Hari Om Parents,
Below is a recap of what we did during today's class. As always, we began our class with 3 OMs and the following shlokas.
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2."Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Gurur Brahma" (page 60 in My Prayers book)
8. "Brahmarpanam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
9. "Krishnaya Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book)
10. "Sri Rama Rama" (page 129 in My Prayers book)
11. "Budhir Balam" (page 152 in My Prayers book)
12. "Kara Charana" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
Today's lesson : Krishna Everywhere
Aghasura vadham
One day Krishna wakes up early in the morning, and he desires to go to the forest for a picnic. He plays the flute, which wakes up all the Gopas. They come out of the house, and their calves follow them. They are all very excited and in high spirits as they make their way to the forest.
They are having a lot of fun, teasing each other, racing, laughing and singing.
On the way, waiting for them, is the demon, Agha. Aghasura is the younger brother of Putana and Bakasura. He is waiting to kill Krishna and avenge the death of his siblings. He is in the form of a huge and very long snake. He opens his mouth so wide that the lower jaw is on the earth, while the upper jaw touches the clouds. He lays still, and is waiting for the gopas to come closer. The gopas see this huge structure, but are not sure what it actually is. They playfully enter the huge mouth. They were not afraid as they were with Krishna, and knew he would protect them, no matter what. Krishna knows that this is a deathtrap. He goes and stands right in Aghasura's throat, preventing him from breathing. Soon, Aghasura chokes and dies. All the Gopas safely come out of the giant's body. The devas sing and praise Krishna as yet another evil plan of Kamsa fails.
Brahmaji's moha bhanga
After the death of Aghasura, Krishna and the Gopas go to the River Yamuna. They are all hungry and tired. They all sit down to eat. As they are sitting and starting to eat, the calves stray away along the riverside. By the time the gopas realized, the calves had all gone. As they are getting worried, Krishna goes in search of the calves.
Lord Brahma had witnessed the strength of Krishna before and he had this desire to experience it once more by himself. So he hides all the calves in a cave. Krishna searches everyone, and not finding the calves, returns to the riverside and now all the Gopas are also gone. Krishna meditates deeply and realizes that it was all Brahmaji's trick to test his divinity. He smiles and decides that he would please Lord Brahma and at the same time, give the experience of infinite bliss to all the missing gopa's mothers. Krishna multiplies himself and assumes the exact forms of the gopas and their calves.That evening all the Krishna-gopas and Krishna-calves go back to their home, just the way they left in the morning. The moms come running out to receive them with overwhelming love and the cows too showed extra special tenderness. No one could figure out the source of this extra, overflowing love and bliss, but they reveled in it just the same. The Lord, who is the essence of all beings, thus received the love of so many human and animal mothers. Nobody noticed any change, except that the mothers had started loving their boys a LOT more. Krishna, the Krishna-gopas and the Krishna-calves went to the forest every morning as usual for almost a year!
One day the cows were grazing on the summit of Mt.Govardhana, they felt a tremendous upsurge of love for their calves. Balarama was watching and thought, "Never have I seen the cows display such great love towards their calves. Even the mothers' love for the gopas has become so much more than it ever was.""These calves and their keepers have all started looking like You, Krishna. What is this new mystery?"Krishna then explained what happened.
Brahmaji was curious to see how Krishna had handled this tricky situation. He was puzzled to see TWO sets of gopas and their calves!!! Brahmaji's maya disappeared in the overpowering maya of Krishna. Brahmaji had been beaten at his own game! Everything went back to normal and no one realized the year they missed!
Tale : The Silly TurtleA happy crane couple and an unhappy turtle lived harmoniously in a self-sufficient pond. The turtle always wanted to see the outside world and was fascinated by the cranes' ability to fly. One day, the turtle begged the cranes to take him on a flight and drop him off in a different pond. The cranes agreed, and they held a stick across their beaks and the turtle clung to the skick in the middle. The turtle was so excited that he wanted to tell everyone in the world that he was flying. When he saw some kids playing he excitedly screamed out to them. By doing this, the turtle lost grip of the stick and fell all the way down. Eagerness to show off, got the turtle in big trouble, similar to what happened to Brahmaji!
I am huge, scary and I slither
People still like to keep me as a pet
I may not have table manners, but I am famous for my unique eating habits as well as style.
Who Am I?
- A python is content with any food that comes it's way
- It does not fuss over the food, whether it is big, or small.
- A python never goes out of its way to get food for itself.
- It never makes a special attempt to satisfy its hunger.
- Python eats occasionally !
- The python does not grieve if it does not get food everyday.
- It waits patiently even if it has to starve for several days.
To be satisfied with what we get and not to go in pursuit of worldly things.
It's good to be ambitious, but not greedy. We have to learn to be satisfied with what we get due to our prarabdha, or destiny.
We have to be thankful for the food we have and not fuss over it. We should try to remember that there are many many people in the world who do not have anything to eat. We have to thank God for what he has given us and be happy.
One day he saw a Yogi, who was continuously chanting the Lord's name. The rabbit asked him what's the use of chanting when God does not give anything. The Yogi asked the rabbit what he wanted. The rabbit thought for a while and told him that he would be happier living on the clouds. With God's help, the Yogi placed the rabbit on the clouds. In the beginning, the rabbit was too busy making himself comfortable.
Then when he looked down he saw the beautiful earth.
He looked at the clouds and thought "they are so misty and soft… I can't even run"
He was missing the carrots he used to eat. Soon, he started hating the place. The rabbit shouted for Yogiji's help. He did not appear.
He started meditating "Hari Bola, Hari Bola"
The Kind Lord sent the Yogi to help the rabbit get back to the earth.
The rabbit learnt his lesson - God knows the best- Be content with what he gives you....like the python.
We then discussed two more concepts :
Who is poor ?
John D Rockafeller was one of the richest men in America, who also gave a lot of money to charity. He always said "Earn plenty honestly, and use it for people" When someone asked him who is poor..he answered " A poor person is one who has nothing, but money"
A person who has money, but no kindness, love or compassion is POOR.
Who is wealthy ?
One day a rich man takes his young son to a village to show how people live there and worked on farms. After they return, he asked his son what he felt. The son replied -
We have one dog, they have four
We have a pool that reaches half of our garden, they have a creek which has no end
We have lanterns in our garden, they have stars
We have a wall around our home to guard us, they have their friends
We have servants who do our work, they serve others.
Dad, now I know how poor we are!
One who is content is the wealthiest.
Pranaam,
Keerthi & Neelima