Parents,
Hari Om! We are glad that some of you could join us for a few minutes, at the beginning of the second session of the year. It gave us an opportunity to talk to you about the curriculum and other goals for the year. We also gave you the list of recommended books and stationery.
Shlokas
We started the session, as always, with the changing of Om, led by one of the children. We also chanted Sahana Vavatu, and other shlokas. We then followed up with Likhita Japa,
Mahabharata:
We continued with the review of Adi Parva - the Book of the Beginning.
- From the Sambhava upa-Parva, we covered
- The birth of Karna
- The birth and childhood of Pandavas in the forest
- The birth of the Kaurava brothers and Dussala
- The death of Pandu as consequence of Kindama's curse
- The self-immolation (Sati) of Madri.
- In this context we talked about how the practice of Sati evolved in India and how reformers like Raja Ramamohan Roy eradicated this practice in the 19th century
- The stories of origins of Kripa and Drona
- The arrival of the Pandavas at Hastinapura
- The origins of Duryodhana's jealousy towards the Pandavas - especially Bhima
- The attempt to Kill Bhima by throwing him in the Ganges while he was asleep
- The education of Pandavas and Karavas under gurus Kripa and Drona
- The organization of tournament to showcase the skills of the young princes
- Karna's disqualification from the tournament because he was a sutaputra (child of a lower caste)
- Duryodhan bestowing Karna with Anga rajya to facilitate his participation in the tournament, resulting in a long lasting friendship between the two
- Drona's wish to have Drupda defeated by the Kauravas and Pandavas as gurudakshina
- Nomination of Yudhisthira as yuvaraja
- Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana scheming to send Pandavas to Vanavarta for a year in an attempt to give Duryodhana time to gain the trust and affection of the people of Kuru kingdom
- From the Jatugriha upa-Parva, we covered
- Dhrutarashtra's directive to build a Jatugriha (house of lac/lacquer) in a plot to burn the Pandavas alive in it
- Vidura's effort to save the Pandavas by alerting to the scheme and building an escape tunnel under the Jatugriha with the help of a miner
- The escape of Pandavas through the tunnel
- From the Hidimba-vadha upa-parva, we covered
- Bhima killing Hidimba and marrying Hidimbi
- The birth of Ghatotkacha
- From the Swayamvara upa-parva
- The arrival of Pandavas disguised as Brahmins at the Swayamvara of Draupadi
- Arjuna's victory in breaking the Matsya Yantra and winning the hand of Draupadi
- Kunti's directive to the Pandavas to share the "prize" of Draupadi.
- At this point, one kid asked as to why Kunti did not change her directive after learning that the prize was actually a Draupadi
- We also talked about the morality (or lack thereof) of Polyandry and how morality and values change with times
- From Subhadra-harana upa-parva, we covered
- Arjuna falling in love with Subhadra
- Arjuna's kidnapping of Subhadra to the chagrin of Balarama
- From the Harana-harana upa-parva
- The eventual wedding of Arjuna and Subhadra
- The birth of Abhimanyu - Arjuna's son, future father of Parikshit and grandfather of Janamejaya
We started our initial foray into the other significant part of our curriculum - India, the sacred land. This part of the session was much more interactive as it was intended to be. All the children participated enthusiastically.
- We started off by asking the children to name some other great Indian books
- They came up with Ramayana and Bhagavadgita and we threw in the Vedas, the Puranas and the Upanishads to round off the list
- Then an open question to the children - what are India's and Indian culture's greatest contributions to humanity?
- The children enthusiastically provided many answers ranging from the modern number system and the concept of zero to their favorite items from Indian cuisine
- The teachers chimed in with a couple more - world's first grammar for any language; Panini's Ashtadhyayi for Sanskrit and perhaps the first ever book of politics and economics - Kautilya's Artha Shastra
- Why is India the sacred land for us?
- India is the birthplace of Hinduism
- At this juncture, the children contributed the names other religions that emanated from India - Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism
- India has great traditions like Gurusishya Parampara - a tradition of passing of knowledge from teacher to pupil for generations
- As Indians we need to lead our life with an Attitude of Gratitude which tells us to be grateful for and appreciative of all things big and small - from the life-giving Sun to our overall sense of wellbeing
Geetha Chanting
The children were introduced to the Sanskrit alphabet and proper pronunciation of their associated sounds, with a well-structured linguistics-based approach.
The class ended with a procession to the temple for closing prayers, pledge and aarti.
