Jun 8th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 27 shlokas

Brain Storming

• What do we take away from mahaabhaarata to our current day life?

Story time

• last days of the war
• yudhishtira becomes king
• journey to heaven

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Today, we started the class by saying our prayers. Then, we chanted all 27 slokas of bhagavadgIta chapter 14.
After that, we talked about how everyone knows dharma and everyone can tell right from wrong. It is just a matter of doing it or not! We also talked about how there has to be some correlation between our thought, speech, and actions.
Continuing the story, we went back to the war scene. On the 10th day, Karna finally gets to fight after the fall of bhIshma.  He is very happy about it. On the 16th day, he is the commander in chief, after Drona died (15th day).
A fierce battle ensues between Karna and Arjuna on the 16th day.  Karna aims the Sarpa weapon at Arjuna. At that moment, Krishna presses Arjuna's chariot down 4 inches so instead of hitting Arjuna's forehead, it knocks off his crown. Then, Karna's wheel gets stuck in the mud and because of Parashurama's curse, he can't remember anything he learned. Karna begs to stop and to be fair and let him pull the chariot out first. But, Krishna tells arjuna how unfair Karna, Duryodhana and the rest of the Kauravas were, to Draupadi and Abhimanyu. Even as Karna tries to remember his mantras, Arjuna shoots an arrow at him and Karna dies.
The same day, bhIma kills dushshaasana and washes draupadi's hair with his blood to fulfill his oath.  Sahadeva kills uncle Shakuni as per his promise.  So, at the end of the 16th day, Karna, Dushashana, and Shakuni are dead. By the 17th day, out of Dhritarashtra's 100 sons, only Duryodhana was remaining. Out of grief and fear, Duryodhana goes and hides in the water. Bhima enrages him, asking if he is afraid.  Duryodhana comes out and they both have a mace dual. Before the war, Gandhari (Duryodhana's mother) had asked duryodhana to come before her the way he was born.  She would  remove her blindfold and make his body strong like a diamond, due to the powers of her penance.  Duryodhana was going to Gandhari, naked and Krishna came. He says a king should at least cover himself to some extent to save his shame. So, duryodhana takes a banana leaf and covers himself below the waist and goes to his mother. Because of this, his thighs remained weak. Only Krishna knows this. Gandhari isn't worried because in the war, one can only hit above the hip. Krishna tells Bhima to hit Duryodhana on the thighs. Duryodhana falls to the ground.  He is begging for death due to pain, but he doesn't die.
Back on the battlefield, Aswathama is devastated. After sunset, he kills all of Draupadi's sons and driShTadyumna, thinking they are the Pandavas,  He informs Duryodhana of this. Duryodhana dies happily! In the morning, Aswathama finds out that the Pandavas are still alive and is furious. Uttare, abhimanyu's wife, is pregnant at that time.  Aswathama makes a blade of grass into a brahmaastra and shoots the unborn child. Aswathama wants to kill the heir of the Pandavas. Krishna's power protects baby Parikshitha. Aswathama is cursed to live for 3000 years in sorrow and humiliation for almost killing an unborn baby. Also, Aswathama had a jewel on his head for being so learned. Vedavyaasa de-jewels him and asks him to give it to yudhiShTira. His head never heals.
The Pandavas have won. Dhritarashtra wanted to hug Bhima. Krishna pushes a metal statue of Bhima in front of him instead. The statue turns to a powder. Gandhari curses Krishna for not avoiding the war and letting her sons die. Kunti tells the Pandavas that Karna was their brother. They are so sad and angry, especially Yudhistira. He curses that women will never be able to keep a secret!  YudhiShTira becomes king.
On the bed of arrows, Bhishma tells Yudhistira how to be a good king and he chants the 1000 names of Vishnu (Vishnu Sahasranamam) looking at Krishna. He leaves his body after almost a month from the war.
Many years later, Krishna dies at 116. A hunter sees Krishna lying down on a tree and thinks it is an animal. He shoots an arrow. Krishna dies. The hunter was Vali in his previous life and as Rama killed Vali, the hunter killed Krishna.  Consequences, consequences!
Arjuna goes to greet Krishna and finds out that he is dead. Dwarika sinks under the ocean and all its residents get moksha. The Pandavas and Draupadi go to Himalayas. They all slowly die. Yudhistira is the only one who reaches the top. Along the way, a dog befriends them and joins them. Indra comes to take him to heaven. But, not the dog. Yudhistira says it's either nobody or them both. Indra allows the dog to enter. Yudhistira sees Duryodhana. He is surprised. Duryodhana went to heaven because he died in the battlefield and he is there for a short time and in hell for a long time. The other Pandavas are in hell for a short time for the small sins they had comitted. Yudhistira visits them one time. So, his time in hell is served as well. Then they all enjoyed heaven for a long time to come!
There ends the Mahabharata.
Reminiscing the values in mahaabhaarata, we finished the class with ending prayers.  We bade good bye to our friends until next year.

