Diwali is a grand and exciting

festival in Hinduism noted for

its bright lights and colors. It

celebrates the homecoming of

Rama. According to the Rama-

yana, Rama and his brothers

were banished to the woods

by his stepmother who wanted

her own son to be king. He

was tricked into handing over the kingdom while he was

banished for fourteen years.

During this time, he saved

Seeta from the clutches of the

evil king, Ravana. After the

fourteen years had passed, the

siblings returned to the city of

Ayodya. The people of Ayodya

were so overjoyed at the re-

turn of the great king that they

decided to decorate the entire

city with rows of earthen

lamps which lit up both their

city and their spirits. The lamps

are called “deep” or “deepa”,

and the word for rows is

“vali”. Together they form

“rows of lamps” or Deepavali,

now shortened to Divali or

Diwali. Diwali also means “the

festival of lights”.

In the legend of

Ramayana, the people of

Ayodya celebrated Rama’s

homecoming by setting up

lamps all over the city. Today,

people celebrate similarly and

set up lamps throughout their

homes to shine throughout the

night. Many

people also

light fireworks for all to see

and light up the sky. Another

common custom is for every-

body to receive and wear

brand new clothing. One other

activity that is the favorite of

both children and adults alike

is the making and eating of many sweets. All in all, Diwali

is a way to celebrate the re-

turn of the mighty Rama to his

kingdom throughout the many

years to come with family and

friends.

Background of Diwali (Story by Anushri Kartik– Narayan)

The Totally Awesome Temple times

1/8/2011

Edition 3 *

Background of Di-wali

1

The Basics of Cricket 1

Contributions 7

Hinduism Word search

2

The truth about 2

Word of the month 2

Mahabharata and Rama-yana (Chapter 1)

3

Interview 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

The Balaji

Youth

Committee

Presents. ..

Class registration 4

Calendar of events 5

ARTWORK 6

Letter from the editor

6

roles reverse and it is now the fielding team's turn to bat and try to outscore the opposition. There are also variations in the length of a game of cricket. In professional cricket this ranges from a limit of 20 overs per side (Twenty20) to a game played over 5 days (Test cricket, which is considered the highest level of the game). Depending on the form of the match being played, there are different rules that govern how a game is won, lost, drawn or tied. The rules of two-innings games are known as the Laws of Cricket and maintained by the ICC and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC); additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Interna-tionals augment these laws. In one ver-sion of Indoor Cricket, matches include just 6 players and last for 12 overs. Cricket was first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th

century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed to the point where it had become the na-tional sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being held. Today, the game's governing body, the Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC), has 104 member countries. With its greatest popularity in the Test playing coun-tries, cricket is the world's second most popular sport after Association

football.

Cricket is a team sport with two teams consisting of eleven players each. The maximum number of days a match has lasted is five days. The least is an after-noon. The teams alternate batting and fielding. The captain of the team that wins the coin toss gets to choose whether the team bats of fields first. The team batting will try to score as many runs as possible without losing too many wickets, or outs. Each team will get ten wickets. Each match can have a different amount of overs which are explained later. Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport. Many variations exist, with its most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game. When the batting team has used all its remaining batsmen within the available overs, The

The Basics of Cricket (Story by Ashrith Sivaswamy)

BYC staff

Vignesh Sarathy - layout designer

Shreya Shanker - Editor

Renu Varadheeswaran -Graphic Designer

Ashvini Kartik– Narayan - Interviewer

Anushri Kartik Narayan - Reporter

Vruti Venkatesan - Primary Contributor

Ujwal Kiran

- Primary Contributor

EDITION 3 *

you with your personal issues. He won't free up

your timetable, but he will give you something

to believe in when you are at your limit. Teen-

agers need to start reaching out to their religion

because these are the few crucial years that we

need to know that no matter what we will have

someone looking after us. Just because we have

matured does not mean we must be independ-

ent - In fact, we should be even more reliant on

God to help us make correct decisions in life. As

young adults, we need to be responsible in this

dog-eat-dog world, and avoiding our religion

isn’t the best path on the road to a smart fu-

ture. So the next time you plan on using school-

work or teams and clubs as an excuse, why don't

you come to the temple instead? Though these

things can bring you short-term satisfaction,

staying true to your religion will enrich your soul

and benefit you for years to

come.

