Hari Om Parents,
The following is what we did during Sunday’s
class:
Shlokas:
1. “Om Saha navavatu” (page 8 in My Prayers
book)
2. “Vakrathunda Mahakaya” (page 27 in
My Prayers book)
3. “Karegre vasate” (page 11 in My prayers
book)
4. “Akanda-mandalakaram” (page 61 in
My Prayers book)
5. “Ajnana-timirandhasya” (page 61 in
My Prayers book)
6. “Gururbrahma” (page 61 in My Prayers
book)
7. “Samudra vasane devi” (page 11 in
My Prayers book)
8. “Saraswathi namasthubyam” (page 12
in My Prayers book)
9. “Bhramarpanam bhramahavihir”
10. “Subham karothi kalyanam” (page 12
in My Prayers book)
11. “Karacharana krithamva” (page 12 in
My Prayers book)
12. “Sri Rama Rama Ramethi” (page 129 in
My Prayers book)
Bhajan:
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“Athma Nivasi Ram” (page 149 in My Prayers book) - New
Activities:
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We practiced our Geeta chanting. Please continue to practice the slokas with your kids. They will be learning slokas 41-56 & that will be their requirement for the Geeta Chanting Competition. Please refer to the following website gitachanting.net for the right pronunciation. Most kids have familiarized themselves with the first 6 slokas! Please record videos & send your individual child chanting the shlokas to the Geeta Chanting Team cnjbalaviharhouses@gmail.com to earn house points. We introduced shloka 53 this week.
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If you have some extra time at home, please have the kids complete their coloring pages in their Bala Ramayana coloring books. Some kids have missed a class or 2, & we have had a few abbreviated sessions due to other activities & were unable to fit the coloring activity in. Please stop on Lesson 28. Please reiterate that the kids are recalling the story as they are coloring.
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We have introduced most of the Dainikaprarthanah (means Daily Prayers) & 3 slokas from the Gurustoram. Please have the kids make it a habit to chant the above shlokas every morning, (lighting the lamps / evening) after their bath/shower & before going to bed. This will help them learn, memorize as well as develop a lifelong habit of morning prayer & daily prayer.
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The new bhajan that we introduced this week will be part of our annual day stage performance. Please have the kids begin to familiarize themselves with it.
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We did some stretching between our activities.
We began with a short quiz like recap of
our story so far. It was nice to see that even a few kids who were absent for previous classes were able to answer the questions!
We were on the shore & nothing but ocean
was in front of the vanaras. Hanuman had just heard Jambavan tell him that his mere existence was to serve Ramchandraji! He is totally inspired & thinks that he would have to climb high enough & be able to put immense pressure down on the earth to give him
enough force to take the leap. He picks the Mahendra hill. He pictures Lord Rama & feels him in his heart, his yoga centered mind is concentrating only on the task at hand & he finally offers prayers to Surya, Indra, Brahma & to his dad Vayu.
Hanuman turns & faces southward. He musters
up even more strength & now even his surroundings can feel it too! The rocks, streams, trees, flowers & animals can all feel his strength as more blood rushed through Hanuman’s veins. He was ready & his shadow looked like a humongous dark cloud over the ocean.
As his flight began & continued, he met with a multitude of obstacles.
When he came across Mainaka the mountain,
he gracefully declined the offer to take rest on the mountain & promised to visit another time as his task at hand was highly time sensitive! Mainaka agreed & he was allowed to pass. After a while, the hungry monster Surasa wanted Hanuman to enter her mouth.
Hanuman was is very intelligent & decided to grow & increase his size. As he did so, Surasa too opened her mouth wider, when it was 50 yojanas wide, Hanuman shrunk to a speck, went in & out of her mouth to fulfill her desire. She was actually the Naga maiden,
she was only testing him. She gave him her blessings & on Hanuman flew. With great speed, Maruthi sped on, he encountered a hungry rakshasi & decided to speed through her mouth & made a hole through & out of her body, killing her without wasting time.He finally
reached the shores of beautiful Lanka. He shrinks himself down to the size of a little monkey then moves to the top of a hill & surveys his surroundings.
Hanuman was absolutely mesmerized by the
beauty, richness, massive architectural marvels, it’s moats & novel methods of protection forming a very well laid out city. He snapped out of his trance & immediately got back to the task at hand. It probably felt like getting to Lanka was the easy part...now
his real search begins. He had no clue if or not Sita was alive & if she was, where she would be. Hanuman is known as “Buddhimatam Varishtham” - wise amongst the wisest. He instantly plans to enter the city after dark to be able to slip past guards. The soft
moon light helped guide him. He encountered a fierce rakshasi. She immediately wanted to find out why a little monkey was snooping around. She shoved him away & Hanuman immediately gave her a suckerpunch & he plopped to the ground, stunned by the unexpected
power, she remembered the prophecy! She was the Goddess Guardian of the city & immediately felt that the rakshasa race was coming to an end! She bowed to the little monkey and gave him entrance!
