A Trip To The Soup Kitchen for Annadanam

Hari Om Sixth graders!              Saturday, December 15, 2012

First of all, I have to say thanks a lot for all the tasty treats you sent with us for the soup kitchen! It all looked absolutely delicious! and a special shout out to all of the people who took the time to make there own food.  Not that buying food was bad though. Its the thought that counts! 

Anyway, we all really appreciated the fact that you delivered the food on time to the ashram. But sadly, only one student actually actually came to the annadhanam...  After all the food was delivered, the teachers and I went to the kitchen.  I had a great  time going with them.  After we arrived there,  my heart splinterd like porcelain when I saw all of those poor people. Not just adults or teenagers, either. There were children and even toddlers at the kitchen!  Can you imagine that?  Just step into their shoes. No home, no food, maybe even no parents.  No presents for your birthday, no one to celebrate holidays with.  Very few go to school, having to rely on other people to get food.   Makes our lives sound pretty good, huh? 

The next time you start to complain about not getting something you wanted, or not liking the food your loving family is able to provide, just picture those children at the soup kitchen.  Moving on,  after we heated up the food and put it out and rung the 'dinner bell', all of the people came up to get their food.  Another thing I noticed was that even though the people had a pretty unfortunate lives, they still were so polite! Some of them had better manners than some of the kids in our class!!  Every single one of them said please and thank you and they didn't waste a single morsel! A single morsel!!!  Overall, I had a great night and I was truly amazed by all of the people and the way they behaved.  From now on, I am going to try to follow their great example and apply their values in my life!   

-BKS

Pandavas Vanavasam Contd..

 Geeta Chanting: Listen to Geeta Chapter 13 regularly, memorize the first 8 verses.

Mahabharata Lesson    

Today (12/16) we learned a lot about the Mahabharata. We started off the class with some Likita Japa., writing "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya". Then we did our morning prayers and started with the continuation of our story.

    At first Draupati wanted to have a 1000 petal flower, and Bheema set out for it, walking through the forest. He encountered an old monkey sleeping in a cave, who refused to give way to Bheema. Bheema was angry, he tried to lift him and cast him aside, but to his surprise found that he could not move him at all. He asked him who he was. He replied, "I am Hanuman, your older brother'.  Hanuman promised Bheema that he would be at the Pandavas side fighting the war with them. Then, after Hanuman moved out, he found Yakshas guarding the 1000 petal flowers; Bheema immediately defeated them. Finally, he got the 1000 petal flower and returned it to Draupati. The moral of the story is to always think before you act. Bheema never thought and just killed everyone that slowed him down. The God of wealth Kubera was upset with Bheema, for he owned the garden of lotuses. 

Arjuna had come back from Indraloka and showed off his new weapons. Rishi Narada came and told them, "These weapons are not toys. They can destroy everything." The Pandavas agreed and the Rishi left. Later, Bheema also got into a fight with a python. Bheema was easily defeated. The snake said, "I am the cursed king Nahusha. For me to regain my true form, someone must answer my questions." So, Yudhishtra answered the questions, and the king Nahusha regained his form. Another person to fight along with the Pandavas, in the future war.

    Next, we did an exercise on the Vanaparva (the forest chapter). In the exercise, the book quizzed us on what we know on Vanaparva. Then we played Dumb Charades on the Vanaparva.

    Continuing with the story, Duryodana restarted with the master plan to somehow kill the Pandavas and sent Rishi Durvasa and his followers to the Pandavas at night. He knew that at night, Draupati would not have food to serve, and that would anger Durvasa, resulting in him cursing the Pandavas. But his plan majorly backfired. Draupati immediately got scared when Durvasa  entered the home. She prayed to Krishna, and when he appeared before her, he asked for a grain of rice. When he ate that grain of rice, everyone's stomach got full. Then Durvasa left, fearing he would offend them by saying no to their offerings of food. 

After that, Jayadratha, another king, kidnapped Draupati. Arjuna and Bheema both got into a duel with him. Obviously, the Pandavas won. Bheema pulled out Jayadratha's hair, leaving only 5 tufts to symbolize each of the Pandavas. The insulted Jayadratha did severe penance on Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva granted him a boon that he would be able to defeat all the pandavas except Arjuna atleast once in the war.