Edited by Shreya

Shanker

Have you ever noticed that many teenagers

do not come to the temple? These days,

many teens are excusing themselves from

coming to the temple because of frivolous

issues. Nobody should abandon their religion

for problems that can be easily overcome.

Nowadays our lives are crazy: we have home-

work, school projects, an tons of commit-

ments outside of school. However, if as a

teenager you can spend just one hour every

week praying to God, then he can help you

through your struggles in life. He won’t

lighten your homework load, but he can help

Malayalam-nava varsha ashamshagal

Marathi-navin varshaachya hardik shubbheccha

Bengali-subho nababarsho

Gujarati-sal mubarak / nootan var-shabhinandan

Hindi-nav varsh ki subhkamna

Kannada-hosa varshada shubhaasha-yagalu

In this section, we will carefully choose a word or phrase and translate it into different languages. In the language classes at the temple, teachers will instruct in a way that is easy to under-stand. If you would like to learn your native language, enroll your children in the fall language classes

This month’s word is…..

Happy New Year

Oriya-subha nababarsa / naba barsara hardika abhinandan

Punjabi- (nave saal deeyan vadhaiyaan)

Sindhi-nain saal joon wadhayoon

Tamil-iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal

Telugu- (nuthana samvathsara sub-hakankshalu)

Tulu-posa varshada shubashaya

Urdu-naya saal mubarik

The Truth About Teens (Story by vriti venkatesan)

Word of The Month

Page 2

Word-Bank

ABHISHEKAM Siva ARCHANA Sita BALAJI BHAJANA DASAVATHARAM DHARMA DIWALI GANESHA HANUMAN HINDUISM KARMA KAURAVAS LAKSHMI MAHABHARATA MOKSHA NAVARATHRI PANDAVAS PARVATHI RAMA RAMAYANA SITA

Hinduism Word search

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 Sha-

trughna. Rama's birth-

day is celebrated now

as Ramanavami.

The four princes grew

up to be tall, strong,

handsome, and brave.

Of the four brothers,

Rama was closest to Lakshmana and Bharata to

Shatrughna. One day, the revered sage Viswami-

tra came to Ayodhya. Dasharatha was overjoyed

and immediately got down from his throne and

received him with great honor. Viswamitra

blessed Dasharatha and asked him to send Rama

to kill the Rakshasas who were disturbing his fire

sacrifice. Rama was then only fifteen years old.

Dasharatha was taken aback. Rama was too

young for the job. He offered himself, but sage

Viswamitra knew better. The sage insisted upon

his request and assured the king that Rama

would be safe in his hands. Ultimately, Dashara-

tha agreed to send Rama, along with Lakshmana,

to go with Viswamitra. Dasharatha strictly or-

dered his sons

to obey Rishi

Viswamitra and fulfill all his wishes. The parents

blessed the two young princes. They then de-

parted with the sage (Rishi).The party of Viswamitra,

Rama, and Lakshmana soon reached Dandaka forest

where the Rakshasi Tadaka lived with her son Maricha.

Viswamitra asked Rama to challenge her. Rama strung

his bow and twanged the string. The wild animals ran

helter-skelter in fear. Tadaka heard the sound and she

became incensed. Mad with rage, roaring thunder-

ously, she rushed at Rama. A fierce battle ensued be-

tween the huge Rakshasi and Rama. Finally, Rama

pierced her heart with a deadly arrow and Tadaka

crashed down to the earth. Viswamitra was pleased.

