Hari Om Parents
Today we started our class with some warm up yoga poses and some jumping jacks
We wished each other Happy Diwali and talked about the significance of Diwali. Good over evil. Light over darkness.
We started the class with 3 OMs followed by Sahana Vavatu.
We had the children take turns to lead Vakratunda, Saraswathi, Guru Brahma, Karagre Vasathe opening our palms, Samudravasane praying to Mother Earth. Every week we ensure children take turns to recite the shlokas so they are comfortable and confident in reciting them. Please talk to them about the shloka they recited.
We recited the Dhyana Shloka emphasizing on Balam.
Buddhir - Intelligence
Balam - Strength
Yash - Fame
Dhairyam - Courage
Nirbhayatvam - Fearlessness
Arogata - Good health, free of diseases
Ajatyam - Alertness, free from laziness
Vakpaduthvamcha - eloquence
We talked about Balam. Balam is strength. Balam is not just Physical strength. It's also mental strength. How do we keep our body strong? We eat well, exercise, eat vitamins and sleep well. How do we keep our mind strong? What are vitamins for our mind? How do we strengthen our mind? Intellect distinguishes between right and wrong. Humans are only species who have the 6th sense - the intellect. Mind is our invisible backbone. To keep the backbone strong we need to follow the virtues in the Dhyana sloka. Intellect is one of the vitamins needed for a strong mind. Japa helps train our minds.
We used our Japa Mala to chant within our minds the rama nama. We rotate the beads every time we say the name of the Lord.
After the discussions and meditation we did the Veera Hanumana Bhajan. This is also in the My prayers book, have them sing the Bhajan for you.
Story1:
Bhima's arrogance
Once the mighty Pandava prince Bhima went into the forest to find a rare sweet smelling flower for his wife Draupadi. An old monkey was on the path so he wanted the monkey to move so he could reach the flower.The Monkey had a long tail. Bhima demanded that the monkey move his tail so he could reach the flower. The old monkey said you move the tail yourself and you can get to the flower. Bhima tried it once, twice and several times to move the tail, but could not. Bhima realized it was his arrogance that he was not able to move the tail. The old Monkey was in fact Lord Hanuman ji in disguise trying to teach a lesson to Bhima. Moral: Bhima was temporarily blinded by his arrogance. Physical strength is not everything, Bhima became mentally weak in that situation.
Activity:
We did a Tug of War to demonstrate physical strength. The children had a great time.:
Story2:
Gandhiji and Honesty
When Mahatma Gandhi was a student, there was an inspector visiting his school. Inspector was incharge of reviewing classes and making sure the students were learning correctly. The teacher of the class was giving them a dictation of words. The teacher was anxious to see if all the students wrote down correctly. Mahatma Gandhi had made a mistake of one word so the teacher was trying to tell Gandhi to copy from a student so the word looked correct before the Inspector came by. Gandhiji did not want to copy. Copying is not being honest. Gandhiji did not want to tell a lie. He felt strongly about not lying. About being honest. He was not physically strong, but he was mentally strong.
Activity:
After the 2n story we worked on our Backbone project. The children were asked to write what the words Buddhih and balam meant to them. This will be an ongoing project that the kids will work on. We will not be sending them home yet and they will bring home the final product on the last day.
It was time for Swamiji's Bhagavad Gita time on the T V . We chanted two verses and we packed our bags.
Please don't forget to meet at 10:30 for the parent meeting. Also don't forget to have children bring the japamala.
We lined up to go to Aarti as we selected our line leader, door holder and caboose to lead to the prayer hall.
With Prem and Om
Yamuna and Subha
