Next Class: April 17th, 2011
Sevikas/Sevaks: Jayashree, Vaman Rao
Announcements
Arthi in class. Please pick up the children at 11.45am.
April 17th Class Schedule
Prayers
AUM Chanting
Sahanavavathu
Vakratunda Mahakaya
Saraswathi Namasthubhyam
Mookam Karothi Vachalam
Manojavam Marutha (Hanuman Shloka)
Raamaaya Raama Bhadraaya
Shaantha Kaaram Bhujaga Sayanam
Bhajans
Come Here My Dear Krishna Kanhaiya
Rama Naama Taarakam
Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Naama Taarakam
The children all seem to love the new Bhajan. We practiced it a few times.
Geeta Chanting: Chapter XI first 8 shlokas.
Click here for Geeta Audio and Script
We had most of them come up and recite it in front of the classroom.
Story Time and Letter(s) of the day: 'Y'
Moving on in our Alphabet Safari, we arrive at the letter 'Y', that stands for Yagna.
After reviewing all the other alphabets covered so far, we moved to Y for Yagna. We talked about how in olden days many people like the village grocer, carpenter, priest, farmer etc used to come together in earlier times and contribute for a Yagna, the fire sacrifice which benefited the entire community. Similarly, in these days even if we don't do a fire sacrifice, we can work with the Yagna spirit. We discussed the difference between sharing and sacrificing. We told them the story of the Golden Mongoose from the MahaBharata. When Yudhishtira is doing his great sacrifice, his brother Bheema is in charge of the Kitchen. As part of the fire sacrifice, Yudhishtira gave everyone lots of gifts. One day Bheema notices a strange mongoose rolling on the kitchen floor and informs Yudhishtira. One half of the mongoose's body is golden. When Yudhishtira questions him, the mongoose narrates the story of how half his body turned into gold. Once, there was a very poor family. One day, someone gave them enough flour to make four rotis. When the mother had finished making the rotis and they were ready to eat, a sadhu appears at the door. The father offers him his share of the roti but the Sadhu is not satisfied and so the mother offers him her share. He is still not satisfied and the children too offer him their share. The Sadhu is none other than Indra who has come to test them and he praises their sacrifice and takes them to heaven. The mongoose observed all this and then rolled in the little bit of flour that the lady had used to make the roti and to his great surprise, one half of his body turned golden. The mongoose says, that after that he has been looking for a sacrifice so great that he can turn the other half of his body golden and thought that Yudhistira's sacrifice might equal that poor family's, but he is disappointed. Yudhistira realizes that all his pomp and ceremony is not a true sacrifice.
We also discussed about the greatness of Japa Yagna and how important the Likhita japa we were doing is.
Activity:
We continued doing the Likhita Japa.
Closing Prayers
Asathoma
Purnamadah...
Reminders
Please register the children for the Geeta Competition - Click here for the link.
Please take the children to the restroom before the class.
Please do not send in any bags or folders with them.
