Bala Vihar Opening Day

On September 6th, we had our first day of Bala Vihar for the academic year 2025-2026. This day was filled with new beginnings as we had an open house to welcome the new families. We began our Bala Vihar session with opening prayers. After that, Mohan Uncle explained to us about the symbolism of Lord Ganesha. We learned about each part of Lord Ganesha and its symbolism, such as his large ears symbolizing his ability to listen to our prayers and guide us. We did this before our annual Ganesha pooja to understand why we perform the pooja before actually conducting it.

The Ganesha pooja always takes place on the first day of Bala Vihar because it’s a tradition to invoke Ganesha before we start any new journey, so that he may bless us with wisdom, success and the removal of obstacles.

When it was time to start the Shodasaupachara Pooja (16-step Ganesha pooja), Mohan uncle helped us chant some shlokas to invoke Ganesha. Once we did that, we completed all 16 steps of the pooja by offering flowers and praying for a successful start to this year.

The new families were able to see how a day at Bala Vihar would usually start with opening prayers. After that, the teachers for the year 2025-2026 were introduced. We concluded our Bala Vihar session with our usual closing prayers, pledge, and aarti. After that, Rama aunty showed us a presentation detailing the activities from last year. This included our field trips to the temple, graduation, and all the other exciting things that we do. The new families were able to see some of the fun things that Bala Vihar offers.

We believe that building a strong foundation of values is one of the greatest gifts. Bala Vihar is your chance to see how we make this journey both meaningful and fun.

--Sai Manasa Vishwanath and Vaishnitha Bachala