Hari Om Parents and Children!
Below is a summary of what we did in our last Sunday's class on Sept 26th.
- We started our class with 3 Oms followed by Sahana vavatu
- OM saha nāvavatu saha nau bhunaktuand then also said the following 3 Chants listed below
saha vīryam karavāvahai
tejasvināvadhītamastu
mā vidviṣāvahai
OM śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
Om Sri Ganeshaya namaha, Om Sri Saraswathye namaha, Om Sri Sat Gurubyoh namaha
- We continued to revise and learn about Lord Ganesha. We observed Lord Ganesha's image on screen and talked a little bit about how Ganesha looks and described him. We then said the below shloka for Lord Ganesha-
Vakratunda Mahaakaaya sooryakoti samaprabha
nirvighnam kurume deva sarva karyeshu sarvada
- It was time to then move on to a few Yoga stretches and poses. We did a tree pose, a lion pose and even did a butterfly pose. It was really fun watching our kids become tall strong trees and then fly like butterflies.
- After Yoga we sang a bhajan on Lord Ganesha which we had learnt in our first class---
gaṇeśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam gaṇeśa. gaṇeśa śaraṇam, śaraṇam gaṇeśa.
Delight of Lord Shiva, I take refuge in Thee,
O Big Bellied Son of Mother Parvathi,
Infinite Om, Oh I bow to Thee,
You ride on your mouse and win Victory.
- After bhajans it was time to sit still a bit-- we introduced meditation and the kids all did such a great job of closing their eyes and sitting still to hear the beads drop in the meditation box!! We managed to sit quietly and count of 10 in our minds!
- IT was then time for our story and then doing a craft-- Our story was called "Ganesha goes to a party" from . Our virtual story telling involved having scenes of the story as images up on the screen as the story was told by me.
Lord Kubera was a very proud God known for the huge wealth he had amassed. Once, he decided to hold a party and invited several guests to show off his wealth. When he invited Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati sent Ganesha instead, in order to teach Kubera a lesson. At the party Ganesha was very hungry and he quickly ate up all the food at the feast leaving nothing for the other guests. He then went on to eat up the furniture, vessels, and even started to eat Kubera's wealth! Kubera ran back to Mount Kailash for Shiva's help. Lord Shiva advised him to humbly offer Ganesha a bowl of rice made lovingly by Goddess Parvati. Kubera did not think this would help but trusting Lord Shiva he came back and offered this to Ganesha. On eating this bowl of rice, Ganesha felt very content and happy. Kubera learnt that anything offered with love is all that is needed to feel content and happy.
- The kids did a really great job of sitting still and hearing the story. It was then time to make our craft which was a Ganesha mask.
We had so much fun making the craft and seeing their creativity! Our class concluded with closing prayers.
OM pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidam
pūrṇāt pūrṇamudacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya
pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate
It is always a lot of fun interacting with all of our kids and hope all of you enjoyed our class as well.
Our next class is on Sunday Oct 3rd @ 9.15am. Zoom link is the same as our last class and we will send out a reminder via our class WhatsApp ahead of the day. Attached is link to our Bala Vihar handbook for this year.
Pranams,
Vidya and Pramila