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