Hari Om Parents!
We started the class with 3 OM, followed by the Dhyana Slokas.
We just did a brief recap of the last class where we talked about how history is generally written - how different sides may interpret it, what is time and how it measured, perspective of the historians eg. Military history may cover one view but neglect other views.
We discussed 'time' - how do we accurately record the time? The Gregorian calendar is relative. The only accurate view may be a combination of the positions of the stars and planets. Mahabharata has numerous references about star positions. In our culture, we have Muhurtam. This is looking at the position of the stars and planets to find what is considered an auspicious time. There were students in the class who could relate to this.
So, what happens when we see a snippet of a strange and different world? How would we interpret life there? How would we write the history of that place? We split the class into 2 groups. The assignment was to tell a few points about society, family life and science from the world shown after watching a 2 minute trailer of the Disney Movie 'Elemental'. We will share the pictures of the class in the whatsapp channel.
Mahabharata is also giving us a view into the life of those times - it is Itihasa. Itihasas, means "Thus it happened". It tells us about our Dharma. We will continue to learn about Dharma through Mahabharata in subsequent classes.
We then started the Mahabharata story starting from the marriage of Shantanu Maharaja and Ganga (in human form). This was an interactive class, where we were getting the whole class to participate and answer questions. Ganga takes a promise from Shantanu that he would not interfere in anything she wants to do. As promised, Shantanu does not interfere as Ganga keeps drowning her 7 newborns. He obstructs her when she is attempting to drown the eighth baby too. The eighth baby is Devrata.
Devrata later makes a Bheeshma (fierce) promise of celibacy to allow his father to marry a fisherwoman named Satyavati. They have two sons - Vichitraveera and Chitrangada. Chitrangada is killed when he gets into a fight with a Gandharva by the same name.
Bheeshma later wins Kashi princess (Amba,Ambika & Ambalika) in marriage for Vichitraveera. Amba does not want to marry so she is sent back. In the turn of events, Vichitraveera falls ill and dies without any kin. So, through Sage Vyasa, Duryodhana, Pandu and Vidura are born.
Duryodhana is born blind and considered unfit to rule. So, Pandu ascends to the throne. Duryodhana marries Gandhari and gives birth to Kauravas. Pandu marries Kunti and Madri. The Pandavas are soon born.
We will continue the story going over the birth of Pandavas.
The week's class summary was written by Aashvi Raj.
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Vyasa had the Mahabharata in his head, and needed to find a scribe - someone who specialized in writing. Ganesha, who used his tusk to carve on a leaf, or papyrus, was chosen.
He agreed on one condition - that he couldn't stop talking.
Vyasa countered that with the fact that Ganesha had to understand everything.
There are truths in Indian mythology. e.g. buried city near Gujarat, stone bridge to Sri Lanka.
Elemental
There are 4 elements; fire, water, air and earth. Elements don't mix and it's frowned upon to do so.
I believe that the purpose of this activity was to learn to pay attention to details, and to make inferences about the environment around us. This connects to the Mahabharata because of sociology. In the movie, there were social norms, and in the Mahabharata you could really understand the social norms back then if you paid attention to the details.
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We asked the students to think about which character they consider great among the 5 pandavas, Kunti, Gandhari and Draupadi.
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Pranams
Selvi
Partha