Written by Kripa Srinivasan.

May 18th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 27 shlokas

Story time

• war or peace
• karna and kunti
• the battle begins - gItopadesha

Discussion/Quiz

• Picture time - for the inaugural souvenir 

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:
Today in class we did prayers and started of with the Mahabarata. We learned that Krishna told Karna that he is Kunti's son. Karna tells him that people were making fun of his birth and only duryodhana stood by him.   Hence he won't betray duryodhana.  Bhishma knows this too. He is the commander in chief of the Kauravas, so Karna is not allowed to fight until Bhishma is the commander in chief. The Pandavas make Drishtadhyumna (Draupadi's brother) the commander in chief of their army. After all this happened, they started preparing for the war. The Pandavas prostrate to Bhishma, Drona, and Kripacharya and blessed for victory.  Any one who bows to his elders, automatically becomes a winner! Sikandini (Draupadi's sister), who was Amba in the previous birth, was born as a girl, but transferred to a man to fight in the war. Bhishma says that he won't fight in Shikandini's presence as she was born woman.  Dhiritarashtra says that he doesn't want his sons to die in the war. Veda vyaasa gives divine vision to Sanjaya.  Sanjaya narrates the events on the battle field to Dhiritarashtra.  He says that Arjuna threw down his weapons and didn't want to fight. Krishna tells  Arjuna why he should fight, and explains it to him in the 18 chapters of bhagavadgeeta.  So, the gItaa was told by kRuShNa to arjuna on the battle field, before the war began.  In between(11th chapter), when arjuna came to know kRuShNa is the Lord Himself, he wished to see his form in its entirety.  Then the Lord showed him His vishwaroopam (universal form).  arjuna was mesmerized. After the conversation, arjuna was prepared for he war mentally.  He arranged their army in the vajra (diamond) formation and fought fiercely.  Abhimanyu (Arjuna's son) and Uttara (Abhimanyu's wife, Uttare's brother) fought in the war.  Uttara died valiantly on the battle field.  Many people died on the paanDava's side on the first day.  Bhishma was very intense on them.

We also went to take pictures for the souvenir today.  We were all dressed colorfully and went with big smiles to get our pictures taken :).

Written by Sriman Vaidyanathan.

May 11th Class - CORD Walkathon

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• none

Brain Storming

• Who are the beneficiaries and benefactors of a fund raising event?

Story time

• Glass of milk

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Today is Mother's day as well as CORD walkathon.  We were walking 5 miles at the Mercer County Park, to raise funds and awareness about the services done by 'Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development' in India.  Before that, we had a brief class.  We then discussed who are the  beneficiaries and benefactors of this event.  We concluded, we were the beneficiaries and to whose cause we were walking, were the true benefactors!  Yes, we said it right.  By giving us the opportunity to serve, they were doing us a bigger favor than we could do by raising money for them.  They were teaching us to appreciate what we have been blessed with and to share heartily!  What goes around comes around.  We also heard a story about a similar scenario.  

