October 13 & 20 - sarasvati pūja (सरस्वति पूज)

In the last two classes we tried to understand the procedure of pUja by doing worshipping goddess sarasvati in the class, being navaratri days, we felt it is the right time to seek the blessings of devi.

Puja Vidhi - 16 steps to performing a Puja

After our Morning Prayers and Meditation, the 5^th graders learnt an important aspect of our Hindu Culture - Puja Vidhi or 16 steps in doing Puja. Though kids must have witnessed Pujas being performed at home or at a temple, most often they are unaware of the “vidhi” or what the priests are doing to the idols. We hope that by explaining the various steps that are involved in a puja, they will better understand the procedure.

16 steps in a Puja (or “Shodasha Upachara”)

Today we performed puja to Goddess Saraswati - the Goddess of Learning. The kids were given some materials that are required for a simple Puja - such as picture of Goddess Saraswati, a seat, flowers etc. As our Swamiji says, performing a puja to the Goddess is similar to how we welcome and treat a guest at home. We start the puja after having a bath and wearing clean clothes. Then with a calm and focused mind we do the following:

1 - Avahanam - Welcoming the Goddess to our home

2-Asanam - Offering a Seat to the Goddess

3 - Padyam - Offering Water to wash the feet

4 - Arghyam - Offering Water to wash the hands

5 - Acamaniyam - Offering Water to drink

6 - Snanam - The Goddess is bathed in Water

7 - Panchamrutham - Offering a mixture of 5 “nectars” (in place of  5 yajnas )

8 - Vastram - Offering new clothes

9 - kumkumamam - Offering of  kumkumam

10 - Gandham - Offering of sandalwood paste

11 - Akshatah - Offering of rice grains

12 - Pushpam - Offering of flowers

13 - Dhoopam - Offering of incense

14 - Deepam - Showing a lighted lamp to the Gooddess

15 - Naivedyam - Offering food that has been specially cooked

16 - Arati - Conclude with the Arati

After the Puja is completed , we ask the Goddess to forgive us if we have missed out / or have mistaken in any of the above steps, by reciting the kshamaa prardhana.

October 6th,2013 - Goddess Durga

We started the class with meditiation & opening praryers. Then we tried to understanding the last stanzaa of guru stotram. That lead to discussion about pujya gurudev Swami Chinmayananda & guruji Swami Tejomayananda. Then we continued  our learning about Ganesha & bid farewell to the physical form of Ganesha by chanting

"Ganapati bappa morya, pudcha varsha loukariya"

Children were then asked to talk about the hindu festival happening currently - "navaratri".  We learnt that दुर्गा (durgā)  means  " दुर्गति हरिणि   (durgati hariṇi) - the remover of bad qualities within us. Kids looked at Goddess Durga picture and identified that she rides a tiger, holds various weapons. We learnt that the tiger stands for our ego, and when we tame the ego, our true power comes out.

 

Then we learnt about one of the forms of Durga, Mother Kaali, how the skull garland is a representation of all the bad values being killed. Each kid was given a paper skull, on the back of which they wrote the bad values they want to get rid of. Then we made a garland of it and decorated it to mother Kaali, and prayed with the following prayer to give us the strength to get rid of the bad values

सर्वमंगल मांगल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थ साधिके।
शरण्ये त्र्यंबके गौरि नारायणि नमोस्तु ते॥
sarvamaṁgala māṁgalye śive sarvārtha sādhike |
śaraṇye tryaṁbake gauri nārāyaṇi namostu te || 

September 29, 2013 - gaṇeśa

Hari Om,
We started with chanting OM three times, and continued with meditation, and the opening prayers.
All the kids finished their word search from last week, and took turns to read the twelve names in the word search. In the process the kids learnt the need for transliteration, while writing Sanskrit alphabets (49) in English, which has only 26 alphabets.

एकदन्त गजकर्ण गजानन गणपति गणेश लम्बोदर महेश्वरपुत्र मोदकहस्त पार्वतिपुत्र फालचन्द्र विघ्नराज विघ्नेश्वर

ekadanta gajakarṇa gajānana gaṇapati gaṇeśa lambodara maheśvaraputra modakahasta pārvatiputra phālacandra vighnarāja vighneśvara

We reviewed the symbolism of Ganesha from the last class. Couple of kids questioned how a broken tusk can represent "discard bad & retain good"? Will continue this aspect in next class.
Kids made a small origami booklet about the Ganesha symbolism, and filled in the blanks. After that they took turns to read out each page. The whole class chanted the Ganesha prayer in the booklet.

वक्रतुन्ड महाकाय  सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ।
निर्विघ्नम् कुरु मे देव  सर्व कार्येशु सर्वदा॥
vakratunḍa mahākāya  sūryakoṭi samaprabha |
nirvighnam kuru me deva  sarva kāryeśu sarvadā ||

We heard the "Ganesha pancharatnam" audio of Mrs. M.S. Subbalakshmi  one more time. Some of the musically inclined kids enjoyed the audio, and tried to identify the raga of the song. We learnt that Sri Adi Sankaracharya wrote the "Ganesha pancharatnam", and a lot of other beautiful mellifluous prayers.

Then we chanted "saṁkaṭanāśana gaṇeśa stotraṁ" on the last page in prayer booklet; most of the kids already knew this from the previous balavihar classes. We concluded the class with "पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं....pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ" followed by pledge.