* 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 and 6
Story: shravaNa; grief-stricken ayodhyaa
Words of the week: kaavaDa; shabdavedI baaNa; shaapa
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of shravaNa carrying his parents; king dasharatha on his death bed
Game time: raama ball game
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
- aarati and pledge in the auditorium
Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Along with learning about raamaayaNa, we are talking a lot about the morals and values propagated through the stories in our mythology. Parents, we have our schedules planned such that they are very busy doing a lot of learning and having a fun at the same time. We hence encourage you to bring in the children to the class on time, so that we can get started and pick them up on time as well.
Today, we learnt the 6th shloka of bhagavadgeeta. They are comfortable with the first 4, but do not have them by-heart yet. Please work regularly so that they won't be overwhelmed at the end of the year.
In our story time, we saw that raama, lakShmaNa and sIta set up their kutIram in chitrakUta mountain. They built a hut themselves and set up their new home. We also learnt about the story of shravaNa kumaara. He was a wonderful boy who was very obedient. His very name means 'a (good) listener'! He took care of his blind parents who were also old and weak. He carried them on his shoulders, in a kaavaDa - two baskets laden with cushions, tied to the ends of a long stick, as they couldn't walk. One day, when he went to fill water in a pot for his thirsty parents, a young dasharatha was hunting in the vicinity. He had just learnt to use the 'shabdavedI baana', the art of releasing an arrow in the direction of a sound. When he heard the sound of the water pot, he mistook shravaNa for an animal and killed him. When heard the groaning of a boy, dasharatha was shocked! He knew he had to face the wrath of shravaNa's old parents. He did not escape from facing the consequence of his blunder. They cursed (shaapa) dasharatha, saying that he would die lamenting for his beloved son as well! Now that curse was coming true. A very heart-broken, grief-stricken dasharatha drew his last breath, moaning for his beloved raama. ayodhyaa plunged into further grief on losing their king. A messenger was sent to fetch bharatha from kekaya. When he reached ayodhyaa, he was stunned to see the city so sullen and deserted. His mother kaikeyi came to receive him at the door. She conveyed to bharatha that she had taken care of everything and now, he could be king without any hurdles! He could not believe what he had just heard!! He loved his father dearly. He adored his brother raama even more. What had befallen his beloved land!
We discussed how obedient and dedicated shravaNa was. Also, dasharatha did not duck away from the consequence of his mistake. He could have fled, but he owned up his folly bravely. We end up paying the price, even if it is a mistake. So we really have to think our actions through. We even discussed how money can't buy everything! We spoke about how manthara's evil thought and kaikeyi's following through had caused havoc in the whole empire. We related to how sometimes, even our own mind comes up with wrong ideas. Then, it becomes our prime duty to instruct our own mind to not deviate from the morals and values we have learnt. We saw that sIta, although she was a princess, picked wild fruit and berries herself while the princes built their hut. They were not arrogant about their positions! These become the 'take away-s' from our stories.
We stopped the story at this point, but nobody wanted to stop! But we had to hold down our curiosity due to time :). We then did the coloring pages and played the raama ball game. Everyone was so alert that the aunties didn't get a chance to trick any one :).
We do not have balavihar next week due to the fund-raiser program at the ashram. We will see you all on the 19th for the next session.
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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We all met after the Thanksgiving break so everyone was eager to share what they did during their time off and also how some of us (including aunties) felt so cold this morning to get out of bed. Anyways we warmed up with daily shlokas and some yoga stretches. We are all chanting very loud and clear. Meditation time was excellent. All the kids did super. Even some of us who are restless sometimes, did fantastic. We had some discussion about why we close our eyes during meditation. Some of us suggested that we close our eyes so we are not distracted and also so we can see God clearly in our minds.
We introduced 6th shloka of the 11th chapter of Bhagwat Geeta. This was a difficult shloka but we all got it with little practice. Please keep chanting at home!
Story Time: We told the tale of "Sravana". We learned Sravana's devotion to his parents. We also learned that every act we do gives a result. King Dashrata commited a sin unknowingly but had guts to go and tell Sravana's parents. He did not lie nor escape from the scene. Sravana's parents also recognized the fact that prince had commited the sin, unknowingly. Though unknowingly King Dashrata killed Sravana, he got the result of his action.
Also we did the trail of Sri Rama.and colored the charan paduka on Chitrakoota. We all described the beauty of Chitrakoota and how Rama and Lakshmana built a hut for their stay during the vanvaasa. We had a interesting dicussion about how there was no navigation system, GPS etc. at that time and how Sri Rama and Lakshmana found their way to Chitrakoota. Also we compared living in the forest to camping and how difficult it was for Sri Rama, Sita and Lakshmana to live in the forest without sleeping bags, food and other comfortable things that we carry with us to stay outdoors for couple of days. Imagine Sri Rama was going to be in the forest for fourteen years!!
We did coloring and Likhita japa and before you know it, it was time to leave. We all had so much fun!!
Have a very good week and our next session is going to be held on the 19th of December!
Stay Warm and see you all soon!!
