Hari Om!
With Pujya Gurudev's Grace and our Swamiji's blessings, we have started our exciting journey this year into India, the Sacred Land and into the concluding portions of the Mahabharata. It was a great class, starting with quietly enthusiastic children chanting the opening prayers and learning the Devi Dhyana shloka (sarva mangala mAngalye) and the first verse of the Mahalakshmi Ashtakam.
Mahabharata:
We started with a recap of the story so far - With Lord Ganesha as the scribe, Veda Vyasa compiled the Mahabharata. When Janamejaya conducted the sarpa satra yagna to avenge his father Parikshit's death by snake-bite, Sage Vaisampayana told this epic story to those present. One of the attendees there, Suta, then told it to a gathering in NaimishAraNya. We recounted the story from the reign of King Shantanu at Hastinapura, his marriage to Ganga, subsequent separation due her drowning their seven newborns, leaving with the eighth son and later being reunited (including the story of the Vasus who stole Vasishta's cow Nandini and were thus cursed to be reborn), Devavrata becoming Bhishma on account of his great vow to remain a bachelor to facilitate Shantanu's wedding to Satyavati and the story of Vicitravirya's marriage- how it sowed the seed for Bhishma's demise in the form of the vengeful princess Amba.
We started with a recap of the story so far - With Lord Ganesha as the scribe, Veda Vyasa compiled the Mahabharata. When Janamejaya conducted the sarpa satra yagna to avenge his father Parikshit's death by snake-bite, Sage Vaisampayana told this epic story to those present. One of the attendees there, Suta, then told it to a gathering in NaimishAraNya. We recounted the story from the reign of King Shantanu at Hastinapura, his marriage to Ganga, subsequent separation due her drowning their seven newborns, leaving with the eighth son and later being reunited (including the story of the Vasus who stole Vasishta's cow Nandini and were thus cursed to be reborn), Devavrata becoming Bhishma on account of his great vow to remain a bachelor to facilitate Shantanu's wedding to Satyavati and the story of Vicitravirya's marriage- how it sowed the seed for Bhishma's demise in the form of the vengeful princess Amba.
It was great to meet the parents in class today - as we mentioned in the meeting, we hope to have presentations from the children, with family participation, on "India- My Sacred Land", details to be sent out within the next couple of weeks.
Please note that class emails are sent to the emails used to register the child or set as preferred email by you- if you would like to add another email to the mailing list, please let us know.
Class updates (updated on Thursdays) can be checked on the parent portal - https://cmnjparentportal23-24.blogspot.com/
Our next class is Sep 17th, class starts at 9:15am sharp, so please make sure the children are in class by that time.
As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards
Keerthi Kobla
Abhirami Shrinivas
