Beginning prayers
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· Meditation
· sahanaavavatu
· gurustotram verses 1-9 and 14
Gitaa chanting
· bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 - 9 shlokas
Story time
· kardama and devahuti
· kapila
Chanting/Songs
· raama hare (5 verses)
Quiet time
· Writing ‘om namo’ in Sanskrit
Game time
· Understanding 'pralaya' though making and un-making a boat
Ending prayers and pledge
· pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
· chinmaya aarati
· om jaya jagadIsha hare
· pledge
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
The class started with 3 om-s. We understood that we can not chant the omkaara from just the lips or the nose, but have to bring it out from the naval. We did meditation for 5 minutes and felt the calmness and quietness in the class as well as within ourselves. From this we understood that we can de-clutter the mind and be alert for the rest of the class. We suggested that they do 10 minutes of meditation daily, to prepare themselves mentally to go through the happenings of everyday.
In the prayers and chanting, they did wonderfully till the 8th verse of gurustotram! We learnt the 9th one today. In gItaa chanting, the entire class did a great job till verse 4!! It was so pleasant to hear them all chant in one voice, so comfortably. They needed help on the 5th verse. We were supposed to learn the 6th verse today. But surprisingly, we went up until verse 9!! They were so comfortable with the words. Even one of the very difficult lines, they pronounced so easily the very first time! We are now ahead by a couple weeks in the schedule of gItaa chanting verses :). We do have a bunch of very smart and alert children!
It was story time and during the review, we revisited the story from last week. In today's story, we saw that a sage by name kardama had been doing rigorous penance on Lord viShNu. When He appeared, he blessed the sage and said that he will beget a virtuous wife and have 10 children. 9 would be daughters and for the 10th, Lord viShNu himself would be born as his son. After that, he would do greater penance and attain salvation.
manu and shatarUpa had gotten 5 children, one of which was a beautiful daughter named devahuti. They came in search of a suitable groom for her and found sage kardama. They gave devahuti in marriage to him. They had 9 daughters and just as Lord viShNu had said, the 10th was a son, which was none other than viShNu himself. He was named kapila. After that kardama went away to do his penance. kapila was a divine child and he told things that no one ever could. He gave the saankhyan philosophy to the world. Even his mother would sit and listen to his teachings intently. One day she expressed that she wanted to know how to attain moksha (salvation). kapila said that is possible by having a pure heart. To have a pure heart, one has to follow 7 rules -
* Obey the rules of life
* Perform one's duties
* See work as worship
* Chanting the Lord's name
* Trusting the Lord
* Seeing the Lord in all creatures
* Loving God as one's own child
This is called devotion. We had quite a few interesting discussions and examples about these rules. Do discuss with your children what we spoke about. During the discussion, we have also promised that each and every child will practice gItaa chanting at home. Please remind your children and encourage them to keep their word :).
We chanted 'raama hare' till verse 5. As a fun activity that involved learning, we all learnt to make paper boats! We then related the making and un-making of the boat to creation and dissolution of the world. The material still remains the same, but the form it appears only changes. That is exactly what happens in 'pralaya'. We did the likhita japa on the boat itself today. We finished off the class with our ending prayers.
Parents, thanks for checking our email and phone nos. list, so that our records are current. That helps us immensely to keep in touch. Have a nice week and we will see you next Sunday.
________________________________________________
In the prayers and chanting, they did wonderfully till the 8th verse of gurustotram! We learnt the 9th one today. In gItaa chanting, the entire class did a great job till verse 4!! It was so pleasant to hear them all chant in one voice, so comfortably. They needed help on the 5th verse. We were supposed to learn the 6th verse today. But surprisingly, we went up until verse 9!! They were so comfortable with the words. Even one of the very difficult lines, they pronounced so easily the very first time! We are now ahead by a couple weeks in the schedule of gItaa chanting verses :). We do have a bunch of very smart and alert children!
It was story time and during the review, we revisited the story from last week. In today's story, we saw that a sage by name kardama had been doing rigorous penance on Lord viShNu. When He appeared, he blessed the sage and said that he will beget a virtuous wife and have 10 children. 9 would be daughters and for the 10th, Lord viShNu himself would be born as his son. After that, he would do greater penance and attain salvation.
manu and shatarUpa had gotten 5 children, one of which was a beautiful daughter named devahuti. They came in search of a suitable groom for her and found sage kardama. They gave devahuti in marriage to him. They had 9 daughters and just as Lord viShNu had said, the 10th was a son, which was none other than viShNu himself. He was named kapila. After that kardama went away to do his penance. kapila was a divine child and he told things that no one ever could. He gave the saankhyan philosophy to the world. Even his mother would sit and listen to his teachings intently. One day she expressed that she wanted to know how to attain moksha (salvation). kapila said that is possible by having a pure heart. To have a pure heart, one has to follow 7 rules -
* Obey the rules of life
* Perform one's duties
* See work as worship
* Chanting the Lord's name
* Trusting the Lord
* Seeing the Lord in all creatures
* Loving God as one's own child
This is called devotion. We had quite a few interesting discussions and examples about these rules. Do discuss with your children what we spoke about. During the discussion, we have also promised that each and every child will practice gItaa chanting at home. Please remind your children and encourage them to keep their word :).
We chanted 'raama hare' till verse 5. As a fun activity that involved learning, we all learnt to make paper boats! We then related the making and un-making of the boat to creation and dissolution of the world. The material still remains the same, but the form it appears only changes. That is exactly what happens in 'pralaya'. We did the likhita japa on the boat itself today. We finished off the class with our ending prayers.
Parents, thanks for checking our email and phone nos. list, so that our records are current. That helps us immensely to keep in touch. Have a nice week and we will see you next Sunday.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:
We started the class with 5 minutes meditation.
After regular prayers we continued the story of Kardama rishi and Devahuti. We learned about Devahuti's son Kapila , the divine teacher who gave Sankhya philosophy to the mankind.
The children enjoyed 7 points of his teaching. It teaches us how to purify our mind.Perform our duty, Work as worship, Chant God's name, Trust the God as your friend, Seek the God in other people and Love God.
Next week we will learn about three types of devotees. Three gunas and who is the greatest devotee.
Next week we will learn about three types of devotees. Three gunas and who is the greatest devotee.
