Oct 24, 2021 - Grade 7 (Sunday AM)

After we concluded our opening prayers, our class was divided into two part - narration of the Ramayana and a discussion on symbolism in Hinduism,

1. Ramayana narration:

After the deliverance of Ahalya of her curse, Rama proceeds to Mithila with Laxmana under the guidance of Sage Vishwamitra. They are greeted with reverance by Rajarishi Janaka himself at his ashrama in the outskirts of the city and a discussion on the history of Sage Vishwamitra begins. The young princes learn how Sage Vishwamitra was a King by name Kaushika who visited sage Vashishta and was overcome with greed for the divine cow Kamadhenu. After his entire army was vanquished by the divine cow, Kaushika meditated on Lord Shiva and was given divine Astras to use. Sage Vashishta destoyed them all with his divine staff and seeing his power, Kaushika decided that he wanted to become like him. After intense penance to Lord Brahma he was given the title of Rajarishi. He then helped Trishanku, a King who wanted to enter heaven in his physical form ascend to heaven. However Indra and the other Gods push Trishanku back down and in anger, Vishwamitra creates a new heaven for Trishanku between Indraloka and earth. He begins to create the stars, Rishis and devas. Indra and the other Gods beg him for fogiveness and he stops at that point. He also realizes that he has depleted all his divine energy in this process and returns to penance again. These were the couple of stories on Vishwamitra that we shared. Rama finally sees the divine bow of Shiva and is able to pick it up and he breaks it as he tries to string it. As Janaka has promised to marry his daughter to anyone who manages to lift and string the bow, the talks on Sita and Rama's marriage begin. 

We then proceeded to discuss symbolish in Hinduism. Below is a summay on that discussion:

2.Symbolism discussion:

This week our topic in the discussion thread was symbolism. We had previously discussed Rāma as the 'Ideal Purusha', effectively defining Rāma's actions and values as  an ideal. To further the topic, we spoke of how doing Japa on the Lord, or saying Dhyāna slokas like 'Buddhir Balam…' could give us the qualities embodied by Hanuman.

We took the example of Ganesha, whose entire being is symbolic - from the gross to the subtle. For example, the elephant trunk that can pick up a log of wood with ease, can also pluck a blade of grass. The large ears which can hear sounds from afar can also listen to the smallest of sounds.

Understanding value of sravanam and mananam and the need to emulate these qualities was discussed.

An important question was asked this week, Is Hinduism a Polytheistic religion. This will be one of our discussions in the upcoming class