There was a boy who was very poor and didn't have any food to eat. He decided to go to one of the houses and ask for something to eat. He knocked on the door of a house and a lady opened the door. He was too ashamed to ask for any food, or even for a glass of milk, so he just asked for a glass of water. The lady brought him a warm glass of milk, and the boy felt very happy. Years passed, and the boy became a doctor who worked at a hospital. The lady forgot about the good deed she had done. Then, the lady fell very sick and needed hospital care. She was worried about the expensive bills that she would have to pay. When she got better, she received the envelope that said "Hospital Bills". When she opened it expecting charges of thousands of dollars, there was only a note that read "Paid in full with a glass of milk". The boy had remembered the lady's act of kindness and had helped her in her time of need, even when she had forgotten.
I think that the lady was given her an opportunity to do seva to the famished boy. Similarly, the people in rural India who we support with the CORD Walkathon, are also helping us, by giving us the opportunity to help them and do good deeds.

Written by Stuthi Kuroodi

May 4th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 27 shlokas

Story time

• paaNDava-s reveal their identity – recap
• duryodhana adament on war
• war or peace

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:
In today's story, Yudhishthira, revels their true identity to Virata. Virata’s fit of anger is forgotten and the whole of the Virata kingdom apologizes to the Pandavas. After thanking them all for their hospitality, the Pandavas proceed to win back their kingdom.
Meanwhile, Yudhistira sends messengers as a request for their part of the kingdom. Duryodhana refuses, and secretly starts to prepare for the war that he now knows is coming. When the news reaches Yudhishthira, he is unsure if he wants to provoke all that bloodshed.
Then Arjuna and Duryodhana go to seek help from Krishna while he is sleeping.  Duryodhana sits by his head, on a throne, but Arjuna respectfully sits by Krishna’s feet. So, when Krishna wakes up, he sees Arjuna first and gives him the first chance to ask what he wants. However, Arjuna gives his opportunity to ask first, to Duryodhana. Krishna offers to them either himself or his army. Arjuna chooses him and Duryodhana takes his army with feigned nonchalance.

In the midst of preparation, Yudhistira suddenly realizes how many lives will be lost. So, in an an attempt of pacification, Yudhistira sends Krishna to tell Duryodhana that he will settle for 5 villages if he agrees to call off the war. In an attempt to coax and impress Krishna, duryodhana presents him with riches and shows off his luxury. But Krishna chooses to stay Vidhura’s home, a humble hut. His wife is a great devotee of Krishna.  When Krishna brings up the treaty, Duryodhana still refuses to call off the war.

Written by Shruthi Bharadwaj

Apr 27th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 27 shlokas

Discussion/Quiz

• Revision quiz till viraaTa parva

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Continuing the revision of our mahabhaarata knowledge, we had a quiz again.  Oh!  The kids know the story for sure.  We had a couple hiccups with some names though!  We even had a 'Sakula and Nahadeva', due to all the excitement :).

It was graduation day of 12th grade students.  We went to the auditorium to hear them speak about their experiences growing up in balavihar and draw inspiration from them!  

Apr 6th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 26 shlokas

Discussion/Quiz

• Revision quiz from the earlier parts of mahabhaarata
• Afterthoughts of play presentation

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Having a regular class after a long time.  We were busy for the past few weeks with preparations for the play last week.  Now that it is behind us, we revised our mahabhaarata knowledge so that we can get back into learning further.  The quiz was fun.  It was very impressive that everyone remembered all the little details well!

After that, all children put down their thoughts regarding their experiences in the past few weeks.  Putting the play together was a learning and growing experience for all.  Below are few of their thoughts.

Stuthi Kuroodi says -

• I learnt the importance of righteousness. For example, Yudishtira decided to rescue Duryodhana when he was captured even though he had sent them to exile because it was the right thing to do.
• I enjoyed practicing with everyone and being on stage. I also enjoyed getting to know my classmates more.
• I made more friends, learned more about the Mahabhaarata, and had fun.

Sriya Bapatla says -

• I learnt how paandavas lived and that kauravas were greedy.  I learned that jealousy brings bad characteristics.
• I liked the whole skit, but my favorite part was the war between the gandarvaas and the kaurava-s.  Also it was fun to prepare for the skit.

Sukruthi Thunga says -

• By doing the mahaabhaarata play, I learned about the significance of holi which is - good always wins over evil.
• My favorite part of this play was when chitrasena defeated duryodhana because duryodhana is really evil and jealous of the pandavaas.

Shwetha Rajagopalakrishana says -

• I learned that the sages ran away after Krishna ate that one grain of rice!
• I liked the costumes, the mustache and the bow and arrow.

