Dec 8: Krishna to the rescue

Section: 1

Hari Om!

Beginning prayers

• Breathing exercise, 3 times ॐ (OM) chanting,  Sahanaavavatu,  Meditation
• Daily Prayers - Karagre Vasathe,  Saraswathi Namastubhyam,  Brahmarpanam,  Shubham Karoti,  Karacharana Kritam
• Guru Stotram (Page 9 of My Prayers Book)  

Bhajan 

• Ganesha Sharanam
• Dashavatara Stotram(Page 117 of My Prayers Book - Shlokas 1-8)   

Gitaa chanting

• Bhagavad Gita 14th Chapter 1 - 15  shlokas

Story time

• Bhima meets Hanuman

Activity

• Review of previous week's class

Ending prayers and pledge

•  Aarati and pledge 
• Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Purnamadah Purnamidam

Synopsis of the story:

Today Anjana Auntie came to help in class. After our initial prayers, she gave an overview of the 14th Chapter. We reviewed the Gita Shlokas we have learnt so far - each table recited one Shloka in turn. She then taught the 14th and 15th Shloka and explained the meaning. 

Mahabharata :

Sage Durvasa came to Duryodhana's palace and since Duryodhana is scared of him, they treated Sage Durvasa very well. Because of this Sage Durvasa asked Duryodhana to ask for a boon. Duryodhana asked that the Sage Durvasa go to the area where the Pandavas are staying and after Draupadi has cleaned the akshaya patra, and that he would say that he is hungry and ask for food. Sage Durvasa did this and Draupadi was scared that the sage would curse them. She prayed to Lord Krishna to help her. But when he came he also told Draupadi that he was hungry!!Draupadi was angry at krishna. But calm Krishna asked for the akshaya patra and he saw a morsel of rice still there. Krishna ate that morsel. Immediately Sage Durvasa and his disciples who had gone to the river for a bath felt really full and to not insult Draupadi, ran away saying they will come some other time.

There was a king named Jayadhrita. He saw Draupadi and instantly wanted to marry her. Draupadi tried to explain that she was already married and said no. Jayadhrita got angry and  took her forcefully to his kingdom. Then the Pandavas got to know about this and rescued Draupadi. They also shaved Jayadhrita's head and left only five tufts of hair as an insult. As a result of this, Jayadhrita prayed to Lord Shiva that he would kill the Pandavas in battle. 

Aakash M.

Dec 8th Class

Beginning prayers

• 3 times ॐ chanting, Meditation
• Daily Prayers (click here for script)

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 14 shlokas

Story time

• viraaTa parva
• Death of keechaka
• Cows stolen
• uttara kumaara

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge - in the auditorium

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Today in class, we reviewed that the yaksha made all the Paandavas alive. It has been twelve years in the forest. Now, they have to live incognito.  They decided to go to Viraata's palace. Yuddhistra went as kanaka, the gambler; Bhima was called vallala, the chef; Arjuna was called brihannala, the dance teacher; Nakula became damagranti, the cowherd; Sahadeva was called tantripala, the horse stable keeper; Draupadi (wife of Yuddhistra) was sairandri. She was queen Sudekshna's helper. Sudekshna is Viraata's wife.

Keechaka was the commander in chief of king viraata's army. He was a very strong wrestler. He falls in love with draupadi and starts bothering her. According to bhima's plan, Draupadi tells Keechaka to come to the dance hall. There, bhima came secretly and killed keechaka.  Now that there was no commander in chief, all kings wanted to attack viraata.  Susharma, with the help of duryodhana, attacked the viraata kingdom.  They captured the cows. Viraata had a son who's name is Uttara. He took Brihannala as his charioteer to stop the kauravas.  But after seeing their army, he wants to run away!  Brihannala tells Uttara that he cannot run away from war. Brihannala told uttara to bring down some weapons that were covered by leaves and branches on a shami tree and he would help him in the war. Uttara was surprised to see the weapon of the Pandavas. Then brihannala told Uttara that he was arjuna! Their year of incognito had ended the previous day.  So he was allowed to reveal his identity.  They fight and win the war over the kauravas and susharma.
Duryodhana identified Arjuna in the war. But their 13th year was over the previous day, so it did not count.
Uttare, viraata's daughter, is married to Abhimanyu, son of arjuna and subhadraa.  Abhimanyu was a great warrior.  He had learnt how to enter a chakravyuha, even when he was in his mother's womb!  Arjuna was explaining it to subhadraa and he had learnt it very well, just by listening.  But he did not learn how to come out, as his mother fell asleep and arjuna did not tell about it.

