June 2010

RIVER

Balabhavan Coordinators BBC Announcements: Bharathy Thridandam Nithya Sudhakar Balabhavan annual picnic Seetha Janakiraman th Sriram Srinivasan will be on Sunday June 13 at the Poway Lake. Please [email protected] The River Krishna, meaning "dark" come by and support this (feminine) in , also called the event. If you have not Class Coordinators Krishnaveni (Veni means River in Sanskrit), is signed up yet, please send the fourth largest river in and is about in your RSVP immediately. Super-Senior Class: 1,440 kilometers in length. During the summer we have Aparna Vemuri Krishna River originates in the Western planned to have field trips [email protected] Ghats at an altitude of about 4000 ft above sea to places of religious Ashok Malavalli level in Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, passes importance. We have so for [email protected] through cities such as Sangli, and Vijayawada, identified 2 places to visit Krishna Meduri before finally joining the Bay of Bengal at during this summer. We will [email protected] Hamasaledevi in Andhra Pradesh. have one trip to the The legendary source of the river is a Buddhist monastery on July Senior Class: spout from the mouth of a statue of a cow in 3rd and the other trip to the Prasanna Madabhushi the ancient temple of Mahadev in Old Self Realization Fellowship [email protected] Mahabaleshwar. It is believed that River (SRF) on the July 24th. We Renuka Krishnan: Krishna is Lord himself as a result of a will send you the [email protected] curse on the trimurtis by Savitri. Also, its information about the field tributaries Venna and Koyana are said to be trips soon. Junior Class: Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma themselves. Priya Ram An interesting thing to notice is that 4 BBC TEAM [email protected] other rivers come out from the cow's mouth

Radhika Chari apart from Krishna and they all travel some [email protected] distance before merging into Krishna. These Festivals of the Month: Rama Srinivas rivers are the Koyana, Venna (Veni), Savitri,

[email protected] and Gayatri. The delta of the river is one of June 13: Picnic the most fertile regions in Bharat and was the June 20: Father's Day Toddler Class: home to ancient Satavahana and Ikshvaku sun Archana Sampath dynasty, kings. [email protected] Two big dams have been constructed on Please visit : Priya Sarathy the river, one at Srisailam called Srisailam Dam www.shiva-vishnu.org for [email protected] and the other at Nagarjuna Hill. The latter, more details Ramanarayanan K the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, is considered to be [email protected] the largest earth dam in the world with a Vidyashankar natural reservoir spanning tens of square Newsletter Editors [email protected] kilometres. Akhilesh Vemuri There are many famous temples and Registration coordinators: Rahul Malavalli religious sites of significance located along

Krishnaswamy Panneer Selvam River Krishna. Temples like Dattadeva temple, [email protected] Sangameshwar Shiva Temple at Haripur and Topics of the Month Ramling Temple are located on the banks of

river Krishna near Sangli. Srisailam, a holy site, Maya Gopala Newsletter Coordinator: is the place where one of the twelve Muktha Phadnis Krishna Meduri: jyotirlingas temples dedicated to Lord Shiva. Srivardhan Parasaran [email protected] By: Maya Gopala

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 June 2010 ISSUE 6 1 June 2010

Class Schedules

RIVER TUNGABHADRA Class Schedules

06-12-2010 ------06-05-2010 ------

Junior Class: Toddler Class: Story: Rama Avatharam Part I Story: Story of Ganesha cover till the building of the - Magesh Hariharan bridge -Seetha Janakiraman Sloka: Lakshmim ksheerasamudraraja-tanayaam Sloka: Sharada stotra pp74 (1-7) - Hema Rangaswamy -Seetha Kanakiraman The Tungabhadra River is a sacred river in south India and it flows from Karnataka Bhajan: Gowri Nandana Bhajan: Sharanam Siddhi to Andhra Pradesh. The Tungabhadra River Gajanana; Pashupati Tanaya Vinayaka; Prathama Ganapathi is formed by the merging of two rivers, the - Magesh Hariharan -Shubha Vijayashankar Tunga River and the Bhadra River. These two rivers originate in Karnataka on the Super Senior Class: Senior Class: eastern slope of the Western ghats, merge Story: Mathura, Vrindavan and Story: Kaladi, Sringeri - Kerala at Koodli in Shimoga district, giving birth to Dwaraka and Karnataka Tungabhadra. Then Tungabhadra River - Ashok Malavalli - Radhika Chari enters Andhra Pradesh and joins the river

