Section 1 6th Jan 13
First we
started with our routinely morning prayers and chanted geeta up to verse 16. Then we continued
our Mahabharata story.
When the Pandavas were
in a hermitage there was a very powerful gust of wind carrying a thousand
petaled lotus flower. Draupadi was amazed by its beauty and asked Bhīma to get
a few for her. On his journey to find the flowers, Bhima found a cave with a
monkey resting at the front. Thinking it was just a mere animal he tried to
scare it away but it would not budge. Then monkey told Bhima that he was too
old to move and asked him to carry him. Bhima attempted to lift his tail but to
his surprise, he could not! The monkey revealed his true identity as Hanuman;
Bhima’s own brother and let him pass. He finally came to the river with the
lotus flowers he was looking for. Bhima killed all the Yakshas who were
guarding the river and took the flowers. Yudhishthira came in search of Bhima
and seeing the Yakshas dead, he told Bhima not to fight without his permission.
Arjuna finally arrived from Indra’s
palace with the divine weapons that he had acquired. He told his brothers how
he got them and also demonstrated them. They caused lots of terror and
destruction, so Narada appeared and advised him to use the weapons wisely.
Then the Pandavas moved on to the
plains. One day while Bhima was exploring, a large snake attacked him. The
python was much stronger than Bhima and coiled around him. When Bhima asked who
the serpent was, the snake replied that he was Nahusha who had been cursed to
live as a snake. Then Yudhishthira found Bhima and agreed to answer Nahusha’s
questions related to dharma. When Yudhishthira answered the questions, Bhima
was released. Nahusha had turned into a man and told them told about his curse.
In Hastinapura, Duryodhana, Karna and Sakuni
were plotting against the Pandavas. They took a big group of people to show their
luxury that the Pandavas did not have. But at the entrance of the forest the Gandharvas
did not let them in. Duryodhana commanded his soldiers to fight them but they
were defeated. Chitrasena took him as a hostage. When the news arrived to the
Pandavas, Yudhishthira told his brothers to go and rescue the Kauravas. After
the fight, Chitrasena told that Arjuna was his friend, and that he wanted to
teach Duryodhana a lesson. He released the shameful Kauravas. Duryodhana wanted
to end his own life but Karna advised him not to.
One day, Sage Durvasa came to Duryodhana’s palace with his
people, so Duryodhana fed them well to avoid the sage’s anger. Suddenly, he had
an idea. He asked the sage to visit the Pandavas. He knew that they did not
have enough food and Sage Durvasa would curse them. Once the sage and his
followers had arrived, Draupadi became worried because she had eaten already
and the Akshayapatra was empty. When Sage Durvasa went to take a bath, Draupadi
prayed to Krishna for some more food. Sure enough, Krishna appeared and asked
her for some food. Surprisingly, Draupadi found a small morsel in the
Akshayapatra. Once he ate, he told the Pandavas to invite the Sage and his
disciples for a meal. But surprisingly, the sage and his followers felt very
full and left without coming for the meal, since they didn’t want to refuse the
food.
When the Pandavas were gone hunting,
Jayadratha saw Draupadi and took her away forcefully. When Pandavas came back
Bhima and Arjuna went to rescue Draupadi. They grabbed Jayadratha and punished
him by shaving his hair with only five tufts of hair remaining. Each one
represented one of the Pandavas. He was released by the mercy of Yudhishthira.
He did a penance for a boon from Lord Shiva. Shiva gives a boon that Jayadratha
could defeat Pandavas except for Arjuna.
After the Pandavas stay in the
forest was over, Indra decides to help them by taking away Karna’s weapons
kavacha and kundala. But Sun god appears in Karna’s dream and tells him that
this would happen and to take Shakti weapon from Indra. When Indra came as a
Brahmin, Karna tells him he knew who he was and asks him for Shakti weapon.
Indra granted his boon and said he could use it only once if there was no other choice.
One day Pandavas tried to help a
Brahmin when a deer took away his fire sticks. They chased the deer and became
lost. Yudhishthira asks Nakula to get some water. When Nakula reached a lake,
he heard a voice not to drink water without answering his questions. But he ignores
the voice and dies after drinking water. Yudhishthira sent the remaining
brothers but the same thing happens to them. Finally Yudhishthira goes himself
and answers all the questions correctly and the Yaksha appears and offers him
to bring back one of his brothers. Yudhishthira asks for Sahadeva as he
wanted at least one son of Madri to be alive. But all Pandavas come back to
life and the Yaksha reveals himself as Dharma, the father of Yudhishtira. He gets very happy and grants
them a boon to take any form they wished any time during the thirteenth year of exile and they would not be recognized.
This would help to complete their last year of punishment.
At the end of class we did our
closing prayers and our teacher told us about an upcoming event that will take
place. We had great class at Balavihar learning about these new Mahabharata
stories.
