Hari Om!
Here is last week's class update.
Stotram: We chanted the devI dhyAna shloka and learnt the 4th verse of the Mahishasuramardini stotram.
India, Sacred Land: We learned about some traditional games of India.
Paramapatham- the Moksapatha, meaning the path to salvation. The game of snakes and ladder (the chutes and ladder) The good path of living has harder moral values of life and one has to be very vigilant while taking; while the other path is easy, implying it is easy to fall prey to wrong values. "Live by the moral values" is the takeaway from the game. The squares of virtue (climbing the ladder) are Faith, reliability, generosity, knowledge, asceticism.
The snakes which eat up are squares-disobedience, vulgarity, theft, lying, drunkenness, debt, rage, greed, pride and lust.
Why are games played?
1. Fun activity/ pass time / Pleasure.
2. Reflects Tradition
3. Growth of a child
Games teach Leadership, how to win and lose with dignity, management skills, team building (team work), provide great exercise.
Games originated and appreciated worldwide- Chess, snakes and ladders, kalari, polo, playing cards.
Indian origin games not transmitted outside India- Kabaddi, khokho, marbles (goli), malkhamb, gillidhanda, 5 or 7 stones, dayakattam, pallankuzhi. We saw a few sequences from the videos, links given below.
Class Stage performance: Our class performance is on March 3rd - please save the date. We spent some productive time discussing play ideas- will post more details in our class WhatsApp group.
Bhagavad Gita: We learnt up to verse 11 this week. Please have the children chant and practice at home.
Regards
Abhirami Shrinivas and Keerthi Kobla
