Prayers:
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4
Story: Glass of Milk
End of class:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We had a fun outdoor balavihar class today! It was a nice beautiful day, quite warm for an October morning, we should say. We combined both the sections and had a few friends from 'Bridgewater balavihar' too joining us.
We started off with sahanaavavatu... We then did the geeta chanting practice of the 1st 4 verses of chapter 11. They were all so loud and clear in their chanting! They were probably trying to do justice to the outdoor location chosen for the class today :).
Since the walk was for raising money for rural development in India, we spoke about why we were at the park, what our role was in assisting the not so fortunate children. It was amazing how much the children already knew!
To emphasis the purpose of the walk, we heard a story called 'The Glass of milk'. There was once a poor boy who was very hungry and cold. He did not know where to go and stood in the cold for a long time. Finally, not able to bear it anymore, he thought of asking someone for food and knocked on the door of a house near by. A kind looking young lady opened the door. At that moment, the boy hesitated to ask for food. So, he ended up asking for just a glass of water to drink. But that lady brought him a tall warm glass of milk instead. With that, not only his hunger was quenched, he felt warm and energized!
Many years later, that same lady was admitted to a hospital with a grave disease. When a doctor was looking through her charts and saw the name of her hometown, his eyes lit up. He went to see the lady and, lo and behold, it was the same lady that had energized him on a cold winter day, years ago! He was a doctor now! He immediately took over her case, gave her the best treatment and took special care of her. After a long battle, she was cured and well enough to go home. When the bills were being made, the doctor asked to see the bills for his approval. When it came to him, he wrote something on the bottom of the bill and sent it to the lady. The lady could not hold her tears back, for, it said, 'Paid in full, with a glass of milk'!! The deed of kindness she has sown had come right back to her! Even if you never see the deed again, atleast you would have made the world a better place.
We related to this story, our act of giving to the needy. We have just assisted in making the world a better place for someone we may never come to know. But atleast, we know we did our share in helping them.
We finished the class with 'pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam...'. But wait, we were not done yet! We did some warm up stretching, exercise and yoga poses, in order to get ready for the fun five mile walk, we were so looking forward to. The day was beautiful and the weather was perfect! We couldn't have asked for a better day to be out in the park. It was a fun, fun balavihar class today!! By the way, we have some pictures uploaded from today. Check them out on the top left hand side of the page.
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4
Story: Glass of Milk
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We had a fun outdoor balavihar class today! It was a nice beautiful day, quite warm for an October morning, we should say. We combined both the sections and had a few friends from 'Bridgewater balavihar' too joining us.
We started off with sahanaavavatu... We then did the geeta chanting practice of the 1st 4 verses of chapter 11. They were all so loud and clear in their chanting! They were probably trying to do justice to the outdoor location chosen for the class today :).
Since the walk was for raising money for rural development in India, we spoke about why we were at the park, what our role was in assisting the not so fortunate children. It was amazing how much the children already knew!
To emphasis the purpose of the walk, we heard a story called 'The Glass of milk'. There was once a poor boy who was very hungry and cold. He did not know where to go and stood in the cold for a long time. Finally, not able to bear it anymore, he thought of asking someone for food and knocked on the door of a house near by. A kind looking young lady opened the door. At that moment, the boy hesitated to ask for food. So, he ended up asking for just a glass of water to drink. But that lady brought him a tall warm glass of milk instead. With that, not only his hunger was quenched, he felt warm and energized!
Many years later, that same lady was admitted to a hospital with a grave disease. When a doctor was looking through her charts and saw the name of her hometown, his eyes lit up. He went to see the lady and, lo and behold, it was the same lady that had energized him on a cold winter day, years ago! He was a doctor now! He immediately took over her case, gave her the best treatment and took special care of her. After a long battle, she was cured and well enough to go home. When the bills were being made, the doctor asked to see the bills for his approval. When it came to him, he wrote something on the bottom of the bill and sent it to the lady. The lady could not hold her tears back, for, it said, 'Paid in full, with a glass of milk'!! The deed of kindness she has sown had come right back to her! Even if you never see the deed again, atleast you would have made the world a better place.
We related to this story, our act of giving to the needy. We have just assisted in making the world a better place for someone we may never come to know. But atleast, we know we did our share in helping them.
We finished the class with 'pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam...'. But wait, we were not done yet! We did some warm up stretching, exercise and yoga poses, in order to get ready for the fun five mile walk, we were so looking forward to. The day was beautiful and the weather was perfect! We couldn't have asked for a better day to be out in the park. It was a fun, fun balavihar class today!! By the way, we have some pictures uploaded from today. Check them out on the top left hand side of the page.
