Bhima meets Hanuman...

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.