Week 2: Day 2!

Hari Om!

The day started off with chanting again and continued with Yoga.

The Balarama and Keshava learned about the Mookambika temple. Vineeth, our Balarama class friend, said, "The Mookambika temple is located in the town of Kollur in Bangalore. Mookambika is an avatar of Parvati. The story starts like this: Once there was an asura. He was trying to get eternal power by praying to Shiva. He was praying to Shiva because Shiva is the easiest to please. When Parvati heard his prayers she knew he was up to no good. So she asked Saraswati, the Goddess of Speech, to help her. So Saraswati made the asura mute. Now he is called Mukasura, to see that he couldn't talk. He teased some Yogis in the Forest. When Parvati saw this, she took the form of Mookambika and slayed him. Shri Adi Shankaracharya installed the idol of Mookambika."

We ended the day with Arts and Crafts with Rupal Auntie! The children painted various sun and moon magnets :D

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Week 2: Day 1!

Hari Om!

We welcomed the new week by continuing the chanting of the Ganesha Atharva Shirsham with Nirmala and Puskhala Auntie! We learned that Ganesha has big ears so that he can listen to our prayers as well as to all the good things in the world.

Yoga time included some new poses including the boat pose (first picture below) and Shayanasana (reclining pose - just like Lord Ranganatha).

In the classes, the kids learned about the Udupi Sri Krishna Temple in the state of Karnataka. Hamsini, our friend from the Keshava class, shares with us the story of Kanakadasa in association with the Sri Krishna Temple.

Our friend Nihal, from the Balarama class, writes: "On Monday we had a really awesome lesson. It was about the Udupi Sri Krishna Temple. This temple was located in the state of Karnataka and built by the sage Madhavacharya. In the temple there was an idol of Muthu (little) Krishna. We also learned about the caste system. At the top are the Brahmans (scholars) and the Kshatriyas (warriors). At the bottom are the Vaishas (merchants), Shudras (workers) and the untouchables. There is a story that happened at this very temple. A swamiji named Kanakadasa approched the temple and he wanted to pray to Muthu Krishna. The priests however told him that he could not step in the temple as Kanakadasa was a Shudra which was a low caste. Kanakadasa then went to the western wall of the temple. He imagined the idol's picture in his mind. That way he could still chant his mantras and pray. It is said that Krishna turned around from the East to the West and blasted the wall that way the sage could make direct contact to his idol. In the present time they buillt back the wall and left a window called Kanakanakindi which means Kanaka's window which is the only way to give offerings to Krishna. Hari Om."

In the afternoon, our friends made decoupage boxes with Rupal Auntie!

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Week 1: Day 5!

Hari Om!

We welcomed the last day of the week with chanting with Nirmala Auntie and yoga with Ramanathan Mama!

The Balarama and Keshava classes continued the day by talking about the Palani Temple - a shrine dedicated to Lord Muruga that was constructed on top of a hill.

Later on in the day - the kids had Satsang with Swamiji where they asked him a variety of questions and Swamiji shared stories with the children.

We finished off the day by making bracelets with Rupal Auntie!

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Week 1: Day 4!

Hari Om!

We started off Thursday with chanting with Nirmala Auntie again - yoga came after that!

The Keshava and Balarama groups both learned about the Arunachaleswar temple. Located in Tiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu, this temple features Annamalaiyar or Arunachaleswar (a form of Lord Shiva) and his consort Unnamalaiyaal (a form of Goddess Parvati). It is one of the "Pancha Bootha Sthalams" - which are five temples across Tamil Nadu that represent the five elements of nature (Fire, Water, Earth, Sky, Wind). The Arunachaleswar Temple represents the element of Fire - this is in accordance with the story of how Lord Shiva once took the form of an endless fire lingam.

Our friend, Hari, shares with us a variation of the story and explains why Brahma temples are so rare.

In the afternoon, our friends made and decorated door hangers with Rupal Aunti.

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Week 1: Day 3!

Hari Om!

Nirmala Auntie started our day off again, continuing to teach us the Ganesha Atharva Shirsham. She shared with us today that this stotram, a vedic chant, has origins prior to even the Puranic period - which was the time period of Rama and Krishna.

During Yoga time, our friends learned a lot of new Yoga poses including the Lion Pose and the Dancer's Pose.

The younger children - the Keshava class - learned about the Srirangam Temple. Our friend Abhiram shares what he learned:

The Balarama class - the older children - learned about the Brahadeeshwara Temple today. Aditi shares what she learned about this Shiva Temple.

