Oct 9, 2022 - Grade 5 (Sunday AM)

Hari OM Dear Families,

Here is this week's update.

Week 3:

9th October 2022 / 9:15 AM

Opening prayers and Shlokas

Slokas: Class began with 3 OMs followed by

     "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)

Om shrI Ganeśaya Namaha,  shrI Saraswatyai Namaha,  shrI Sat Gurubhyo Namaha.

"Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)

Saints of India - our lesson

Guru Parampara, as the first step to learning about the Saints of India:

• Who is a Guru?
• What is the importance of a Guru in one's life?
• The Guru Shishya tradition in India
• We must learn to preserve our spiritual heritage
• Our Guru Parampara - Adi Shankara and his contribution to expounding the Advaita Philosophy; Swami Tapovanji Maharaj who incessantly and rigorously practiced the philosophy, Swami Sivananda who tirelessly served the ill and engaged fully in service while following the philosophy of Advaita

Adi Sankarachrayaji

We started the "Saints of India" topic this week.His life stories and interesting anecdotes from his life. The first saint was Adi Shankaracharya, who was born in Veliyanad near Kalady in Kerala, the 14th year of the reign of Vikramaditya in 700 AD. His parents were very pious and devotees of Shiva. The divine child composed his first book at age 6, and took sanyas at the age of 8, Caught by a crocodile while taking bath, mother gives permission to become a sanyasi, crocodile frees him, and young Shankara leaves his home

 His guru was Govindapada at Narmadeshwar. He travelled extensively across the country four times and established his mathas near Badrinath in the north, Puri in the east, Sringeri in the south, and Dwaraka in the west. He single- handedly revived the Hindu culture, propagated the  Advaita Vedanta philosophy and brought 75 different schools of thought under his Advaita philosophy. At age 32, he had completed his mission in life.  Wrote bhasyas (commentaries) on vedantic texts.

Adi Shankaracharya composed original works such as Bhaja Govindam, Atma Bodha, Tattva Bodha, Daksinamurthy Stotra, Vivekachudamani, etc. Dies at a young age of 32

Swami Sivananda was born on September 8, 1887 as Kuppuswamy. He went to medical school in Tanjore, where he ran a medical journal called Ambrosia. After graduating, he left for Malaysia to work in a hospital. He stayed there for ten years and had a reputation for treating poor people for free. Once, a saint gave him a book named "Jiva Brahma Aikyam," which ignited the dormant spirituality in him. On his return to India, he went to Rishikesh to be initiated into sannyas and became Swami Sivananda. He continued looking after the sick, gave them medicines, begged for food on their behalf and fed them with his own hands. He started the Divine Life Society. Swami Sivananda convinced Swami Chinmayananda that Vedanta philosophy offers solutions to all human problems. Swami Sivananda gave sannyas to our Gurudev.Swami Sivananda ji as a physician worked tirelessly as a physician and served the poor. 

Key messages/ values of Swami Sivananda ji's life was to serve all, work hard/ tirelessly, be compassionate, and devoted. Our Pujya Gurudeva, Swami Chinmayananda was given sanyasa by Swami Sivanandaji.

Today the children performed saraswathi pooja and  prior to it, we watched the Gita verses 1 ans 2. The link is provided here 

Verses 1-2 Ch.3 BG - YouTube

Next class on 10/16/22

Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Hari OM

Best regards

Indira, Raji 

and Vidhya (substitute)