Hari OM everyone,
Welcome back to the new academic year!
Here's a quick overview of our first class today.
We started with meditation, followed by an icebreaker: "Who Am I?" In this activity, students had to ask questions to guess characters from the Mahabharata.
This transitioned into our discourse for the week... a review of Mahabharata!
The Mahabharata is not JUST a story - these events actually happened, and they are symbols for us to follow the path of dharma. We experience joys and sorrows in our lives. Bhagavan (God) has gifted us the shastras (scriptures), as a map, to help guide us through these ups and downs. The end goal of this is for us to go beyond these joys and sorrows - to BE Independently Joyous!!
If we understand how our religion and culture can apply to our student lives, we will feel more at ease and more complete. Sanatana Dharma is a resource for us to guide ourselves through academics, career, personal life, relationships, etc. This is a safe space, where students can be themselves with like-minded people. We ask that everyone try and be open, vulnerable, as well as accepting and non-judgmental of each other. No (relevant 🙂) question is a wrong question! Discussions are very welcome! In fact, we encourage it, with this attitude -
With this preface, we began our brief journey through the storyline of Rishi Vyasa's brilliant writing of Mahabharata. King Shaantanu of the Kuru dynasty, was the king of Hastinaapura. His son was Bhishma, and his grandchildren were Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. We briefly reviewed the events that lead to their birth. Everyone received a copy of the Kuru family tree to follow along and help keep track of the characters. Additionally, if anyone is not familiar with the Mahabharata storyline or needs a refresher, we encourage you to read up about it to understand the general outline.
Our Bhagavad Gita chapter for chanting this year is Chapter 3 (Karma Yoga - right action with the right attitude). This week, we commenced with learning the first two verses. The students were already sounding amazing!
Each week, students will be given a practical application for the week. This week's RAW (Reflection Adventure of the Week) is to research Rishi Vyasa.
Looking forward to Seeking, Growing, and Evolving with you all this year!
We will leave you with this thought for the week.
Regards,
Rashmi and Ananya.