Rupal Auntie made hanging decorations with our friends to finish up our day!

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Week 1: Day 2!

Hari Om!

We started off our second day at summer camp with chanting the Ganesha Atharva Shirsham with Nirmala Aunti again - we learned the Shanti Mantra, the initial portion of the stotram, and the first two verses. We learned that we must not chant the stotram mechanically, that we must concentrate while doing Vedic Chanting because of the numerous differences in the intonation of the words.

Next on our schedule was Yoga time!

We ended Yoga by spending a few minutes in the relaxing Shavasan pose (also known as the "Dead Man's Pose").

In their classes, the older and younger children learned about the Srirangam and Brahadeeshwar Temples, respectively. The Srirangam Temple, often said to be the largest functional Hindu Temple, located in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu contains the idol of Lord Ranganatha, the reclining form of Lord Vishnu. Aneesha said of the deity in the Srirangam Temple: "The Ranganatha is a very famous idol that got stolen. The idol’s eyes were made of diamonds. The idol has great value and that’s why the people stole the famous idol."

The Brahadeeshwar Temple, in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, contains a huge Shiva Linga - the priests require a ladder to do Abhishekam for this Linga. Our friend, Aryaman said: "It was made by a King and it was really big and the whole thing was made out of granite - it was a ton of pounds! The Shiva Linga was really big - almost like 20 feet tall."

In the afternoon, the kids painted and decorated picture frames with Rupal Auntie!

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Welcome to 2011 Summer Camp!

Hari Om!

With Guruji's and Swamiji's blessings, and with chants of Om.... Om... Om.... we welcomed the first day of Summer Camp for this year. We were very excited and happy to see many returning faces and a number of new faces as well!

We began the day by learning to chant the Ganesha Atharva Shirsham with Nirmala Auntie. Unlike the Kanakadhara Storam, written by Adi Shankaracharya, that we learned last year, the Ganesha Atharva Shirsham has no author - it is a vedic chant that was passed down orally over the years.

We then took some time to get to know each other as the Summer Camp Family. Yoga was next on our schedule followed by the first introductory class.

The theme for this year's camp is "Temples of India" - and the younger and older children started off by talking a little bit about why we visit a temple. God is everywhere, so why is there the need to visit a temple to see Him? Our friend Sahana explains, "We need to go to the temple because we can see God in statue form. You can concentrate on God more because nothing can distract you. It's easier to be in touch with God. Sometimes when you're at home sometimes there's TV or friends to distract you but that's not there at the temple."

The Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple was the first temple we explored. Srihari explains the story behind the deities of the Meenakshi Amman Temple: "The Meenakshi Amman temple was built in the 1300s. There was a King and a Queen and they didn't have any children. They prayed to get a daughter and a girl appeared from the fire of a yagna. The girl already knew how to talk and do other things like a regular three-year-old. She was a warrior and when she grew up she wanted to marry someone who was as strong as her. She went to every Kingdom and every King that wasn't as strong as her, she defeated them. Then she came to Shiva's Kingdom, Kailash, and she couldn't kill Shiva because he was as strong as her, so she married him. She was a warrior that had fish eyes - "meen" means fish and "aksh" means eyes. The Gods in the Meenakshi Amman temple are this Shiva and Meenakshi."

We then took a break for lunch and playtime. Arts and Crafts with Rupal Auntie came next! Our friend, Radhika said "We made envelopes with a Ganesha on it - we made two of them. We made a letter to Swamiji and then to our parents."

We ended our day with closing prayers - we look forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week!

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Picutres from Camp 2011- Week#1

CMTCSummerCamp2011_Wk#1

CMTC Summer Camp

Welcome to Chinmaya Vrindavan - Summer Camp 2011 Temples of India
Click to volunteer.	Click to register.
For more information - please check out the blog: 2011 CMTC summer camp (click here now).
Summer Camp 2011 Dates Week 1 - June 20 - June 24 Week 2 - June 27 - July 1 Week 3 - July 5 - July 8 (no camp July 4th) Week 4 - July 11 - July 15 Week 5 - July 18 - July 22 Week 6 - July 25 - July 29 Daily Schedule 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM - Weekdays 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM - EDP available EDP = Early drop-off and late pick-up.	Weekly Camp Costs Camp Tuition (all costs per week) ♦ $170 first child per family ♦ $120 each additional sibling Early Drop-off or Late Pick-up (EDP) ♦ $25 first child per family ♦ $15 each additional sibling Payments ♦ $25 deposit per week per camper ♦ $20 discount per week per family (when paid in full by June 5, 2011)