Krishna. Sloka: revise Ganesha & Sloka: Shloka revision / test Annapurna stotras - Sheela Ashok The banks of the River are rich in Granite, Iron ore and Manganese. Another - Sheela Ashok

interesting feature is the river bank has Bhajan: Jaya Nandalala; Review Bhajan: Hey Gopala Hey Gopala : Vanamali; Ganesha Bhajans flood protection walls all along the river. - Latha Sundar - Latha Sundar These walls were constructed by the legenday King Sri Krishna Devaraya between 06-26-2010 ------1525 and 1527 AD and are intact even Class Presentations today. SUMMER BREAK An ancient saying about Tungabhadra is Junior Class: ------as follows, Tunga pAnam Ganga snAnam. 06-12-2010 That means, drinking Tungabhadra river water is as holy as taking bath in Ganga. June Birthdays: Lord Krishna Toddler: Tungabhadra gets a mention in the --Reetesh Sudhakar Maanasa Ramachandran Ramayana and is referred to as Pampa. Mahathi Amshumanth According to the legends, Pampa, the Senior Class: Sanjay Mahesh Bharadwaj daughter of Brahma (the God of creation) 06-12-2010 did penance to please Lord Shiva. Impressed Juniors: by her devotion, Shiva married her and took Would you rather be Vaali or Pranavi S. Maddipatla the name Pampapati (husband of Pampa). Sugriva? Vednath Iyengar Many temples are located along the -- Sarthak Madan banks of Tungabhadra. Some of the Seniors: important ones are Virupaksha temple in Super Senior Class: Anugraha Panneerselvam Hampi, Sharada Petam in Sringeri, Sree 06-05-2010 Nikitha Gopal Raghavendra Swami’s temple in Manthralayam and the Navabrahma temple Ramanujacharya Super Seniors: in Alampur (also known as Dakshina - Kamakshi Ramanarayan none Kalilasa). By: Srivardhan Parasaran

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 June2010 ISSUE 6 2 June 2010

ANDAAL Lord Ganesha Continued……………Lord Ganesha

Vigna vinayaka pada namaste: He who is the one who always removes all the obstacles and we worship HIM. Lord Ganesha is an elephant headed god. That makes us identify him very easily from the other Gods. Lord Andaal’s childhood name Shiva's army is called Ganas and was Kodhai which means leader is said as pati. Hence beautiful garland. Her father, Lord Ganesha got the name Vishnucitta told stories and Ganapathi. sang songs about Lord Vishnu. He taught her philosophy and Since Lord Ganesha removes all Tamil poetry. As she grew older our difficulties in doing an she wanted to marry Vishnu. activity, he is also called Her father had a job of Vinayaka/Vigneshwara. delivering garlands to Vishnu’s temple. Andaal made the garlands. One day she started By: Srivardhan Parasaran wearing the garlands that were supposed to be given to the temple because she had so Mooshika Vahana Modhaka Hastha much devotion for the lord. Balabhavan Summer Field One time she was caught. Her Charmara karna vilambitha sutra Trips: father was upset so he made Vamana roopa maheswara putra another one. That night, Lord Vigna Vinayaka padha namasthe Vishnu appeared in his dreams Information about the Buddhist and asked why he made This sloka tells us about Lord Ganesha: monastery can be found at another one. The next day he http://www.watmetta.org/ discovered that there was love Mooshika vahana: means one who has a mouse between the lord and Andaal. as a vehicle. The mouse symbolizes Information about the Self The people thought she was selfishness, by controlling the mouse Ganesha Realization Fellowship can be Bhoomi Devi. controls selfishness. found at She was best known for http://www.yogananda-srf.org/ her poetry. Andaal composed 2 Modhaka hastha: means one who has poems. Her first one had thirty Modhakas in his hands. Modhaka is known as Our sincere thanks to the verses. Her second one has one Kozhukattai in Tamil. Modhaka is the favorite Balabhavan volunteers and hundred and forty four verses. food of Ganesha and that is why our moms external well wishers with The name of the first one is make modhaka to celebrate Ganesha's their help in arranging the Tiruppavai and her second one birthday (Ganesh Chathuthi). summer trips. was Nacciyar Tirumoli. The first one she imagines Chamara karna: means one who has wide Please come by support and herself as a gopi when Krishna ears. Vilambitha sutra means He who wears a have fun in the summer picnic was there. The second one chain like ornament around his waist. and the summer field trips means secrete sayings. She was Vamana roopa: He who is short statured. 13 when she wrote the poems. Maheshwara putra: He who is the son of Lord Shiva. BBC TEAM

