Hariom Parents,
We had a great start to Sunday morning with all the children on November 6th. Here is a recap for you about the session. We are meeting after a week on November 20th. It is a good idea to discuss the last class details as you drive to the ashram in the morning.
We started class with 3 Oms and then followed it by chanting Opening Prayer Om Sahanavavatu.
1. Chanting Slokas- Vakratunda Mahakaya (Ganesha shloka), Saraswati Namastubyam (Saraswati shloka) and Gurur brahma gurur vishnu (Guru stotram)
2. Dhyana Shloka - Buddhir balam
3. Discussion – We discussed the topic of Fear. Our idea was to figure out what causes fear. Children came with their own observations as to how they fear the unknown and that fear resides in the mind as the same thing is normal when there is light and is something they are scared of when it is dark.
We also introduced fearlessness when we live free of malice and by our duties.
As we introduced the topic of fearlessness we also told them how courage is different from fearlessness. When the mind is without fear it is fearless and when we face our fears it needs courage.
4. Storytelling - Today we discussed the quality "Nirbhayatvam"
Tale of the timid rabbit
A rabbit was asleep under a palm tree. Suddenly he woke up and thought " What if the work should break up! What will happen to me? At that moment some monkeys dropped a coconut. It fell down on the ground very close to the rabbit. Hearing the noise, the rabbit said " The earth is breaking up" and he jumped up and ran as fast as he could, without even looking back to see what made the noise.
Seeing the rabbit run, other rabbits started following. As they ran they got to know that the earth was falling. Seeing the rabbits run, the deers, the zebras, the giraffes, the elephants and all started following and in some time all the animals of the jungle were running.
Looking at this the lion asked why they were running so fast. To this the animals answered one after the other that the sky was falling. The lion then asked who saw the sky falling to this finally the rabbit said he did. The lion then asked where he saw the sky falling and demanded the rabbit to come with him there.
After a lot of reluctance the rabbit finally agreed and as they reached the spot the rabbit pointed to the place where he was sleeping. The lion saw the coconut that had fallen to the ground nearby. The lion turned to the rabbit and said it must have been the coconut.
Are we going to be like the timid rabbit or like the lion? It is better to enquire understand than be scared without checking whether the fears are real. Always remember that God is our friend and when we pray to Hanumanji we get fearless just like him.
5.Bhajan – Khate bhi raam kaho, Pite bhi raam kaho sote bhi raam kaho ram ram ram. Bolo rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama ram ram ram.
Our children started adding more and more things they could think of doing as they said Lord Rama's name. So we enjoyed building the bhajan as we sang cheerfully and joyfully with lots of energy and enthusiasm.
6. Likhita Japa : We then proceeded to write rama rama in our likhita japa notebooks.
7. Circle time : Counting coins. We were surprised how the energy had subsided to quite focus as most of the children counted the exact number of coins.
8. Bhagawat Gita chanting: We chanted Bhagavad Gita verse 1 to 4. This was followed with learning the shlokas 5 and 6.
9 Aarti and Pledge : Then we proceeded to the temple for Aarti and Pledge.
Pranaam,
Meena Rajan and Ramya Belavadi