He taught Rama several Mantras (divine chants), with

which Rama could summon many divine weapons (by

meditation) in order to fight against evil

From: http://hinduism.about.com/library/extra/ bI-

ramayana-summary.htm

End of Chapter 1

Dasharatha was the king of Kosala, an ancient

kingdom that was located in present day Uttar

Pradesh. Ayodhya was its capital. Dasharatha was

loved by one and all. His subjects were happy and

his kingdom was prosperous. Even though

Dasharatha had everything that he

desired, he was very sad at heart;

he had no children.

During the same time, there lived

a powerful Rakshasa king in the

island of Ceylon, located just south

of India. He was called Ravana. His

tyranny knew no bounds, his sub-

jects disturbed the prayers of holy

men.

The childless Dasharatha was advised by his family

priest Vashishtha to perform a fire sacrifice cere-

mony 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

Chapter 1- Once, Santanu, the King of Hastinapura,

was out hunting the forest. He decided to pursue a

deer and in the course of following it, he was

separated from his group. He wandered for an

hour or so before coming to the banks of the

Ganga. There stood a lovely maiden, and Santanu

fell in love immediately. He approached the

woman and asked for her hand in marriage. She

agreed, but laid down a few conditional rules. He

may never question her actions, ask who she was,

or insult her. He readily agreed, and the two got

married.

She was a perfect wife in every way.

After a year, she bore her husband a son, and

Santanu was delighted. That night, however, she

snuck out of the castle and drowned the child in

the Ganga. The king could not believe his ears

when he heard the news. But he remembered his

promise to his beautiful wife, and thus, remained

silent.

After a few years had passed, she bore

him another son. Again, that night, she escaped

from her room in the palace, stole away to the

river, and drowned her child. Time passed, and five

more of Santanu's sons were sent to a watery grave.

Then the queen bore an eight son, and

Santanu could take it no longer. He followed his wife

to the river and grabbed his child back from her. "You

cruel demon!" he shouted, blinded by rage. "Who are

you, to do such a thing to defenseless children? How

could you do such a horrible thing?"

She smiled sadly. "King Santanu, I am the

Goddess Ganga. These sons had stolen a sacred cow

from a sage called Vasishta in their past life. The

brothers had been cursed by the sage to be born on

Earth as mere mortals. I heard of their plight and

agreed to help them by killing them as soon as they

were born so that they could return to the heavens.

But this child was the one who physically stole the

cow, and so, was cursed to spend a long, full life on

Earth."

The king was about to question her fur-

ther, but Ganga stopped him. "King, you have broken

all of your promises, and so, I cannot stay with you

any longer. Farewell, Santanu." And with those part-

ing words, she took his eighth son and disappeared.

The king returned to his palace in sorrow.

Many years later, the king was taking a walk by

the banks of the Ganga, as he was apt to do. His

eyes caught a handsome young man shooting

arrows over the river. The arrows flew in a per-

fect arc over the river, and it was obvious that

the boy was well-taught.

Suddenly, Ganga appeared in front of Santanu.

"This is your son, Santanu. His name is

Devavrata. He has been instructed by many

great sages, and he can now return home with

you. Take him home, King."

Santanu and his eighth son were reunited, and

as soon as he returned to the castle, the king

named Devavrata as his heir.

End of Chapter 1

Ramayana (Chapter 1)

Mahabaratha (Chapter 1)

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES

Page 3

If you would like to learn the entire

Ramayana or Mahabharata, enroll

into the fall Ramayana

or Mahabharata class!

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES

Not only do children benefit from learning at the Balaji temple, but also their parents. We inter-viewed Vidhya Shanker from the Youth Committee to hear her feel-ings about the classes. She said that due to enrolling her two daughters in classes, she’s seen them learn more about Indian culture and make many more friends. She says that they have also become more responsible by helping other kids during class. Vidhya also said that she could really see the impact of the classes during her vacation to Bombay during the summer. Her two daughters, who are enrolled in Sanskrit class, could both read the Devanagari script on the signs in Bombay after learning the script in class. She also added