Avani Shukla says -

• The play taught me that history repeats itself.  For example, the time Bhima was thrown in the river relates to the essence of the story of prahlaada.
• I liked watching people dress up, especially the mustaches!

Aryan Dornala says -

• I learned that Holika got burnt in the fire but prahlaada survived because the Lord always protected him.
• I liked the acting.

Ajay Casalena says -

• I learned that good always wins over evil.
• I liked scene 3 because I was in it :).

Sriragini Ponnaluri says -

• From the play, I learned why we have a huge fire during holi celebrations.
• I liked the dance.

Aditi Suresh says -

• I learned many new stories in mahaabhaarata.  I learnt about new characters like sage markandeya, satyabhaama, etc.
• I liked the first and third scene the best, dance next and second scene the last.  This was a very fun experience and hop we do this again some other time.  Thank you Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle.

Isha Nagella says -

• I learned from the Holi play that good always wins over evil.
• I liked the dance best in the holi play.

Drishti Devnani says -

• I had a great experience learning about mahaabhaarata, holi and their similarities.
• I liked rehearsing with everyone and see the other scenes.

Komal Nagpure says -

• I learned that the pandavas were kind and selfless people.
• I really liked how the dance was and the props and the fighting scene.

Saatvika Kaushik says -

• From doing the play, I learned that to do something great, you need to work together.
• I liked wearing the costumes and performing the play.

Aditi Gorthy says -

• I learned that good always defeats bad.
• I liked the dance best.

Kripa Srinivasan says -

• By doing the play, I learned that memorizing lines is easy but it is difficult because you need to know when to say your lines.  I also learnt that the gandharvas were very good at fighting.
• I liked the costumes, makeup and the dressing room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow!  This sure was insightful!  Looks like everyone had fun :).

Mar 16th Class

Beginning prayers

• sahanaavavatu

Gitaa chanting

• none

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• lead aarati and pledge in the auditorium

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

mahaabhaarata/holi play presentation in the auditorium!

All our hard work for the past few weeks culminated in giving a very smooth and engaging presentation on stage today.  All the children performed wonderfully and it was a rewarding experience for those involved.  Keep up the spirit of learning and enjoying the process!

Click here to see pics and video.

Register for gItaa chanting (through the link in the 'Announcements' above.)  Practice and participate well on 30th March.  Best of luck!

Mar 9th Class

Beginning prayers

• none

Gitaa chanting

• Chapter 14, verses 1 - 25

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarvebhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Practice in the auditorium.

Mar 2nd Class

Beginning prayers

• none

Gitaa chanting

• none

Ending prayers and pledge

• none

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Practice in the auditorium.

Feb 23rd Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 23 shlokas

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Practice, practice and more practice :).

Feb 9th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 20 shlokas

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Practice, practice and more practice :).

Feb 2nd Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 18 shlokas

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Practice, practice and more practice :).

Jan 12th Class

Beginning prayers

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

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

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 24th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 12 shlokas

