Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update

Class Name: Bhargava Week# 25: April 13th , 2014

General Assembly

We started the GA with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra.

Aparna Aunty taught the children how to do Ujjayi Pranayama. It is a breathing technique used for relaxing your mind. You breathe in and out through the back of the throat thereby making a hissing sound.

Apr 15th is Jayanti. As we all know Shri Hanuman was the biggest devotee of Lord . When he went to see in Lanka, he made himself very small. What this teaches us is that in front of our parents and elders we have to be "small", i.e. set our ego aside - no matter how successful we might be. Sita Mata saw his humility and granted him "Ashta Siddhi Nava Nidhi". The 8 Siddhis are 8 qualities / abilities - for example, the ability to increase or decrease in size, increase or decrease one's weight etc.. The 9 Nidhis are 9 types of wealth - example, food, jewelry, children etc.. But Hanumanji did not want any of that. All he wanted was to serve Lord Rama. This shows his greatness.

We then chanted the Hanuman Chalisa.

Class

We continued with the Mahabharat story… and escaped from Varnavrata safely and crossed river . However, people of Hastinapura thought that they were killed in the house fire. Everyone in Hastinapura was very sad to hear the news including . But Vidur consoled Bhishma and told him that he was very confident that Pandavas and Kunti were alive.

Meanwhile Pandavas and Kunti reached Hidimbvana where a called lived with his sister . They would kill any human being who entered their forest. When Pandavas and Kunti decided to take some rest offered to go bring some water for everyone. While he was looking for water, Hidimbi happened to see Bhima and she instantly fell in love with him. Hidimba could smell human flesh and he ordered Hidimbi to bring all six of them to him. Hidimbi decided to shape shift and appear as a beautiful woman in from of Bhima so he is not put off by her rakshashi looks. She expresses her feelings to Bhima and tells him that she really likes him and would like to marry him. Bhima explained to Hidimbi that he has an older brother and he cannot marry before him. Hidimbi then warned Bhima about her brother Hidimba. Bhima said that he is ready to fight her brother. While they were talking, Hidimba appears and attacks Bhima. Both had a fierce battle and ultimately Bhima killed Hidimba.

Meanwhile rest of the Pandavas and Kunti came to the scene. Hidimbi spoke to Yudhistra and Kunti and told them about her feelings for Bhima. Kunti and Yudhistra convinced Bhima to marry Hidimbi since both were very strong and it would be a good alliance. They however had one condition for Hidimbi. They told her that after marriage, Bhima will not live with her in the forest for the rest of their lives and that he has to return back to Hastinapura. Hidimbi agreed to that but she asked for Bhima to stay with her only for one year until she has a son. Kunti and Ydishtra agreed to this and Bhima got married to Hidimbi.

Within a year, Hidimbi gave birth to a son and called him Ghatotkaca. Kunti and Pandavas gave their blessings to the new born child and left the forest to continue their journey. On the way they met sage

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Veda who advised them to go to the kingdom of . When they reached there, they met a bhramin who offered them a place to stay in his house. Several days went by. One day, Kunti noticed that the Bhramin’s family was very sad and everyone was crying. Bhramin told them about Bakasura, a rakshasa who would come to their kingdom and take away 3 or 4 human beings from the villages. The villagers made a deal with Bakasura that they will send one person from each family that he can feed on, and that he does not have to come to the village. This time it was the Bhramis families turn. Therefore they were very sad. Hearing this, Kunti advised the Bhramin that let my son Bhima go and resolve this problem. Bhima agreed to go but asked the Bhramin to keep that a secret and not tell anyone that he will be going to fight and kill Bakasura.

Bhima had a fierce battle with Bakasura and left his dead body at the city gates of Ekachakra. Bhima then sneaked into the city. When the villagers asked the bhramin who killed Bakasura, the bhramin replied that a divine soul did this for all of us.

Homework

Please complete exercise on pages 26, 27 and 28 of book

Announcements

Apr 27th is field day at Green Hope Elementary School.

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