Sunday, December 14, 2014

December 14, 2014

Hari Om!!

We had a new student - Ayushi in our class today. CJCBV welcomes Ayushi and her family. 
The students recited the daily prayers and then listened to the story of Rosa Parks to learn more about being courageous, one of the main qualities of Hanuman. Akbar-Birbal story was a good example to learn about wisdom. The children enjoyed playing copy cat commands game where the children are encouraged to think before they act. We then moved to 2nd Caupai from Tulsidas's Hanuman Chalisa where Hanuman is described as the messenger of Lord Rama. Students learnt that being a messenger is not an easy task. A messenger needs to have the capabilities to deliver the message to right person, at the right time and not be a lazy person. Lord Hanuman had all these qualities in him. The children then had a chance to play the messenger game in the class. 


         The tale - A curse or a boon describes how Pumjisthala was reborn as Anjana and gave birth to Hanuman. When Lord Vishnu was taking an avatar as Rama (a नर:) to help the devas from the evil grip of Ravana, all the Gods took form of monkeys (वानर:). The students were surprised to learn that a syllable "Va" when added to 'Narah'( man) becomes "Vanarah" - monkey. The children had another activity to introduce themselves as " I am...(mother's name)'s Putra and (Father's name) Putra" - similar to how the poet describes  Lord Hanuman as AnjaniPutra and Pavanaputra. The students also promised to be a Nandana/Nandini to their parents. They know that they can do this only by using good words and carrying good manners all times.

        The students will be reciting the first 5 caupai's from their individual portions (Hanuman Chalisa) in the next class.  

Homework:

Please color the first two caupai's pictures from the Hanuman Chalisa's coloring book (until RamaDoota...Caupai).




Sunday, December 7, 2014

December 7, 2014

Hari Om!!

      We started the class with the daily prayers. The 2 dohe and the first Caupai of Hanuman Chalisa were covered today. In order to make it easily understandable, the sanskrit verses were broken into single words and the english meanings of those words were taught to the students. The students also learnt about the importance of Guru immediately after the first doha (where the poet purifies himself with the dust of the lotus feet of Guru) and recited the Guru Shloka.

     The poet Tulisdas seeks Lord Hanuman to bless him with strength, wisdom & knowledge and to banish all his afflictions in the second doha. To understand why all the 3 qualities (strength, wisdom & knowledge) must stay together and why each of them do not serve any purpose without the other two was illustrated with an example of how much a computer could be of help to a person without the existence of internet or Google. We then moved on to learn the importance of wind God and how Lord Hanuman has acquired the quality of his father, the wind God, who is invisible yet powerful.

    The first caupai praises the Lord with beautiful words of the poet and leading to Lord Indra's story that summarizes how Hanuman as a baby got all the powers from the Gods. Lord Hanuman was also the minister of Sugriva and was a Lord without even being crowned. Because he was not ruling a piece of land, but was ruling the hearts of people. The students had an activity to list down all the bad qualities and the good qualities residing in their hearts and they promised to remove all the bad ones and retain the good qualities. Homework is an important tool for learning and all the students are encouraged to complete the homework assigned.Vedant recited almost all the verses of Hanuman Chalisa in the class today. Please see below for this week's homework.

  Homework : We shall carry forward the homework from the last class. The first 5 verses of  Hanuman Chalisa from the individual portion listed in the earlier blog.