Dear Parents,
Hari Om!
Your children were taught the following material on Sunday November 11th, 2018.
Required Reading (Very IMPORTANT): Chapters 1 through 15 of the Mahabharatha by C. Rajagopalachari. Since the book is not available at the Chinmaya book store, there are a few ways you might try to get it:
1) It is available on amazon.com using the following link:
2) Alternatively, you may ask your friends or family members (whose child/children attended 9thgrade Balavihar last year) to loan you a copy of the book.
3) You may check your local library for a copy of the Mahabharata so that the children will be up to date with their reading.
Finally, please encourage the children to watch Mahabharata videos, as an other resource.
CLASS STRUCTURE
Beginning of Class: Breathing exercise, chanting "Om" three times, and beginning prayers.
My Vaacha: Children updated their "My Vaacha" sheet. Please remind the children to update their Vaacha. This is one of the projects the 8thgraders are working on to keep track of their speech.
We then taught the first seven verses of Geeta Dhyanam and verses 41 through 52 of Bhagavad Geeta chapter 18.
Below is the full summary of November 11th, 2018 class. Many children were out the last class when we started the following story, so we reviewed it from the top. We made it about halfway through the story in the last Sunday class on November 4th.
As a recap, it was narrated how Bhishma went to Svayamvara, and carried away the three princess, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. Ambika and Ambalika were happy to be married to Vichitravirya, but Amba wanted to marry king Salva, whom she loved. Bhishma, upon hearing that from her, sent her back respectfully. However, upon her return, Amba was rejected by Salva, Bhishma was blamed for her plight by Amba, and she vowed to take revenge on him. Amba, then returned to Bhisma, and asked him to marry her. It was impossible for Bhisma to break his vow. He tried to persuade Vichitravirya who refused to marry her as she loved someone else. Finally in desperation she goes again to Salva, who was adamant in refusal. Amba spent bitter years of sorrow,a and approached every warrior to kill Bhisma, but none accepted as there were all afraid of Bhisma. Finally, she resorted to hard austerities for the grace of Lord Subramanya, who gifted her a garland of ever fresh lotuses, saying that that the wearer of the garland would become the enemy of Bhisma. Amba took the garland to every Kshatriya to champion her cause, but no one could antagonise Bhishma. Finally she approached Parasurama, who was moved by her anguish, and fought with Bhishma, but after a hard fight Parasurama had to accept the defeat. Amba with grief and rage went to Himalayas and got the grace of Shiva with her penance, and the lord granted her a boon that she would slay Bhishma in her next birth. Amba was so impatient that she made a fire, plunged into it, and ended her life.
In her next life, she was born as daughter of Drupada. After few years of her birth, she saw the garland of never fading flowers that still hung at the palace. Her father, Drupada, feared the wrath of Bhisma, and sent her to exile. She practiced austerities in the forest and transformed into a male and became warrior Sikhandin. In the battle field of Kurukshetra, Arjuna attacked Bhishma, who knew that Sikhandin was born as a female. and to Bhishma code, he could not fight him under any circumstance. So it was Arjuna who fought screened by Sikhandin and conquered Bhishma.
As the arrows stuck Bhishma, pierced him deep, Bhishma said that was Arjuna's arrow and not Sikhandin's. Bhishma the great warrior fell, in the battle field of Kurukshethra.
- In this context, a great debate arose in our class: Could Bhishma be blamed as the sole cause of Amba's plight?
- Is Bhishma guilty or not guilty? Our classroom transformed into a court of Dharma
Here are the various responses and arguments from our students:
Guilty
"The girl gets to choose her husband in Svayamvara, Here, Bhisma forcefully, abducted Amba and other two princess, not leaving them any choice, and ruined her life."
"Though Salva was there in Svayamvara, to win Amba's hand, Bhisma did not leave him any chance. Both Amba and Salva were dejected by Bhishma's arrogant act of carrying her away, without respecting the couple's choice."
"Amba's life was shattered because of the Bhisma's thoughtless act. So Amba was full of rage and revenge against Bhishma, which can be justified."
"I believe that Bhisma is guilty of ruining Amba'a life. He was not permitted to compete with the other kings to win the three princess hands. He was also against the rules to kidnap the princess, as it was supposed to be their choice. Bhishma, not only kidnapped Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika, he also forced them to marry strangers." – Janhavi Palkar
"I think that Bhishma is guilty. He is guilty because he took a great vow not to marry or be the future king, and entered the swayamvara even though, he was not expected. When everyone ridiculed he should have embarassed, and left the place. But, then he kiddnapped Amba, Ambalika, and Ambika. As Amba told him, she was in love with king Salva, situation got even complicated with his thought less act. The one who loved Amba didn't not accept her since Bhisma won over him in the fight. Amba had to live her life with rage and revenge, instead of being happy. This shows that he created a big mess, and ended with a guilty feel." - Abhijit Kosuru
Not guilty
"Bhishma is not guilty because he didn't mean any harm to Amba. He rightfully let Amba go to Salva, the man she wanted to marry and carried out her wishes. Plus, he was kidnapping Amba only for his brother, not for himself. He even sacrificed his marriage due to his father's happiness and so that he could marry Satyavati. This was a very selfless act of Bhishma. I don't blame Bhishma for rejecting Amba because if a vow is a made, then it has to be kept. Amba was technically asking Bhishma to do something illegal and break his "unbreakable" vow. In my opinion, Amba should be punished for asking him to do this because she knew about the great promise he made. Plus, she was the one who rebelled against Bhishma by forcing him to let her go to Salva." - Priyanka Ranganath
"I think Bhishma is not guilty because he had to keep up his vow of celibacy. If he had married Amba, that would be adharma on his part. Also, he had never known that he would be stuck in a situation like this, and didn't perform these actions contemptuously." - Swetha Karthikeyan.
The verdict was undecided in our classroom, since we had to rush to the prayer hall for Aarti and Pledge.
Pranaams,
Vyjayanti
