Dear Parents,
Hari Om!
The following material was taught to your children on Sunday, October 21st.
Required Reading: Chapters 1 through 10 of the Mahabharatha by C. Rajagopalachari. Please ask your relatives, friends (who attended 9th grade Balavihar last year) or check your local library for a copy of the Mahabharata so that the children will be up to date with their reading.
Beginning of Class: Chanting Om three times and beginning Prayers:
My Vaacha:Children updated their "My Vaacha" sheet. Please remind the children to keep track of their Vaacha. This is one of the projects the 8th graders are working on to keep track of their speech.
We taught the first six verses of Geeta Dhyanam and verses 41 through 48 of Bhagavad Geeta chapter 18.
Origin of Mahabharatha: Veda Vyasa is the author of the Mahabhaarata and he chose Lord Ganesha to be his scribe. We dictated some words to the children in rapid succession and asked them to record it in their notebooks. Almost all of them were unable to record all the dictated words. This brought up the discussion of what qualities are desirous in a scribe. We concluded that a scribe must be focused, must be quick and accurate in recording information.
It is said that reading and comprehending the Mahaabharata will lead our soul towards enlightenment and hence the epic is often referred to as Jaya. The Mahabharata describes various social, economic and political situations and it is believed if any of these are not mentioned/referred to in this book, then the situation does not exist in the world.
The Mahabharata begins with King Shantanu falling in love with the beauty of the River Ganga. She agrees to marry him under the condition that he would never question her actions. The King was so enamored by her beauty and grace that he agreed to her proposition without a thought.
While Ganga was an ideal wife in every aspect, however every time she had a baby she would calmly throw the baby into the river. The King would remain silent each time she did this because he was scared of losing her. However, when the eighth son was born and she was ready to throw the baby into the river, the King could no longer control himself and asks his wife to stop. At this, Ganga tells the King that she would leave with the baby as he had violated their agreement. She explains that the seven babies she had drowned earlier were Vasus (celestial beings) who had been cursed by Sage Vashishtha for stealing his cow. The Vasus had begged Ganga to be their mother and end their lives quickly so that they could return to heaven. However, the eighth child born (named Devavrata) was the actual instigator of the "crime" and as punishment he would spend his entire life on earth as rigorous punishment. She promised she would care for the boy and train him in archery and would him back to Shantanu when he was in his teens. After a few years,Ganga hands over Devavrata to his father. The king is overjoyed and returns to Hasthinapura, and crowns his son the Yuvaraja (i.e. the heir to the throne).
With every episode of the Mahabharata, we will be discussing the cause and effect of an action.
The cause in this episode was the King was enamored by Ganga's beauty and agreed to never question her actions during their married life.
The effect is that the King was finally forced to question his wife's actions due to which he lost her and his seven sons.
The Lessons we learnt are never to agree to anyone's conditions without thinking through first.
Secondly, one should not be enamored by external beauty!
At 10 AM, we assembled in the temple prayer hall, and did the Sarasvati puja, as a part of the Vijayadashami celebration.
Pranaams,
Mekhala &Vyjayanti
.
CORD Walkathon is coming up this Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at Mercer county Park, East picnic area. Please encourage your children to register and raise money to needy and empower women in Rural India. Please register your entire family, bring your friends as well!
CORD Walkathon: Oct 28th, Sunday 10:00 AM at Mercer County Park. East Picnic area. Please register at http://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/cord-walkathon/. Please spread the word, bring all your friends and family members and walk with us. $25/walker. CORDUSA, Tax-ID:27-0540459, qualifies for most of the corporate Matching Gifts program. Help us maximize the funds by checking with your employer. Raffle prizes for the most number of pledges collected. Note that walkathon is followed by Field Day activities, and Bake sale.
