Prayers:
* 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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2
Story: shabarI; meeting with hanumaan
Words of the week: shabarI; Rushyamukha parvatam; sugrIva; vaali; dundubhi; maayaavi
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'; 'हनुमान्'
Activity: Coloring pages of shabarI offering her hospitality to raama & lakShmaNa; raama and lakShmaNa meeting hanumaan who comes in disguise.
Game time: 'raama' ball game.
End of class:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We have been adding to our morning prayers every now and then. Today, we have added the prayer to be chanted in the evening after lighting the lamps. We have also discussed what prayers should be said as soon as they wake up. Please encourage the children to make it a regular habit.
In geeta chanting, we have learnt till verse 12. We certainly need more practice on the later shlokas. But their enthusiasm is commendable. They all listen well and chant with full attention! Their concentration during the quiet time is laudable as well! Some of the kids were keen on learning to write हनुमान् (hanumaan) in Sanskrit! That was a new addition as well.
During story time we heard the stories of 'shabari', 'how raama and hanumaan met lakShmaNa' and the 'tiff between vaali and sugrIva'. The morals we took home with us were, the focus and determination of shabarI. She completely trusted the words of her guru, maata~nga Rushi, who said 'one day Lord raama shall come to her aashram and give her his darshan'. She very diligently heeded to his words and anticipated raama's arrival every single day! She would collect flowers and fresh berries everyday, in case that particular day was when raama came! She would even bite the fruit to taste it and make sure that she was offering him the sweetest ones! She had waited years together, without giving up or getting dejected! When raama actually came to her aashram, she was extremely over joyed. She offered Him her hospitality with the bitten fruit. raama, without any hesitation, ate them happily. For Him, what she offered did not matter as much as, how she offered, with total devotion and love. After that shabarI left and mortal body and traveled towards the heavens.
Later, raama and lakShmaNa were wandering in the valleys of Rushyamukha mountain, a brahmin came to them. He was actually hanumaan, who had come on behalf of sugrIva, to find out who they were. He spoke so beautifully and pleasantly that raama was completely taken by his gestures and demeanor. Even lakShmaNa grew fond of hanumaan. After learning who they were, hanumaan showed his true form and carried them on his shoulders to meet sugrIva. sugrIva narrated the whole tiff between him and his brother vaali. He had banished sugrIva due to a mis-understanding. He did that because, he let himself come under the influence of anger. We saw the stark differences between the brothers raama and bharata for that matter, as against vaali and sugrIva. We saw how anger and greed lead one towards committing blunders beyond words. raama promised to help sugrIva and sugrIva in turn, promised to help raama in his quest for sItaa.
We stopped the story at that and played one of our other popular games, 'raama' ball game. We did a little trivia about the game, as to why we play it the way we do. Every one knew the answer! Do discuss with your child what they take away from class as morals and values. Also, give them reminders of their words and encourage them to keep up with it.
Enjoy the break. We will see you in 2 weeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
* 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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2
Story: shabarI; meeting with hanumaan
Words of the week: shabarI; Rushyamukha parvatam; sugrIva; vaali; dundubhi; maayaavi
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'; 'हनुमान्'
Activity: Coloring pages of shabarI offering her hospitality to raama & lakShmaNa; raama and lakShmaNa meeting hanumaan who comes in disguise.
Game time: 'raama' ball game.
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We have been adding to our morning prayers every now and then. Today, we have added the prayer to be chanted in the evening after lighting the lamps. We have also discussed what prayers should be said as soon as they wake up. Please encourage the children to make it a regular habit.
In geeta chanting, we have learnt till verse 12. We certainly need more practice on the later shlokas. But their enthusiasm is commendable. They all listen well and chant with full attention! Their concentration during the quiet time is laudable as well! Some of the kids were keen on learning to write हनुमान् (hanumaan) in Sanskrit! That was a new addition as well.
During story time we heard the stories of 'shabari', 'how raama and hanumaan met lakShmaNa' and the 'tiff between vaali and sugrIva'. The morals we took home with us were, the focus and determination of shabarI. She completely trusted the words of her guru, maata~nga Rushi, who said 'one day Lord raama shall come to her aashram and give her his darshan'. She very diligently heeded to his words and anticipated raama's arrival every single day! She would collect flowers and fresh berries everyday, in case that particular day was when raama came! She would even bite the fruit to taste it and make sure that she was offering him the sweetest ones! She had waited years together, without giving up or getting dejected! When raama actually came to her aashram, she was extremely over joyed. She offered Him her hospitality with the bitten fruit. raama, without any hesitation, ate them happily. For Him, what she offered did not matter as much as, how she offered, with total devotion and love. After that shabarI left and mortal body and traveled towards the heavens.
Later, raama and lakShmaNa were wandering in the valleys of Rushyamukha mountain, a brahmin came to them. He was actually hanumaan, who had come on behalf of sugrIva, to find out who they were. He spoke so beautifully and pleasantly that raama was completely taken by his gestures and demeanor. Even lakShmaNa grew fond of hanumaan. After learning who they were, hanumaan showed his true form and carried them on his shoulders to meet sugrIva. sugrIva narrated the whole tiff between him and his brother vaali. He had banished sugrIva due to a mis-understanding. He did that because, he let himself come under the influence of anger. We saw the stark differences between the brothers raama and bharata for that matter, as against vaali and sugrIva. We saw how anger and greed lead one towards committing blunders beyond words. raama promised to help sugrIva and sugrIva in turn, promised to help raama in his quest for sItaa.
We stopped the story at that and played one of our other popular games, 'raama' ball game. We did a little trivia about the game, as to why we play it the way we do. Every one knew the answer! Do discuss with your child what they take away from class as morals and values. Also, give them reminders of their words and encourage them to keep up with it.
Enjoy the break. We will see you in 2 weeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
We all assembled in the class room and helped each other set up the chairs and arrange tables. Once all of us settled down we all took three long breaths and did our OMs together. This certainly made us more alert and attentive. After the morning shlokas we all got ready for morning meditation. Many of us wanted the lights to be closed during meditation so we did turn off the lights. It was amazing how all the kids sat quietly and counted how many times Sri Rama's name was chanted by Meera auntie. At the end of the meditation almost all of us got the count right!! We have to give the kids a lot of credit to actually concentrate for full 2 minutes. Keep it up!
Bhagwat Geeta chanting is comimg along very well. We are almost done with all the shlokas. We will finish everything by next two classes. Kids are doing a great job. Today also we divided the class in various groups and each group chanted the 13th shloka independently.
Then came story time. We did the story of Shabari and talked about her devotion. We had a discussion about how she offered the berries to Sri Rama and Sri Rama gladly ate all of it even though they were bitten by her. Also we covered the story of Sugriva and Bali. We did a comparison between Rama and Bharata and Sugriva and Bali and similarities/ differences between them.
As always coloring time was fun and enjoyable. Many of us did a fabulous job coloring all the details in the pictures. As always kids came up with their colored pages and shared their work with all of us. But it was really nice when one of the boys came and shared that he was not only coloring the pictures but also chanting Lord Rama's name in his mind. This is what we all want to do. Always chant Lord Rama's name in our minds when we are doing our work and not only the task in hand will become more enjoyable but it will be done with perfection.
After coloring, some of us did likhita japa. It is very interesting to see that the kids are so absorbed in writing Lord Rama's name on their notebooks. Some of us did not even get disturbed by the noise and could fully concentrate on our writing. Great !!
The class ended with aarti and pledge. Please remind your kids not to leave the class untill they see their parents/guardians and please pick up your kids promptly after the class.We do not have balavihar next week. Enjoy your week and we will see you soon!
