January 29th 2012 class review

Hari Om,
           We started a class by wishing one another Namaste with hands folded and bowed heads. Namaste is not only wishing hello to another but also acknowledging the God within the other.We then continued with our usual 3 loud oms followed by Om Sahanavathu saha nau bhunakthu. We are very happy to report that the children are now able to mediate by chanting Ram Ram in their minds for two minutes.Please encourage them to meditate at home as well.
           We continued with the gurustrotrams Akanda mandala.., Ajnana timir....., guru brahma.... tvameva mata cha..., and then the morning prayers Shubham karothi...., Saraswathi namasthubyam.... etc.. We then gave a loud rendition of Subramaniyam bhajan.

         The Bala Ramayana is moving to a critical stage. Our little friends helped us rebuild the story up to where we left off last week. Rama 's brahma astra destroyed all the rakasasa in Khara and Dusana's army except for Akampana who escaped to Lanka. He warned Ravana that no one could fight Rama. He advised Ravana that the only way to beat Rama is to carry Sita off.
     Ravana visited Marica. But Marica had been taught well in rishi Viswamitra's yagna. He was performing penance now for all his sins. He said "Ravana I have your welfare in my heart. Rama is God on earth.  You have all the glory, name and fame of the three worlds. What will you gain by fighting Rama?
Ravana thought that over and decided to heed Marica at first. But Surpanakha came to his court the next day and enticed him with description of Sita's loveliness. Ravana then vowed to revenge his brothers and take Sita from Rama.
     He visited Marica again and forced him to take on the form of a lovely golden deer that would captivate Sita. Marica resisted and revolted as long as he could. But ultimately decided he would be happy to die in Rama's hands. Both got into an aerial chariot and flew to Dandaka.
       Sita noticed the deer right away. She was immediately fascinated by it. She pleaded with Rama to get it for her. Lakshmana was vehemently against the deer. He suspected some foul play. But Rama decided to go after the deer. He thought if it is a deer, Sita can have it and feel happy. But if it turns out to be a raksasa he would kill it. He thought he had nothing to lose.

Before leaving Rama strictly warned Lakshmana to watch over Sita and not to leave her alone for a moment.
       
The children then did a Ramayana word search. We ended the class with Om Puranam adah in front of the altar.

The next class is February 5th. Please let us know if you have any questions.



         

January 22nd 2012 class review

Hari Om,
    Om.. Om.. Om.. Three loud oms followed by Om Sahana vavathu... Our friends were quite excited about the snow from the previous day. We discussed how the snow gets created and who makes the rain, clouds, winds and the earth. The final answer for all questions is Bhagvan or God.

We then followed our usual routine and mediated for a minute with the lights off. The children are getting good at focusing their minds for a minute. We are going to extend the time in the next class.

Next we practised verses from geeta chapter 12. We have covered upto verse 9 in class. Please review these verses with our little friends. The geeta competion registration is available online. Please visit the chinmaya vrindavan site for more information. Following are verses 8 and 9.



We then sang our regular prayers starting with guru stotrams, Karagara vasathe, saraswathi namastubyam,  Bhrama arpanam, shubham karothi kalyanam, kara charana kritam vaa. Some of these prayers are in your volunteer handbook, some are in previous blog posts and all these are in my prayers book.

We continued to the favourite part of the class for all of us. The Ramayana story. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana arrive in Panchavati by the river Godavari. They see a huge vulture waiting for them. At first they mistake it for a raksasa, but the bird is a friend of their father and offers to protect Sita when the brothers are out hunting.

Lakshmana deftly builds a lovely little kutiya with bamboo poles and dried branches. The lessons learned under the guidance of their Guru Vasistha help them adapt to their environment and circumstance.
      One day a heavily built lady demon approached the trio. She wondered who they were and why they were dressed as ascetics or monks, why they were carrying bows and why they had a women with them.
On finding out their true identity, she introduced herself as Surpanakha, daughter of Visrava muni and sister of Ravana the powerful emperor of Lanka. She was drawn to Rama and wanted to marry him and claimed to be in love with him. But Rama joking told her that he was married but that she should ask Lakshmana.
When she went to Lakshmana, he too jokingly told her that he was a slave to his brother and that she should not become a slave of a slave. He asked her to try Rama again as his brother might leave his wife. Surpanakha was enraged and tried to attack Sita but Lakshmana quickly stopped her and cut her nose and ears. She ran away to her brothers Khara and Dusana.
     They sent a raksasa army to attack the trio but Rama finished all of them with his mighty weapons or astras. Ravana's brothers and many followers were destroyed at this time. This proved that Rama was born with divine purpose to destroy all evil and to establish the law of Dharma.
     Ravana on the other hand stood for everything that is adharma. He had disturbed a vast number yajnas, troubled many rishis and carried away many women. Surpanaka now ran to her mighty brother. She wanted revenge and Ravana promised to avenge the great insult to the raksasa race. Aunty stopped the story here and we quietened our minds with some Likith japa and coloring.

January 8th, 2012 - Class review

Hari Om,
          Welcome back. A Happy New Year to all our young friends. We had a fun class this Sunday. Our friends were excited and energised after their winter break.
          We are happy to celebrate our little friend's birthdays during balavihar class. But we cannot serve food or snacks in the class rooms or hallways. It is against the school rules. If you wish you can send in some pre-packaged snack. But we are happy to celebrate our friend's birthdays without treats or gifts  

            Aunty set up the altar with guruji and Saraswathi devi's picture and we started the class with deep breaths followed by 3 loud oms.
            We introduced meditation without marbles. The children recited shri Rama jayam in their minds and were still for more than a minute. We then continued with our regular prayers from my Prayers book. Some of the prayers are also in previous blog posts.

Aunty introduced us to a new bhajan favored by our acharya Swami Tejomayananda
           Srikrishna Govinda Hare Murare
           Hey Nath Narayana Vasudeva
           Hey Nath Narayana Vasudeva
           Hey Nath Narayana Vasudeva
           Srikrishna Govinda Hare Murare
           Hey Nath Narayana Vasudeva
Please ask the children to sing it to you. 

We are making slow progress in the geeta verses. We have covered upto eight verses. Please practice these at home.

We then got up on our feet and followed Aunty's lead to stretch and exercise. We touched our toes or some of us tried to. We did the hula hoop with our hips and wind mill with our arms.

Played Zip Zap Zoom and recollected the main characters, places and events of the Ramanaya story. We want to take this opportunity to thank all our parents. We are having  wonderful time teaching your kids. We will be having a Hanuman jayanthi in the ashram sometime in April. Our classes are responsible for decorating for the festival. Please take this opportunity to get involved in the program.