

Questions of the Month 

1. Which is the longest 

Indian river ? 

a. Godavari 

b. Ganga 

c. Brahmaputra 

d. Yamuna 

2. Which river is believed to 

be the daughter of the 

mountain king, Himavat? 

a. Krishna 

b. Ganga 

c. Godavari 

d. Kaveri 

3. Which is the muddiest 

river in the world? 

a. Nile River, Africa 

b. Amazon River, South 

America 

c. Huang He, China -- 

d. Ganga, India 

4. Which river joins the river 

Ganga at Prayag? 

a. Yamuna 

b. Krishna 

c. Godavari 

d. Kaveri 

Answers: 

1. b 

2. b 

3. c 

4. a

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