Oct 24, 2021 - Grade 6 (Sunday AM)

Hari OM Dear Families,

Here is this week's update.

Week 5:

24th October 2021 / 9:15AM

Opening Prayers and Stotras:

Class began with opening prayers. 3 OM's and followed by Sahanavavathu,
Om shrI Ganeśaya Namaha,  shrI   Saraswatyai Namaha,  shrI   Sat Gurubhyo Namaha.

We continued to learn the Mahisasura mardini stotram, verse 4. We had two volunteer students to repeat and chant the verse. 

India -The Sacred Land :

We had two students presenting about their specific experiences with their Indian heritage. 

We learnt about the varied geographical attributes of India - states, mountains, rivers. India is a subcontinent and a peninsula and is the only country in the world after which an ocean is named. We learned about the states and union territories, the creation of states as recently as 2014 and union territories in 2019. India currently has 28 states and 8 union territories. We learned about the many rivers of India, and the reverence with which rivers are worshipped in India. One of the students who has visited the holy city of Kashi shared her moving experience of witnessing the Ganga arathi. We were also reminded of the shloka " gange ca yamune caiva" which underlines the importance given to the rivers. Some of the major mountain ranges in India are the Himalayas, Aravallis, Vindhyachal, Satpura, the Western and Eastern Ghats. We watched a short video on the top 10 mountains/ranges in India (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_mLj4c1ym4).  

Mahabharata: 

We picked up the story with the armies of the Kauravas and Pandavas arrayed for war. Arjuna, who consoles a nervous Yudhishtra before the war, gets unnerved when he stands amidst the two armies. Lord Krishna then teaches him the immortal nectar of Self-Knowledge through the Bhagavad Gita. Enlightened, Arjuna gets ready to fight. Yudhishtra, barefoot and leaving behind his weapons, goes towards the Kaurava army. Puzzled, his brothers follow him. He goes to Bhishma, Drona, Kripa and Shalya to get their blessings for victory in war. Heartened by his good conduct, they all bless him with victory, while acknowledging their valor is for Duryodhana. Krishna asks Karna to fight for the Pandavas as long as he is not fighting for the Kauravas, but he declines. Duryodhana's brother, Yuyutsu switches sides and Yudhishtra welcomes him. The war begins. On Day One, the Pandavas suffer heavy losses at the hands of Bhishma, losing Uttara Kumara. Yudhishtra is pained at this loss. On Day Two, Arjuna chooses the Krauncha vyuha and Bhishma the eagle formation. Drona and Drishtadyumna face off and Drona emerges victorious. The roles were reversed on this day and the Kaurava army suffered heavy damage at the hands of the Pandava army. On Day Three, Bhishma attacked the Pandava army with renewed vigor and used celestial weapons. Arjuna was unable to prevent him from demolishing the Pandavas' army and this infuriated Krishna. Despite promising to never raise a weapon and fight in the war, Krishna picked up a chariot wheel and proceeded towards Bhishma ostensibly to stop him from killing off the Pandava army. Seeing this form of Krishna, Bhishma smilingly welcomed him, but Arjuna begged him to come back and be his charioteer. He promised Krishna to do his utmost to prevent Bhishma from causing further damage. He managed to hold off the Kaurava assault and keep the Pandava army victorious that day. Day Four saw the slaughter of eight of Duryodhana's brothers. Distraught, at the end of the day, he went to Bhishma and lamented that the Pandavas, in spite of having a smaller army, were not only holding their own, but managing to cause serious damage to the Kaurava forces. Bhishma replied that the Pandavas had Dharma on their side and hence were strengthened. He advised Duryodhana to make peace with the Pandavas and stop the war.

Gita Time

Today we learned, verses 43 and 44 from Chapter 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ09tsR8asI

Our next class is  on October 31st. We will have regular class, followed by  Houses Inaugural Day activities, so please remind the children to wear House colors - this year it is red, since we are Durga's Daredevils!

Required Materials:
My Prayers book,

Balavihar Handbook-

https://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/balavihar/parents-corner/handbook

Please join the class WhatsApp group if you have not already-https://chat.whatsapp.com/KBt5hJbHoobIzFI1M5cIXx

Please feel free to reach out in case you have any questions.

Hari OM
Abhirami Shrinivas and Vidhya Aiyer

Grade 6 Sunday AM