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:
Storytime with Swamiji: Swamiji showed a video on Vamana.
Art Projects: Finished sewing the felt torans.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: After our morning prayers, we tried our concentration game for 4 minutes. We were able to sit quietly and silently for 4 minutes, but our focus on the pebble count was off. So, tomorrow we will do 4 minutes again and aim for 100% accuracy!
Today during our afternoon circle time, we viewed three short (very short) films of Mahatma Gandhi. One was of school children (ca. 1936) spinning on the book charkha and takhli, (click here to view) one was of Gandhiji spinning on a book charkha (click here to view) on a ship en route to England, and one was of the Dandi March (click here to view.) Afterwards, we talked a few minutes about the significance of the Dandi March and how this demonstration inspired the world.
Also, we spent a few minutes and talked about the word "Shaanti." In the book "Why do we?" (published by Chinmaya Mission Publications), there is a passage that explains why we chant "Shaanti, Shaanti, Shaanti" (three times) at the end of our prayers. We learned that the first Shaanti is for the unseen forces out of our control, (i.e., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes;) the second Shaanti is for the forces in our control (i.e. crime, theft, etc.) and the third Shaanti is for the forces in us (i.e., diseases, thoughts, feelings, etc.). This is also the reason why the first shaanti is loudest, the second is softer, and the third is softest. We were pretty jazzed and excited to understand this! We have a feeling that this book will be a popular reading over the next few days :-)
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: July 22 (click here to view)
Comments: First we want to wish our very good friend, Nihal, a very Happy Birthday today! He is now 10 years old, and we were very honored that he chose to celebrate this special day with us. Thanks for making the trip in, Nihal -- and thanks for the yummy treats!!
Our caterpillars arrived safely and are resting peacefully in their new little homes. A group of our campers spent the afternoon transplating them and making sure that they had lots of food to munch on over the next week or so.
We had a great surprise today. Bramacharya Ericji is visiting with us for a day or two. Today he showed and taught us a very cool sailor knot -- the Bowline Knot (click here for the youtube how-to-video of the knot.) We spent a good half hour practicing our knots -- until we were sure we got them right! Some of the children didn't want to put the ropes down! We are definitely going to continue to practice our knotmaking for the rest of the week. It was a lot of fun -- and a great challenge for many of us. Big, big thanks Ericji!!
