This week, we started class with opening prayers followed by the narration of Ramayana. We began with the story of Narada Muni meeting Valmiki and telling him about Lord Rama. Valmiki is then blessed by Lord Brahma himself to be able to see and know all the thoughts and actions of all involved in the Ramayana story and he begins to write the story of Dasharatha and Ayodhya.
Dasharatha eager for an heir to his dynasty performs the Putrakameshti yagna and divides the divine payasam that he gets between his 3 wives. In time, he has 4 sons, Rama, Bharata, Laxmana and Shatrugna. Rama is followed by a devoted Laxmana as they grow up and Shatrugna is devoted to Bharata. As the princes grow and become well versed in archery, weapons and shastras to rule the land, Lord Vishwamitra visits Dasharatha and asks him to send Rama with him to kill the Rakshasas who are destroying his yagnas. Initially overcome with shock, Dasharatha finally agrees and Rama along with Laxmana set off with sage Vishwamitra. As they enter Tataka's forest they notice that there is no wild life etc there. Vishwamitra tells Rama that he has to kill her and Rama destroys Tataka.
At this point we had a discussion with the kids about how actions depict a person's character including mental actions. Mental actions are often a precursor to physical actions. We spoke of what mental actions someone like Lord Rama performed versus the kind of mental actions performed by Tataka. The kids then shared some examples of their own mental actions and how it lead to or changed what they finally did with their behavior.
We ended the class with Bhagwad Gita chap 2, shlokas 39-40 and pledge.