July 21, 2009

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 Panditji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 3)
Medha Sukhtam with Panditji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)

Bhajans: Ganesha Sharanam, Subramanyan, Anjaneya Raghuveera and Raghupati Raghava

Storytime with Swamiji: Swamiji continued showing a video on Druv.

Art Projects: Continued sewing our animals in felt, Lord Ganesha out of Modeling Clay, and more beaded Lord Ganesha's for the backpacks.

Shaanti Circle Discussion: We successfully completed 3 minutes of silence and focus after our prayers this morning -- nicely done everyone! We're going to try four minutes tomorrow ...

Our Vedic Chanting class was moved to a different time slot today, so after our prayers and concentration game, we continued to stay in circle to practice our cotton spinning on the takhlis. We spent about 30-40 minutes learning how to gently open the fibers in a pooni (tightly rolled cotton), and how to keep our takhlis spinning for a good amount of time. We talked a little about the reason for needing a fast spin when making cotton thread, and exactly what are the steps in making a nice, strong yarn.

In our afternoon circle time, we watched a wonderful film clip of Gurudev. This was filmed while he was talking to some Balavihar children in the States (most likely California.) Most of us have only seen pictures of him in books and on our altars, and very few have seen or heard him in videos or audio. This particular film clip is of Gurudev singing a bhajan with the children and then telling a story of a yogi who saves a mouse. (We have the fable, illustrated by Marcia Brown, in our camp library -- so it was a double treat for us hearing Gurudev tell this tale!) His energy and connection with the children is inspiring beyond words. We will definitely be showing this film again ... and again ... and again ...

End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge

Photo Gallery: July 21 (click here to view)

Comments: Our caterpillars did not arrive today. Hopefully, they will come tomorrow. We're expecting rain throughout the week, so helping our little friends into their containers will be a welcome in-door activity.

Panditji was pleased with our Medha Suktam chanting today -- and boy, did that make us happy! We definitely need to practice Praatharnaa more, however. Swamiji lent us a recorder and we asked Panditji if he would record the entire chant for us. We will be playing it on our music system throughout the day so we can familiarize ourselves with the pronounciation and intonation. We will be missing Panditji for the next two days -- so, this will be an excellent way for us to continue practicing with him while he is away.

We brought the Lego Table back out today. Our youngest campers have done very well with exploring some of the other camp activities for the past 4 or 5 days. We are especially proud of their enthusiasm and determination to learn takhli spinning. We've seen them sneak off to a corner to practice spinning on their own! Tomorrow afternoon, during Shaanti Circle, will be show the children film clips of school children spinning, Mahatma Gandhi spinning, as well as the very significant Dandi March. All of the new clips are posted in our Shaanti Circle Discussion. (You can click here for the listing.)