Hari OM Everyone,
We started off the class with daily prayers as usual and then moved onto Guru Stotram and Dasavatara Stotram. We then continued learning the new Madhurashtakam - we covered 3 stanzas. They are picking it up well - we practiced in 2 groups.
We gave our friend Akshaya an applause for sending in the video recording of Geeta and earning our House 100 points! Other kids have promised to send the recordings too - parents please help them.
This week we told them the story of the Churning of the Ocean. Sage Durvasa has become a familiar figure for them by now 🙂 Some of them recognized what the story was immediately after hearing about Durvasa's curse of Indra!! In fact one of the kids Guhan had brought a bag full of Amar Chitra Katha books and found the book in his bag. We used the book to show pictures to all the other kids. The dancers in our class showed us the Mudra for Kurma Avatara! We spoke about how the halahala poison rose from the ocean and Lord Shiva helped by drinking the poison and Goddess Parvati held his neck which then turned blue. He thus gained the name Neelakanta. We spoke about how all the treasures appeared from the churning, like the Kaustubha gem, the Airavata, etc and MahaLakshmi. Everyone wanted to marry Mahalakshmi but she chose Vishnu who was lying under a tree and garlanded Him! Then when Dhanavantri appeared with the Amrita kalash, the Asuras took it and ran away and again Lord Vishnu helped the Devas by taking the Mohini Avatar. Ask them about the Asura who disguised himself as a Deva and sat in their midst and managed to get amrita!
They were all eager to get their roles for the play but we had to keep them in suspense one more week since we are not yet done with the entire script! But the Dhruva portion is complete and the kids took turns reading the lines. We went through all the scenes once. They did a good job reading with expression.
We learned verses 67,68,69 with Swamiji's video but we didn't have much time to review or record Geeta as we had to go watch the 9th grade play in the temple hall.
Some useful links -
Shlokathon registration is soon closing - please register them before March 15th
Last date for online Registration for Geeta chanting yajna is March 24 -
Registration form for storytelling - Last date for registration and submission of audio - March 31st
Registration form for Art - Last date for registration March 31st - last date for submission - April 30
Link to Swamiji's youtube video of Geeta -
Jayashree & Suja