Story time

• jayadratha punished
• kavacha kundala
• yudhiShTira meets dharma

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

This week we did the regular prayers and giita chanting. Next we learned more of the Mahabharata. This week we started off when Jayadhrata, the king of Sindhu came to the forest and saw Draupadi. He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. But Draupadi says that she is already married to the five Pandavaas and that she can't marry him. Jayadhrata gets furious and carries Draupadi away from the forest. Then, sage Dhaumya sees this and tries to help Draupadi but fails because the king is too powerful. When the Pandavaas come to know of this from Dhaumya, Yudhishitra stays to take care of Dhaumya's wounds while Arjuna and Bhima go after Jayadhrata.When they both catch Jayadhrata, they shave off his hair but leave five tufts around the head to punish him. Then they get Draupadi back. After this Jayadhrata does thapas to Lord Shiva. He asks for a boon to defeat the Pandavaas. Shiva says no, but he grants him a boon to defeat every pandavaa except Arjuna - once in a battle. Meanwhile Indra is planning to go to Karna as a brahmin  and ask him for his kavacha and kundala. Then the sun god appears to Karna in a dream and warns him of what Indra is planning. But Karna says I will give anyone anything they want if they ask for it. So the sun god advises Karna to ask Indra for a boon in return - the weapon, shakti. Then Indra comes and Karna gives his kavacha and kundala away. Then Indra grants him a boon and Karna gets the shakti weapon. Meanwhile in the forest, the Pandavaas hear the cry of a brahmin and rush to help him. He says that a deer took his pooja things and ran off. The group of five brothers rush off to catch the deer and soon get tired. Then Yudhishitra sends Nakula to get water. When Nakula comes to the lake, an invisible person asks him to answer some questions before he gets water. But Nakula doesn't pay attention, tries to get water and falls dead. When Nakula didn't come back Yudhishitra sent Sahadeva and the same happened to him. Then Arjuna went and then Bhima and the same happened to them. Finally Yudhishitra goes himself and finds his brothers dead. Then he answer's the invisible person's questions which are all about dharma.
Couple example questions -
What is faster than wind?  Answer - mind!
What is nectar? The answer - milk.
Then the person gets impressed and he says Yudhishitra can pick one brother to come back alive. He picks Nakula because he wanted one son of Kunti and one son of Maadri to be alive. The person gets really impressed and all of the brothers come back alive. Then everyone finds out the person is Yama Dharma raja. He gives the Pandavaas a boon and they wish that they can go unrecognized in the thirteenth year( the incognito year). The paanDavas were busy accumulating weapons and boons to help them with their life in forest and incognito, as well as for an impending war later on.
Then we did our ending prayers and ended class.

Written by Sukruthi Thunga

Nov 17th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 11 shlokas

Story time

• story of the day

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

In the morning we did our daily prayers then we did geeta chanting. We also learned verse 11 which was pretty hard to pronounce in the beginning then later on we got better at it.
     Continuing the story of Mahabharata, Arjuna went back to Indra's palace to tell Indra that he got paasupathaastra. The Gandharva-s were also there. One Gandharva was named Chitrasena, he taught dance to Arjuna. They became good friends.
      Returning to the forest Arjuna showed his new powers to the other pandavas (yudhiShThira, and others). Naarada came to the forest and told Arjuna not to misuse his powers.  Those weapons were very powerful and should not be summoned unnecessarily.

     Bhima was attacked by a python named Nahusha who was cursed. Bhima couldn't fight the python and knew that he was no regular python so he asked the python to reveal himself. Nahusha reviled himself and told Bhima that he had gotten cursed because he was arrogant and touched a sage named Agastaya with feet while sitting on a palanqun. The curse was to be broken when he understood what dhama is.  Yudhishtira answered all those questions easily and Nahusha was released from his cursed python body.

           One day Duryodhana wanted to show off his power and wealth to the paaNDava-s.  So he went to the forest which was owned by the Gandharva-s. There lived Chitrasena  who was the dance teacher. Duryodhana was arrogant he wanted to enter the forest even after the Gandharva-s refused entry to him.  So Chitrasena captured Duryodhana. When the pandavas heard this news, they all felt happy except for Yuddhistra.  He said they had to go save him.  Arjuna and bhIma went and saved Duryodhana . Chitrasena told Duryodhana his mistakes and how he treated the pandavas and yet they came to save him. Duryodhana feels so embarssed that he wanted to die. But his friends pacified him and he feels better and started to prepare for war since it was the last year. Duryodhana treated everyone so badly such as the sages and got way too many curses.

      One day a Sage named Duurvaasa came to Duryodhana's palace. Duryodhana treated the sage very good since that sage gets angry very quickly/easily. Drona decided to tell the sage to go to the pandavas for lunch since he wanted the pandavas to get cursed since living in the forest there wasn't a lot of supplies for a lot of people. So sage Duurvaasa and his many disciples went to the forest for lunch with the pandavas. The pandavas didn't know that they were coming and also draupadi had already eaten. The sage and his disciples told the pandavas that they take a bath in the river and then come for lunch. The pandavas knew that they were in trouble. So draupadi prayed to Krishna for help. Krishna appeared in front of Draupadi. Krishna asked Draupadi, even through he knew her problem, for something to eat.  Draupadi knew he was joking with her and asked him to help her. Krishna told Draupadi to bring the pot (akshaya paatram). Drapaditi gave the pot to Krishna and Krishna reached into the pot were a single grain of rice was stuck to the bottom of the pot and Krishna ate the grain of  rice and rubbed his tummy indicating that he was full. Suddenly all the people in the river felt too full to eat anything and they knew Yudhishtira would get very angry since they told Yudhishtira to be ready with the food and its not good to say I'm not hungry once you tell someone to make something for them. So the sage and his disciples ran away.