By: Muktha Phadnis Continued……………Lord Ganesha

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 June2010 ISSUE 6 3 Kunti and Gandhari: Kunti and Gandhari are two very powerful women in the great epic of Mahabharatha. Wedded to two brothers, they both suffer equally all their life, though for different reasons. Even though their children eventually waged the biggest battle against each other this land has ever known, Kunti and Gandhari had no hatred amongst themselves. Let us look into how these sister-in-laws had many similarities and greater differences in their lives. Kunti Gandhari Hello, I am Kunti. I come from an impressive lineage of I am Gandhari. I am the daughter of a king who ruled Yadhavas. It is my Yadhava blood that ultimately inherits the Gandhara. This region currently known as Kandahar spans throne of Hastinapura through Yudhisthira and later by Pariksheet. Pakistan and Afghanistan. I am known as Kunti because my adopted father’s name is I am known as Gandhari because of the region I come Kuntibhoja. from. I married King Pandu who was the son of Ambalika. I married King Dhritarashtra who was the son of Ambika. Dhritarashtra was born blind so when I married him I decided to voluntarily blindfold and denied the pleasure of sight throughout the rest of my life.

My husband Pandu became the emperor of Hastinapura even Once when Pandu was hunting in the forest, he shot an though he was younger to Dhritasrashtra because Dhritarashtra was arrow at a sage and his wife by mistake and got cursed by that blind. dying sage. Upset and seeking to repent his action, Pandu renounced his kingdom and crowned my husband Dhristarashtra as the king. So I became the queen of Hastinapura. I was taught a mantra by Rishi Durvasa that could invoke any When Kunti had Yudhistra, I was childless. I think I was a little deva and have a child with him. I couldn’t believe this boon, so I jealous that she had the child first. Anyway, I ended up having tried using it once with the Sun God or Surya. When Surya 100 sons who were later known as . I also had one appeared, I got scared and asked him to go back but since he had to daughter named Dussala. Lets not get into the names of all my fulfill the mantra, he gave me the son who was later known as sons, which will take up the rest of this evening. Karna. Since this child was born before marriage, I abandoned this child in the river. After marrying Pandu I invoked more devas and had Yudhisthira, Arjun and Bheema. I also helped King Pandu’s other wife Madri to have Nakula and Sahadeva through this mantra. These five sons were known as . After King Pandu died, Pandavas and I came to live with I was the queen at the time. Our kids, Pandavas and Gandhari and her husband in the palace. Kauravas, started having fights even at the young age. I didn’t approve of Duryodhana’s unjust treatment of Pandavas. When my daughter-in-law Draupadi was humiliated by When my sons were killed in the war, I was full of Duryodhana I became very upset and unforgiving. I took an hatred towards Pandavas too. I wanted Duryodhana to have uncompromising stand in favor of war. In fact during the war I was more power and defeat them in the war. I made an exception to very harsh to Bhima and Krishna for not killing Duryodhana. I didn’t my blindfolded state and gave all my power through my eyesight even think twice about how Gandhari would feel losing her sons. to Duryodhana. But Duryodhana was in his underpants when I opened my eyes, so his thighs did not receive this power and was vulnerable. Bhima attacked him in the thighs and killed him. When Yudhisthira came to me for blessings after ’s victory in the war, I was so furious. My tiny sight through the small gap in the blindfold burned Yudhisthira’s toes. Even though Pandavas won the war, they were not happy that I was very sad after the war since all my sons were killed in I didn’t tell them about their eldest brother Karna. If they had it. I even cursed Krishna which later resulted in the destruction known about Karna, the war would not even have taken place since of all of Yadhavas. Yudhisthira would have given up his throne happily to his elder My husband and I decided to go to the forest . To my brother Karna. My silence about this secret was one of the big surprise, Kunti decided to join us in the forest. reasons for the great war In fact some people think I was cursed for She stayed with her sons during their sufferings, but now this and that’s the reason no women can keep a secret. in their days of prosperity why is choosing to join us in the forest? I felt no joy of having the life in the palace. I wanted to look after my sister-in-law and her husband. In fact we even died together at the same time in the forest. Both of us were very powerful women who shaped the epic Mahabharatha in our own ways. By: Maya Gopala

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