Beginning prayers
Gitaa chanting
- bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 16 shlokas
Brain Storming
- Who can we cheat; NONE, but ourselves!
Story time
- prahlaada, hiraNyakashipu, holika
- duryodhana poisoning bhIma
- kRuShNa raasalIla
Discussion/Quiz
- Team draupadi vs. Team bhIma!
Ending prayers and pledge
- sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
- aarati and pledge
Synopsis:
Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:
Today, we started the class by saying the invocation prayer for an ambiance conducive to learning (om sahanaavavatu ...), the prayer to the remover of obstacles-Ganesha (shuklaambara-dharam vishnum ...), the prayer to the goddess of knowledge-Sarasvati (sarasvati namastubhyam ...), the prayer to the teacher/guru (gururbrahma gururvishnuh ...), the morning prayer (karaagre vasate ...), the prayer to Mother Earth-Bhudevi (samudra-vasane devi ...), the prayer before eating food (brahmaarpanam brahmahavih ...; aham vaishvaanaro...), the evening prayer (shubham karoti ...) and prayer before bed time (raamam skandam...; karacharaNa-kRutam...)
After that, we talked about the coming-up play a little bit. We will be performing on stage in March. It is going to integrate the Mahabharata and the festival of colors, commonly known as Holi. We discussed how they are similar. We talked about Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada. Hiranyakashipu had a son, Prahlada. Ever since Prahlada was in his mother's womb, he was meditating on Lord Naarayana. Hiranyakashipu had a sister named Holika. Hiranyakashipu didn't like his son Prahlada, meditating on naaraayaNa. He had a plan to kill Prahlada. He asked Holika to hold Prahlada in her arms and stand in fire. You see, Holika had a special boon that fire could not hurt her. Hiranyakashipu's plan was to kill Prahlada and Holika would still be alive. But, because Holika used her boon for evil and conspired with her evil brother, she was burned to ashes. Prahlada came out without a scratch. A similar event occurs in the Mahabharata. Duryodhana was evil and in order to kill or harm Bhima, he put poison in Bhima's keer/paayasam. When Bhima drank it, he was in a faint-like state. Then, Duryodhana drowned him in a nearby river. There, a snake bit him and took out the poison. He was alive! The king of snakes gave him nectar to drink and each cup gave him the strength of 1,000 elephants. So, he got the strength of 8,000 elephants from the 8 cups of nectar that he drank. This event which was supposed to kill Bhima actually was to his benefit because he gained strength. Likewise, the event that was supposed to kill Prahlada was to his advantage because he survived and his faith in god increased. That is the similarity between Holi and this incident in Mahaabhaarata.
We also discussed how kRuShNa multiplied Himself, to make each gopika feel special and played holi with all of them, during His time in vRundaavan.
Next, we had a quiz session. The questions were about Ganga, Satyavati, King Shantanu, and their children. The two teams were called Draupadi and Bhima. The left table near the windows was Draupadi and the other table was Bhima. Both teams had 6 points in the end. So it was a tie!
Finally, at 11:15, the parents and the other 6th grade class came in and we discussed the play in more detail. It will have 3 scenes/episodes and 1 dance. Everyone will be on stage at some point. We are looking forward to practice and enact this play on stage!
At the very end of class, we chanted the aarthi and the pledge.
Written by - Kripa Srinivasan
