June 6, 2021 - Shishu Vihar (Sunday AM)

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 for our LAST class of the year. 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)

11. Guru Brahma (page 61 in My Prayers book) - new

     Activities:

1. 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.

2. 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!

3. Bhajan time

4. We decided to come back full circle and sang Great God Ganapathy with actions, ending with the same bhajan we began our year with.

   Great God Ganapathy, I bow to Thee
   Elephant faced One, I bow to Thee
   Delight of Lord Shiva, I take refuge in Thee,
   O Big Bellied Son of Mother Parvathi,
   Infinite Om, Oh I bow to Thee,
   You ride on your mouse and win Victory. 5. 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. 6. 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. 7.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!! 8. Story Time. 9. 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 was pretty obvious this class as we had asked the parents to keep a print out of Gurudev's photo ready for class. The kids did a great job making the frame with popsicle sticks and making colorful and creative phot frames. Thank you to the parents and grand parents for your enthusiastic and continued support with our class craft projects through out this year. Below are a few of our class kids with their photo frames.
   

   10. A link to a puzzle of Gurudev was shared in our chat window. Once the kids finished the simple craft, they were prompted to chat with us and do the puzzle. It was a bitter sweet moment to hear the kids wanting to stay with us in Shishuvihar for the upcoming year! Story Time: Tapovan Maharaj

   The kids were asked if they had an opportunity to pick up a copy of our Balavihar Handbook during the beginning of the year. Most of them said that they did NOT or weren't able to! The handbook cover was shown on the screen and the class was asked if they were able to recognize any of the photos on the top of the handbook cover. Several said Swami Chinmayananda! Then each picture was pointed to and the class was introduced to Swami Tapovan Maharaj, Swami Tejomayanandaji, Swami Shanthanandaji and Swami Swaroopanandaji. We discussed "GURU", Gu-meaning dark, Ru-meaning light, the one who enlightens us with knowledge, our teacher. We also briefly discussed "Matha-Pitha-Guru-Deivam". The kids were then told that Gurudev is responsible for Balavihar and all the Chinmaya Missions worldwide. 

Our setting was in the Himalayas. The kids were asked which direction that was in, they all pointed upwards and a few said North. The kids were then asked which direction Lanka is in when compared to the Himalayas, they said, "South"! A puppet of Swami Tapovan Maharaj walking in the Himalayas was shown on the screen. Gurudev approached Swami Tapovan Maharaj and requested to become His student. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Swami Tapovan Maharaj was a very strict teacher. The kids were asked if they knew what the word, "strict" means. A few said, "follow the rules"! Some said, "strict like my parents":) Swami Tapovan Maharaj had four rules:

1. He would teach only in Hindi.

2. He would teach only once.

3. No one was allowed to take notes or write anything down.

4. Questions will be as regarding anything that has been taught at any time and they must be answered correctly!

Gurudev accepted all the four conditions and became Swami Tapovan Maharaj's student. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen.

One day, a mom with her two daughters came to visit Swami Tapovan Maharaj. He was teaching his students at that time. The visitors bowed with respect. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Swami Tapovan Maharaj asked one of his students to bring some oranges that had been offered to him by some of his devotees. He then asked the little girl if she wanted to take some oranges down for her friends and family. The girl smiled and nodded her head. Then he asked how many. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. As a class we counted together in Sanskrit instead of Hindi. We stopped at "saptha", the kids were asked what that is in English, they recounted their fingers and said. "seven". Then seven oranges were given to the girl. The kids were asked if they would be able to hold seven oranges in their hands. They said, "no"!!! Then girl held all the seven oranges in her skirt, using it like a basket. The girl, her sister and mom left. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen.

Suddenly, there were loud chattering noises from the distance and scared screaming! The kids were asked if they could guess who may be creating the commotion. With the way the question was prompted, the kids figured out that it was from monkeys! We all behaved like loud excited monkeys:) Swami Tapovan Maharaj rushed in the direction of the noise. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Swamiji saw the little girl surrounded by a group of monkeys and they had taken all the oranges. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Swamiji addressed monkeys in Hindi, "Ram Ram - rakko rakko". He also said, "peechay" and signaled them to move back and away. It was an amazing scene when the monkeys obediently came down from the tree and all of them placed the oranges in front of Swamiji. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen.

Swami Tapovan Maharaj, asked one of the devotees to bring the entire basket of oranges. He then glanced in the direction of the monkeys. He signaled and asked them to come over to pick up an orange each. The monkeys, like obedient kids, lined up and took an orange each. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. It was amazing that Swamiji was not only loved by the people, animals too obeyed and loved Swami Tapovan Maharaj! We then discussed training pets. Arya has a big fluffy dog, she was asked if her dog follows directions. She smiled and nodded yes. We then discussed that pets can be trained, but it is not easy (but not totally impossible) to have wild animals, listen to people. 

Please continue to chant and practice all of our shlokas over the summer. It was an amazing and unique year. The kids have grown so much from the first time we saw them on the screen. We would love to see you all in person when it is safe to be back in our Ashram. We will miss all of our kids, we will keep our WhatsApp group active and will share information and updates as and when we receive them. Thank you all for spending your Sunday mornings with us and sharing your kids with us this year. We will miss you!!!

 

We concluded class with Om Purnamadham.

Pranaam,

Keerthi and Pramila