Beginning prayers
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· Meditation
· sahanaavavatu
· gurustotram
Gitaa chanting
· bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya
Story time
· King ambarIsha
· King rantideva
Chanting/Songs
· raama hare kRuShNa hare - 5 verses
Ending prayers and pledge
· pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
· chinmaya aarati
· om jaya jagadIsha hare
· pledge
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
We started with our beginning prayers and continued into guru stotram and gItaa chanting. During story time, we recapped our previous lessons.
We heard the story of king ambarIsha who was an ardent devotee of Lord viShNu. He was very dear to the Lord himself. Once when he was doing the dvaadashI vratam, sage dUrvaasa visited him. The king offered the sage to have the meal with him. The sage went to take a bath and took a long time. It was time for the king to break his fast. But it would be disrespectful to the sage to eat without waiting for him. As a compromise to satisfy both the situations, he took a sip of water. But that angered the sage and wanted to hurt him. But the king was protected by the sudarshana chakra itself! The chakra started chasing the sage. He had no respite. He could not hide in any corner of the 3 worlds, nor could the trinity of Gods help him. Lord viShNu told the sage that even He was a servant of his devotees and only ambarIsha could save him. Finally, the sage fell at ambarIsha's feet and asked for forgiveness. But the king had no grudge against him. All was well and they happily shared a meal together.
We moved on to the story of rantideva. He was a very good king for his subjects and trusted the Lord completely! He found happiness in feeling other's pain. He enjoyed taking away the pain of others. Once, when his land was afflicted by famine, he shared every last morsel of food and drop of water that he had. With that, the Lord was pleased with him and blessed his kingdom with prosperity.
We learnt that trusting the Lord and being his devotee is the best way to eternal happiness.
We then chanted the first 5 verses of the dashaavataara stotram and the ending prayers, before going to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
See you all in June. Have a nice long weekend everyone!
________________________________________________
We heard the story of king ambarIsha who was an ardent devotee of Lord viShNu. He was very dear to the Lord himself. Once when he was doing the dvaadashI vratam, sage dUrvaasa visited him. The king offered the sage to have the meal with him. The sage went to take a bath and took a long time. It was time for the king to break his fast. But it would be disrespectful to the sage to eat without waiting for him. As a compromise to satisfy both the situations, he took a sip of water. But that angered the sage and wanted to hurt him. But the king was protected by the sudarshana chakra itself! The chakra started chasing the sage. He had no respite. He could not hide in any corner of the 3 worlds, nor could the trinity of Gods help him. Lord viShNu told the sage that even He was a servant of his devotees and only ambarIsha could save him. Finally, the sage fell at ambarIsha's feet and asked for forgiveness. But the king had no grudge against him. All was well and they happily shared a meal together.
We moved on to the story of rantideva. He was a very good king for his subjects and trusted the Lord completely! He found happiness in feeling other's pain. He enjoyed taking away the pain of others. Once, when his land was afflicted by famine, he shared every last morsel of food and drop of water that he had. With that, the Lord was pleased with him and blessed his kingdom with prosperity.
We learnt that trusting the Lord and being his devotee is the best way to eternal happiness.
We then chanted the first 5 verses of the dashaavataara stotram and the ending prayers, before going to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
See you all in June. Have a nice long weekend everyone!
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:
