Morning Prayers Recited:
• Om Saha naavatu (My Prayers, page 6)
• Karagre Vaasate (My Prayers, page 43)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (My Prayers, page 44)
• Guru Brahma (My Prayers, page 9, third shloka)
Vedic Chanting:
• Praarthanaa with Swamiji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 3)
• Medha Sukhtam with Swamiji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)
Bhajans: None
Storytime with Swamiji: Today we continued our video on Prahlada and Lord Vishnu with Swamiji. We saw the episode where Lord Shiva swallowed the poison from the food that Prahlada was going to be fed in prison.
Art Projects: Worked on bead looms and macrame projects.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: After our morning prayers, we played our "Time" Game. We sat silently for four minutes before dropping pebbles into the pan. For our younger friends we asked them to raise their hands when they thought two minutes were up ... and then sit quietly while everyone else completed their four minutes. Everyone did very well, indeed! Almost everyone wanted to try a longer time -- but we decided that four minutes was long enough for this week. Maybe next week we'll give five minutes a try.
Yesterday afternoon we began discussing the Chinmaya Pledge and what the very first paragraph meant ... "We stand as one family, bound to each other with love and respect." We asked ourselves if we really thought of each other as family members, and what does love and respect mean? What are some of the ways that we can we show love and respect to each other? We had planned to continue discussing the next two paragraphs this afternoon, but had some birthdays to celebrate -- so we asked everyone to read the next two paragraphs over the weekend so we can talk more about the pledge Monday afternoon.
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: July 10 (click here to view)
Comments: Today was definitely the day for birthdays. We had ice cream, cake and gulab jamun all day long!! First we want to say Happy Birthday to Nikhita who turned 6 today! And our other camper (vounteer in training) Vamsi turns 13 tomorrow. Happy Birthday to the new teenager!!! And last, but not least, our very cool Sanjana Didi will be 16 tomorrow. We wish all of you many, many Happy Birthdays to come!
This afternoon, once we finished eating all the good sweet treats everyone brought in to share, we had a wonderful musical treat with Sheila Auntie -- who is a longtime devotee of Gurudev. She brought in her guitar and sang a bhajan in English with the children. Parents: definitely ask your children to share the song with you -- by the end of the session they were beginning to memorize the verses. We look forward to having her lead us in song every Wednesday. Thank you Sheila Auntie!
Now that week 3 has come to an end, we will be saying farewell for the summer to some of our camper friends. We really enjoyed spending time at the ashram together -- and hope to see you in the fall when Balavihar begins. If you see us in the hallway, don't forget to shout out a really loud "Hari OM!"
Hope everyone enjoys this gorgeous weather we have been blessed with. To all of our campers: Get lots of rest -- we've got another fun-filled week of activities ahead of us ...
