Hari Om,
The class continued its exploration of dharma through the Mahabharata.
Shantanu spent many years away from Ganga and Devavrata and is very happy to be reunited with a brave, young and kind Devavrata. The young lad notices his father's sadness after the father's meeting with Satyavati and her father. Shantanu, for his part, decides that he cannot take away Devavrata's claim to the throne and cannot commit to Satyavati's father's condition. But his sadness is no secret from the son who find out why and goes ahead to address it by taking the vow to be celibate all his life! Thus Devavrata got the name of Bheeshma.
The son's great love for the father and his ability to go to any length to ensure the father's happiness was noted by the students.
After Satyavati's sons dies heirless, Sage Veda Vyasa was called upon by Satyavati to bless the daughters in law of Satyavati with children.He actually visited the classroom!
Well,we actually enacted a 2018 encounter of Veda Vyasa with current day youth on DNN -Dharma News Network in which the students got to ask him questions such as- why did he write Mahabharata, why are his characters flawed, what one should expect to get out of Mahabharata,what was the status of women then, and so on.
Some of the students were visibly excited with one of the teachers showing up in Veda Vyasa costume and others played cool, but it was fun to use this method to drive home the point that of the 4 purusharthas-Dharma,Artha,Kama and Moksha- there is a reason why Dharma is placed first and the Mahabharata teaches all through highlighting Dharma.
The children are continuing to learn to chant the Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 18,part 2 with the help of Swamiji's video.Please reinforce at home.
We assembled at 8.15 in the temple hall to listen to the presentation about CORD by 2 of our youth-suraj and Akhil who visited CORD Sidhabari,India 2 summers ago on a service trip.
Please register for CORD walkathon which will be on Sunday OCt 28.
We do not have balavihar this Friday but Navarathri begins tomorrow -try and make time for a family temple visit,Durga Pooja Visit and talk about the significance of this festival.
Regards
Sangita and Uma
