Rajasuya Yagna, Pandavas in Exile

Hari Om!!

In this week's class, we continued with Geeta Chanting , chapter 13. We recited 6 verses together in class. Listening to the audio everyday will help in memorizing. You can do so at:

 http://www.geetachanting.net/bvg13v01-10/

 

 Mahabharata

This week's balavihar lesson was focused on the Rajasuya Yagna, Shakuni's game of dice, and the Pandavas' exile.

Rajasuya Yagna

We started with the Rajasuya Yagna. It was performed for Yudhisthra to be the king of all kings. It was the highest level of yagna and was conducted in the presence of  Vedavyasa. Soon came the part where Yudhisthra had to pay respects to the gathering of kings there. As tradition would have it, he had to start with the greatest king of all. And who was that but Lord Krishna, king of Dwaraka!
As Krishna moved forward, the King of Chedi, Shishupala stood up. He had an objection. He called Krishna a mere cowherd, and a killer of women (Putana) and bulls (a rakshasa)........
Flashback: The previous King of Chedi had a son. He was horribly deformed with 3 eyes and 4 arms. His name was Shishupala. The king was very scared and he wanted to get rid of the baby. But he heard an "Aakash Vaani", saying that when he sat on the lap of the king who would kill him, his eye and extra arms would fall off. So the king invited all kings to come give the baby blessings but nothing happened. When he reached Krishna-lo and behold!-his eye and 2 arms fell off. The queen, who was Krishna's cousin, pleaded Krishna to not kill him, no matter what. Krishna told her he couldn't do that but he would forgive Shishupala 100 times.
As the years went on, Krishna kept counting every insult that Shisupala said. As it would happen, the day he would cross the limit would be at Yudhishtra's Rajasuya Yagna. Krishna took out his Sudarshan Chakra and killed Shishupala. Yudhishtra became king of kings.

The Games of Dice

Duryodhana was very angry at this chain of events. He called his uncle Shakuni. Shakuni was an evil genius. He called the Pandavas for a game of dice. Shakuni had a pair of "baised dice" that was made of the bones of his father. He used those to play the game. Yudhisthra's weakness was gambling. He wagered everything starting small and ending with himself, his brothers and Draupadi. Draupadi was called to the palace. Dushasana, Duryodhana's brother, disrobed her in front of everyone. But she prayed to Krishna who saved her by making her sari infinite. Bhima was extremely angry, He made two vows. One was he would rip open Dushasana's chest and drink his blood. The other was he would break Duryodhana's thigh where he made Draupadi sit. This whole time, Dhritarashtra was watching. He called off all the bets and everyone went back to their old lives. But Duryodhana and Shakuni were not done yet. In the second game of dice,the same thing happened but they did not lose themselves. The last wager was if he won he would get everything back. But if he lost he had to go to the forest in exile for 12 years and be incognito for 1. If they were found out that last year, they had to do it all over again. Yudhisthra lost and they went into exile.