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)
13. Bhajan - “Athma Nivasi Ram” (page 149
in My Prayers book)
Activities:
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We practiced our Geeta chanting. Please continue to practice the slokas with your kids. They have been taught 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. Please register, practice & participate in the Geeta chanting competition. Registration closes soon. Go to http://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/geeta-chanting/ to register if you have not done so already.
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We have introduced 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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We colored some of the lessons that kids had skipped when they were either absent or what we weren’t able to get to due to abbreviated classes. If the kids have some extra time at home, they can catch up on some coloring. Please stop on Lesson 32. Please reiterate that the kids are recalling the story as they are coloring.
Our setting was in Lanka. Both sides are prepared for the war to commence.
Rama signals the vanara army to attack. They are completely pumped up & energized chanting “Victory to Rama, Jai Sri Ram, Long Live Rama”, they approach the city gates. Ravana & his rakshasa army are ready to attack with full force, charging out with their
mighty weapons. As the vanaras arrived empty handed, they made use of rocks, boulders, mountains, trees, columns, pillars, etc. as weapons. The generals from both sides were equally matched. Angadha was assigned to take his stance against Indrajit, the mighty
son of Ravana. Angadha killed Indrajit’s charioteer & horses & smashed his chariot as well. Furious at the outcome, Indrajit used magic to make himself invisible. He decided to torment Rama & Lakshmana by shooting arrows are them from all different directions.
After that he sent serpent arrows at the duo, that tied them up & made it impossible for them to move or talk!
Sugriva & the vanara army were grief stricken! They assumed the worst had
happened & started to cry in defeat. Vibhishana was not convinced as he was still able to see luster in the faces of the brothers. Indrajit thought that his hasty master plan had worked & went to rejoice with his father. Ravana was so pleased that he started
to party himself & ordered his trusted rakshasi to accompany Sita on the flying Pushpa vagana to witness their victory & to now convince her to be his queen. Sita could not bear the sight & lamented uncontrollably. Trijata, the good rakshasi too thought like
Vibhishana & tried to console Sita by saying that the duo don’t seem to be dead.
At this point, the ocean waves rose to incredible heights & the winds started
roaring! Garuda the king of the birds arrived amongst the vanaras & immediately the serpents disappeared in fear! Garuda softly brushed his wings along the brothers’ faces & whispered to Rama that he was an old friend of his & that they would meet again after
the war is over. The duo awoke with immense strength & immediately began planning their new war strategies. There was a roar of joy amongst the vanaras that reverberated across Lanka. Immediately Ravan climbed his tower to see what was going on & was astonished
to see the brothers alive & well! Sita too could hear the joy & was immediately filled with a revived sense of hope.
Ravana decided to send his fierce warrior Dhumraaksha to defeat Hanuman
on the western side. Unfortunately for the rakshasas, Hanuman was no match for them. With one swing of a humongous tree towards Dhumraaksha’s head, he was slain. The extremely agitated rakshasa king then sent the huge & terrible looking Vajradamstra to the
southern side to take on Angadha. Both generals & their armies fought with all their might but Angadha had the upper hand & defeated Vajradamstra. Ravana was furious & was getting increasingly afraid of the situation, but had no intention of giving up. He
was very stubborn that he would never bow before Rama. Prahasta his commander-in-chief too had advised Ravana to return Sita to Rama. At this point, Akampana, who was unshakeable had also been defeated by Hanuman. With no other choice, Prahasta went to war
against Nila & he too was no match for the vanaras! It was a gruesome scene, with death & disaster everywhere.
The enraged Ravana got himself prepared to head out for war. He looked
majestic, radiant & terrifying with his 10 heads glowing, he led what was left of his rakshasa army out for war. Vibhishana, pointed out his brother to Rama as he rode in his chariot in their direction. Rama was awestruck by Ravana’s presence & he viewed him
with admiration, but had to quickly pocket that image as he was the cause of all of this destruction & life loss. Ravana strode in & swatted the fierce vanaras like they were mere flies. Nila was taken down in a single shot, Hanuman put up a brave fight then
Lakshmana was wounded & fell unconscious. Hanuman swiftly escorted him off the battlefield.
Rama & Ravana are face to face for the first time. Rama wasted no time,
he aimed his first arrow at Ravana’s crown, took that out. Then his next arrow took out his chariot & his last arrow took out all of his weapons. Ravana stood there in astonishment stripped of all his powers & nearly destroyed. Rama looked at him kindly &
requested his enemy to go home, take rest & return the next day! Rama had so much admiration for the fierce but evil warrior that stood before him.
Ravana had never tasted defeat before. He was totally dejected. But he
knew that he had a secret weapon that he had not used so far...his brother Kumbhakarna! He decided to wake the sleeping giant who had been cursed to 6 months of sleep & 6 months of being awake during which he primarily consumed tons of food. Trying to wake
up his brother during his sleep cycle was no easy feat. There were drummers, trumpet blowers & many more making as much noise as possible to wake him up. They even tried sending elephants to trample on top of him to make him budge. Then they tempted him with
the aroma of his preferred foods. After a prolonged effort to awake Kumbhakarna, he finally wakes up. He gets dressed & rolls into his brother’s assembly hall & his movements can be felt throughout Lanka. Ravana explained the grave situation that they were
in & had NO support from his brother! Kumbhakarna called his brother out for his despicable act of kidnapping another man’s wife! He also blamed all the people around him for praising Ravana & giving him false hope. But, he agreed to fight for his brother’s
honor & headed out decked in gems & the finest garments.
The vanaras were terrified by the sound of Kumbhakarna approaching. He
looked like a giant mountain roaring towards the battlefield. He grabbed & consumed a multitude of vanaras. He smooshed several of them merely by accident too. Angadha, Sugriva & Nila were tossed around & knocked unconscious. The rakshasas were thrilled to
see the vanara king down. Eventually Sugriva gained consciousness & attacked Kumbhakarna, using his long sharp nails to injure him enough to cause discomfort. Hanuman too played his role in slowing the tyrant down. When Lakshmana came forward, he avoided him
& wanted to fight Rama...feeling that his end was close, deciding that he wanted to face Rama for that. Rama then pulled out his most powerful astaras, aimed & took Kumbhakarna down part by part. Finally his huge head fell & made an immensely load thud that
reached Ravana’s ears, throwing a devastating blow at Ravana. He fainted in disbelief. He lamented about not listening to reason & to his brother Vibhishana as well. Ravana’s sons came to console him & they bravely set out to fight for their father’s honor
& to avenge the death of their uncle. Unfortunately they met the same end as their predecessors. Ravana was determined to go down fighting. 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
