Hari Om Parents,
The following is what we did during today's class.
Shlokas:
1. "Om Saha navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2. "Vakrathunda mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Om Saraswati namastubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book
4. "Karegre vasate" (page 11 in My prayers book)
5. "Samudra vasane devi" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Akanda-mandalakaram" (page 61 in My Prayers book)
7. "Ajnana-timirandhasya" (page 61 in My Prayers book)
8. "Gururbhrama" (page 61 in My Prayers book) - New
9. "Subham karothi kalyanam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
Activities:
- We played the Concentration Game. After the chanting of 3 "Om"s kids keep their eyes closed. They listen quietly and count the number of stones being dropped into a metal box, in their mind during this quiet time. Later they give the count of the stones dropped. The game helps with focus and improves concentration. A few of them got it right, most of them were close. They are all eager to get it right the next time!
- We continued coloring in our Bala Ramayana coloring book. Some kids have missed a class or 2, & we have had a few abbreviated sessions due to other activities & were unable to fit the coloring activity. The kids can color the pages in the middle that they haven't completed them so far. Please stop on Lesson 11 (page 14). Please reiterate that the kids are recalling the story as they are coloring.
- We introduced the 5th & 6th shloka of Chapter 1 in The Geeta. They are in our handbooks in both Sanskrit & English. Please help the kids practice the slokas that were taught in class. The kids will be learning slokas 1-16 & that will be their requirement for the Geeta Chanting Competition. Please refer to the following website for the Gita. gitachanting.net for the right pronunciation. Please also refer to swamiji's video link for practice.
We continued our journey through Balaramyana after a brief recap of what we heard during our previous class. This week's setting began in Ayodhya inside the palace where things took a drastic turn between 4 P.M. and 4 A.M. the following day.
Lakshmana was silently observing what was happening. As Rama headed out after taking the blessings of Kaikeyi and Dasaratha, Lakshmana was enraged and claims that the King has lost his mind! Rama announces his decision to the people of Ayodhya and continues to meet his mom. He gave up everything that said royalty and related the recent happenings. Immediately as a mother, she wanted to go with her child, but Rama tells her that her duty is to take care of King Dasaratha, and he would not do anything to oppose Dharma! Laksmana and Sita are able to convince Rama that they would accompany him. Kaikeyi had bark garments ready for the 3 of them. Sumantara wanted to accompany the trio to the forest with the army, but Kaikeyi was immediately opposed to that thought as she did not want her son Bharata to come home to an empty kingdom. Ram did not want anything except what a hermit in the forest would have. Sage Vasishta who was a very calm natured person, was enraged. Sumitra blessed Laksmana and told him to treat Rama as his father, Sita as his mother and the forest as Ayodhya!
Sumantara had the chariot ready to depart. The people of Ayodhya followed their beloved trio as the horses galloped away, King Dasaratha, watched from his balcony as the dust slowly faded. With a heavy heart, he continued to faintly chant his son Rama's name. The people followed the chariot to the banks of the river Tamasa, where they stopped for the night. Before dawn, Rama said, they should leave before everyone else woke up. They continued to the banks of river Ganga. Guha was the chief of a tribe in that area and loved Rama, embraced him, ordered a feast and asked him to spend the 14 years with his tribe. Rama denied his offerings, asked for a simple meal and early the next morning, they took leave from a tearful Sumantara, boarded a raft to sail across the Ganges to the Dandaka forest.
They reach the ashram of Sage Bharadwaj and stopped to rest for the night. Next morning Rama finds out from the Sage, some details about Chitrakuta. Rama decides that it would be an ideal place for them to spend their fourteen years. Following his directions they reached Chitrakuta and were happy to see the location, beautiful and serene with trees filled with flowers, chirping birds, and flowing rivers. Sita was pleased and Lakshmana immediately got busy building a kutiya for Rama and Sita. All three of them began to settle well in the forest.
The scene then switched to a sorrowful Ayodhya -- Sumantra returned to the kingdom with an empty chariot and makes his way to visit King Dasaratha and Kausalya and conveys the message that Rama, Sita and Lakshmana had reached the forest. Hearing this, their sorrow from separation of their beloved son Rama grew many folds.Mother Kausalya accuses King Dasaratha for being responsible for all that has happened. King Dasaratha then decided to weakly narrate an incident that had happened while he was a young prince and the consequence of which he is suffering from now, the separation of his dear son Rama. The story of Shravan whose parents were blind and he, who was shot mistakenly by Prince Dasaratha while he was hunting by sound, not by vision was narrated and the curse that befell on the King by the parents of the victim unfortunately came true! We stopped at this juncture. students were speechless after listening to this story.
Please go to the link below to check out the pictures from this week's class
Each week's update is maintained on Google docs, if for any reason you are unable to attend class on a certain Sunday, you are requested to check for weekly updates so that your child does not miss out. Below is the link
We require at least 1 parent inside the ashram during the full duration of the class. You are free to choose an Adult Study Group or sign up to Volunteer or Meditate/Read in the Temple.
Required books for Grade 1
My Prayers Book
Bala Ramayana Coloring Book
Regards,
Keerthi Kobla and Dipti Chauhan
