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
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shlokas 1 to 14
Story: Ravana rejects good counsel; Bridge across the ocean
Words of the week: vibhIShaNa; raavaNa; indrajit; maNDodarI
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of vibhIShaNa advising raavaNa; monkeys building the bridge across the ocean
Game time: 'Know your boundaries' game, along with applying the morals learnt in the story today.
End of class:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Today was almost a full class, but yet, what a quite, wonderful and attentive group! We started off with our morning prayers, which we almost need no help. We had learnt a new hanumaan shloka last week, we practiced it today as well. Meditation time was the quietest! That was a great way to start our gItaa chanting. The first 6 verses, aunty did not even have to say with the kids! They did it on their own! Please keep practicing regularly and come April 23rd, each one will be able to perform their best. Parents make sure you register them online (you can use the link above) and encourage them to practice everyday.
During story time, we saw how raavaNa, inspite of good counsel from his very brother vibhIShaNa and wife maNDodarI, heeds to his aasurI ministers and friends, who egg him towards his misdeeds. They remind him of his previous victories over kubera, how he had snatched the pushpaka vimaana (the aerial chariot) and the city of gold, the very lankaa from kubera. That boosted his confidence and he was not ready to receive anything other than his praises. We learnt how company can either lead us towards betterment or spiral us down.
On the other side, all the monkeys from the south had reached kiShkindaa. They were all celebrating their success. hanumaan was calm and collected. On jaambavaan's instigation, he quietly started off 'On seeing sItaa...' He was so watchful of raama's feelings that, he did not want him to get anxious giving unwanted details or bragging about his own endeavors. We learnt how the humble never blow their own horns and trumpets.
vibhIShaNa, left raavaNa's court, with 4 of his faithful friends and flew towards raama's camp on the other side of the ocean. Since he was a raakshasa too, he had magical powers as well. On seeing him, all the monkeys, etc, got anxious and concluded that he was an enemy. But raama was calm and composed. Seeing this, vibhIShaNa announced to the onlookers that he had left raavaNa and had come to join them as a friend. raama asked hanumaan for his opinion on vibhIShaNa. Only after asking, did hanumaan express his opinion. He said vibhIShaNa had an honest face and he was announcing that he was seeking friendship. He should not be punished just for the fact that he was raavaNa's brother. raama agreed with hanumaan's opinion. vibhIShaNa explained the situation and how raavaNa had rejected his counsel. raama performed a simple 'pattabhiSheka' of vibhIShaNa as the future king of lankaa!
They then took up the task of building the bridge across the ocean to reach lankaa. raama performed a pooja, asking the ocean for help. After 3 days, when nothing happened, he took up his bow and arrow to dry up the whole ocean, when the ocean God appeared and pleaded raama for mercy. He said that his very nature is to be deep and flowing always. He couldn't possibly dry up and pave way for them. But he promised that if a monkey named nala in their army, an excellent engineer, built a bridge, he would hold up all the rocks and boulders and trees, so that they don't sink. Now all the monkeys started throwing huge trees and boulders into the ocean, chanting raama's name. We also heard about the little squirrel, who was watching all this. He was a tiny squirrel alright. But he wanted to do his share in building the bridge. He brought whatever little his little hands could hold and threw it into the ocean saying raama's name! On seeing that raama blessed him and they say that the 3 lines on a squirrel's back are raama's finger marks!! With this, we learnt that our contribution is very important, in whatever capacity. Even at home, whatever we can do to help our parents, we need to do it! It matters a lot to our parents too. The bridge was built in 5 days and they all crossed over to the other side.
We stopped the story at that and did our coloring pages and played the game of boundaries, applying the morals learnt from the story today.
See you all next week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM
Meditation: 1 minute
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shlokas 1 to 14
Story: Ravana rejects good counsel; Bridge across the ocean
Words of the week: vibhIShaNa; raavaNa; indrajit; maNDodarI
Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'
Activity: Coloring pages of vibhIShaNa advising raavaNa; monkeys building the bridge across the ocean
Game time: 'Know your boundaries' game, along with applying the morals learnt in the story today.
End of class:
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Today was almost a full class, but yet, what a quite, wonderful and attentive group! We started off with our morning prayers, which we almost need no help. We had learnt a new hanumaan shloka last week, we practiced it today as well. Meditation time was the quietest! That was a great way to start our gItaa chanting. The first 6 verses, aunty did not even have to say with the kids! They did it on their own! Please keep practicing regularly and come April 23rd, each one will be able to perform their best. Parents make sure you register them online (you can use the link above) and encourage them to practice everyday.
During story time, we saw how raavaNa, inspite of good counsel from his very brother vibhIShaNa and wife maNDodarI, heeds to his aasurI ministers and friends, who egg him towards his misdeeds. They remind him of his previous victories over kubera, how he had snatched the pushpaka vimaana (the aerial chariot) and the city of gold, the very lankaa from kubera. That boosted his confidence and he was not ready to receive anything other than his praises. We learnt how company can either lead us towards betterment or spiral us down.
On the other side, all the monkeys from the south had reached kiShkindaa. They were all celebrating their success. hanumaan was calm and collected. On jaambavaan's instigation, he quietly started off 'On seeing sItaa...' He was so watchful of raama's feelings that, he did not want him to get anxious giving unwanted details or bragging about his own endeavors. We learnt how the humble never blow their own horns and trumpets.
vibhIShaNa, left raavaNa's court, with 4 of his faithful friends and flew towards raama's camp on the other side of the ocean. Since he was a raakshasa too, he had magical powers as well. On seeing him, all the monkeys, etc, got anxious and concluded that he was an enemy. But raama was calm and composed. Seeing this, vibhIShaNa announced to the onlookers that he had left raavaNa and had come to join them as a friend. raama asked hanumaan for his opinion on vibhIShaNa. Only after asking, did hanumaan express his opinion. He said vibhIShaNa had an honest face and he was announcing that he was seeking friendship. He should not be punished just for the fact that he was raavaNa's brother. raama agreed with hanumaan's opinion. vibhIShaNa explained the situation and how raavaNa had rejected his counsel. raama performed a simple 'pattabhiSheka' of vibhIShaNa as the future king of lankaa!
They then took up the task of building the bridge across the ocean to reach lankaa. raama performed a pooja, asking the ocean for help. After 3 days, when nothing happened, he took up his bow and arrow to dry up the whole ocean, when the ocean God appeared and pleaded raama for mercy. He said that his very nature is to be deep and flowing always. He couldn't possibly dry up and pave way for them. But he promised that if a monkey named nala in their army, an excellent engineer, built a bridge, he would hold up all the rocks and boulders and trees, so that they don't sink. Now all the monkeys started throwing huge trees and boulders into the ocean, chanting raama's name. We also heard about the little squirrel, who was watching all this. He was a tiny squirrel alright. But he wanted to do his share in building the bridge. He brought whatever little his little hands could hold and threw it into the ocean saying raama's name! On seeing that raama blessed him and they say that the 3 lines on a squirrel's back are raama's finger marks!! With this, we learnt that our contribution is very important, in whatever capacity. Even at home, whatever we can do to help our parents, we need to do it! It matters a lot to our parents too. The bridge was built in 5 days and they all crossed over to the other side.
We stopped the story at that and did our coloring pages and played the game of boundaries, applying the morals learnt from the story today.
See you all next week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:
Today was a relatively quiet day because of low attendance.I guess everyone was busy playing Holi or watching World Cup Cricket! Happy Holi to all of you who celebrate the festival. May the colors brighten your life.. Anyways we all assembled and started with our regular routine of morning shlokas,meditation and geeta chanting. As always we are doing awesome in all three.
The story time covered lessons 30 (Ravana Rejects Good Counsel) and lesson 31 (The Bridge Across The Ocean). We learned that truly great never push themselves forward and praise their own exploits. Also Ravana's ruin was certain because when a man has lost his reason and is advised by fools around him,his ruin is certain. Ravana had become proud and his ministers too were asuric rakshas who had taken to evil ways. The evil can give the evil nothing but evil counsel which can bring only ruin. We had a lively discussion about the possible ways to cross the large ocean. Kids had a very creative ideas about how the vanara sena could cross the ocean. I found some of them very interesting like Hanuman could take all the vanaras up in the sky towards the clouds and then the whole army could walk on the cloud to reach Lanka. Other suggestion was that Hanuman could elongate his tail and everyone could walk on it and cross the ocean.
We all also took a march along the classroom chanting Sri Rama's name and each child got to lead the chanting once. We all imagined that we had reached the sea shore and we had to plan the next step in reaching Lanka.
Everyone colored in their coloring books and we all ended the class with aarti and pledge. We are going to select one or two kids to lead the pledge. So let us practice the pledge and be confident when we are asked to lead.
Our next class is going to be held on 3rd April. Have a good week and see you soon!!!