Classes in the temple are a great way to help your children learn about their culture. Though the word “class” may be associated with words such as school, homework, or worst of all, boring, students at the temple have come to love their Sun-days here. We interviewed a young student named Aditi who attends Sanskrit, Hindi, and Religion class. When asked about her favorite thing about the temple, she replied enthu-siastically, “The Hindi class!” Her favorite thing about the classes is learning new things every week, such as learning the parts of the body in Hindi. She loves learning bhajans in Religion as well. As you can see, even young kids such as Aditi enjoy their time at the temple.

that volunteering at the temple is another great way to get the most out of your Sundays. She says, “In the beginning, when we started a few years ago, we didn’t have many kids in the classes, but now, we have at least 65 to 70 kids, and it really shows how much we have grown, and volunteering can only help.” This goes to show that even though classes may sound boring or dull, the classes at the Balaji temple only serves to enrich the students’ knowledge of their culture in a fun and invigorating way! Story By Ashvini Kartik– Narayan and Shreya Shanker

Student and teacher Interviews

Youth Committee Thank you for registering your children! Please

turn this part of the newsletter into the office. If

you have any questions, feel free to call or email us

at…

CONTACT INFORMATION

Phone:(630)-844-2252

Email: svsyouth@gmail.com or

byctatt@gmail.com

A nominal donation of $10 for Religion

class alone, and $50 for an unlimited num-

ber of other classes is appreciated ( for ex-

ample, a child registering in Tamil, Hindi,

Ramayana and Religion will have to pay

$50+$10 = $60). Classes are taught by vol-

unteers and the donation goes solely to the

temple and is fully tax-deductible. Please

make checks payable to Balaji Temple. For

credit card payments please call temple

office at 630-844-2252 or pay in person at

the office.

The fall classes have already started. We are still accepting new registrants!

Info

Page 4

Balaji Vidyapitham 2010-2011 Class Registration Form

Sign up for:

Sanskrit or Tamil language class (circle one)

Hindi or Telugu language class (circle one)

Total: Classes

10:00-10:45

Time

11:00-11:45

Name of registrant (s)

Address/ Email ID

Phone

Credit Card

Method of Payment

Check

Signature

Parent names Cash

Mahabharata or Ramayana class for Elm. Or Mid. School students (circle one)

Religion/ bhajans class

Ramayana or Mahabharata class for High school students (circle one)

12:00-12:45

1:00– 2:00

4:00-5:00

Thevaram Class

10:45-11:45

EDITION 3 * Page 5

*- Represents an important event, they are described below

**- Represent s Youth Class Date, For a complete class schedule, email us at byctatt@gmail.com

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 * 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 * 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

January 2011

Schedule of Events

Schedule of Events

Due to the time of publishing, the current calendar is not available. Please see the temple website for events at www.balaji .com under the “events” tab.

*- Indicate Youth Class Dates– A registration form can be found on page 6.

Sketch By Renu Varadheeswaran

The BYC is currently holding a drawing contest. If you are interested, please look at our website at byctatt.weebly.com under the contri-butions tab or email us at byctatt@gmail.com

lack of publication could be fixed.

Bob Uncle told us about his ex-

periences with writing a newslet-

ter for the temple and I immedi-

ately loved the idea. I asked

Vignesh and Renu whether they’d

like to join me in making a news-

letter for both kids and adults, and

we became a team. We worked

together for a month and in the

middle of May, we gave our first

copy to the temple committee to

read. They loved it and the Totally

Awesome Temple Times was

born. I would just like to thank all

the people who’ve made this pos-

sible. Thanks to the Youth Com-

mittee, my great friends who are

undertaking this endeavor with

me, and all of you wonderful con-

To our devotees,

I remember back in April when the

heads of the Youth Committee

(Jayashree Sarathy, Vidhya Shan-

ker, Sowjanya Dharmasankar), Bob

Evans, Vignesh Sarathy, Renu Var-

deesh, and I were chatting after

the winners of the essay contest at

the Balaji tem-

ple were an-

nounced. I men-

tioned the fact

that there had

only been a few

contestants that

had submitted

their writing,

and how this

tributors. I hope you

continue to enjoy our

newsletter, and we’d

love to hear what you

think!

