Dear parents,
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. It was great to see all the kids after the break. They are all so enthusiastic and full of energy!
Here's a recap of our Friday's class:
After reciting the opening prayers and the dhyana shloka, all the kids received a japa mala with 27 beads ( along with a meru bead). We will use the japa mala during 'Nama Japa' in every class and will help the kids learn how to use it. Please work with your children to keep it safe and get it to every class going forward.
We also introduced to the kids the exciting project we will be working in the next class. To wrap up the discussion on the eight virtues of Hanumanji and benefits of developing those, we will have kids work on a fun arts project by creating Hanumanji's backbone with a head and tail. Please send a pencil and an eraser with the kids for next class.
We then moved to the next section of this year's curriculum – 'Hanuman Chalisa'. We started Hanuman Chalisa with an activity that will help refresh the story of Ramayana in their minds. Everyone very enthusiastically shared what they know in the story of Ramayana.
We reviewed the meaning, author and the benefits of reciting this very popular prayer
- Sri Goswamy Tulasidas, who is also the author of 'Tulasi Ramayana' has composed Hanuman Chalisa. It is said that his singing in praise of Hanuman helped him recover from illness that he had for a long time.
- Chalisa means forty. The Hanuman Chalisa for forty Caupais ( verses) and is written in Avadhi Language, a dialect of Hindi spoken in Ayodhya.
- This prayer iss sung of millions of hindus all over the world with great love and devotion
- Singing Hanuman Chalisa makes us fearless and purifies our mind.
- The importance of pure speech was explained through a story of 'A Man and an Ox '. The story demonstrates how the Ox behavior changes based on his master's way of talking and treating him. The man at the end realizes the benefit of pure and sweet speech. Purse speech reflects pure mind. You may ask the kids to narrate the story to refresh their memory.
We learnt new verses from the 18th chapter of Bhagavad Gita from Swamiji. In the next few classes, we will focus on memorizing the 41st and 42nd verses of the chapter. We wrapped up the class with closing prayers after practicing the aarthi songs. Our class led the session Aarthi.
Hari Om!
Mythili and Madhuri.
