Hari OM Dear Families,
Here is this week's update. Week 10:
12th December 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 9. We had two volunteer students to repeat and chant the verse.
Game time- We played a mahabharata kahoot game that covered questions from Virata parva until Bhishma parva.
Mahabharata - Today we saw Karna visiting Bhishma in a bed of arrows, paying his respects. Bhishma spoke well of him and mentioned that he knew well that Karna was Kunti's son and that he should fight with the Pandavas. Karna said that he could not desert Duryodhana and he would fight for him. This is the end of Bhishma parva.Sanjaya hastened to Hastinapura to narrate the events of the war and the fall of Bhishma to Dhritarashtra. Day 11 marked the start of Drona parva. Drona was appointed the next commander in chief of the Kaurava army. Duryodhana asked him to capture Yudhishtra and thereby end the war. Drona naively thought Duryodhana was trying to not kill or harm the Pandavas, but Duryodhana explained that he simply intended to capture Yudhishtra so he can defeat him again in a dice game and regain the kingdom. The Acharya made every attempt to capture Yudhishtra, but was thwarted by Arjuna. At this time to keep Arjuna away, the Trigarta brothers challenged Arjuna. Drupada's son Satyajit tried to save Yudhisthira but Drona killed Satyajit. At the end of that day, Duryodhana was unhappy and totally disappointed that Yudhisthira was not captured.
On Day 12, the Trigarta kings, headed by Susharma challenge Arjuna, having vowed to fight till death, taking the samasaptaka oath. Dronacharya and the others try to get closer to where Yudhisthira was but were not able to capture him as Bhima was protecting him. As Bhima was unstoppable in reducing the mighty Kaurava army to its weakest, Duryodhana sent the elderly but fierce warrior Bhagadatta to fight Bhima. He was so old and had droopy eyelids, a silk piece of cloth supported the eyelids to keep them covering his face. He rode a fearsome elephant called Supratika and together they stopped Bhima from further damaging the Kaurava army. Bhima got terribly wounded and hearing this Arjuna, stopped Susarma and army temporarily and rushed to help Bhima. He carefully aimed a poisonous arrow at Supratika and paralysed the elephant. Bhagadatta aimed the Vaishnavastra on Arjuna but Krishna took it and the astra turned into a garland on the Lord. Arjuna then killed Bhagadatta and his elephant Supratika.
The next day, Day 13 - The Trigarta kings challenge Arjuna and draw him away from the main battle. Dronacharya planned for the Chakravyuha or Padma vyuha. In Arjuna's absence, Abhimanyu was the only warrior on the Pandavas' side who knew how to penetrate the vyuha. The Pandavas plan to follow Abhimanyu to enter the vyuha. Jayatradha king of Sindu, Husband of Dushala the only Kaurava princess, blocks the opening created by Abhimanyu and closes the chakra vyuha stopping the rest of the Pandava brothers from their entry into the vyuha. Abhimanyu, the young boy of just 17 years, faced the entire Kaurava army, as a single person.
Pictures of Chakravyuham
India the Sacred land - We saw the Guru parampara system, called shortly as GPS for life.
The Destination of the "goal of life" is liberation and happiness forever. GPS directs us to reach the destination and points out how to live our daily lives. *To remember "acharya devo bhava"- Guru gives us guidance and teach us the "attitude of the gratitude" and values enshrined in the scriptures.
*To attain the state of "Satchitanad"
*The framework of gratitude includes-
Deva-RNa- gratitude to the Gods, shown by spiritual practices, prayers
Rsi RNa- to get soaked in wisdom,gain knowledge about Self and the Universe;
Pitr-RNa- respecting our ancestors and following the traditions handed down,
NR -RNa- debt to society, to be returned by being socially helpful and ready to serve,
Bhuta-RNa- Being kind to animals, nurturing nature and causing no or minimum pollution in nature.
We watched our Swamiji's message (from his 75th birthday celebrations) - it was an inspiring message to start a dedicated and focused spiritual sadhana, for however little time to start with.
We concluded the class with Arathi and Pledge.
Our next class is on December 19th
Please feel free to reach out in case you have any questions. Hari OM
Abhirami Shrinivas and Vidhya Aiyer
Grade 6 Sunday AM