Happy Reading,

Shreya Shanker

Letter from the editor

The BYC thanks you for reading our newsletter. We hope you enjoyed yourself while reading. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, feel free to email us at byctatt@gmail.com. Thank you!

The youth committee has approved this issue of the

newsletter on:

01/09/2010

Staff initials: ____________

Editor initials: ___________

If you would like any of the past newslet-ters, please email us at byctatt@gmail.com and we would be happy to email them to you.

We will be posting the newsletter on the temple website shortly. Look for the

If you would like to view past editions of the newsletter, download contribu-tion forms, ,or give feedback, please visit our website at http://byctatt.weebly.com. Thank You for your continued inter-est in the newsletter.

The BYC thanks you for reading our newsletter. We hope you enjoyed yourself while reading. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please fill out the feedback survey on our website (http://byctatt.weebly.com) or feel free to email us at byctatt@gmail.com. Thank you!

At the Balaji Temple, they are having a program that is called Sunday school or Youth Classes. At the classes, they have many things you can learn. I know how some classes are because I go to some of them like Sanskrit; you learn how to read, write and speak. In telugu; you learn how to speak. In Mahabharata, you learn the story of the Mahabharata. In religion class, you learn about Hinduism and also part of religion to seeing bha-jans. You have lots of fun at the Youth

classes!

Contribution by: Vaishnavi Tetali

Age 8

I love youth classes! I love Telegu class because we get to learn Telegu and learn how to write Telegu. I love Rama-yana class because they teach you about life that happened up in the sky. I love Religion class because you learn slokas and perform a lot of times. I love the Mango lassi at the temple because I cannot stop drinking it. I even love the Pulihara. I really, really, really love the

idly and the great chuntey.

Contribution by: Sanjana Bhagavita

Age 6

During this summer vacation, I partici-pated in a number of activities. The best part was summer camp at the Balaji temple. I got to learn many in-teresting things like chess, cricket, Vedic math, rangoli, and learning many bhajans. I made lots of new friends too. I look forward to the next year of

summer camp.

Contribution by Ramya

Ramakrishnan

Age 9

More information about 2012 summer

camp will be available shortly.

length and I promise that it will not be stressful. A notebook and a pencil, and YOU is all you need to learn wonderful

Indian culture.

I have benefited from the classes and have been learning since 2008. Join now

and sign up at the Balaji Temple office!

Contribution by: Chandana Tetali

Age 10

Indian Faith is lost every second. But the Balaji temple of Aurora saves ex-tinction of this wonderful religion. How is the question that arises in the human mind. An the answer comes from the

youth committee.

The hard working Youth committee has organized a wonderful Sunday school This school consists of language, puranic, and religion classes with priests, teenage volunteers, and caring teachers. This is a marvelous experi-ence for children and parents alike that children can join so that Hinduism will pass through this new generation. Each class is only 45 minutes to an hour in

Indian Education at the Balaji Temple

Youth Classes

Religion and Indian Learning stays ALIVE

THE TOTALLY AWESOME TEMPLE TIMES

Page 7

Summer Camp at Balaji Temple

My favorite Gods

Two of my favorite gods are Visnu and Varun because my name starts with V and my name is Varun. I like Vishnu a lot because he protected me from many accidents and I like varun be-cause he helped me and my family grows plants and crops. Varun also helped trees, plants, and crops grow green and healthy and strong, plus they become very beauti-ful. I like Visnu be-cause he has a flying disc which is sharp

and is made of metal.

Contribution by:

Varun

Age 7

In religion class, students learn about Krishna, Ganesha, and many other gods. We also learn about our relig-ion. They meet two times a month. The times are second and fourth Sundays. On second Sundays, we learn about Vishnu. On fourth Sundays, we learn about Siva. It is a good way to help children learn bhajans and their religions. Even though it is a very big class, everybody knows what they are doing. It is very interesting class and they tell us about eh Ramayana in short form. We learn about all the special events in India. Religion is not the only class there are other forms here they are Mahabharata, Ramayana, Thevaram and Tirumandiram, Hindi, and many others. Thos are all the classes some of them have tow different sessions for different ages.