    At the end of class we chanted our ending prayers (Aarti, Purnamadam, and Pledge) to wrap it all up. This was one of the most fun classes that we've ever had.

S.S

Pandavas vanavasam begins, Arjuna gets divine weapons

Yudhishtra and the Pandavas were banished to the forest for 13 years by the Kauravas. When people find out that the Pandavas were going to the forest for 13 years, they feel rejected and follow Yudhishtra to the forest. Dhaumya asks Yudhishtra to pray to Surya Bagwan to feed all of them. Draupadi gets a boon from the sun god where she has to cook very little food and put it in a pot called 'Akshayapatra'. The pot will then be able to feed everyone for 12 years. Only at the end when Draupadi finishes her dinner is when the pot will become empty. 

  The Pandavas first go to The Kamyaka forest. Vidura tries to advise Dritharashtra to get the pandavas back from the forest. Dritharashtra gets so annoyed that he banishes Vidura to the forest. Every rishi that comes to Drithrashra's house always advised him to change his sons actions. They foresaw the future. Maithraya tries to put sense into Duryodana . Duryodana disrespects Maythraia , and so he curses Duryodana and says that he will be killed by Bhima. Bhagwan Krishna visits the pandavas and says he is very sorry at their state. He could not help them as he was very busy protecting his people in Dwaraka from invasion. Draupadi gets angry at Krishna. Krishna promises that a day will come when the Kauravas’ wives will cry the same way Draupati does now.

Arjuna goes up north to get weapons from Indra. He meditates for a longtime and is challenged by lord Shiva, who appears in front of Arjuna as a hunter. Shiva gives Arjuna the ‘Pashupatastra’ and Indra gives Arjuna the ‘Vajarayudam.’

The Journey of grade 6, boarding the game of dice, led by Sakuni in Mahabharata

Section 1         

Hari Om,                                                    December 9, 2012

We started our class with the usual opening prayers and bhajans. After that, our class learnt to chant verses 7-11 in Geeta.   We are almost halfway through our goal of 25 verses!

Then, it was time for our favorite time in class............. STORY TIME!!   We did our routine recap of last week's story (see previous post); then the new tale was spun.  In brief, we discussed the story of how the Kauravas plotted against the Pandavas so that the Pandavas would lose all of their treasure in the treasury by gambling.  What the Pandavas didn't know was that Sakuni, the uncle of the Kauravas, had magic dice that would always turn in his favor, he could never lose in gambling. The game went on and Yudishtra lost all of his possesions, including his kingship, his brothers, and himself.  He was about to accept defeat, but the Kauravas taunted him to bet Draupadi. As usual, Yudhishthira lost and Vidura was sent to fetch Draupdi. She refused to come.  Then, a palace servant tried his best. Still no Draupadi.  At last, Dusssasana was sent to fetch her. He dragged her by her hair all the way to the court room. She gave a big speech on how this was against the laws and she began to question if Yudishtra had rights over her if he was no longer a king.  But soon the Kauravas were fed up with her lectures and Dussasana was ordered to disrobe her completely.  In great devotion, she prayed to lord Krishna, who granted her an endless sari.  Soon.  Dhritharashtra, ordered his sons to return all of the lost gambling prizes.  But Dhritharashtra, as per the Kauravas plan, re-invited the Pandavas to a new game.  Once again, Sakuni played with 'marked cards' as we could call them, and the Pandavas were banished for 13 years of exile, per the bet.  The last 13th year to be spent incognito, means no one should know their true identity.  If they were recognized in the thirteenth year, they would have to go back to the forest again for another 12 years.  This is where we stopped.

Section 1 and Section 2: 

After that, we invited Section 2, and watched a video of the dice game on YouTube together.  It was just great to see this on the screen.  Watching these characters come alive made us travel back in time.   On the screen we were able to see the costumes and the life style of the kings, queens, and other royal characters of those days.  In addition, the greatest of all, is to listen to their dialogues watch their emotions which brings the history back.  Wow, what a great epic!

