Hari Om parents!
Following is the update of last Friday's class ( 10/11):
After Opening prayers, we spent some time doing 'Rama nama japa'. We also discussed the significance of the 'Rama' nama and how chanting the name of Sri Rama just three times is equivalent to reciting the entire list of lord Vishnu's thousand names (sahasranamam). During memory time, we chanted the dhyana shloka 'Bhudhir balam'. Please help kids memorize this by next week's class. We are running a memorization challenge in the class to encourage the kids learn and memorize as much as possible.
We then discussed the next two virtues described in the Dhyana Shloka : Yasha and Dhairyam.
Yasha ( Fame and popularity):
We got into the topic with a group discussion around famous people, names of few famous personalities and why they are famous.
Kids named several famous people who they knew. The class brainstormed what made them famous – just by birth? Luck? Magic?
· Fame is earned through hard work, dedication, perseverance and good habits.
· We discussed the following qualities as common traits of famous people : Overcome Obstacles, Persevered, Struggle and triumph, Success in their undertakings, make contributions to the society, bring change and inspire others
· Kids heard the life story of Swami Chinmayanada ji ( 1916 to 1993) and how he worked hard towards what he believed in and how he struggled to establish the mission to share and spread the ageless wisdom of Vedanta
· We also talked about our famous Bapu 'Mahatma Gandhi' and his mental strength. He always used to say "Silent Prayer is my greatest strength'. Gandhi ji believed in love and forgiveness and used these as weapons to lead all the Indians from 'No Land' to 'Homeland'. We discussed his famous quote "Prayer is the key to the morning and the bolt of the evening" to emphasize how chanting the lord's name should be a key part of our d2d lives.
Dhairyam (Courage): Courage helps to do the right things despite of difficulties and obstacles
· We discussed with the kids what Courage means to them ? And why it is necessary.
· Everyone faces challenges in their day to day lives and courage helps them face these challenges with patience and poise.
· We went over the story of Maharshi Valmiki ( How he turned from Ratnakar, the thief to Valmiki, the great Saint). The story helped us explain how he demonstrated courage to change despite of all the obstacles he had
· We also discussed the story of 'Rosa Park's ( a lot of kids know her story ) and how she is recognized for her tremendous act of bravery. Her courageous act was the catalyst that started the Civil rights Movement. This story resonated well with all the kids on the topic of Courage.
· We then had a quick exploration activity: "Am I courageous? " where we discussed some bad habits that kids may have such as biting Nails, putting hands in the mouth, not saying 'Please' and 'Thank you' and reviewed that courage is necessary to change even small and trivial things in our lives
We had our first Gita chanting broadcast from Swamiji. We learnt the first 2 verses from the 1st chapter of Bhagavad-Gita. The 2019-20 Balavihar handbook has the first chapter in it. The YouTube playlist shared last week is also a great way to learn the verses accurately.
We then had the quiet time and closing prayers before all of us headed to the Aarti.
Thanks and Regards,
Mythili and Madhuri
