Hari Om Parents,
Below is a recap of what we did during Sunday's class.
We began another delightful Sunday morning of Shishu Vihar, with our cute kids' faces popping up on our screens. Once we had most of our friends join our session, we began our class with 3 OMs.
Shlokas:
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2. "Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Krishnayan Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
8. "Karacharana Krtam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
9. "Sri Rama Rama Ramethi" (page 129 in My Prayers book)
10. "Budhir Bala" (page 159 in My Prayers book) - new
Activities:
Please have the kids make it a habit to chant the above shlokas every morning, after their bath/shower. This will help them learn, memorize as well as develop a lifelong habit of morning prayer and daily prayer.
We rolled right in to some Yoga stretches. We began with the Tree pose with some swaying, then went into a Tiger pose and had everyone roar like a Tiger or a Lion (we had to prompt them to be louder!). Then we sat on the floor and turned into little butterflies, fluttering in the breeze. We asked the kids where we were all flying to, some said Florida (that's great as we have 3 friends in our class from Florida), then some said New York (we have one friend in NY), then some said India! Then we flew back to our homes and we then went into the Flower Pose. We have added the snake pose by popular demand! The kids are becoming experts!
Bhajan time
We introduced a new Hanuman ji Bhajan
4. We played the Concentration Game. After the chanting of 3 Om's kids tried to keep their eyes closed. They counted the number of stones being dropped into a box during the quiet time. Later they give the count of the stones dropped. The game quiets the mind and improves concentration. We had everyone on mute so that the kids wouldn't have any potential distractions from each other. A few of our students got the count correct! Most of them were really close. Impressive how most of the kids are able to keep their eyes closed and concentrate. 5. After some meditation and calming down, we repeated numbers 1-10 in Sanskrit. We had the kids put up their fingers as we counted together. 6.Geetha Chanting, we practiced shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from chapter 2 of the Geetha. We chanted them together. We introduced the 6th shloka. It was such a wonderful feeling to see and hear several kids chanting shlokas 1, 2, 3 and 4:)yay!! 7. Story Time. 8. Craft Time, the list of items required for our craft projects are sent prior to class. After the story, the kids are usually asked if they can guess what we are going to make. It is quite impressive when they figure it out! This time we sort of stumpted the kids. With some extra clues, the kids figured out that we were gonna make a squirrel. We also made a tail, like Hanuman's, the kids were asked to make it as long as they wanted it to be. We joked about how in some languages, kids were teased that their tails were growing very long when they were becoming very naughty:) Thank you again to the adults for your enthusiastic participation. Below are a few of our class kids with their squirrels and tails.Anjaneya Veera Hanumantha Shoora
Anjaneya Veera Hanumantha Shoora
Vaayu Kumara Vanara Veera
Vaayu Kumara Vanara Veera
Anjaneya Veera Hanumantha Shoora
Anjaneya Veera Hanumantha Shoora
Vaayu Kumara Vanara Veera
Vaayu Kumara Vanara Veera
Sri Ram Jaya Ram Jai Jai Ram
Seeta Ram Jai Hanuman (4X)
Anjaneya Veera Hanumantha Shoora(softly and slowly)
Story of Hanuman's fruitful search to reporting back to Rama in 30 minutes:)
We began our story with a brief quiz like recap of our story from the past two classes. The kids did a great job answering questions. Hanuman had successfully made his leap to Lanka. It was night time and to avoid any sort of suspicion, Hanuman decided to take the form of a normal monkey. Even though it was the middle of the night, the brilliance and beauty of Lanka was evident to Hanuman. He admired all nature and the architecture of Lanka as He silently searched for Sita. Hanuman slowly approached the palace. He could not believe His eyes when He saw all the riches embodied in the palace. Hanuman searched every room and couldn't find Sita. He began to get worried that Sita might not be found! Then He came to a huge room, with a huge bed with a huge king with ten heads sleeping on the bed! The kids were asked to show us HUGE with their arms. Then they were asked who that was with ten heads, several said RAVANA! Hanuman was mesmerized by him. Still unable to locate Sita, Hanuman was really worried. Then out of the corner of His eye, He glanced out the window and in the distance, He could see a lovely garden. In the middle of that Ashokavana, there was a huge tree and under that tree was a very sad, petite woman chanting Rama, Rama, Rama... Haunman thought, "Eureka" and He jumped out the window!!! A puppet of a sad Sita under a tree was shown on the screen.The kids were asked to pretend that they were jumping out a window.
