Air(2)

“Dear children! We shall begin with a game. You have to close your nose and mouth with your hands. Who can sit for a maximum time?” (Analyse the feelings of the children)

“Now can you say without which Element we cannot stay even for a moment? Yes, that is air. If we are thirsty, but we don’t have water, we can live for a few days. If we are hungry, but we don’t have food, still we can live for a few more days. But without air, we cannot imagine life”.

• Who has created this air? Any scientist, Doctor or Engineer? No, it is God himself, who has created the AIR out of love for us.
• Do we pay any tax for using air? We pay bills for electricity, for water in towns. But for air, nothing. It is absolutely free– gifted by God. So we must be thankful to God for His divine grace on all of us.”

Prayer:

Come let us pray to Vayu Deva :

“Namaste Vayo, Twameva Pratyaksham Brahmaasi,
Twaameva pratyaksham Brahma Vadishyami
Rutam Vadishyami, Satyam Vadishyami”
Om Shanthi: Shanthi: Shanthi: (Vedic Prayer)

Oh Lord of the Air! Truth Supreme,
We bow to you Lord divine.
Bless us with great strength,
Intellect and the Balanced Breath.

Story:

Do you know how Hanuman became powerful? I will tell you today about that. But before that can you tell me who the father of Hanuman is? Yes, Vayu Deva.

Narrate the incident how after his birth Hanuman, feeling hungry, jumped to eat the rising sun thinking that it was a red ripe fruit. He swallowed the sun and so the universe was in darkness. The Devas requested him to release the Sun from his mouth. This proposal was not accepted by little Hanuman. Indra was angry, attacked the newly born baby with his ‘Vajra’ by which the backbone of the baby Hanuman got fractured into pieces. Knowing all this Vayu Deva became angry and withdrew himself from the Universe and stopped flowing. Now what do you see? All creatures started burning. Temperature started rising everywhere. Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara and Devas ran to Vayu Deva and prayed to save the creation. Vayu deva asked all to give their power to his son and to make him all powerful. With the blessings of all Divine Powers, the baby had great strength, intellect and intuition. Since then he is known as Hanuman.

Questions:

1. What happened when Vayu Deva stopped blowing?
2. What would happen if there is no air?
3. Can fishes/water animals live? (No they also breath air dissolved in water)
4. Can trees live without air? (No, they also breath through their leaves)

Circle Game:

There will be six circles named Earth, Water, Fire, Jungle, Birds and Vacuum. Six children will move around with music. When music stops, children have to stand in any of the circles. Depending upon the circle in which they are, following action is to be done by them.

Earth– A Dancing Man;

Water– Swimming fish;

Birds– Flying Bird;

Jungle– Swinging Tree;

Fire– Burning fire;

Vacuum– Dead body

The child in the vacuum circle will be out of the game. (Now ask a few questions to point out the attributes to AIR)

• Can you see Air?
  No, it is formless.
• Can you taste Air?
  No, it is tasteless.
• Can you smell Air?
  No, it carries smell of any object or Gas it comes across.
• Do you hear the sound of Air?
  Yes, it creates sound based on the speed.
• Can you touch Air?
  Yes, we feel the soothing touch of air.

How do you feel when you move morning and evening in the cool breeze? We feel fresh, energetic and happy. Thus, air has the attributes of sound and touch.

Story:

There was a little bird named Dolly. With her strong wings, Dolly planned for a journey to cover the entire world, to see new places and the beautiful nature. Dolly started early morning. Fresh air was blowing throughout. Happily and gladly she went on flying, singing songs and enjoying the beautiful nature trees, flowers, fruits all around. On the way she ate fruits from trees, drank pure water from rivers, took a little rest on branches and again started her journey. She covered several miles.

At one moment, she suffered from a breathing problem. Feeling very weak, she started coming down. Her eyes started burning. She found a canal full of dirty water. In pain, failing to find any other source, she washed her eyes in that dirty water. Then, she looked for a tree to take rest. After a long search, she found a small tree. She wanted to lie down for a moment. After taking some rest, she wondered why this happened. Where am I? There were buildings around, no trees. She saw a large factory giving spreading heavy smoke in the surroundings. She was scared to see hundreds of vehicles moving on the road expelling smoke.

Little Dolly was ashamed of looking at the demonic nature of humans in destroying the purity of God-gifted air. She abandoned her plan to journey around the world. She turned back to her village with a heavy heart. She called her friends. They talked about the importance of plantation, control of exit of gases in the atmosphere, importance of pure air on the body and mind. They also collected packets of seeds of a variety of trees.

Then they all flew to the town. They dropped the seeds all over the town. They were happy that they had done their duty. After one year, Dolly once again came to see the town. She was very happy to see that the trees were swinging with cool breeze all around, no eyes burning, no breath choking. She happily danced and sang –

“Fresh Air, Healthy Air, Pure Air, Divine Power”

Questions:

We can ask a few questions to know what they have understood

1. What happens if air is polluted? (Temperature increases)
2. What is the cause of air pollution? (Gases from factory and vehicles, deforestation)
3. How to control air pollution? (Planting trees, control of gases exit to atmosphere)
4. What is the importance of pure Air? (Gives strength, makes us fresh)

Visualisation:

‘Now be ready to go on a tour. Where will we go? Let’s go to a park full of green grass. Beautiful flowers are all around spreading fragrance. Air which is fresh and cool, touches our body. It makes us fresh. So let us go. Close your eyes. Sit straight. Feel that it is early morning’
Recite Three Omkars. (Silence for a while. Then Guru will speak slowly)

‘Dear children, stand up slowly. Be in the queue. Silently form a line. Look at the sun. How beautiful is the rising sun! Oh! what a cool air. It is touching our whole body. Ah! What peace. Please wait. The bus is coming. Let it go. Oh! dirty smoke. Close your nose. This gas is very bad for our health. OK, now cross the road.

‘Look at the beautiful park. Go inside the park in a line. What a pleasant breeze! Go and run around, inside the park (Pause for a while). Now you are feeling hot and you are sweating. Now take rest under the tree. How do you feel? Now, you are enjoying the cool air once again. It is soaking all your sweat. Look at the trees. How they swing happily with the rhythm of the air. Oh! What a sweet fragrance! Air is bringing the sweet smell from the flowers to us.

Now it is time to go back. Thank the plants, flowers, sun. Give your special thanks to the air. Move slowly. Now we are at the doorstep of our classroom. Take off your shoes. Come inside slowly. Sit down at your place. Relax. (Pause for a while)

Now we will recite “Om Shanthi: Shanthi: Shanthi:”