We had a short meeting about the Annadanam (soup kitchen).  Our class will be contributing to this seva (service) on Saturday December 15, 2012

We had a great class and we can't wait for next week! 

-BKS

Dec 2nd - Review of Rajasuya Yagna and Jarasandha

The 6th grade Vrindavan class had been focusing on the Mahabharatha this year. On 12/2/12,  the day started with the two classes being merged together. All 30 kids socialized and then, we all recalled what we learnt last class. It started with the choir group singing chants and prayers with us repeating and humming. 

The Mythology lesson started by our Substitute teacher reading the story when Yudishtra (a Pandava) tried to perform the Raja-Suya Yagna. Yudishtra was afraid of this because all the kings must accept him as an emperor. This was a difficult and feared task throughout all history. But, Bheema (another Pandava) reassured him all the kings would accept him well, since they were the mighty Pandavas! Yudishtra was still tranquil and was not hasty to make a quick decicion. He then asked the cow-herd boy, Krishna, who had always given them good knowledge (Krishna is actually Lord Krishna – Bhagawan himself). He agreed with Bheema's idea but he warned them "I have encountered the son-in-law of Kamsa, Jarasanda, he is a cannibal who eats exactly 100 kings and he has already captured 86." Even, Krishna was afraid of Jarasanda. Krishna also informed them of the story of how he was born...

A king had two wives but alas, they had no children. The king went deep into a forest where he met a sage(saint). The sage had told him to eat the mango he was holding and he would have one very healthy child. The king split the mango in half vertically and gave each half to the wife. In due course, each wife had half of a baby. The wives were scared, they then set it in the Ganges river and let it flow. A cannibal name Jara put it together to eat in on bite, but it stuck together and, it was a cute baby so, she sent it back to the king. This is why he was named Jararsanda. Yudishtra, then told Arjuna, Bheema, Krishna to retrieve the captured rulers. So, the three of them went disguised as Brahmins, because kshtriyas must bow down to the higher caste. Jarasanda was a king so he had to treat them as honorable people. Afterwards, Jarasanda thought Bheem's size was too massive and when his guard served Arjuna food, he told Jarasanda, he had an "Archers Callis." Jarasanda then quickly comprehended the idea they were kshtriyas in disguise as brahmins to do an evil act. All of them revealed who they were and then, it was decided Bheema was going to fight Jarasanda. The duration of the duel was 13 days. Bheema and Jarasanda were equal in their might and could not be defeated. Krishna, then manipulated the idea to Bheema, tear each half of him and throw it on a different side. He represented this by using a twig. Jarasanda was defeated hence, making Yudishtra capable of performing Rajasuya yagna. 

Yudishtra nominated Krishna as his "guest of honor." Many kings were furious that an inferior Vaisya was the "second to none" ranked guest. Especially, Shisupala then threw a "hangama" that he was the highest class kshtriya. He had then insulted Krishna so many times, Krishna killed him with his chakra. There, is a story behind this... Shisupala and Krishna were cousins. Shisupala was born with two times more limbs than normal. A great sage told the parents that the one who touches him will cure him but, will also be his killer. Krishna was then recognized as the killer. Krishna stated "Since you are my relative I will give you 100 chances, if you ever break all 100 I will kill you on the spot." This is why Krishna had to kill Shisupala. Our class had 20 minutes to do a little review sheet with "fill in the blanks”.Then, we did Aarthi along with our Chinmaya Balavihar Pledge.

-          T.R

The Journey of Grade 6...Boarding: the heroine of the Mahabharata - Draupadi, and Arjuna's marriage to Subhadra

Section 1   

                                                                             Nov 18, 2012

Hari Om,

The class of Sunday, November 18^th was one of the many jubilant classes with stories, discussions, and fun activities.    As usual we started off with our deep breathing and three OM’s followed by our daily prayers. We skipped right into our journey through Bhagavad Geeta Chanting and have learned verses 4-6! 

