Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Class Name: Bhrigu Week# 08: November 9, 2014 General Assembly Sridhar Uncle started the GA with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra and Prayer Before Studies. The students did a lead and follow of the Gita Dhyanam with Valmiki class leading. Two students from Valmiki class came up on the stage and explained the meaning of the shloka. This shloka is a preamble to the Gita and is basically a prayer to it. Om Parthaaya prati-bhoditaam Bhagavataa, Narayanena svayam Vyaasena grathi-taam puraana muninaa Madhye Mahabharatam Advaitaamrta varshi-neem bhagavateem Ashtaa-dashaa dhyayineem AmbaTvaam Anu-sanda-dhaami Bhagavad Geete bhavad veshineem Here is the meaning.. Om, O Bhagavadgita, with which Partha (Arjuna) was illuminated by Lord Narayana Himself and which was composed in the middle of the Mahabharata by the ancient sage Vyasa, O Divine Mother, the destroyer of rebirth, the showerer of the nectar of Advaita (teaching of Oneness in all things) and consisting of eighteen chapters – upon Thee, O Bhagavad Gita! O affectionate Mother! I meditate. We ended the GA with a short meditation session followed by closing prayers. Class We started class with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra and before studies prayers. Then we went over 3 stories from Chapet 16 in Bal-Bhagavatam 2. First story was about how Lord Krishna defeated an asura named Aghasura. Aghasura was a younger brother of Puthana and Bakasura, the asura who transformed into Crane to kill Lord Krishna but was killed by Lord Himself (story from Chapter 15). One day Lord Krishna wanted Sanskar Academy 1 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update to have breakfast in the forest with his friends. He got up early and started playing his flute. His friends heard music and gathered around him and they all started towards forest. Aghasura transformed himself into huge snake and lay on the ground with his mouth wide open. His mouth was huge with lower jaw touching ground and upper jaw touching clouds. He lay still and waited for children to come closer who were curious to know what the huge structure was in the middle of the road. They walked into snake’s mouth and started playing with his tongue before Lord Krishna could stop them. Lord Krishna knew this was an asura and placed himself in its throat. Snake couldn’t breath and started choking and died. Lord Krishna got his friends out soon before asura’s gastric fire could burn them. Devas watching from the heaven were very pleased and started singing Lord’s praises, however, Kamsa was upset as his plan of killing Lord Krishna failed yet another time. Second story was about Lord Brahma’s test for Lord Krishna. After killing Aghasura, Lord Krishna and his friends came to the banks of river Yamuna and sat down to eat breakfast and let cattle graze who strayed nearby. After a while gopas noticed that their cattle was missing. Lord Krishna told them to continue with their breakfast and offered to go in search of cattle. He looked everywhere but couldn’t find them as Lord Brahma hid all calves in the mountain cave. Lord Krishna came back to riverbank where to see if cattle returned on their own accord and is with his friends. However, there was no one at the riverbank. All his friends had disappeared. Lord Brahma had put a spell on them and had frozen them in time. Lord Krishna was puzzled as to what is going on. He meditated and realized that this was Lord Brahma’s trick. He decided to please Lord Brahma, mothers of all gopas and calves by multiplying himself and assuming forms of each gopa and each calf. So there was exact copy of all his friends and cattle who came home from riverbank that evening. Nobody in Vrindavana felt anything amiss except that mothers and cows felt more tender and happy for their children that evening. That night was full of love in Vrindavana. Slowly days passed and almost a year was over in Vrindavana. It was a year with lots of happiness as Lord had filled hearts of Krishna -gopas and Krishna-calves with love, tenderness and happiness. In the meantime, Balarama had noticed that gopas and calves all started to look like Lord Krishna and asked him for explanation. Lord Krishna described to him how all this has happened. Lord Brahma also wanted to see how Lord Krishna handled this problem so he sat on his swan and went to see Lord Krishna and saw all gopas and calves happily leaving. Lord Brahma was confused and suddenly he saw all gopas and calves with dark skin color of Lord Krishna and then they took form of Lord Narayana with four arms and in its full glory. He got down from his swan