Hari Om! Parents,
Reminder: Please donate to the Treats for Troops and Sewa Diwali before November 15th. Collection boxes are at the front entrance of the Ashram.
Week 7 Class
Children did this Likhita Japa at the start of class -18 times "Sri Krishna Sharanam Mama". Please encourage your child to do likhita japa every day.
Shlokas
We started with Om chanting and then chanted Sahana vavatu, Vakratunda mahakaya, Saraswati namastubhyam, Guru Brahma, Sarva Mangala mangalye (ref. My Prayers book pg 39)
and Mahalakshmi Ashtakam (ref. My Prayers book pg 40). The class learned Verse1 of the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram (ref. My Prayers book pg 47)
Mahabharata*
We continued the Mahabharata story today with Udyoga Parva. The wedding celebrations of Abhimanyu to princess Uttara concluded and a grand council was held in Upaplavya.
Lord Krishna along with the Pandavas, Drupada, Virata, Balarama, Satyaki, Samba, sons of Pandavas and Krishna were all gathered.
Lord Krishna spoke first to remind everyone about the unfair circumstances that led to the exile of the Pandavas. Lord Krishna recounted their hard times, their suffering and concluded by
saying that the future course of action must be in accordance to Dharma, inspite of the injustice done to them by the Kauravas. Lord Krishna suggested they send an envoy to Hastinapura.
This person would ask Duryodhana half of the kingdom which is rightfully due to Yudhistira. Balarama spoke next, adding that the messenger should pacify Duryodhana and not antagonize him.
This led to Satyaki getting angry at Balarama's support for Duryodhana. He said that knowing Duryodhana a messenger would be a waste of time. He volunteered to go to Hastinapura, defeat
and drag back Duryodhana to Yudhistira's feet. King Drupada spoke next, saying he agreed that soft words should not be used to talk to Duryodhana, he would think the Pandavas were afraid and weak.
They should quickly reach out to the righteous kings and gather support first before Duryodhana approached them. Next, he proposed to send his brahmin priest as an envoy to Hastinapura.
Lord Krishna approved the wise advice from King Drupada, adding that great calamity and destruction can be averted by following that advice. However, the Pandavas must prepare for war.
King Drupada instructed his priest to address the Kauravas assembly carefully. The king wanted the messenger to speak in a way to influence the minds of those who were righteous-minded,
making them rethink giving their support and forcing Duryodhana to win back allegiances.
Many kings with their armies soon began to march towards Upaplavya in response to Yudhistira's request for support. Pandavas have 7 akshauhini in their army and Kauravas have 11
akshauhini on their side. Arjuna went to Dwaraka himself to ask for Lord Krishna's support.
Duryodhana arrived there just before Arjuna. Lord Krishna was sleeping, so they both waited. Duryodhana sat at the head of the cot while Arjuna stood at the feet. When Lord Krishna woke up,
he saw Arjuna first and turned to see Duryodhana next. The Lord said there were two alternatives to choose from: one Akshauhini of Narayani sena or Lord Krishna who will not fight in the war.
Since the Lord saw Arjuna first, he got to choose first. Without hesitation, Arjuna picks Bhagavan, saying he does not want anything else in the world. Duryodhana was happy to get Narayani sena.
He approaches Balarama next, but Balarama has taken an oath not to participate in the war. Arjuna asked Lord Krishna to be his charioteer and thus Bhagavan got the name "Parthasarathi".
The powerful king of Madra, Salya, was uncle to Nakula and Sahadeva, and had one Akshauhini army. He was making his way to the Pandavas, when Duryodhana decided to make
arrangements for his army to rest. The king believed it was someone that Yudhistira had sent. Pleased with the hospitality, king Salya asked to meet the person responsible and reward him.
He was surprised to see Duryodhana, who asked for the king's support as a reward. Poor Salya had given his word and agreed. He went to meet the Pandavas and told Yudhistira about the incident.
Yudhistira forgave his uncle, asking him to become the charioteer to Radheya. Yudhistira told Salya to protect Arjuna by dampening Radheya's confidence and influencing his mental condition.
The king agreed and promised to support Arjuna on the battlefield.
In response to the message sent by Yudhistira, king Dhritarashtra sends Sanjaya to Upaplavya. The blind king asks Yudhistira to not renew old wounds, refrain from war,
and not commit the sin of killing one's own family. Dhritarashtra asks Yudhistira to consider peace. Sanjaya tells the Pandavas that the king wants them to give up any desire
for their share of the kingdom. Yudhistira is shocked and hurt to bear his uncle's accusations. The Pandavas realise that the king to satisfy his son knowingly abandoned all Dharma.
We paused the story here.
Next, the class took a break to do deep breathing exercise and to stretch out for a bit
India, the Sacred Land
Topics: The Sacred Land - Diwali/ Deepavali Festival and stories of why we celebrate this festival
The children listened to the stories of - Lord Krishna and Narakasura, Lord Rama's return to Ayodhya, Samudra Manthana- Goddess Lakshmi, Vamana avatar and King Bali.
#TIL - Intro to the Gregorian calendar. The class watched a video about how the months in the Hindu calendar are calculated. We discussed Sauramana vs Chandramana calendars.
Activity: Which type of Hindu calendar does your family follow? Ask your grandparents/ parents.
Geeta Chanting
Grade 6 is group Partha, assigned verses 1-28 to memorize. Today our class learned verses 4 and 5 of the Bhagavad Geeta, Chapter 4 from our Swamiji.
We concluded the session with Aarti and Pledge recitation in the Prayer Hall. Wishing all Grade 6 families a blessed Diwali festival!
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Sangeetha Srikanth
Supplies needed for every class:- Bala Vihar Handbook, My Prayers book, the Junior Class Workbook Part 1 & 2, a notebook and pencils for likhita japa; everything in their Bala Vihar bag
*Reference books - Mahabharata by Rajagopalachari / Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam