December 18th class review

Hari Om,
    During this Sunday's class we had bhajan singing, dancing, meditation, storytime and drawing. It was enjoyable and rewarding to everyone. We started on a fun note and wished one of our little friends happy birthday in Hindi.
          Janam Din ki badhai! or Janam Din ki shubkamnaayein!
We then took a deep breath and said a loud and long Om when we exhaled. We did one minute of meditation and then said all the regular prayers. Karagare Vasate, Bhrama arpanam, Sarawathi namastubyam, Shubham karothi Kalyanam.

The last prayer of the day is a very important one. We reflect on all our actions for the day and ask Mahadev for forgiveness. Here is the prayer. 

Kara charana kritam vaa kkaaya jam karma jam vaa .
Shravana nayana jam vaa maanasam vaa paraadham.
Vihitama vihitam vaa sarva metat kshama sva .
Jaya jaya karuna abdhe shrii mahaadeva shambho

(Whatever sins i have committed with my hands, feet, voice, body, actions, ears, eyes, or mind, whether prohibited by the scriptures or not, please forgive them all. Hail! Hail! O ocean of compassion! O great god! O benevolent lord!).
Please help the children get into the habit of praying everyday.
    We then practiced  our geeta verses. Please let us know if you don't have access to the audio file that we emailed. The children will need to memorise these verses and chant them without any aid during the competition in Spring.
    Aunty continued with the Ramayanam story. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana vacate Chitrakoot after Bharatha leaves for Ayodhya as the place reminds them of too much of Bharatha and others. It is also too close to Ayodhya for Rama.
  The trio go to sage Atri 's ashram where the sage's wife Anasuya is very attentive to them and gives Sita some divine clothes.The dense forest of Dandaka start from this edge of this ashram. The place is infected by the terror of rakshasas. Rama and Lakshmana help the sages and hermits by killing the rakshasas. They spend the next tens years moving from one place to another in the forest. Sita is concerned that they are killing the rakshasas wearing the clothes of monks. But Rama allays her fears and says it is their Dharma to use their powers to protect and help the rishis and sages
     Since they were nearing the end of their term in the forest, the trio decide to visit Sage Agastya. Many stories demonstrate the power of this rishi. One legendary story involves the spiritual wedding of Lord Shiva and Parvathy devi on Mount Kailasa. All the Devas, Bhootas, Asuras, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas etc, and other dignitaries including Brahma and Vishnu, came down from their respective extra-terrestrial realms to Earth, to Kailasa to witness the wedding. Due to the weight of the population in the North the Earth started to Tilt. Lord Shiva  then requested Agasthya Muni to rush to the then South India and balance the Earth from further tilting. Agasthya muni came down sat in mediation and then negated the further tilt of the planet.
 Demon brothers Ilvala and Vathapi, used to kill people who were passing by the forest. Ilvala knew the supernatural slogan using which he could bring back a dead person to life. He fed his brother Vathapi to Agasthya muni. Legend has it that Agasthya muni with his vedic powers foresaw the evil plan and outwitted them by digesting the dead brother with the words Vathapi JeerNo bhava.
     We ended the class with coloring chapter 14. Please ensure that the stapled drawing book is in a binder. Many of our little friends are losing sheets of paper from the book.

Wish you all a happy new year. See you next year.

December 11th class review

   Today we started with some deep breathing exercises before we said our 3 oms followed by Om Sahana vavathu. We then went on to meditation. Many of our little friends put our heads down and tried to visualise their favourite gods.

    After the meditation we said a few prayers from the my prayers book. We said Karagare Vasathe, the prayer to say as soon as we wake up, Shubham karothi kalyanam the prayer we sing when we light the lamps in evenings, Saraswathi namasthubyam the prayer we sing before we study and BhramaArpanam  prayer we say before we eat. 

       We sang the Rama Rama Bhajan. This bhajan is in the my prayers book. It is a fun bhajan, so try it with your kids.

Rama Rama Rama Rama, Rama Nama Tarakam

Rama Krishna Vasudeva Bhakthi Mukthi Dayakam

Janaki Manoharam Sarva Loka Nayakam

Shankaradi sevyamaana divya nama vaibavam

Shankaradi sevyamaana divya nama vaibavam

Rama Rama Rama Rama, Rama Nama Tarakam (2)

Rama Nama Tarakam (3)

The children are getting good at the first two verses of the geeta. We have to learn 15 verses this year. Please practice these at home as well using the cd and the printouts. We have covered six verses

We reviewed the previous chapters and moved to Bharatha and Shatrughana. Following King Dasaratha's death,  a messenger was sent to bring them back to Ayodhya. On arriving in Ayodhya,Bharatha immediately senses the change in the city, the people and the servants. He is received joyously by his mom. But is shocked at her disclosures. He rejects her gifts to him.  Bharatha does not want the kingdom. He is in great mental anguish when he hears that his dear brother Rama has been banished to the forest for 14 years.

         Bharata performs the last rites for his father and proceeds to the forest to persuade Rama to return to Ayodhya. But when the party from Ayodhya reach Chitrakoot, they are unable to persuade Rama to return. Rama will not break his promise to his father. Bharatha then agrees to take care of Ayodhya as a regent till Rama returns. Bharatha takes Rama's padukas so he can place them on the throne and be guided by them.

We had a short quiz on the events, places and people that we have covered so far. The children did very well in the quiz. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

December 4th Class review

    We started another class on time and with almost full attendance. The children know the routine well now. We started with our 3 oms followed by Om Sahana vavathu.
     All these prayers and slokams are in the my prayers book available in the book store. Please make sure the children have access to either the book or printouts of the prayers.
     We went over three guru stotrams after laying out the altar with Guru Chinmaya ji and Goddess Saraswathi's picture. The following stotrams are in page 9 of my prayers book.

Akhand-Mandalakaram vyaptam yena characharam.
Tatpadam darshitam yena tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.

 Agyan timir-andhasya Gyananjan Shalakaya.
Chakshur-oonmeelitam yena tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.

Gurur-Brahma Gurur-Vishnu Gurur-Devo Maheshwarah.
Guru-sakshat Para-Brahma tasmai Shri Gurave Namah.

      We then reviewed benefits of meditation and considered the various ways to meditate. After one minute of meditation, the children were ready for geeta chanting. We reviewed the three verses we had learnt in previous weeks and started on 2 additional ones. The children received handouts of all the verses in English. Please help the children memorise these verses at home. We also have cds and will be handing these out in the next class.  We all then got to our feet, stretched and did execises to get our blood flowing.
      Now we got to the most anticipated story time. Rama,Seeta and Lakshmana are in Chitrakoot. Sumatra the minister who drove them has returned to Ayodhya without the princess. The people of Ayodhya are disappointed and angry. King Dasaratha remembers an incident from his past. He recounts it to Queen Kausalya. He was a prince hunting in the forest. He mistakenly shoots a young boy who is fetching water for his blind parents. The young boys is Sravana. He repents for his mistake but the blind parents curse him that he too would one day lose his child and feel the pain that they are feeling. We talked about how our every action has consequences. Kaikeyi is responsible for her action, not Manatara.

       We ended the class with arthi and chinmaya pledge.