    After this, we did ending prayers and went home.

Written by Komal Nagpure

Nov 10th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 10 shlokas

Story time

• paaNDava-s go to forest (finish maitreyi’s curse and kRuShNa’s pledge briefly)
• arjuna’s visit to the heavens
• bhIma meets hanumaan

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:


 In the morning we did our daily prayers then we did some geeta chanting. We also learned verse 9 which was pretty hard to pronounce in the beginning then later on we got better at it. When we were talking about the Mahabharata we learned that Maitreyi gave a horrible curse that Bhima will kill Duryodhana by ripping his thigh. When Krishna wanted to have a war with Duryodhana for taking YudhiShThira's kingdom, the Pandavas said no because they had to stay in the forest for twelve years. But if Duryodhana did not give the kingdom back in 12 years then they would have a war to get their kingdom back. In the forest, the Pandavas practice astra so that their mantra would give the arrows the ability to defeat the enemy easily and practiced their shastras too. Arjuna did meditation for Shiva so that he could get Shiva's weapon which was called the paashupataastra. Unknowingly, Arjuna gets in a fight with a hunter that is actually Shiva. Since they both hit their arrow at a wild boar, they both claim that it is their boar for killing it first which ended up causing a fight. In Arjuna's mind he is thinking that he should win the fight for Shiva but he still doesn't know that the hunter is Shiva. Then Arjuna prayed to Lord Shiva to help him to defeat the hunter!  The hunter was Shiva himself, so Shiva revealed himself and said that Arjuna was worthy enough of his weapon. Arjuna was not arrogant about his skills.  When he knew he couldn't defeat the hunter, he prayed to the Lord to help him.  That set him apart.  Then Arjuna gets the paashupataastra and goes to heaven to meet Indra.  In the forest, Bhima meets hanumaan.  When he went to get the 1000 petal lotus for Draupadi, he came across a monkey that was lying with his tail spread out.  When asked to give way, the monkey said, put my tail aside and pass.  When Bhima tried to do that, he could not even move the tail.  He realized that this is no ordinary monkey.  When he prayed, the monkey revealed himself as hanumaan, Bhima's brother, as both were sons of vaayu.  He blessed Bhima with more power and said he will be the emblem of Arjuna's chariot flag during war too.  At the end of class we did a quick closing prayer then went home.

Written by Aryan Dornala

Oct 20th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 9 shlokas

Story time

• shishupaalavadha
• Game of dice
• paaNDava-s go to forest

Ending prayers and pledge

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

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

We did our regular prayers and gItaa chanting.  We learnt verse 9 too.  Today, we also chanted the gItaa verses till 8, without help!  That was a big progress we were all happy about!
During the story, we learnt that, before beginning the raajsuya yagna, yudhiShThira was supposed to do agra-pooja.  As he was wondering who is worthy of it, everyone suggested Krishna.  But one person didn’t agree. shishupaala said, “How dare you do the puja to Krishna it should be done to me. Anyway, Krishna used to be a cowherd, he’s a thief.” He kept on insulting Krishna.  Krishna was actually related to shishupaala.  His mother had asked for a boon for her son shishupaala, that he will forgive 100 grave mistakes but after that, he will kill him.  Eventually when shishupaala passed the 100 mark of grave mistakes, Krishna cut off his head. Being God, Krishna could just change people's mind, almost like magic.  But he won't.  He lets people decide for themselves!
Later, Duryodhana is jealous of the prosperity of the paandava-s. So, Duryodana’s Mama shakuni, suggested to call them for a game of dice. yudhiShThira bet his whole Kingdom, and he lost. Then he bet himself and everyone else with him and he lost that one too. So, everyone became a slave to Duryodhana.  He still never stopped.  Duryodhana’s mama had dice where whatever number he said, it rolled that number. Kauravas kept winning.  Then, yudhiShThira bet his wife, and he lost again. Then Duryodhana got arrogant and sent his brother to drag the princess, yudhiShThira's  wife draupadI, down from the castle by her hair because she wasn’t there at that time. Nobody was allowed to help her because everyone was now a slave. Then she started to pray to Lord Krishna. Later, Duryodhana’s brother dushshaasana tried to pull off her sari. But, the sari went on forever and ever. Then, dhritaraaShtra said he will grant 2 wishes to draupadi.  With that, she made herself and her husbands free from slavery. Bheema promised he would kill dushshaasana with bare hands and will break the thigh of duryodhana in the battle. While they were leaving, duryodhana asked yudhiShThira to play one last game of dice. They made a bet that whoever losses will have to live in the forest for 12 years and 1 year incognito (nobody should be able to recognize them). Obviously yudhiShThira lost, because of the manipulated dice and they all had to go to the forest. Then, yudhiShThira's wife prayed to Krishna again. Krishna gave akshyapaatram. That vessel would give as much food as they desired, until the minute draupadi eats.  After that, there is no more food for the day!  That way, they could live in the forest without much hassles.
We then left for the auditorium for aarti and pledge.

