Hari Om Parents,
Here is a brief summary of the class activities from Week 2, 22-Sep-2019 :
We started our class with our 3 Oms followed by
· Om saha nāvavatu saha nau bhunaktu saha vīryam karavāvahai
Tejasvināvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
hariH Om
Shri gurubhyo namaH
hariH Om
and 3 chants
• Om Sri Ganeshaya namaha, Om Sri Saraswathye namaha, Om Sri Sat Gurubyoh namaha
We chanted three shlokas:-
1. Karāgre Vasate Lakṣmīh
· Karāgre Vasate Lakṣmīh karãgre vasate lakshmīḥ,
karamūle sarasvatī karamadhye tu govindaḥ,
prabhāte karadarśanam
2. Guru Brahma
· gurūr brahmā gurūr viṣṇuḥ gurūr dev maheśwaraḥ
gurūreva parambrahmā tasmai śri gurave namaḥ
We discussed about Goddess Sarasvati and while looking at her picture, kids identified the things unique to her – White saree, 2 hands holding Veena, the other hands holding japa mala and the book. Visualizing these features we repeated the shloka –
3. Saraswati Namastubhyam
· sarasvati namastubhyaṃ varade kāmarūpiṇi
vidyārambhaṃ kariṣyāmi siddhirbhavatu me sadā ॥
We did our Yoga stretches and poses (Tree, Lion, Snake & Butterfly )
followed by Bhajans :
1. Durga Bhajan
· jaya jaya devii, jaya jaya devii, durgaa devii sharaNam
jaya jaya devii, jaya jaya devii, durgaa devii sharaNam
kanaka durgaa devii sharaNam, kanaka durga devii sharaNam
2. Ganesha Bhajan
· gaṇeśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam gaṇeśa.
gaṇeśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam gaṇeśa.
vāgīśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam vāgīśa.
vāgīśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam vāgīśa.
sārīśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam sārīśa.
sārīśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam sārīśa.
3. Great God Ganapati (Action song)
· Great God Ganapathi, I bow to Thee,
Elephant faced One, I bow to Thee
Delight of Lord Shiva, I take refuge in Thee,
O big bellied son of Mother Parvathi
Infinite Om, Oh I bow to Thee
You ride on your mouse and win Victory
After bhajans we played our meditation game and were able to count to 10!! and all our little ones did an awesome job of closing their eyes and counting in their mind. We learnt how to tell the numbers from 1 to 10 in Sanskrit :
1. One एकम् (ekam) 2. Two द्वे (dve) 3.Three त्रीणि (treeni)
4. Four चत्वारि (chatvaari) 5. Five पञ्च (pancha) 6. Six षट् (shat)
7. Seven सप्त (sapta) 8. Eight अष्ट (ashta) 9. Nine नव (nava)
10. Ten दश (dasha)
We moved on to chanting the Bhagavad Gita : Chapter 1, Verse 1 from our handbook.
This week's story was of our Goddess Lakshmi :
This is a story of the Jagannath temple in Puri in India. They have a beautiful temple there dedicated to Lord Jagannath. Lord Jagannath's wife is Lakshmi. Once long long ago, it was the day of Lakshmi Pooja (we discussed about what we do during Lakshmi pooja like wearing new clothes, decorating the house, drawing rangoli, etc etc). We talked about how they celebrated Lakshmi pooja in Puri. Do you think they may decorated all the houses? Do you think they drew rangoli? Maybe they lit some pretty lamps for Lakshmi! Maybe they decorated plates for the arthi! How pretty it must have been!
Lakshmi lived in the Jaganath temple. It was her pooja day. So she went out to see how people were praying. She walked and walked and enjoyed looking at all the beautiful decorations. When she was walking, she came to very small, very poor house. The people were not wearing any fancy clothes. They did not have a lot of food, the children did not have toys. They did not have anything. In that house there was a very poor woman called Shreeya. Shreeya had cleaned the house, cleaned the floor and put rangoli designs on the floor. She had decorated Lakshmi's image with lotus flowers and she was praying to Lakshmi with full devotion. Lakshmi heard Shreeya's honest prayers and asked what she wanted. Shreeya said 'Give me a son and give my family prosperity, so that we have enough to eat and live comfortably'. Lakshmi blessed Shreeya and walked back to her temple.
When she came back, Lord Jagannath was waiting for her. He said 'Why did you go to that poor woman's dirty house? That was such a poor house. Now you are all dirty. I dont want you to come in. Lakshmi said 'Why? I go to the house of anybody who prays to me. It does not matter if they are poor. All that matters is that they have a good heart. Fine, if you dont want me to come, I will go away'.
So she left the Jagannath temple. She got a tiny house. It looked very simple outside but when she went in its insides were made of gold and it so beautiful, as beautiful as Lakshmi herself. Lakshmi went to live inside. Now - what happened when Lakshmi left the temple?
All the rice in the temple, started walking after her. There was one bag of rice walking, and then another one and then another one, all walking one behind the other all in a row behind Lakshmi. Jagannath was surprised. He looked behind and what did he see, all the water in the temple also started walking behind Lakshmi. A bucket of water and them a cup and then a jar of water, all walking behind the rice. All the rice and water in the temple also followed Lakshmi out of the temple. Jagannath had no food to eat. He thought Lakshmi might come back but she did not. Jagannath got really hungry and thirsty. He realised that Lakshmi really loved whoever was devoted to her. It did not matter if they were rich or not rich. All that mattered was that they loved Lakshmi. He felt sorry went looking and searched everywhere. Finally he came to the tiny poor looking hut where Lakshmi lived. There, Lakshmi gave him dinner and then came back to the temple with Lord Jagannath.
What we understand from the story is Goddess Lakshmi loves people who are good and devoted to her. Things and stuff in the house are not important for her!
Even now, many many years later, they tell the story every Lakshmi pooja day to remind everybody to be good and be devoted. That is because when you are good you will be happy and comfortable on the inside.
We then moved on to working on our craft " Devi Stand-up Card". The kids worked so hard on making their card and showing their creativity!!
We wrapped up our session with our closing prayers
· Om pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidam
pūrṇāt pūrṇamudacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya
pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate
and moved to the temple for Aarthi.
Reminder :-
For next Sunday Sept 29th, there is Saraswati Pooja, we will first meet @9.15 for our morning class and then will assemble in the auditorium.
For any other updates or any class information please check our Whatsapp messages.
Looking forward to seeing all of you at our next class.
Regards,
Vidya Venkatesh
Pramila Rao
