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 (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 3)
• Gayanti Mantra (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 5)
• Medha Sukhtam (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)
• Mantra Pushpam (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 170)
Bhajans:
Storytime: We watched Vishnu Puran with Swamiji today. We have started the avataara of Lord Ram.
Art Projects: Continued working on the clay whistles. Some children spent the day making rakhis, others worked on the bead looms.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: The aunties can't believe it -- the children sat very still for FIVE whole minutes and did an accurate pebble count! Man, oh man, the pressure is now on for our campers -- they are going to attempt six minutes in the morning. As of now, Week 7 is the winner. Good going kids!!!
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: August 5 (click here to view)
Comments: This morning was a bit topsy turvy for us -- we began our morning sessions in the back building (due to a puja in the ashram.) Many thanks to the parents and campers for being flexible and good spirited about our slight change in the morning program :-)
We were very happy to see our Swamiji back! The children greeted him at the door and chanted "Na Karmanaa." The aunties were extremely proud of all the kids -- they did a superb job with their chanting. (And kids, we do believe that Panditji's airplane shook while we chanted :-)
Today was probably one of the hottest and stickiest days we've experienced yet. Fortunately, the air conditioning in the satsang area keeps us extremely comfortable throughout the day. During the morning sessions we use the area for our disciplined activities (prayers, chanting, yoga, etc.) and in the afternoon we convert the space into an art studio and movie theatre. Today, for those children who wanted to watch a film, we put on "Jungle Book Two" (complete with buiscuits and chips.) Tomorrow afternoon, we will do a showing of some really cool animations that we have linked up on our blog -- most likely the ones that are inspired by Warli Art (Maharashtran region of India.) We'll see what our camper polls say during morning circle time.
Sheila Auntie came today and taught us a new bhajan, in addition to singing all the others she has taught. The children are doing very nicely with learning these songs -- and, in fact, they have actually memorized some of them already! We shared with Sheila Auntie that we sang the song she wrote about Gurudev ("Swami Chinmayananda) during our circle time on August 3rd (Gurudev's MahaSamadhi.) Some of the aunties can't wait to introduce this very beautiful song in the Balavihar classes this fall!