and prostrated before Lord Krishna and sang his praises. Then he got back on his swan and disappeared and with him disappeared all Krishna-gopas and Krishna-calves. The time spell was broken and there were original gopas sitting under the tree with original calves grazing nearby talking about Aghasura incidence. In the evening, they went back home and told their elders what happened with Aghasura. Nobody remembered anything that happened d uring the year because of the time spell. In this story, by becoming gopas and calves Himself, Lord Krishna showed us the divine power of the Lord in each of us and possibility of infinite happiness by surrendering to Him. Third story was about Dhenukasura. As the boys got older, they took their cattle deeper and deeper in the forest for grazing where grass was thicker and plenty of wild fruits and flowers grew. They came across a beautiful garden full of fruit bearing trees each with lots of big, ripe, ju icy fruits. Gopas wanted to eat the fruits but didn’t dare to enter the garden as it was being Sanskar Academy 2 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update guarded by fierce herd of donkeys with their leader an asura named Dhenukasura. Lord Krishna and Balarama entered the garden and shook the trees until ground was covered with fruits. Dhenukasura got very angry and charged at Balarama and struck him in the chest with his hind legs. Balarama in his strength and might stood his ground and when Dhenukasura charged again, lifted him on his hind legs, whirled him round and round and threw against a tree with tremendous force. Asura was dead, lots of trees were crashed and that brought other donkeys to attack the two boys. Lord Krishna and Lord Balarama fought all of them and freed the garden off donkeys for gopas and cattle to enjoy thereafter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following Bhagavatam, we explored value called ‘honesty ’. Falguni-aunty told us a story of a poor man who was making his living by cutting trees and his axe was his most valuable possession. One day he was cutting a tree branch and axe slipped from his hand and fell in the river below. The man started crying and the river-god appeared in front of him and asked him why the man was upset. After listening to him, river -god dived in and brought out beautiful axe made of gold and laden with precious jewels and offered it to man. Man said, this is not my axe; mine was simple, plain axe made of iron. God dived again and got a silver one this time. The man again told him that his axe was made up of iron and he can’t take silver or gold axe. Third time river-god bought back iron axe and the tree-cutter was very happy to see it. The god was very pleased with tree -cutter’s honesty and gave him all 3 axes as gift. Following this story children shared few other stories related to honesty, Sharvan shared an extension of axe and tree-cutter story with the class where another greedy tree-cutter from the same village staged exact scenario after listening to the first tree-cutter’s story and dropped his axe in the river. When river-god came out with gold axe, he said, it was his. Knowing that he is lying river-god disappeared and the greedy tree-cutter lost his original axe. Sania shared a story of a dishonest cat that kept on lying about being king of nearby kingdom and about being able to jump high and who eventually was punished. We also looked at real-life stories from news about honesty where people have returned money to others because it wasn’t theirs. Link to couple of stories is as follows: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/odd-news/98-000-cash-found-in-desk-bought-on-craigslist- 223108231.html we defined honesty as ‘not taking something that doesn’t belong to you no matter how tempting the proposal is’. Homework Complete the exercises on chapter 16, pages 17, 18. Coloring pictures on page 19 earns bonus points. Think about honesty as a value and find an example either from day to day life, from our scriptures, from Ramayana, Mahabharata, from real life incidence that happened in school or about a friend or a classmate. Also, talk to parents and see if they have any honesty stories to share with you from their childhood. Please come prepared to share your ‘Honesty’ story in the class. We will share stories about honesty over next few classes. Announcements Sanskar Academy 3 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update The theme for the 2014-15 Year Book is Ramayana. You can either draw something or write a poem / essay etc and turn in your work by early January for a chance for your work to be published in the year book Sanskar Academy 4 .