Hanuman made His was to the Ashokavana. He climbed the tree that Sita was sitting under. He hid there as the sun began to rise. He could hear Sita's silent tears. Then suddenly, there were loud sounds and then out of the front gate of the garden, Ravana, Mandodari and several rakshasis approached Sita. The sad Sita became scared. Sita continued to chant, "Rama, Rama, Rama..." Ravana demanded that she forget Rama and she should chant, Ravana's name instead. When Sita denyed to do so, Ravana issued an ultimatum of two months. If Sita did not change her mind, Ravana would eat SIta for breakfast!!! The kids had a stunned look on their faces...oooo NOOOO! The scared Sita continued to chant Rama's name and wept. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen.
Hanuman had to take a few seconds to think about what He should do. He did not want to scare the already terrified Sita. The kids were reminded that Hanuman was not only powerful but was incredibly intelligent as well. He began singing the praises of Lord Rama and all of the occurrences in His life so far. Sita was so surprised to hear all of this and was wondering where all of the praises were coming from. Then Hanuman slowly came down from the tree. Sita was shocked, she didn't expect to see a talking monkey! The kids were asked what their reaction would be if they saw a talking monkey! They were all like...no way! They wouldn't be able to believe it! Sita thought it might be one of Ravana's tricks as he has tricked her before. To calm Sita down and prove that He was actually Rama's dhootha, Hanuman presented the ring that Rama had sent. On seeing the ring, Sita was convinced. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. But she refused to escape with Hanuman, as she was scared to fly on Hanuman's back and that she might fall off when the raskshasa army would come after them.
The smart and strong Hanuman conjures up a plan. He still needed to deliver the message and warning to Ravana and his rakshsas. So He decided to start tearing up the Ashokavana (except of the tree under which Sita was sitting). The kids were asked to show their muscles like Hanuman. A puppet of Hanuman ripping up trees was shown on the screen. Eventually the news spread and Ravana was notified that an angry and strong monkey is damaging Lanka. The enraged Ravana demanded that the monkey be captured and brought to his court. Many were defeated by Hanuman. Then Ravana summoned his son Indrajit and assigned him the task. Hanuman could've easily taken down Indrajit, but He needed to meet Ravana face to face and demand Sita's release. So Hanuman decided to allow Himself to be captured.
Hanuman was taken to Ravana's court. A puppet of this secene was shown on the screen. As Rama's messenger, He asked Ravana politely to release Sita. To deliberately humiliate Him, Ravana did not offer a seat to Hanuman. Instead of feeling insulted, Hanuman grew his tail, made a seat from it and sat on it. This seat was tall taller than Ravana's throne. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. This enraged Ravana who was insulted by Hanuman's behavior and ordered his slaves to set fire to Hanuman's tail. As they did that, Hanuman leapt away from them.
With his tail on fire, Hanuman jumped from building to building, setting them all on fire. Soon the whole of Lanka was burning and people were terrified. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Sita came to know about this and prayed to Lord Agni, the God of fire. Lord Agni made sure that even though Hanuman's tail was burning, he wouldn't feel any pain. Worrying that the fire would harm Sita, Hanuman visited Ashokavatika and saw that she was safe. When he asked Sita to come away with him, she refused. She would wait to be freed by Lord Rama instead.
After confirming that Sita was unharmed, Hanuman took his leap back to Bharath. There eagerly awaiting His return, was the vanara army search party that headed South from Kishkindha. They cheered like only vanaras can on seeing Hanuman's arrival. We all cheered and behaved like monkeys!:)! Hanuman gave everyone there a brief recap and headed for Kishkindha. On seeing Rama, they both immediately embraced. The kids were asked what was the first thing that they would do if they were meeting a friend after a long time. Several of them said, "HUG"!!! A puppet of Rama and Hanuman hugging was shown on the screen. Hanuman gave Rama and the rest of Kishkindha a recap of the occurances.
Sugriva ordered the entire vanara army to head South to the tip of Bharath. There everyone stood eyeing the vast ocean. Nala the vanara architect who designed the bridge. Rama prayed to the Lords and His prayers were answered and they were told if that anything that had "Rama" written on them would float. All the vanaras began to write Rama on boulders, tree stumps, rocks and anything they could find and lifted and tossed them into the ocean. We all pretended to find something big, carefully lift them with our strong muscles and then air write Rama on them and toss them into the ocean. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. As these mighty vanaras were continuing this humungous task, a tiny chipmunk was transporting grains on sand to fill in all the gaps in the rocks that were becoming the bridge. Lord Rama noticed this little helper and picked him up and used His three fingers to affectionately stroke the squirrel's back. Those became permanent lines on their backs. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen.
We discussed that no task or service to Sri Rama, however small, is unimportant! Every task should be looked upon as service to the Lord, and His blessings will always be with us. We should never forget that love and dedication is what matters to Lord Rama! Jai Sri Ram.
We paused our story here. The kids were glued to the screen the entire time!!!
We concluded class with Om Purnamadham.
Pranaam,
Keerthi and Pramila
