Beginning prayers
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· Meditation
· sahanaavavatu
· gurustotram verses 1-6 and 14
· sahanaavavatu
· gurustotram verses 1-6 and 14
Gitaa chanting
· bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 - 5 shlokas
Story time
· sage kashyapa
· hiraNkyaakSha
Chanting/Songs
· raama hare (3 verses)
Quiet time
· Writing ‘namo’ in Sanskrit
Game time
· The attitude of gratitude - making a list of what we are grateful for - homework
Ending prayers and pledge
· pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
· aarati and pledge in the auditorium
· aarati and pledge in the auditorium
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
We started the class with 3 'om's. After the initiating prayer, we learnt about meditation. While brainstorming about what meditation means, we were quite astounded to learn how much the children already knew about it! The answers were 'thinking of God', 'not thinking of anything else', 'focusing', 'saying God's names', 'having good thoughts', etc. Also one of the answers that really caught us was 'guarding our thoughts'!! They couldn't have put it any better! After understanding that the easiest way to do that is focusing on our breath, which we apparently do aaall the time :). We spoke about how the air that we inhale feels cool and what we exhale feels warm. We turned off the lights, focused attention on the breath and calmed the minds. Parents, we request you to come to class in time. If the child walks in during meditation, the rest of the class will get distracted. If you come during that time, unfortunately, we would have to request you to stand out till the lights are on. At the same time, we are happy that most of the children come on time!
After that we chanted the gurustotram and learnt the words to verses 6 and 7. We then did the gItaa chanting. Most of the children were comfortable with the words for the first 3 verses. We worked on learning the words for the 4th and 5th verses. We are having fun with the tongue twisters when we are learning them for the first time :).
Then was recap time. We retreaded on the story of matsyaavataara and the children had all the answers. We then went into the story of sage kashyapa. His wife was diti. One day, while sage kashyapa was performing his pooja and rituals, diti disturbed him as she was bored. Even when the sage told her not to do so, she did not listen. So, the sage left his pooja. Later, diti realized her mistake and how she had been stubborn. When she apologized, the sage told her that it was too late. She was going to reap the fruit for her wrong actions, two in number. One for her selfishness, the other for disobeying him. They would come in the form of her two sons who will become demons and cause havoc in the 3 worlds. She regretted, but had no choice. As we sow, so shall we reap! Her twin sons were born after a 100 years. They were named hiraNyaakSha and hiraNyakashipu. They grew not only in size but in pride and vanity too. Everyone were scared of them and would hide at their very sight. hiraNyaakSha would go challenging for fights. Once when he challenged varuNa, the sea god, he tactfully directed him towards Lord viShNu. He said only He can give hiraNyaakSha a good, satisfying fight! We stopped the story under this suspense :). We will continue it in the next class.
We sang the first 3 verses of 'raama hare'. Then we wrote 'om namo' in devanaagari. Some of them were so good at it already that they wanted to learn 'naaraayaNaaya' also, to complete their prahlaada mantra. We will work more on this in the coming classes.
We have a homework this week. We want to focus on what we are thankful for in our lives. The children will give a good thought for the blessings they have in life and they are grateful for. They will list out 10 or more such things they are grateful for. This is called the 'Attitude of Gratitude' list. Parents, please encourage them to think on their own. It is wonderful to hear their thoughts and how deeply they think!
We finished with pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam and went to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:
