Symbolism - Lord Shiva

We had a full house this weekend class. We met after almost a month but for our field trip. Having completed the section on Lord Mahavishnu, we continued our journey to learn about Lord Shiva. The students participated enthusiastically and pointed out the various forms of Shiva and the items adorned on his body, his abode. It was a very lively class. We saw a story, played a game and we discussed about our Pujya Gurudev, his Guru Swami Sivananda and Shri Tapovan Maharaj. Please ask the kids about the class. We discussed about Samskriti, our year-end program which falls on June 18th, Saturday in our ashram in Cranbury. The students volunteered to read the short stories book "Parables" to pick a story for a play for samskriti. For now, I like story 9 "Many in one". I encourage you to read and come up with suggestions. We need to pick a story that no other class have picked.

In the class, we stressed the significance of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and the benefits of chanting. We practiced the first two slokhas. We encourage the kids to practice at home. www.geetachanting.net, is a great resource, where it has recording for every line for all 18 chapters. Please check it out. It is not just for kids, we encourage the parents to learn this as well. Please make use of the available resources and benefit.

Good job by Diya and it is pretty close between Isha and her on the prayer log.

See you all next weekend.

Yoga & Shri Maha Vishnu

This week, we had our Yoga combined with 6th graders. Some of our students didn't bring the yoga mat. We had a great session. Our Yoga teacher shared a very good thought with us. Yoga is not just doing various poses, but it is the process of preparing one body to be receptive and be able to reach meditative stage. Lot of us are not able to maintain any posture for beyond few seconds! With the advent of so many electronic gadgets, we have no dearth for distractions. The best thing is for you to stay / sit in one posture on the floor with a straight spine for Five minutes every day. Please practice this alone or along with your kids. But please practice. To make this a practice, we are asking all the kids to bring their Yoga mats to every class. So they can sit in the floor for a specific period. After Yoga, we revised the details on Lord Shri Vishnu and how "Shantakaram bhujaga Sayanam.." is a Dyana slokha. Please ask the kids and we want them to be able to recite this slokha next class. We didn't have Isha and Anupriya in the class. Great job by Diya and she is catching up to Isha on the prayer log. We have three participants for the prayer log and we want other kids to join too. Please have your kids fill up the Prayer log.

The coming sunday, the class is a field trip to the Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, NJ. Please sign up on the invitation you received and be there promptly by 9:45. The temple tour starts @ 10 AM, followed by a video, Arathi and lunch.