Hari Om Parents,
We began our class with 3 OMs and the following shlokas.
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2."Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)
8. "Brahmarpanam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
9. "Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
10. "Sri Rama Rama" (page 129 in My Prayers book)
11. "Budhir Balam" (page 152 in My Prayers book)
12. "Kara Charana" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
We had our Spirit day today and it was wonderful to see everyone dressed in blue for the Krishna's Cowboys House.
After a brief discussion about the evening's Super Bowl, a poll and predictions, we introduced the Spirit Day activity of decoding various sets of numbers and letters to reveal sentences from the life of a famous Indian Saint. Our class got Adi Shankara. After all the kids decoded their assigned sentence (two students had time to decode an extra one too!!! awesome!), we joined the main group to hear about what the other grades had to do.
Neel read out a few of the below sentences during the assembly.
Adi Sankara was a shining spiritual light who illuminated the land of Bharat with his teachings.
He was born to a pious couple, Aryamba and Shivaguru in a village near Kalady in Kerala.
Even at the tender age of 2, he was well-versed in Sanskrit and mastered the Vedas by the time he was 4.
Once on a Dwadasi day, a young Sankara went to the house of a poor lady and asked for alms.
The lady was so poor that she did not have a single grain of rice in her house to give.
However she had kept a single Amla fruit for herself to break her fast.
She readily gave this Amla fruit to Sankara as she could not send a young child empty handed.
Sankara was moved by her selflessness and generosity given her poverty.
Sankara right away prayed to Goddess Lakshmi in a beautiful sloka which is called "Kanaka Dhara Stotram ''.
Goddess Lakshmi appeared in person and showered golden coins on the poor lady's house.
Even when he was young, Sankara wanted to renounce and become a Sanyasi but his mother refused to give permission.
Once, when Sankara was taking a bath, a crocodile caught hold of his leg and he cried out for his mother.
Aryamba came running and to her horror she found her son in the grip of the crocodile's jaw.
She was in great sorrow as she was unable to save her son.
Sankara pleaded with his mother to grant him permission to take Sanyasa at least at this time.
His mother had no choice but to give him permission to become a sanyasi.
Immediately to her surprise, the crocodile let him free and disappeared in the water.
At the age of 8, Sankara was initiated into Sanyasa by Guru Govindapada in Narmadeshwara.
He walked the length and breadth of the country 4 times within his lifespan of 32 years reviving Hinduism.
Sankara established mathas in the 4 corners of India, Dwaraka in the West, Puri in the East, Sringeri in the South and Badrikashram in the North.
The existence of Vedic Dharma in India today is due to Adi Sankara.
Neelima & Keerthi