Hari Om!
With Pujya Gurudev's Grace and our Swamiji's blessings, we have started our exciting journey this year into India, the Sacred Land and into the concluding portions of the Mahabharata. It was a great class, starting with enthusiastic children happily chanting the opening prayers and learning the Devi Dhyana shloka (sarva mangala mAngalye).
We then played an ice-breaker game (to say the name of a character from the Mahabharata whose name starts with the same letter as theirs, and how they relate to the character!) and got a lot of interesting and fun answers.
Mahabharata:
We started with a recap of the story so far - With Lord Ganesha as the scribe, Veda Vyasa compiled the Mahabharata. When Janamejaya conducted the sarpa satra yagna to avenge his father Parikshit's death by snake-bite, Sage Vaisampayana told this epic story to those present. One of the attendees there, Suta, then told it to a gathering in NaimishAraNya. We recounted the story from the reign of King Shantanu at Hastinapura, his marriage to Ganga, subsequent separation due her drowning their seven newborns, leaving with the eighth son and later being reunited, Devavrata becoming Bhishma on account of his great vow to remain a bachelor to facilitate Shantanu's wedding to Satyavati.
We started with a recap of the story so far - With Lord Ganesha as the scribe, Veda Vyasa compiled the Mahabharata. When Janamejaya conducted the sarpa satra yagna to avenge his father Parikshit's death by snake-bite, Sage Vaisampayana told this epic story to those present. One of the attendees there, Suta, then told it to a gathering in NaimishAraNya. We recounted the story from the reign of King Shantanu at Hastinapura, his marriage to Ganga, subsequent separation due her drowning their seven newborns, leaving with the eighth son and later being reunited, Devavrata becoming Bhishma on account of his great vow to remain a bachelor to facilitate Shantanu's wedding to Satyavati.
India, the Sacred Land:
We looked at a stereogram - was it easy to identify what the picture was without any instructions? No, clearly we needed a lot of guidance to see what was hidden. Similarly, the guidance of a guru is imperative to learning the real Truth that is hidden in plain sight. The guru-shiShya parampara is an integral part of learning in our tradition. In our discussion, the children also brought out that the Guru is one who can be a counselor through tough times, when we need help the most, who will listen to us without judging.
It was great to meet the parents in class today - as we mentioned in the meeting, we hope to have presentations from the children ,with family participation, on "India- My Sacred Land".
Thanks to all the parents who came and shared their views of the Mahabharata - it is a treasure trove of values, teaches us to be patient with people as everyone has their good and bad side, and it gives great insight on human nature and behaviour as there are many layers to a person.
Our next class is Sep 25th, class starts at 9:15am sharp, so please make sure the children are there before then.
As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards
Keerthi Kobla
Abhirami Shrinivas
