Hari OM Parents,
Our second class started with chanting OM 3 times and reciting opening prayers of,
- Sahana Vavatu
- Vakratunda MahAkAya
- Saraswati Namsatubhyam
- Guru Brahma
Each shloka was read aloud by an individual kid, this way all of them will get a chance each week. We added KarAgre Vasathe Lakshmi.. to the above list, and will continue to introduce one such new shloka every class. We recited the first stanza of Ganesha Pancharatnam.
MAHABHARATA
Next, we embarked on our journey of the great epic Mahabharata. Kids saw an animated version of the same for a few minutes and we then had an interactive discussion about the story and a small quiz. The participation and scores on the quiz show they were quite attentive :-)
We gave an introduction of the Itihasa, with its 100,000 verses, 18 parvas, talked about the composer VEda VyAsa, and his scribe Lord Ganesha. Mahabharata shows all the human qualities of love, hatred, arrogance, deceit, cunningness, fierceness, wisdom etc., coming into play.
The story starts with KIng Santanu meeting river Ganga on one of his hunting trips, falling in love with her and wanting to marry her. His willingness to agree to the condition of never questioning the reason for her actions shows his love. They have 7 baby boys and every time Ganga drowns the newborn in the river. The king goes through terrible totrure because he is bound by the promise and so cannot question her. When the 8th boy is born, he couldn't bear to keep silent and so stops Ganga, asks her the reason behind this heinous act of hers. Ganga explains to him that the 8 boys are the 8 Vasus (celestial gods) who were cursed by sage Vasishta to be born as mortals as a punishment for the crime of stealing his cow Nandi. When they ask for forgiveness he relaxes the time to a shorter period for the 7 Vasus, but the 8th Vasu, named Dyu who is the actual culprit in stealing the cow would remain for a longer period on Earth, but would be a learned and wise man. Ganga leaves King Santanu along with the 8th kid as he breaks his promise but assures him to be back with his son.
BHAGAVAD GITA
We watched a couple of introductory videos about sanskrit pronunciation of letters and certain words that occur in Chapter 2 and then recited verses 39, 40 under Swamiji's guidance.
We concluded our class with aarti and Pledge led by one of the kids.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
To any of the parents who joined late, here is the link to join our Whatsapp Group
Please check out the attached PDF documents for Shlokas and Ganesha Pancharatnam for kids to practice at home, so they can participate in SHLOKATHON competition early next year.
Feel free to reach out to me at lalitha.nandyala@gmail.com or
shashi at shasikk@gmail.com
Thank you,
Purna and Shashi.