September 25th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·        saha naavavatu

·         gurustotram verses 1-5 and 14

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 and 2 shloka

Story time

·         parIkShit meets kali

·         kali's address

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare  1st vers

Quiet time

·         Writing ‘om’ in Sanskrit

Game time

·         Don't let kali in!

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
     pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

The class is streamlining lot faster!  The kids already know their routine and what to do soon after arrival in the class.  They are a bunch very attentive kids, eager to learn new things!  Within half an hour, we had finished our morning prayers, learning new gurustotram shlokas and gIta chanting.  We are enjoying learning the pronunciation off all the new words in Sanskrit during the chanting time.  Our left wing vs. right wing competition is going tight :).  Both the groups are chanting so well that they are all winners!

We did a recap of the story with all the names and representations we had learnt so far.  We were so amazed at how well the children remembered so many details!  We then continued to learn about how kali was so cruel to the white bull that represented dharma.  It's 4 legs were - austerity, purity, kindness and truth.  Kali had broken 3 of its legs and the bull was standing limp on truth alone.  King parIkShita saw him at this time and was about to punish him.  But then kali begged for mercy.  King parIkshita allowed kali to make his home where there was no dharma.  So kali was granted permission to live in 4 places where there was - gambling, drinking, lust (overwhelming desire) and cruelty.  Kali begged for more places to live and parIkShita granted him to live where there was rajoguNa (running after wealth).

We learnt the words to the first verse of 'raama hare...'  We are getting more comfortable with the words now. Then the children did 'likhita japa' by writing 'om' in Sanskrit, to make a shape of their choice.  Please check with your children to see what we are doing.  Encourage them to finish the likhita japa if they haven't already done it. 

We then played a game where the children stood in a circle facing outwards.  A basket ball was representing kali.  The goal of the game was to not allow kali to enter into the circle they had formed.  They successfully protected the circle except once.  That was a great example to show how easily kali can sneak his way if we are not careful!  We were having so much fun with the game but we ran out of time before the 2nd team got a chance to play.  We will do it again some other time.  We winded up the class with our ending prayers.  
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: