Hari om parents
Happy New year!
This was our first class after the winter break. We had a helping hand from Abhaysai who is a Chinmaya youth kid. The kids were happy to see and meet the youth and had tons of questions to him. Then we began our class with Likhitha jaapa followed by Daily prayers and Ganesh Panchratnam.Extremely happy that our few of kids were able to memorize and recite Ganesh pancharatnam without any aid from the book. We are very proud of them and kudos to all of them and to you all. Please pass on our appreciation to the kids and continue to encourage. There are few competitions conducted by our Chinmaya vrindavan like story telling competition, Sholkathon competition and Bhajanotsav. We request you to please register the kids and have them practice a story from Mahabharata or any other story per the competition guidelines. Additionally, each student can also send every 5 verses of Chapter 3 Gita that they memorized thru video recordings by emailing or sharing thru google drive to geeta@chinmayavrindavan.org, this way they can earn points for the House and for themselves.
We continued with the Mahabharata story.
Story of Drona:-
Drona was born into a Brahmin family, his father's name was Bharadwaja.while he was pursuing his studies he had a Drupada who was a prince of Panchala as his co-student. They both were good friends. Being a young and enthusiastic Drupada always used to tell Drona that once he became a King he would give half the kingdom to him as he was his friend. After the completion of their studies they parted their ways. Drupada became the king of Panchala and Drona married Kirpi who was sister of Sage Kripa. Drona and Kripi were later blessed with a son and they named him Ashwathama. Drona was trying too hard to make ends meet and he always wanted to give his son and wife the best of things in the world. At that time he remembered Drupada and his promise. He went to Panchala to meet Drupada. Drupada didn't recognize Drona and insulted him by saying "How can there be a friendship between a beggar like you and a king like me?". Drona felt abashed and wanted to take revenge on Drupada for this insult. Then he came to know that Parasurama was giving away all his wealth. He went to Prasurama to seek some wealth, but by the time he reached there Parasurama had nothing left. Moved by his state, Prasurama taught Drona the art of warfare and said that it might be helpful for Drona to earn income to support his family. Drona learnt the art of warfare from Parasurama and mastered it, he also became an excellent archer. Drona looking for means to support his family came and lived with sage Kripa who at that time was the council member of the Kuru kingdom. One day while he was strolling out on a walk, noticed that a group of kids surrounded a well. He went near them and asked what happened? The kids told that they were kuru princes' Pandavas and Kauravas, while they were playing with a ball the ball accidently fell into the well. They were looking at means and ways to get it out. Drona then told them being princes of Kuru kingdom they should be able to use their skill and get the ball out of the well. Yudhishthira the eldest of all said to Drona, "Oh sage if you can show us your skill and get this ball out we will speak with our grandfather and arrange a livelihood for you". Drona took the grass blades which were near the well and chanted a few mantras and threw it in well, the blades of the grass went and struck onto the ball, one on top of another and with the help of the grass blades Drona was able to get the ball out of the well. Yudhisthira asked him what his name was and who he was? Drona asked him to go and tell their grandfather Bheeshma about this. No sooner than Bheeshma heard he knew that it was none other than drona. Bheeshma requested Drona to teach Pandavas and Kauravas the art of warfare which he learnt from Parasuram as no one could match him. Drona taught all his knowledge to the kuru princes. After their learning was completed he requested pandavas and kauravas to give him guru dakshina. When they were ready he told them that he wanted them to defeat and bring alive king drupada to avenge his insult. duryodhana first went and was defeated by king drupada. Later Arjuna went on panadavas behalf and defeated king drupada and tied his hands and legs and brought him to his guru Dona's guru dakshina. Drona then told drupada that as he was defeated his kingdom was drona's now. Drona then gave the kingdom back to Drupada as he wanted to show him what friendship was. king drupada could not take this insult and did a yagna to avenge this insult on arjuna and drona. When the yagna purusha emerged he asked for a boon to have a daughter and son, a daughter who can marry arjuna and a son to defeat drona.later after some time were born Draupadi and Dhrishtadyumna.
Story of wax palace and Escape of Pandavas:-
All the people of Hastinapura were always fond and in favour of pandavas. This caused more jealousy and hate for Duryodhana. Dhuryodhana told his father that people of the Hastinapura think that Dhritarashtra was not fit to be the king as he was blind and only yudhistira had the right to the throne. Dhritarashtra tries to convince Duryodhana, saying that he understood his pain and agony but in vain.Dhritarashtra was blinded by his affection towards Duryodhana.The politicians who sided with Duryodhana also suggested the same to Dhritarashtra and mentioned that once Pandavas leave to Varanavata they will strengthen their side.One of the council members, Kanika was minister of Shakuni and suggested that the most powerful enemy must be defeated and the torn part must be removed in initial stages. when pandavas were summoned to the court, Dhriarastra suggested them to go to Varanavata as there would be a great festival in honor of lord shiva and to attend it.At that very moment all the councilman started to praise how beautiful the place varanavata was,the Pandavas immediately left to Varanavata not knowing the intentions of Duryodhana.Duryodhana then sent for Purochana a minister and plotted to kill Pandavas along with Sakuni and Karna. He asked Purochana to build a Palace for Pandavas to stay which was made out of wax. Purochana built the palace as suggested by Dhuryodhana well in advance before the arrival of Pandavas.Vidhura warned Yudhistira about something fishy since he knew the nature of Duryodhana. Once pandavas reached Varnavata they were received with hospitality and were welcomed by the people of Varanavata , the people were extremely happy to know that Pandavas would be staying there for sometime and later took them into the palace built for them. Yudhistira warned his mother Kunti and brothers of the plot of Duryodhana and asked them not to panic so that Purochana should not get a hint that the Pandavas are aware of the plot. Yudhistira diligently inspected the place and found that it was made of flammable materials, but they all lived carefree there. In meantime Vidhura sent an expert miner to dig a tunnel to escape Pandavas without the knowledge of Purochana. A full year passed by and Purochana felt that he had gained the trust of Pandavas. Yudhistira, knowing that the time had come, warned his brothers to be ready for escape as it would be now or never. Kunti cooked a sumptuous meal for all the attendants so that they would not get a doubt. Bhima set the palace to fire at midnight and the pandavas escaped through the tunnel into the forest.
All the people of varanavata came there and started crying, the palace was reduced to ashes including the residence of Purochana. Purochana could not escape from his home and he fell victim to his own plot. A message was sent to Hastinapura about this incident and everyone was grief-stricken and observed mouring.
Vidhura walked up to Bheesma and told him secretly that Pandavas along with mother kunti escaped and when it was the right time he would reveal as this was the plot by Duryodhana.
We ended our story here as it was about time for our geeta chanting.
The kids practiced Bhagavad gita chapter 3 verses 1-10 and learnt new verses 11-12.
Thus ended our classes with stories of Drona and Palace of Wax,we did a quick pop quiz before we left to the prayer hall for aarati and pledge.
with pranams,
Shivram and Anuradha
Competitions link:-
Register for the Story telling Contest - https://bit.ly/BVStory23
Register for the Shlokathon event - https://bit.ly/Shlokathon23
Register for the Bhajanotsav Contest - https://bit.ly/bvbhajan
Resources to learn:-
Ganesha Pancharatnam
https://youtu.be/Oyo0FWP9fB8 (play at speed of 0.75)
Nirvana Shatakam/ Athmashtakam
https://youtu.be/UrZUQh6SpcQ (Sri Sri) - slow, lyrics clear pronunciation
https://youtu.be/PeKIzYPDlYs
https://youtu.be/7MooNhXCbHA - a peppy version, suitable once the lyrics are mastered.
