Hari Om Parents,
We have been trying to think of ways to move forward in the class to cover the portion of Virata Parva into Yudh Kanda of Mahabharata. A big proportion of the class does not have the book and is not familiar with this part of the story. We wanted all the class to internalize the story and pick Dharmic aspects from that story.
We divided the class into 3 groups. We decided to show pictures of various incidents in Mahabharata for a short time through a powerpoint presentation. The students were expected to cross-learn the incidents in the pictures and around them within the group. The teachers then asked questions around them. This made the class interesting and students seemed to have a lot of fun.
We covered incidents after the game of dice, the pandavas staying incognito in Virata's palace, Uttara kumara and Arjuna fighting the Kauravas.
There were some digressions. One such was when Uttaraa, wife of Abhimanyu, was saved from Brahmastra. We asked this question - Why was her son saved? There are some crucial points of inflection in Mahabharata that standout. And inevitably Krishna is there at those incidents. This is one of those crucial junctures. The family tree of Pandavas survives because Utaraa takes refuge in Krishna. She does not go to any other Maharathis that are there but to Krishna. This incident shows the basic theme of Mahabharata and Bhagwad Geeta. Where there is Dharama, Krishna is there. And where there is Krishna there will be victory!
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Student summary written by Shirish.
Balavihar Notes 1/28/2024:
End of Sabha, Vana, and Virata Parvas
Games of Dice and Banishment to the Forest
Pandavas get called to the Game of Dice and are forced to come
Yudhisitra waged his kingdom, brothers, and wife, and lost all of them
Duryodhana called them for a second game and they had to come, and they ended up losing and got exiled from Hastinapura for 13 years, 12 years in the forest and one year incognito
The Pandavas went incognito in the Virata Kingdom
Bhima was a cook
Arjuna was a dancer
Bhima killed Kicaka (the commander in chief of the Virata Army)
The Kauravas attack Virata Kingdom and the Pandavas defend
When the Kauravas attacked Virata, 4 of the 5 pandavas were fighting the army on one side, but it was only Arjuna and Uttara Kumara (Virata's son) on the side where Duryodhana and Bheeshma were attacking from
After the Exile
Duryodhana said that the Pandavas should go back to exile for 13 years because Duryodana saw Arjuna but Bheeshma tells him that the year was over already so they didn't have to go back
The Pandavas revealed themselves to the Virata Kingdom
Virata tells Arjuna that he can marry Uttara (the king's daughter), but since Arjuna taught her to dance he says she can marry his son, Abhimanyu
My Thoughts:
The Game of Dice stood out to me because it influenced a ton of events that happened in the story. For example, if Yudhistra ended that game early, he could have kept his kingdom and never gotten invited to that second game of dice.
Another event that stood out to me was when Bhima killed Kicaka. Why would he do this? Even though Kicaka was not being nice to Sairandhri, he shouldn't have killed him, because since he killed him, the Kauravas now got the idea to invade Virata because they knew that only someone like Bhima would kill him
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We can move faster if students read Mahabharata. We are hoping they do this by the next class.
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Regards & Pranaams,
Selvi
Partha
