Prayers:
* ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Yoga segment: Namaskara Pose, Lion Pose, Cobra Pose, Butterfly Pose, Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation)
Shlokas:
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)
* वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg.15)
* नमस्तेस्तु महामाये – namastEstu mahAmAye (Mahalakshmi shloka)
Bhajans:
गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
NandalAlA yadunandalAlA (My prayers, pg. 53)
आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera HanumAntashUra
Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 & 2
Art Project: Sparkler
Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)
Snack/Juice: Provided by Nandan Nair: धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).
Story Segment: The story of Narakasura
Sanskrit lesson of the week: mama nAma – My name is …..
Game Segment: Passing Krishna around
End of class:
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: We met after a 2 week break, today. We sure missed the children! Everyone was in a festive mood! We started out with ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu and moved on to our weekly Yoga stretches. The children were amazing! They remembered their stretches very well and also did a complete Surya Namaskara with Anitha Aunty. Today’s class was all about Krishna. We learnt a new shloka on Krishna: वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM. Our new Bhajan of the week was also on Krishna: NandalAlA yadunandalAlA. Of course, we sang about Hanuman and did not forget to sing our favorite one on the great God GaNapathy with Rupa Aunty. During Geeta chanting session we learnt the second line on verse 2. The children have already warmed up to the chanting. We could see many of them chanting very nicely. It is just a matter of days before they can master all their lines! And then, it was craft time. Today’s craft was a sparkler as it is Diwali season! As usual, our little creators did an amazing job! It was so adorable to watch them hold out their sparklers and shout, “Happy Diwali!” Followed by this was snack time. Today’s snack was provided by our friend Nandan Nair and family. We had an unexpected treat from Satvik as it was his birthday. We sang for him. At snack time, Rupa Aunty had a special message about CMTC- HomeFront Thanksgiving Holiday Gift Basket Seva project. For more details about this, please visit the Chinmaya Vrindavan website. Snack time was followed by story time. Today, we learnt about how Diwali is celebrated in South India. It was because Lord Krishna destroyed Naraka, the mean Asura! We all agreed that Naraka was a mean monster because he refused to share with others and was very hurtful to everyone and always snatched things from the people, even the mother of the Devas, Mother Aditi. He stole her beautiful earrings and hurt her. Indra the king of the Devas sought Krishna’s help. Krishna, after breaking all the magical barriers around Naraka’s palace, defeated the arrogant Naraka, early in the morning. Naraka realized his mistakes and requested Lord Krishna that everyone celeberate this day, Diwali, as the day that Good prevailed over evil! We did manage to squeeze in some time to play a new game, mama nAma (my name is…). We passed around our little Krishna who visited our class when the music played and when the music stopped, the person holding Krishna had to give him a hug and introduce themselves to Him in Sanskrit. Finally, we ended with ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH. We had a fun class today and can’t wait to meet again next week!
