A Trip To The Soup Kitchen for Annadanam

Hari Om Sixth graders!              Saturday, December 15, 2012

First of all, I have to say thanks a lot for all the tasty treats you sent with us for the soup kitchen! It all looked absolutely delicious! and a special shout out to all of the people who took the time to make there own food.  Not that buying food was bad though. Its the thought that counts! 

Anyway, we all really appreciated the fact that you delivered the food on time to the ashram. But sadly, only one student actually actually came to the annadhanam...  After all the food was delivered, the teachers and I went to the kitchen.  I had a great  time going with them.  After we arrived there,  my heart splinterd like porcelain when I saw all of those poor people. Not just adults or teenagers, either. There were children and even toddlers at the kitchen!  Can you imagine that?  Just step into their shoes. No home, no food, maybe even no parents.  No presents for your birthday, no one to celebrate holidays with.  Very few go to school, having to rely on other people to get food.   Makes our lives sound pretty good, huh? 

The next time you start to complain about not getting something you wanted, or not liking the food your loving family is able to provide, just picture those children at the soup kitchen.  Moving on,  after we heated up the food and put it out and rung the 'dinner bell', all of the people came up to get their food.  Another thing I noticed was that even though the people had a pretty unfortunate lives, they still were so polite! Some of them had better manners than some of the kids in our class!!  Every single one of them said please and thank you and they didn't waste a single morsel! A single morsel!!!  Overall, I had a great night and I was truly amazed by all of the people and the way they behaved.  From now on, I am going to try to follow their great example and apply their values in my life!   

-BKS

Pandavas Vanavasam Contd..

 Geeta Chanting: Listen to Geeta Chapter 13 regularly, memorize the first 8 verses.

Mahabharata Lesson    

Today (12/16) we learned a lot about the Mahabharata. We started off the class with some Likita Japa., writing "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya". Then we did our morning prayers and started with the continuation of our story.

    At first Draupati wanted to have a 1000 petal flower, and Bheema set out for it, walking through the forest. He encountered an old monkey sleeping in a cave, who refused to give way to Bheema. Bheema was angry, he tried to lift him and cast him aside, but to his surprise found that he could not move him at all. He asked him who he was. He replied, "I am Hanuman, your older brother'.  Hanuman promised Bheema that he would be at the Pandavas side fighting the war with them. Then, after Hanuman moved out, he found Yakshas guarding the 1000 petal flowers; Bheema immediately defeated them. Finally, he got the 1000 petal flower and returned it to Draupati. The moral of the story is to always think before you act. Bheema never thought and just killed everyone that slowed him down. The God of wealth Kubera was upset with Bheema, for he owned the garden of lotuses. 

Arjuna had come back from Indraloka and showed off his new weapons. Rishi Narada came and told them, "These weapons are not toys. They can destroy everything." The Pandavas agreed and the Rishi left. Later, Bheema also got into a fight with a python. Bheema was easily defeated. The snake said, "I am the cursed king Nahusha. For me to regain my true form, someone must answer my questions." So, Yudhishtra answered the questions, and the king Nahusha regained his form. Another person to fight along with the Pandavas, in the future war.

    Next, we did an exercise on the Vanaparva (the forest chapter). In the exercise, the book quizzed us on what we know on Vanaparva. Then we played Dumb Charades on the Vanaparva.

    Continuing with the story, Duryodana restarted with the master plan to somehow kill the Pandavas and sent Rishi Durvasa and his followers to the Pandavas at night. He knew that at night, Draupati would not have food to serve, and that would anger Durvasa, resulting in him cursing the Pandavas. But his plan majorly backfired. Draupati immediately got scared when Durvasa  entered the home. She prayed to Krishna, and when he appeared before her, he asked for a grain of rice. When he ate that grain of rice, everyone's stomach got full. Then Durvasa left, fearing he would offend them by saying no to their offerings of food. 

After that, Jayadratha, another king, kidnapped Draupati. Arjuna and Bheema both got into a duel with him. Obviously, the Pandavas won. Bheema pulled out Jayadratha's hair, leaving only 5 tufts to symbolize each of the Pandavas. The insulted Jayadratha did severe penance on Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva granted him a boon that he would be able to defeat all the pandavas except Arjuna atleast once in the war.

    At the end of class we chanted our ending prayers (Aarti, Purnamadam, and Pledge) to wrap it all up. This was one of the most fun classes that we've ever had.

S.S