Hariom Parents,
Hope all of you have been able to either order the Ramayana book by Shri C. Rajagopachari from Amazon or have downloaded the PDF copy that was provided in the last email. This is key for the effective participation of the kids in the class that they have this book and if possible pre-read the topics we plan to cover. Happy to note that everyone was able to join the Zoom session without any difficulty however some of them had some challenges to keep the Video on during the session. Keeping the video on during the session is a must and helps with active participation and interaction as well. Please ensure that they have the laptop that is capable of video sharing.
We started the class with Likhitha Japa. This gave time for students to join and settle down. We hope to do this every class and thus request you to ensure that everyone has the likhitha japa notebook and a pencil as they come into the session. We followed this with our regular starting prayers and practiced two of Sri Rama dhyana shlokas (page 129 of "My prayers" book) as well. This was followed by a recap of what was covered in the last class.
The focus of this session was part 1 of Balakhanda. We narrated the story starting from King Dasharatha kingdom and him performing Putrakameshti yagna followed by the birth of Shree Rama and his early days of growing up at Ayodhya. This was followed up by Sage Vishwamitra's request to take them to the forest where Shree Rama along with Lakshmana helps kill the demons (Tataka) and help the sages complete their yagna's peacefully. On their way to Mithila, Sage Vishwamitra narrated a few stories to Rama and Lakshmana. One such story described how Ganga was brought down to Earth to wash away the ashes of King Bhageeratha's ancestors.
Next day, they came across a deserted ashram and Vishwamitra narrated the story of Ahalya. Ahalya was Sage Gautama's wife, who was cursed by him to live like a rock and that she would be redeemed of her sins only when Rama visited. Rama blessed Ahalya and she returned to Sage Gautama.
We talked about King Janaka, a brave king who was also well versed in Shastras, found Sita as a baby while ploughing the land one day. He brought her up as his own daughter. King Janaka decided that a perfect match for Sita should tie the string in Rudra bow, which was given to him by Varuna Bhagavan.
When they reached Mithila, they were welcomed by King Janaka. Rama took the blessings of the sage and lifted the bow without any effort and tried to tie the string. But the bow snapped and broke into two. We will continue with the Wedding of Sri Rama and Sita in the next class.
Along the story narration we also discussed some of the key characters and thus triggering some character analysis as well.
We followed this up with a Sanskrit pronunciation primer which would help them chant and appreciate the upcoming Geetha Chanting session.
Thus we covered chapters 1 – 9 of the book. We plan to do chapters 9 - 11 in the next session and close out on balakhanda.
We finished the class with Aarathi and pledge followed by closing prayers.
Please don't hesitate to email us with any questions you may have.
Next Class – October 15th
Happy Navratri to all
Thanks and Hari Om
Purnima Krishnamurthy & Venkatapathy Shankar