The little monkey continued his expedition
prancing from place to place, palace to palace, courtyard to courtyard admiring the riches & splendor of Lanka, still unable to locate Sita. He finally entered Ravana’s palace, he saw numerous queens, enjoying the luxury & their surroundings. Then he slowly
peered through his bedroom. There stretched out in regal splendor on a solid gold bed, studded with gemstones was Ravana. He was surrounded by several wives, for a second Hanuman was actually looking for Sita & then instantly thought otherwise! She would never
be there! He left the palace & feeling highly unsuccessful & dejected went out into the courtyard & sat there on the compound wall. A multitude of negative thoughts were running though his mind.
As Hanuman sat on the wall, he saw an Ashoka
Vana in the courtyard. There were beautiful flowers & sweet fragrances from them filling the air. He thought to himself, this is the only place he hadn’t searched & it seems to be more like an area that Sita could be. It was heavily guarded by rakshasis that
were gruesome in all ways possible! He continued to glance around, the moon slowly crept out from behind the clouds & under an ahsoka tree was an elegant lady, simply dressed, pale, eyes red & swollen from constant weeping, lips trembling & constantly chanting
“Rama”! Eureka!!! The consort of Ramchandraji has been located! Hanuman’s heart skipped a beat & was mesmerized & overjoyed that he has good news for his Rama.
Hanuman was startled by the sudden sound
of anklets, women laughing & those voices were subdued but they were getting closer. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ravana approaching. He immediately moved to a spot in the tree that had a lot of thick leaves. The majestic king was stunning from
head to toe. He could see Sita growing paler, shivering & watched her turn her head away, as the procession of queens, women & Ravana got closer. He kindly tried to convince Sita to marry him by showing off & talking about all the riches that could be hers.
He tried his best to talk down what Rama has, what he was putting her through, who he was at the moment & how he could not provide for her. Ravana had never begged anyone this way before.
Sita plucked a blade of grass & placed it
between her & Ravana. She tried to reason with him by saying that it was adharma to have desire for another man’s wife. She said she belongs to Rama & will never think of anyone else. If he continued on this disgraceful path, he would not be spared by the
wrath of Rama. He may forgive you if you let her go now & forget this ridiculous desire of his. Ravana was furious & gave her 2 more months to change her mind, or be cut up & served as his breakfast!
After Ravana left, the rakshasis in the garden
started worrying Sita for rejecting Ravana. Some of them were even eager to eat her up. She was frightened & began to weep, even then, she was constantly chanting Rama’s name. Trijata was one of the women there, she was wise & demanded the rest of the rakshasis
to leave Sita alone & beg for mercy & forgiveness as she has had dreams of Ravana’s 10 heads rolling on the ground & Lanka destroyed by Rama who is an avatara of Lord Vishnu. Saying thus, she bowed before Sita.
Maruti was observing all that had occured.
He was debating on how he would approach Sita without startling her. He decided to stay a monkey. At this point, the rakshasis had enough excitement for one night & had dozed off. Sita suddenly felt an unexplainable inner strength. Hanuman began to sing Rama’s
praises & life story from his birth all the way up to his own journey across the ocean to Lanka. Sita was delighted! She looked up in the tree hoping to see a human figure with deep knowledge but instead saw a cute little monkey smiling down at her. She wasn’t
sure if it was her imagination or if she was actually looking at Rama’s messenger. She had so many questions regarding Rama & Lakshmana’s well being.
Sita wanted Rama to come to her rescue within 2 months,
or she said that she’d jump into a fire. On hearing this, Hanuman instantly jumped out to console her, she was taken aback, frightened & doubted is he was some illusion created by Ravana. Hanuman immediately remembered the ring. She was instantly convinced.
He asked her to get on his shoulders & he would take a leap back to Rama. He could see the doubt in her eyes, so Hanuman grew to the size of Trivikrama & then shrunk back to the small monkey. Even after that, she insisted that Rama should come with his weapons
& fight for her honor & rescue her. Sita gave Maruti a jewel that she had received from her mom. Rama would definitely recognize it. She affectionately called Hanuman, “son”, blessed him & requested him to depart immediately & to fly like the wind! We paused
our story here.
Please go to the below link to check out
the pictures from this week’s class
Regards,
Keerthi Kobla & Rukmini Sriram
