April 1st Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram

Gitaa chanting

·       bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  20 shlokas

Story time

·      9 modes of devotion

·       gajendra mokSha

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

April 1st and  a crisp, bright  Spring day!

In the story segment, we learnt about Nine modes of Devotion.
We revisited the story of prahlaada and discussed the Nine modes of Devotion.

1) shravaNam- Listening to the  stories  about the Lord.
2) kIrtanam – Singing the glories of the Lord
3) (vishNu) naama smaraNam –Remembering the Lord always
4) paadasevanam – Serving him
5) archanam- Worshipping him
6) vandanam – Bowing to the Lord
7) daasyam – Being a servant of the Lord.
8) sakhyam – Loving the Lord as a friend
9) aatmanivedanam – Never to complain and surrendering to the Lord.
Please talk to your children the 9 modes. Ask them how they would greet each other (vandanam); Offer flowers and fruits to the Lord (archanam); telling a story to their friend the Lord (sakhyam).
Homework for this week- Writing the Lord’s name in the ‘Likitha Japa Book’- This mode of devotion is known as naama smaraNam.

Next we continued to talk about the story of gajendra mokSha.
An elephant king once resided in a forest. One day, the elephant king, gajendra, entered the garden with his entire family. He felt dizzy and decided to enter the cool lake. Just then he was attacked by a crocodile and he struggled hard to free himself. Alas he could not and he turned his thoughts to the Lord and prayed ardently.  shrI hari heard the desperate cry of the royal elephant. gajendra was at last freed from the clutches of the crocodile.

Who was the Crocodile?
It was gandharva called huhu. One day he was bathing in a tank. Rushi devala also went to the same tank. huhu tried to  play tricks on him. huhu got cursed, saying he would turn into a crocodile and would be released from the curse by the touch of the Lord’s divine discus, upon which he would be able to regain his gandharva form.
We talked about gandharva- means a messenger between God and human; husband of an apsara.

Who was gajendra?
In the previous birth gajendra was a pandya king, indradyumna. He was a great devotee of shrI hari. He took of the vow of silence and sat in the mountain to meditate. Rushi agastya came to his aashrama however the king did not get up to receive him.
agastya cursed him – “You will be dull like an elephant”.
But because of the devotion to shrI hari, he remembered and he was absolutely desperate to get away from the clutches of crocodile.
shrI hari came to rescue gajendra from the crocodile.

Moral of the story/ stories- One rises or falls according to one’s action.
The birth of  gajendra and crocodile were the results of a curse. They were cursed because of their actions.
No effect is possible without a cause.  For example if you plant orange seeds the result or effect is an orange tree. As you sow, so shall you reap.  Please talk to your kids and they will be able to retell in detail the stories we discussed in class.

Enjoy your Spring Break!!
Don’t forget keep practicing the Gita Chanting.
See you all on April 15th

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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: