Hari Om,
It was so nice to see majority of the class dressed in Indian attire for Goddess Saraswati Devi pooja. We quickly talked about significance of Navratri and why do we perform pooja of Saraswati Devi today. Ratri means "night" and Nava means "nine". At Navaratri ("nine nights"), the Lord in the form of the Mother Goddess is worshipped in Her various forms as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Though the Goddess is one, She is represented and worshipped in three different aspects. On the first three nights of the festival, Durga is worshipped followed by next three nights is Lakshmi and then Saraswati Devi on the last three nights. The tenth day is called Vijayadasami. Vijaya means "victory", the victory over our own minds that can come only when we have worshipped these three devis: Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati.
- To gain noble virtues, all evil tendencies in the mind must be destroyed. This destruction is represented by Goddess Durga.
- For knowledge to dawn within us, we have to prepare our minds. The mind must be pure, concentrated, and single-pointed; this purification of the mind (not just wealth in terms of money) is obtained through the worship of Lakshmi Devi.
- Victory over the mind can be gained only through knowledge, through understanding; and it is Goddess Saraswati who represents this highest knowledge of the Self.
The class continued its exploration of Kuru dynasty family tree through Mahabharata. After a break of one class, it was hard for some to remember what we learned so far! The notes came in handy to remember the names. We recapped up to Sage Veda Vyasa (first son of Satyavati before marriage with sage Parashar) entry to bless the daughters-in-laws of Satyavati with children/to have a heir. The class missed the presence of Sage Vyasa (Uma Aunty)! The class remembered the 4 purusharthas-Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha and eager to learn Dharma through Mahabharata. Ambika being terrified of Sage closed her eyes and gave birth to blind son, Dhrtarashtra, Ambalika turned pale and had a pale son, Pandu. Ambika was frightened and sent her wise and devoted maid who gave birth to Vidura. Dhrtarashtra married Gandhari who chose to have a blind fold for the love of her husband. Pandu married Kunti and Madri. Children were fascinated to hear about a boon Kunti received from sage Durvasa. The class became emotional when Kunti gave birth to Karna by invoking Lord Sun and placed the baby in Sharayu river to avoid shame of being a Kumari Mata. We will continue the story next class.
We had a short class due to which could not chant the Bhagvad Geeta verses.
We assembled at 7:45 pm in the temple hall for Saraswati Devi Puja. Our class got a chance to be a role model "Big Brother/Sister" and was paired with younger grade children to assist in pooja vidhi. Kudos to all for a job well done!!
Please register for CORD walkathon and enjoy the field day, Baking competition (we have one enthusiastic baker in the class) which will be on this Sunday, Oct. 28. Kindly note that we will not have our regular class on Friday.
Regards,
Sangita and Uma
