Hari Om! Parents,
We started our online class with the beginning prayers followed by the vedic chant,
Om namaste astu...
Chanted trayambakam 3 times followed by observing 20 secs silence praying for people sick with the virus.
This time our curriculum was on childhood samskaras which was namakarana and annaprasna.
Talked about the deep connection between name and the named. Also talked about olden times, where children were given names of the Lord. Calling the child by the Lord's name has a cleansing effect on everyone.
Talked about Lord Krishna's naming ceremony by Garga rishi..
Talked about the significance of kalasha and its pooja during the naming ceremony. Talked about the child's first temple visit and its significance
Talked about Annaprasna or the first morsel of the food given to an infant.
Rice cooked with ghee and honey is fed to the child.
Talked about food being an essential element of our life. Living beings are born out of food and nourished by food. Food is first offered to the Lord and taken as prasadam.
Talked about how words have an effect on food and water.
Talked in detail about an experiment conducted by a Japanse research scientist named Dr. Masaru Emoto.
Dr. Emoto froze two sets of water droplets and observed them under a microscope, saying a prayer to one set. This set had a beautiful crystal formation. Another crystal to which a prayer was not said had no crystal formation. Similarly he took two sets of cooked rice and put in 2 jars. He said sweet words to one jar and abusive words to another. The jar which had the rice to which he said sweet words was fresh after 30 days and the other one went rotten. Concluded when I pray over my meal, a material transformation takes place to the food. The lord blesses the food over which I say a prayer.
Did a short meditation observing our breath and saying beautiful words to oneself like, I am the Lord's child, I am blessed etc.
The children said they felt calm after the meditation.
The children did a short PowerPoint presentation on 3 topics which we had learned over the year
Karma and Karma phala
Mahavakyas
Ashramas
They did a nice job.
We have 3 more children talking on 3 topics next week. We look forward to listening to them
Thank you children!
The children then took turns to sing the Gurudev arthi, shanti mantras and pledge
Announcements
We will celebrate Gurudev's Jayanthi next Friday after our class. Will send details on WA.
Pranams
Nirmala and Purnima
