Hari Om Parents
Namaskar and greetings.
We were meeting the kids after two weeks due to celebrations of Navratri/ Dussehra. We went around and asked each kid the significance of navratri and how and what they did to celebrate. A number of them said gollu - bommala kolivi, fasting and an interesting custom mentioned by one kid was that during nine days of navaratri - no sleeping on mattresses or beds. All in all all such customs, fasting, sleeping without mattresses or comforts while seemingly strange - are nothing but to discipline the body while focusing oneself to divine mother durga.
Since this was a short class, the class had to assemble in the prayer hall at 8:00 PM for performing Sarswati Puja, we skipped going over ganesha pancharatna and limited ourselves to daily prayers and jumped right into retelling the beginnings of the great epic Mahabharata
Mahabharatham is the historical depiction of the events of the great dynasty of yesteryears - the Bharatha dynasty. Mahabharata is always about karma - actions and it's phala - fruits or consequences. We discussed with the kids what it means. Kids explained - one eats (karma) a lot of chocolates, candies - the consequence(phala) of it is you get some initial satisfaction, but one's teeth get cavities and you visit dentists and have to go surgery and all associated pain and suffering :-(. A kid is disciplined, spends studying, has good company, develops a good character and excels in life. So on it goes... In chaos theory there is a concept called "the butterfly effect". The fluttering of a butterfly in one part of the world is an indication of a change/ affect in another remote part of the world. Similarly karma/ actions and phala/ fruits/ consequences may seem completely disconnected, but they do. So we should always be mindful of our actions in deed as well as thoughts'
Although the Bharatha dynasty started with Bharath - the son of King Dushyant and Shakuntala, for the purpose of this class it starts with King Shantanu. Shantanu was a great king and was always worried about not having an heir to the throne. One day as he was passing by the banks of river Ganga, he spotted a beautiful damsel strolling on the banks. Initially piqued by this sight he orders his chariot to be stopped, steps down and walks towards the damsel. As he draws closer and closer to the woman, his inquisitiveness turns into an attraction at the beauty of the lady standing in front of him. He immediately falls in love with the beautiful woman and without even giving a second thought proposes to marry her and make her the queen. The damsel was taken aback, but seeing that Shantanu was himself a handsome man and seemed like a noble king, immediately agrees to the marriage, as if she was just waiting for this chance encounter. Having agreed to the marriage, she puts forth a condition, ( there is always an if - kintu and but - parantu). The condition was that Shantanu would never question her judgement or actions, the day he questioned her actions - she would go away for good. Having been overcome by the physical beauty of the damsel, Shantanu without giving it a second thought, agrees to her condition and gets married to her.
Good times are rolling by and the couple have their first child - an heir to the throne, Shantanu's joys knew no bounds, but it was short lived, for as soon as the baby was born, mother took the baby and drowned the baby in river Ganga. Shantanu was devastated, but dared not to question his wife for fear of losing her. More years passed, more kids were born, and Shantanu would be devastated each time, for every kid was drowned in Ganga as soon as they were born. Shantanu became desolate and yet he could not muster courage to question his queen's actions. This continued until the eighth kid was born. When the eighth kid was about to be drowned, Shantanu mustered courage and scolds his wife for being heartless and devilish for killing her own kids. Queen retorts back to Shantanu and reminds him of her condition, Shantanu says he cannot ignore her actions anymore and demands that the baby be spared. At this point the queen reveals the background story.
The damsel was none other than Ganga, who had descended to the earth due to a curse of lord Brahma and the eight kids were the ashta vasus who were born on earth due to the curse of sage Vashista. One day the ashta vasu's were frolicking in the forests with their wives. The eldest of Vasu's wife spotted cow Kamadhenu in the ashram of sage Vasishta and coveted it and asked her husband to get it by any means. Kamadhenu is a very sacred cow and grants every wish that one asks of her, and is very dear to the sage. Knowing this, Vasus resists the request of the wife and foretells the dire consequences of coveting somebody else's property. The vasu's wife would not take no for an answer. Having no other option left, the vasu's steal kamadhenu and take it with them. Sage Vasishta, having realized what happened by his yogic powers, curses all the eight Vasus to be born as human beings on earth. Having heard of the curse, the vasus rush to Vasishta and beg for forgiveness. Since the curse cannot be taken back, he lessens the impact by saying that the seven vasus will be killed as soon as they are born, but the chief planner - the eighth one - will remain on the earth and will be of great valor. Having told the background story, Ganga tells Shantanu that she will take the baby with her and bring him up and will hand him back to the king at an appropriate time.
It was almost 8 O'clock and time to go to the prayer hall for Sarswati Puja..
Until we meet next week
Hari Om
Shivram & Anu
