Announcements and February 26th class review

Important announcements

Geeta competition prelims April 21st, finals April 28th. Please register using the following link. You will also find mp3 file. Our grade has to memorise verses 1-15.

         http://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/GeetaChantingCompetition.php

Ram Navami celebration at ashram in Cranbury - March 31st. Our class's annual day performance. Please block your calanders and plan to attend with family and friends.

        We started our class with deep breathing and 3 loud oms. We then followed our usual routine and practise meditations for 2 minutes. The children are controlling their movements, breathing, and focusing on Rama in their minds. Some of them are chanting Rama, Rama in their minds.
        Next we said our morning prayers starting with Om sahana vavathu. Followed by the guru strotrams and the daily prayers.
        We came to the fun part of the class. The Ramayana story. Rama and Lakshmana are searching for Sita and the raksasa who has abducted her. Sabari an old tapasvini a disciple of sage Matanga lived in ashram by river Pampa. When her guru was departing from this world, she wanted to die as well, but her teacher told her to wait for Rama's darshan.
        When Rama and Lakshmana stopped by Sabari;s ashram, she lovingly took care of them. Her life was fulfilled. Her entire life had been spent in guru seva and it had been rewarded by Rama's presence. She had gathered fruits and berries from the forests. She took a bite off each of them to make sure they were sweet and not sour.
   Lakshmana frowned at the offering, but Rama smiled gently and ate the fruits with relish. The Lord accepts whatever we offer unto him if we offer it with pure untainted love.

  Aunty then continued to Bali's story. Bali and Sugriva were brothers and vanaras. Bali was the king and physically very powerful. He could lift and moutain with his bare hands. A raksasa called Dundhubi felt he could defeat any person in fight. He challenged sea god to fight. But the god pointed Himalaya to raksasa. When the raksasa approaches the mountain, the mountain smiled and said "I am a hermit. I cannot fight you. Why not ask King Bali. He will give you a good fight."
       Dundhubi went to kishkindha, Bali's capital and challenged Bali. The two then had a terrible fight. Bali defeated the raksasa, but when he threw his body many miles away, a few drops of the raksasa blood fell on Matanga rishi's ashram in mountain Rsyamuka. The sage cursed Bali for this. Bali for fear of his life took great care not to step near the mountain.
    Later Dundhubi's brother Mayavi wanted to avenge his brother and challenged Bali to fight. It was the dead of night and Bali enraged rushed out to meet his challenger. Mayavi took fright and bolted. Bali and then Sugriva pursued the fleeing raksasa. They saw him disappear into a cave. Bali ordered Sugriva to stay outside and guard the entrance. He then went into the cave to settle with the raksasa.
   Sugriva waited outside and when he heard a blood curdling yell, he mistakenly thought his brother Bali had been killed. He blocked the cave entrance with a huge boulder and went back to Kiskindha, gave everyone the news of  Bali's death. The citizens grieved and then eventually installed Sugriva as king. Bali returned to the palace tired and wounded. He was furious to see his brother on his throne. He banished Sugriva from Kiskindha.
     Sugriva with a few faithfull followers moved into the Rsyamuka mountain. The fugitive vanara king saw the wandering princes and thought they were search party being sent by his brother Bali. His wise minister Hanuman pretended to be a brahmin and approched the princes to check out their intentions. As soon as he met their gaze, he felt an affinity to them. Hanuman then took Rama and Lakshmana to Sugriva.