* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Story: paraShuraama; The poisonous seed (of thought)
Words of the week: paraShuraama; viShNu dhanus
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring page of manthara sowing the poisonous seed in kaikeyi's mind
Game time: 'No, I will be like raama' game
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH
- aarati and pledge in the auditorium
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
The class started off with the 3 om-s and the prayers. We did the shloka for 'bhUmidevi namaskaara', which we should chant first thing in the morning, sitting in the bed, even before setting foot on the ground. It is a prayer which asks mother earth to pardon our stepping on her.
We started the 5th verse in geeta chanting. The words are tricky but with practice, we sure are going to swing it as well. Parents please make sure you practice with them regularly.
In the story time, we heard how jubilant entire mithilaa was. They celebrated the marriage of not just raamaa to sIta, but also that of Urmilaa to lakShmaNa; maanDavI to bharata; shuratakIrtI to shatrughna. As customary, sItaa was to leave to ayodhyaa with her newly wed family. She bade a tearful farewell to eveyone who were in tears as well.
Then while on their way to ayodhyaa, a furious paraShuraama came. He had heard the snap of the shiva dhanus. He challenged raama to string the viShNu dhanus (viShNu's bow), which of course, raama did it as if it were his toy. Then paraShuraama calmed down, gave the viShNu dhanus to raama and left for the himaalaya-s. After that, everyone returned to ayodhyaa and rejoiced the arrival of their princes as well as the newly wed princesses. sItaa was adored by one and all.
One day, dasharatha decided to coronate raama as the next king. bharata and shatrughna were visiting their grandfather in kekeya (kaikeyi's motherland). raama was supposed to be coronated the next day. When raama was told about this, he very calmly accepted the blessings of his father and guru-s. But manthara, a maid of kaikeyi was not happy. She conveyed this information to kaikeyi, who too rejoiced. But then, manthara sowed the seeds of poison in her thought. She urged her to take measures to stop raama's coronation and make her own son bharata the king. As a means to this devious end, she told kaikeyi to use the two boons king dasharatha had bestowed her long ago, when she had helped him in a battle. She taught kaikeyi to ask for - bharatha's coronation as the first boon and raama's exile for 14 yrs as the second! kaikeyi did exactly that. She lamented, cried and threw tantrums. She gave no choice to dasharatha. When raama was called and conveyed the happenings by kaikeyi, he again, very calmly accepted and also rejoiced for the fact that his brother bharata was to be king. He did not flinch even a bit and started preparing to leave to the forest.
We saw how if we let the mean words others influence us, we shall be in sorrow as well, just as kaikeyi. The kids promised to not let others influence them into doing bad stuff.
After coloring time, we played the game, 'No, I'll be like raama'. Aunty would say some scenarios where they could either be overly excited or extremely sad (wanting to throw a tantrum). The children said they would all be like raama and keep their calm under such circumstances too!
We then had ending prayers and headed to the auditorium for the 'diwaali presentation'.
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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We had a quiet start today. There were only a few students at the start of the class but more came in as we progressed. We would like to welcome three new kids to our class.Akshaj,Divya and Meghna have joined us today. We hope they have as much fun as we all have. Parents please bring your kids on time.We would like to start 10:00 AM sharp. There are lots of topics to cover and we want to utilize the time fully.
Today we talked about Diwali and how some of us celebrated it. We also talked about the difference in Diwali celebrations back in India and over here in US. Coming back to our regular schedule, we all started with Shlokas followed by meditation. Geeta Chanting is coming along very well but and we need some more enthusiasm while chanting. Please practice at home.
Story time was all about The " Tale of Parashurama" and "The Poisonous Seed". We talked about why kaikeyi's vision of Rama changed and how she allowed Manthara to sow a poisonous seed in her mind. We talked about how Sri Rama was as cheerful as always regardless of the circumstances. Rama remained calm and happy when he was asked to be a King and he did not get depressed when he was asked to go to forest. To emphasize this we played a game where we described different scenes and asked children what they would do, if they were Rama and what they would do if they were kaikeyi. Kids had very interesting answers. Please ask your kids for more details.
Coloring segment was fun as always. Many of us have been absent so we need to catch up on our coloring activity. Meera and I were thinking to have one make up class to catch up on this favorite activity. We all did very well writing Rama on the blank side of the coloring book and some of us wrote it in our composition book. Please don't forget to bring your pencils, Crayons and erasers so we all can concentrate more and get less distracted looking and asking for a particular color.
When we all got ready with our jackets and shoes on ,we played our favorite game " Ramah Vadati". we introduced many new words today. Ask your children if they remember all the new Sanskrit words. We will continue playing/practicing and soon master all these fun Sanskrit words.
The class came to an end with aarti and pledge in the auditorium. We look forward to see you all next Sunday. Have a great week and take care:)
Hari Om!!
