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!
ॐ