Written by Suraj Mukkamala

Oct 13th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 8 shlokas

Story time

• Heroine of mahaabhaarata
• raajasUya yagna

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

Happy dashara!!!
Today in balvihar we  did many things.
First we did geeta chanting shlokas 8.  Next we went on to the story. We pick up where Bakasura is dead.  Now Drupada's daughter Draupadi is going to get married and she is having a swayamwara (this is and event when the princess chooses who she wants to marry. In this case through a series of challenges) The challenge was to shoot a fast rotating  fish through holes.
Karna was going to shoot and  Draupadi  knew he'd be able to do it. She didn't want to marry him and she said that she didn't marry a shUdra.  Then Arjuna  shot the arrow and married her. Krishna saw all of this and immediately recognized them. Remember they were in hiding!
Then the five boys went to their mother, Kunti that they won a gift.  Without seeing, she told them to share it equally!  Since they had to follow their mothers words even though it was a mistake which resulted in Draupadi marrying five men!!!
As a result of the wedding people knew that the paaNdava-s weren't dead from the fire. Everybody  was happy except for Dhuryodhana and Karna.  Dhritaraashtra gave them half the kingdom.  But it was a waste land called khaaNDavaprastha.
Then the paandavas created a huge and rich kingdom.
At a festival Arjuna saw a beautiful lady named Subhadra. Krishna helps him "kidnap" her. Balarama is upset and wants to have war. Thankfully Krishna convinces him not to. So they get married and have a powerful child  named abhimanyu.
The pandavas were then built  a beautiful palace by Maya because he was protected by Arjuna and Krishna.
While living here sage naarada visited them. He asked them to perform a yagna called rajasuuya yagna. Narada explains another king did the yagna and got a permanent place in Indira's palace.
Krishna says that before they have the  yagna they have to destroy a man named jaraasandha. You see, if you do the yagna, you need to have 100 kings in your side. He had captured 86 and put them in jail so if he was defeated they would need only 14 more.
Jaraasandha was born in two parts and put together by a demoness named jaraa.  Jaraasandha was invited to a fight and decided to fight Bhima since they were equals in wrestling. bhima kept splitting his opponent in two.  But he kept coming back together then Krishna gave him the hint to throw the 2 pieces of the body in different directions.  Hence jaraasandha was killed.
Now there were 86 kings on their side. Soon they got 100 kings on their side and they completed the yagna.  We stopped at this and will continue to see the yagna in the next class.

Written by Avani Shukla

Oct 6th Class

Beginning prayers

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

Gitaa chanting

• bhagavadgItaa 14th adhyaaya 1 - 6 shlokas

Story time

• droNa enters (contd.)
• karNa

Ending prayers and pledge

• sarve bhavantu sukhinaH, pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
• aarati and pledge 

Synopsis:

Rashmi aunty and Sitaram uncle's class:

In the beginning of class we reviewed our daily prayers and learned the 6th paragraph of the gita.