Written by Sriman Vaidyanathan 

Nov 17 Class: Arjuna goes to Heaven

Section: 1

Hari Om!

Beginning prayers

• Breathing exercise, 3 times ॐ (OM) chanting,  Sahanaavavatu,  Meditation
• Daily Prayers - Karagre Vasathe,  Saraswathi Namastubhyam,  Brahmarpanam,  Shubham Karoti,  Karacharana Kritam
• Guru Stotram (Page 9 of My Prayers Book)  

Bhajan 

• Ganesha Sharanam
• Dashavatara Stotram(Page 117 of My Prayers Book - Shlokas 1-8)   

Gitaa chanting

• Bhagavad Gita 14th Chapter 1 - 11  shlokas

Story time

• Arjuna goes to Heaven

Activity

• Dumb charades

Ending prayers and pledge

•  Aarati and pledge 
• Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Purnamadah Purnamidam

Synopsis of the story:

After the beginning shlokas and Gita chanting, we had a game of Dumb Charades where one person from each table came up and acted out a character from the Mahabharata and others had to guess. Everyone had fun.

Today we learned about Arjuna in the heavens.
One day Sage Vyasa told Yudhishthira to send Arjuna to Indra to get many
weapons.With that Arjuna went to heaven and Indra told him to first
get a weapon from Shiva. Arjuna then came back to earth and started to
meditate on Shiva. Arjuna soon met Shiva in the form of a hunter. They
both shot the same boar and argued over who shot it first. Then they
battled over the boar. Arjuna lost badly and then he knew it was
Shiva. After Shiva gave him a weapon and took him to heaven. Indra
then gave more weapons to Arjuna and Arjuna learned how to sing, dance, and
play music. While in heaven for a year Arjuna got a curse from Urvasi that he
would lose all his manliness. He told Indra and he made it like a
blessing by saying it would last one year - Arjuna could choose when it
happened ( this was useful because he turn into a girl during the year
of incognito) and it could end after one year. So after retrieving
weapons and a blessing like curse he returned to his brothers and
Draupadi after his stay in heaven.

Zachary B.

Dec 1 : Bheema meets Hanuman

Section: 1

Hari Om!

Beginning prayers

• Breathing exercise, 3 times ॐ (OM) chanting,  Sahanaavavatu,  Meditation
• Daily Prayers - Karagre Vasathe,  Saraswathi Namastubhyam,  Brahmarpanam,  Shubham Karoti,  Karacharana Kritam
• Guru Stotram (Page 9 of My Prayers Book)  

Bhajan 

• Ganesha Sharanam
• Dashavatara Stotram(Page 117 of My Prayers Book - Shlokas 1-8)   

Gitaa chanting

• Bhagavad Gita 14th Chapter 1 - 13  shlokas

Story time

• Bhima meets Hanuman

Activity

• Review of previous week's class

Ending prayers and pledge

•  Aarati and pledge 
• Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Purnamadah Purnamidam

Synopsis of the story:

In this week Bheema went to get Draupadi a very beautiful lotus with 1,000 petals. Bheema as he was walking by he met a monkey who Bheema even with all his strength could not move to go to the pond where the lotus stood. The monkey was no other than Hanuman, brother of Bheema (their father is Vayu, the wind god). Bheema tells Hanuman about what is going on and about the Pandava’s thirteen years of exile by Duryodhana. Hanuman then promises that he will help the Pandava’s in their fight. 

On his way to the pond, he came across a python named Nahusha. Bheema and Nahusha had a fight but nobody won. The python then told Bheema that he was cursed to become a snake by Sage Agastya. The curse could only be uplifted only when all his questions on Dharma were answered. Yudhishtira came searching for Bheema and he answered all of Nahusha’s questions and Nahusha's curse was lifted.  Finally Bheema got the lotus and gave it to Draupadi.

Now Duryodhana went to see how the Pandava’s were suffering miserably and he wanted to show off all his pleasures so he set up camp near the Pandava’s with his whole army he set up his camp near a river where a Gandharva named Chitrasena was staying. The Gandharvas told him to move away but Duryodhana did not listen and Chitrasena took him and held him prisoner. The Pandava’s rescued Duryodhana but Duryodhana was so embarrassed that he would have killed himself. Finally Shakuni and Karna managed to convince Duryodhana to go back to Hastinapura.

Aakash M.