In our voyage through Mahabharata we’ve been learning about the heroine of the story-Draupadi, daughter of king Drupada king of Panchala. He had organized a Swayamvara, or an event  of choosing a husband where many prince’s  of various kingdom, or kshatriyas have to complete various tasks or missions that are assigned to take the daughters hand in marriage. When she garlands the prince they immediately get married, Drupada’s challenge to the princes was to hit a clay fish fixed to a long pole balancing on a revolving disc with a hole.  Whoever hits five arrows in a row through the hole and hits the eye of the fish causing it to drop to the ground wins her as their wife. Many had tried but no one succeeded. Even mighty Duryodhana attempted to shoot the fish but even with his great strength he couldn’t lift the bow. Next Karna came and everyone thought they had finally found the prince but, Draupudi called out "you are a sutaputhra( a charioteers son) I will never marry you. Leave the palace immediately! ". 

A brahmana (Arjuna,Spoiler Alert!) came up, lifted the bow and arrows, shot the five arrows into the disc and made the fish clattered to the ground. Draupudi put the garland around Arjuna’s neck and Arjuna brought her home.  Kunti, his mother had heard from his son Arjuna that he had brought her a gift but mistakenly she had said to share it equally amongst the rest of the Pandavas. Kunti was surprised to see it was a woman, how could she say to share this? And back then in this time period a mother’s word was final and so all the Pandavas were bound to marry Draupudi! 

Lord Krishna and Balarama arrived shortly to bless them. Dhrishtadyumna, Draupudi’s brother followed them hearing the fact that his own sister was married to five Pandavas. A Sage named Veda Vyasa advised King Drupada that in Draupudi’s last birth she had prayed to Lord Shiva asking him for good husbands, With the qualities of: Just and Truthfulness, Strength and Might, An Excellent Archer, and Incredibly Handsome. Lord Shiva’s way of granting this wish was by giving her a boon in her next life (the one she is living now) of having five husbands with each specialized in each qualities: Yudhisthira is Just and Truthful, Bhima is strong and Mighty, Arjuna the incredibly skilled archer,Nakula and Suhadeva were split for the boon of Handsomeness. The king was delighted and gave each of his five son in-laws gifts. 

Later the Pandavas were invited to Dwaraka for a celebration. There Arjuna reconnected with his friends Krishna and Balarama. Arjuna also met Krishna’s sister Subadhra for the first time. Arjuna fell in love at first sight. He immediately  seeked Krishna’s help for his sister hand in marriage. Krishna gave him two options (1) to either be at her Swayamvara or(2) carry her away in a chariot. Arjuna was informed that she was visiting a temple one day and so he planned to whisk her away to Hastinapura that very day in a chariot! Once he took her away everyone tried to attack the couple from leaving but no one can beat the mighty Arjuna. Even Balarama was about to go after them but Krishna calmed him down and changed his point of view! After that Arjuna finally got married to Subadhra and she gave birth to a son named Abimanyu. 

This was the end of this week’s story but not the end of class. After the story there was a lot of excitement through the classroom. We were playing Mahabharata Charades. We were allowed to draw or act out a character we’ve met so far in the story. For example one of the students got the character Karna and took of their earrings and jackets to represent taking off kavachas (armor) and kundalas (earrings). Another student drew a picture of a person falling into a fire representing the character Amba. And another student had covered her eyes with a scarf to represent Gandhari who blindfolded herself for her husband who was blind. It was interesting to see these creative ways to reenact and show these characters with simple jesters and drawings. We look forward to our next class on December 2^nd. Enjoy your Thanksgiving break and see you soon

- Shivani Iyer

Journey of Grade 6: Wax Palace and Story of Bakasura

                                                                         
Section: 1                          November 11, 2012      

(Continued from the last post)    

Hari Om!    

We started the class with opening prayers. We sang a Ganesha and a saraswati bajan because, because we were starting the Gita that class. We had a little ceremony by putting a little bit kum kum on our Gita sheet of paper. 

Then before we started our Gita we talk about the story last class when Arjuna had to shoot an arrow at the birds eye to pass Dhronacharya's test! After that we did an activity to experience how it was to be in Arjuna's shoes. We did this by throwing darts at a dart board to try to hit the target. Only three of us managed to hit the board showing that we did not have Arjuna's excellent focus.