The Pandavas and the Kauravas were both learning from Kripaachaarya who was the family guru. When they started getting really good at it, Bhishma started looking for another teacher so they could learn more. One day the Pandavas and the Kauravas were playing with the ball. The ball fell into a well and they tried to get it out, but they couldn't. Drona the son of Sage Bharadwaja, went over to help them. He took a blade of grass and shot it precisely and so fast that it clung to the ball as an arrow. He then shot another at the tip of the first blade of grass. He continued this until he made a long chain and brought out the ball. He did the same with his ring that he also threw into the well. The children were impressed and told this to Bhisma. Bhisma asked Drona to be the children's teacher and Drona agreed as long as they gave gurudakshina of his choice.

One day, Drona placed a toy parrot on a tree and asked each prince to take his bow and shoot at the bird's eye. But before he gave the command to shoot he asked princes what they saw. Each prince said they saw the bird the tree and the sky. Drona was not satisfied and did not let them shoot. Then he asked Arjuna. He said that he can see only the eye of the bird. Drona gave the command to shoot and the next moment the bird was on the ground. Drona was amazed and gave Arjuna a promise saying that he will make him the best archer in the world.

One day, the Kauravas and the Pandavas went on a hunting trip with servants and a dog. The dog strayed off and then after awhile came back with it mouth closed with arrows. The arrows were so neatly shot that it didn't even hurt the dog. They searched for the unknown archer and on meeting him asked who his teacher was. He said he was Ekalavya and he was a student of Drona. Arjuna was puzzled. He went to Drona and complained that Drona had promised that Arjuna would be the best archer in the world. Drona did not understand so Arjuna took him to Ekalavya. There they learned that Ekalavya got knowledge from Drona's idol. Ekalavya had to give gurudakshina. So, Drona asked for his right thumb. And Ekalavya gladly did that.

Drona had a childhood friend named Drupada. They each made a promise that whatever was each other had was both of theirs. But when Drona was in need Drupada turned him away. He wanted to get revenge. He sent Arjuna and Arjuna got Drupada to Drona. Because Drona won this war, the kingdom was his. But, he gave back half the kingdom back to Drupada because of the childhood promise he made.

Now, Karna was growing up far away, but wanted to learn from Parashurama who was Drona's teacher. Parashurama only taught brahmins. Karna told a lie and said that he was a brahmin. He then learned all his studies. One day, after a long walk in the woods Parashurama was tired and slept on Karna's lap then a  certain type of bee started to eat his thigh. He stayed put. But when Prashurama saw this he knew that Karna was not a Brahmin. Parashurama cursed Karna saying that he will forget his knowledge the time he needs it most in his life.

By that time the Pandavas and the Kauravas had finished their studies and were performing in an arena. Arjuna did very well. But, Karna challenged him at the end. he could do all the tricks Arjuna did plus a few more. Since he wasn't a king, he couldn't challenge Arjuna. so Duryodhana made him king of Anga. Duryodhana and Karna become the best of friends. Karna wanted nothing but to have a one on one battle with Arjuna. Kunti recognized him as her son and fainted.

Duryodhana started acting nice but had plans to kill the Pandavas. He explained that there was a festival at Varnavrata and there is a palace waiting for them already there. Vidura, the minister found out that Duryodhana had plans to put the palace on fire since it was made entirely of lac. He informed the Pandavas and the night before they dug a tunnel out of the palace. The next day Bhima put fire to the palace himself and all of them ventured out safely through the tunnel and let Duryodanah enjoy his happiness for some time.

The Pandavas had been traveling for a long time and found a village called Ekachakra and were staying in a Brahmana's house. They all begged for food. One day, they heard a cry in the land lord's house and foud out that there was a demon named Bakasura and that the villagers had made an arrangement with Bakasura that he would receive a wagon load of food and would be allowed to eat the driver himself. Now it was their turn. Kunti said that one of her sons would go and kill this demon. She sent Bhima with the wagon of food. After arriving, while waiting for the demon, Bhima ate all the food in the wagon. The demon was so angry. But the battle against the demon was nothing for Bhima. He had the strength of 8000 elephants. He then brought the body of the demon to the village for all to see.

We will find out more in the next class.

Written by Renuka Ravinder