Journey of Grade 6: Wax Palace and Story of Bakasura

                                                                         
Section: 1                          November 11, 2012      

(Continued from the last post)    

Hari Om!    

We started the class with opening prayers. We sang a Ganesha and a saraswati bajan because, because we were starting the Gita that class. We had a little ceremony by putting a little bit kum kum on our Gita sheet of paper. 

Then before we started our Gita we talk about the story last class when Arjuna had to shoot an arrow at the birds eye to pass Dhronacharya's test! After that we did an activity to experience how it was to be in Arjuna's shoes. We did this by throwing darts at a dart board to try to hit the target. Only three of us managed to hit the board showing that we did not have Arjuna's excellent focus.

Next we learned the first 3 versus of Bagvat Gita chapter 13 & we also learned the versus's meanings After that we talked about last weeks' story and we began to learn the next story. Next we discussed the story about Dhuryodhana and how he became jealous of the Pandavas and sent them to a far away land by praising its' beauty. But the trick was when Dhuryodhana ordered the people to build the palace he made sure that the palace was made entirely out of flamible objects and things. Dhuryodhana's was to set the entire palace on fire, one year after the Pandavas arrived. But the Pandavas friend and advisor Vidura immediately saw through the plan and began constructing an escape route for his friends. Vidura had managed to build a huge network of tunnels leading away from the place just when Beema accidentally set fire to the entire palace!!! After they escaped Dhuryodhana made it look as if they had all accidentally burned in the fire. The Pandavas afraid that the people in Hastinapura would believe that they were ghost that had rose from the dead immediately fled to a faraway village where they disguised themselves as Brahmins and begged for food. One day, Kunti learned from the owner of the house where they lived that there was an asura named Bakasura who was terrorizing the village and the village had an agreement to send a cart load of food and one person to drive the cart who the demon can eat. Kunti immediately agreed to help the family and sent Bheema with the cartload of food. Bheema went to the edge of the village, finished eating all the food and then killed the asura too. All the people in the village rejoiced. 

- Tejas B