Next we learned the first 3 versus of Bagvat Gita chapter 13 & we also learned the versus's meanings After that we talked about last weeks' story and we began to learn the next story. Next we discussed the story about Dhuryodhana and how he became jealous of the Pandavas and sent them to a far away land by praising its' beauty. But the trick was when Dhuryodhana ordered the people to build the palace he made sure that the palace was made entirely out of flamible objects and things. Dhuryodhana's was to set the entire palace on fire, one year after the Pandavas arrived. But the Pandavas friend and advisor Vidura immediately saw through the plan and began constructing an escape route for his friends. Vidura had managed to build a huge network of tunnels leading away from the place just when Beema accidentally set fire to the entire palace!!! After they escaped Dhuryodhana made it look as if they had all accidentally burned in the fire. The Pandavas afraid that the people in Hastinapura would believe that they were ghost that had rose from the dead immediately fled to a faraway village where they disguised themselves as Brahmins and begged for food. One day, Kunti learned from the owner of the house where they lived that there was an asura named Bakasura who was terrorizing the village and the village had an agreement to send a cart load of food and one person to drive the cart who the demon can eat. Kunti immediately agreed to help the family and sent Bheema with the cartload of food. Bheema went to the edge of the village, finished eating all the food and then killed the asura too. All the people in the village rejoiced. 

- Tejas B

Rajasuya Yagna, Pandavas in Exile

Hari Om!!

In this week's class, we continued with Geeta Chanting , chapter 13. We recited 6 verses together in class. Listening to the audio everyday will help in memorizing. You can do so at:

 http://www.geetachanting.net/bvg13v01-10/

 

 Mahabharata

This week's balavihar lesson was focused on the Rajasuya Yagna, Shakuni's game of dice, and the Pandavas' exile.

Rajasuya Yagna

We started with the Rajasuya Yagna. It was performed for Yudhisthra to be the king of all kings. It was the highest level of yagna and was conducted in the presence of  Vedavyasa. Soon came the part where Yudhisthra had to pay respects to the gathering of kings there. As tradition would have it, he had to start with the greatest king of all. And who was that but Lord Krishna, king of Dwaraka!
As Krishna moved forward, the King of Chedi, Shishupala stood up. He had an objection. He called Krishna a mere cowherd, and a killer of women (Putana) and bulls (a rakshasa)........
Flashback: The previous King of Chedi had a son. He was horribly deformed with 3 eyes and 4 arms. His name was Shishupala. The king was very scared and he wanted to get rid of the baby. But he heard an "Aakash Vaani", saying that when he sat on the lap of the king who would kill him, his eye and extra arms would fall off. So the king invited all kings to come give the baby blessings but nothing happened. When he reached Krishna-lo and behold!-his eye and 2 arms fell off. The queen, who was Krishna's cousin, pleaded Krishna to not kill him, no matter what. Krishna told her he couldn't do that but he would forgive Shishupala 100 times.
As the years went on, Krishna kept counting every insult that Shisupala said. As it would happen, the day he would cross the limit would be at Yudhishtra's Rajasuya Yagna. Krishna took out his Sudarshan Chakra and killed Shishupala. Yudhishtra became king of kings.

The Games of Dice

Duryodhana was very angry at this chain of events. He called his uncle Shakuni. Shakuni was an evil genius. He called the Pandavas for a game of dice. Shakuni had a pair of "baised dice" that was made of the bones of his father. He used those to play the game. Yudhisthra's weakness was gambling. He wagered everything starting small and ending with himself, his brothers and Draupadi. Draupadi was called to the palace. Dushasana, Duryodhana's brother, disrobed her in front of everyone. But she prayed to Krishna who saved her by making her sari infinite. Bhima was extremely angry, He made two vows. One was he would rip open Dushasana's chest and drink his blood. The other was he would break Duryodhana's thigh where he made Draupadi sit. This whole time, Dhritarashtra was watching. He called off all the bets and everyone went back to their old lives. But Duryodhana and Shakuni were not done yet. In the second game of dice,the same thing happened but they did not lose themselves. The last wager was if he won he would get everything back. But if he lost he had to go to the forest in exile for 12 years and be incognito for 1. If they were found out that last year, they had to do it all over again. Yudhisthra lost and they went into exile.