You can take more than one class and adults are allowed into all of the classes.

Youth Classes (Rahul Vadanath)

*Notice: All of the contributions are typed exactly as they appear on the contribution forms given to the BYC. We only change grammar and spelling to make the piece more fluent and easy for all readers to enjoy. Remember that all of these essays were written by children and we want their writing to shine and make it seem like it is coming from a child of that age. There may be

some bias in the articles written and we will try to remove it as best possible. Thank you for reading!

Navarathri, or the nine-night holiday, comes

every year around the beginning of Octo-

ber. It is a popular and well-known festival

in many Hindu households.

Navarathri is a time to worship the three

major goddesses, Parvati, Lakshmi, and

Saraswati. The first three days are given to

Durga, a form of Parvati. Durga is the war-

rior goddess, and was once worshipped

fervently by the Kshatriyas for good luck in battles. She is worshipped as the three

forms of the woman: the child, the young

girl, and the mature woman. She can also be

considered as the mother of the world,

helping all of her children. She is the reason

that the festival is nine days long.

According to a very popular legend, Ma-

hishasura, the mighty demon, worshipped

Lord Shiva and obtained many powers from

the god. Soon, he started killing off many

innocent people. Nobody could save them

from his tyranny. Even Lord Brahma, Lord

Vishnu and Lord Shiva were unable to de-

feat him. Therefore, all the gods united their

supreme powers and created a divine being

called Maha Shakti or Durga, the Warrior

Goddess. With all the accumulated power

and the weapons given by the gods, God-

dess Durga set her trail to defeat Ma-

hishasura. To accomplish the task, she

entered a war with him, which extended

for nine days. After

fighting hard with him

for nine days, God-

dess Durga killed

Mahishasura on the

tenth day. Conse-

quently, she lifted the tyranny of the demon.

Therefore, Navratri is

celebrated to com-

memorate her victory

over the demon,

which symbolizes the

victory of the good

over the evil. The

nine nights of Navratri symbolize the nine

nights of the war between Goddess Durga

and Mahishasura. Maha Durga is one of the

three supreme goddesses.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth days are given

to Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of

wealth and prosperity. However, during

these three days, we do not pray for

money, but for spiritual wealth and the

conquering of the heart. It is said that spiri-

tual wealth and knowledge go hand in

hand, which is why

we pray to Saraswati

next.

The third set of days

is for the Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of

knowledge. We ask her for knowledge of right

and wrong, and ask her to bless our books and

important things. She is wor-

shipped at the end, to show spiri-

tual progress. We start with the

innate courage to make important

decisions, then to the spiritual

wealth to understand the conse-

quences of our choices, and finally to the knowledge to discover the

right path to take.

There are other holidays inter-

twined in Navarathri. The Ayudha

Puja, on the eighth day, is about

the worship of vehicles and their

worth, while Dussehra, the tenth

day, is the day when Rama kills

Ravana. These are both important to Navarathri,

and are other ways of celebrating.

Navarathri is a sacred holiday, worshipping the

three heavenly goddesses and the path to spiri-

tual knowledge. As we go from courage, to the

knowledge of how to use it, to the sacrifice of

knowing right and wrong, this holiday is a time to

discover ourselves and to rectify our mistakes.

Edited by Shreya Shanker

The Background of Navaratrhri (Story by ujwal kiran) Page 8

Crossword Puzzle Across 2. Festival of Lights 4. God also known as the Destroyer 6. Official language of India 7. An ancient Indic language (Indus Valley Civilization in India) that is the language of Hinduism and the Vedas and is the classical literary language of India Down 1. Main god of the Aurora Temple (---- temple) 3. Is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian Subcontinent (-----music) 5. God also known as the Creator 6. A Hindu deity who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana 8. A language that is also in the name of a place "-----Nadu