Hari Om Parents,
Oct 1, 2023
Today was house inaugural day. Half of the class was spent in the assembly doing house activities. Students were divided into four different houses, each house chanted at their respective house bhajans. They were given the task of making nice napkins with forks and spoons in places that can be given to various shelters, where people can use them during their dinner and lunch. This activity made the students work together as a team and tested their individual soft skills. It also inculcates in them the importance of service or seva which is the theme for this year while doing various activities. Reminds how we can help community by doing small things that make others life a little better. Hope some of you were present to see these activities in person.
Because of the house inaugural we had a limited class. After opening prayers, we continued our story of Ramayana. Sage Vishwamitra along with Rama and Lakshmana are now crossing river Ganga. Rama asks about river Ganga. Sage Vishwamitra tells the story about how Ganga was brought from heaven to earth. In Ishwaku dynasty, dynasty in which Lord Rama took birth, there lived king Sagara who wanted to do Ashwamedha yagna. During yagna Indra takes away the sacrificial horse. Since the yajna cannot be continued without the sacrificial horse, king asked his 60, 000 sons to go in search of the horse. After searching all over they find the horse in ashram of sage Kapila, without finding out what exactly happened, the 60,000 sons mistake that the sage took the horse and try to attack him. But the sage with his tapas power reduces them to ashes. King Sagara sends his grandson Anshuman to go in search of his uncles. He eventually finds them reduced to ashes in the hermitage of sage Kapila. He is saddened by seeing their plight. He wants to do their Pitra karyam. Garuda comes and tells that only when water of divine river Ganga which is flowing in the heaven comes and washes the ashes then their souls will attain peace and heavenly abode. He carries the message to king Sagara, who during his time thinks about achieving this goal of bringing Ganga from heaven to earth but was not successful. After him Anshuman, followed by king Dilipa in that family try to bring Ganga from heaven to earth, but we're unsuccessful. Finally, king Bhageeratha who is son of king Dilipa, makes a firm decision to achieve this goal of bringing Ganga from heaven. He assigns duties of ruling his Kingdom to the ministers and goes to Himalayas, and does severe austerities for 1000 years, after which Lord Brahmaji appears and grants him the boon of getting divine river Ganga from heaven to earth, but he warns that earth will not be able to withstand the force with which Ganga is coming down. He advises King Bhageeratha that he should pray the Lord Shiva so he can hold the river when it comes down and slow its force. So, the king starts praying to Lord Shiva, after one year of severe austerities Lord Shiva appears and grants him the boon that he will hold river Ganga on his head when it falls so that the force of the river is slowed down. The mighty divinely Mother Ganga flows from heaven down to earth, follows the king, on the way, she destroys the ashram of sage Jahnu, who swallows all the waters of river Ganga. Sage Bhageeratha pleads with him to release her, then he releases her from his ear, hence river Ganga from that time on also came to be known as Jahnvi. Eventually they reach sage Kapila's ashram where the ashes of his ancestors were washed by her sacred water, and the ancestors attain higher abodes. Lord Brahmaji himself comes and praises king Bagheeratha for the monumental task that he achieved.
This episode teaches several key take home points that will be useful in our own lives:
1. It is important to have a clear goal in life, higher the goal and higher the ideal the better it is. The goal should then motivate us to act, perform and achieve more than what we would normally would.
2. We should have the attitude of never giving up, like Bhageeratha – he did penance for 1000 years initially to propitiate Lord Brahmaji, then he was asked to perform more austerities to propitiate Lord Shiva, he did not get disappointed, give up and leave – he was determined & achieved his goal.
3. Respecting our elders and ancestors, Bhageeratha did such as stupendous task for his ancestors who were five generations away from him, showing the kind of reverence we should have towards our elders and ancestors. Whatever we have now, we owe it to our ancestors.
Pranams
Vyjayanti
Devender