The Journey of Grade 6........boarding Bhagavad Geeta

Section: 1                                    November 11, 2012

Hari Om!    
                                        

Our class discussion:

Why do we learn to chant or study Geeta ?

An introduction: 

The Bhagavad Geeta is one of the Lord’s divine song or prayers in the form of a shlokha, on the battlefields of Kurukshetra.  It is the climax of Mahabharata.  Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, was explaining the need to fight against the Kaurava's army to Arjuna.  Arjuna was refusing to fight because the opposing army consisted of his beloved friends, family members, and gurus. The god directs and guides the dejected, depressed, and helpless archer along the right path. He has various questions on the principles of good devotees and the best path for a man to reach the Lord.  Krishna repeatedly explains these concepts through 18 chapters of devotional Sanskrit verses.

We are a dual personality of good and bad, almost like a salad.  No normal salad has only one ingredients in it. But not all of the ingredients has equal nutrition value. The various ingredients are representing our various qualities.  We must try to conquer the evil and cultivate the good attributes in us. How? If you are annoyed at your friend and you want to smack him hard in the face, you may raise your hand ...but …pause a moment…and remember what Geeta teaches…if you can recollect the values and principles it encourages.  By shaking hands with him, you can not only make him stop annoying you, but you can also make peace with him, which is what Geeta encouraging you to do.  This had been the philosophy of many great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi,

Arjuna feels sad at the prospect of fighting against his kith and kin.  Arjuna, feeling extremely depressed,  threw down his bow and arrow and sank on to the seat in the chariot in utter dejection.

When you feel that an injustice has been done against you, and want to hit it back.  You loose the strength to avenge; the consequent feeling of helplessness which causes to loose your balance is called dejection.

It is to such Partha (Arjuna) that Lord Krishna advises the entire Geeta. Geeta gives us a plan and a technique by which we too can successfully come out of our own Arjuna-mood whenever we are in it.

The Lord’s song contains a secret cure for this dejection in life, which we may call as “the Krishna-medicine for the Arjuna disease";) . Arjuna in Geeta represents all of us with tons of doubts and confusion.  Even though you may not understand the meaning of Geeta, it is still good to learn since the chanting itself clears the mind.

Our teachers handed out the sheets of Geeta verses of chapter 13, and sheet protectors after we chanted Vakrathunda Mahakaya (Ganesha Prayer) and Saraswati Namasthubyam, and then we put a kumkum mark on the sheet as a mark of respect.  We then slid them into the sheet protectors and learned to chant. 

Last class we discussed the meaning of the first three verses and we memorized them as well.  In brief I'll tell you the meaning.   First, Arjuna asked the meaning of 6 words: prakitim,  purushah, kshetram, kshetrajña, jñanam, and jñeyum. 

Then, Krishna proceeds to answer in the next 34 verses. 

The class lesson of Mahabharata will be continued soon, please tune in.

-BKS

All Aboard The CORD Express

HARI OM!                  Section 1 and 2                                          October 28, 2012

After registering for the CORD walkathon and collecting our T-Shirts, the sixth grade class met at the assigned location of the Mercer County Park. We warmed up with a few stretches. It happened to be a rather chilly autumn morning before the walkathon. We chatted as the kids were joining in and we took a nice class picture. 


The class chanted a brief set of opening prayers. Then, we played a MAHABHARATA quiz game which was quite fun, actually. We divided up into two teams, the Pandavas:) and the Kauravas:(.  Team Pandavas had 5 kids and Team Kauravas had the rest(BTW, that was kind of Unfair. I was kind of living in the Pandava shoes). The teachers took turns asking questions like: Who was Amba reborn as and who was her father? How many days did the War last ? etc.,  The quiz ended in a tie. 

After that we dispersed for the walk to support our friends in rural India.  The weather got slightly warmer during the walk. After we had a nice walk admiring the colorful fall foliage around the park with friends, we came back and had delicious samosas, sandwiches, Vadapav, Bananas, Parle glucose biscuits, chips, and mango juice. 

The temperature suddenly dropped about one septillion degrees Fahrenheit: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 degrees! That is how it felt. We then rushed home, staying clear of our new guest, Sandy:) and I hope everyone stays safe.

-BKS