Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Class Name: Angirasa Week# 07: November 13th, 2016 General Assembly Aprana Aunty started the GA with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra. What is Yoga? Where did it come from? : Aprana Aunty narrated a story about the origin of Yoga. Long time ago in south of India, there were some rishis living in the forest who had magical powers. They had made the forest a beautiful haven. Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu having heard of it, wanted to experience it. Lord Shiva dressed as a mendicant and Lord Vishnu took his Mohini Avatar. The rishis were enchanted as they walked through their forest and wondered why they were there. The rishis threw serpents at them, they had a tiger come of out the yagya which Lord Shiva killed. Then the rishis sent an asura who was killed. The Lord Shiva did his Anand Tandav dance. Lord Vishnu started tapping to the beats. Hearing this, Sheshnag, on who Lord Vishnu was sitting, wanted to see it too. Lord Vishnu said that Lord Shiva will come and ask you to do something, and if you do it, you can see his Tandav dance. Lord Shiva told Sheshnag that he needs to get the knowledge of Sanskrit to the people on earth. Sheshnag thought he will take the form of a human on earth. He started thinking who will be his mother. At the same time there was a yogini called Konika in India who thought she needed to give this knowledge to someone and prayed to God to have a son to who she can transfer the knowledge. She prayed to Lord Surya and a small snake dropped from the sky as she was offering prayers. The snake asked if she will accept him as her son and when Konika said yes, Sheshnag was born as a boy who she named Patanjali. Years passed by and he gained all the knowledge from his mother. Lord Shiva had laid down some conditions for Sheshnag to be able to see his Tandav dance. His class should be 1000 students. The students should pay full attention for the entire time he is teaching and cannot leave the room. If they leave the room, they would be cursed and turn into a Brahmarakshsa. Furthermore, each student had to feel that they were being taught one-on-one. After a strict screening process, Patanjali found 1000 students, then he found a temple in Chidambaram, with 1000 pillars. In order to make each student feel he was the only student, he had to come up with something. Sheshnag had 1000 heads. So he took his snake form and sat behind a curtain which would prevent the poison from his mouth from leaving and killing the students. He was going to teach in the form of sheshnag not a human. The students and just heard a voice behind a curtain. 998 of the 1000 students followed all the rules. One student was so smart, he wondered what was behind the curtain. Another student was not very smart, was very fidgety and was not focused. He needed a bathroom break and left the room. Meantime the other smart student got on the stage and took a peek behind the curtain and died because fumes were so poisonous. The fumes escaped and all the other 998 students also died. Sage Sanskar Academy 1 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Patanjali came back to form of human and was devastated so many of his students killed. Just because one student did not follow the rules, all the others had to pay the price. The last student whose name was Gowdapad walked in from his bathroom break. Patanjali taught Gowdapad everything and through the grace and power of sage Patanjali he became less fidgety and more focused. Then he told Gowdapad that even though he had this knowledge, he will become a brahmarakshasa and would be more active at night like a ghost. He can become a human again only if he found one fit student and taught him everything and he will be free from this curse. So Gowdapad hung around the banks of Narmada to find this person. Sage Patanjali transformed himself into another human being and became his student – Chandrasharma. Then the brahmarakshasa transferred all his knowledge to Chandrasharma and therefore became a human being. Chandrashama had everything written down on leaves, and since He had been studying for a long time he took rest for many days. While was sleeping and a goat ate up parts of the leaves he had written it on. Chandrasharma then went to a cave to wait for a student to whom he could transfer all his knowledge. A student came into the cave in search of a guru. This student was Adi Shankaracharya whose story we talked about a few weeks back. Patanjali went to the forest to get darshan of the Lord and to see Lord Shiva’s Tandav dance. What we know as yoga in terms of Asanas is really only 1/8th of the knowledge that Patanjali transferred. The Yoga sutras comprise 8 things - Yama means things that you don’t do, Niyamas – things that you do, Asanas , Pranayama, Pratyahar, Dharana, Smaran, Samadhi. The Yogini Konika left her body as she was happy all her knowledge had been transferred. Then Aparna Aunty guided the children through a meditation session bringing awareness to different parts of the body. Class Homework Reminder : Read whatever you can from pg 1- 40 in Pink Ramayana Book, to recollect from last year. We will have a game on the first day of class after puja day. Sanskar Academy 2 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Announcements Artwork for the Year book All students should be encouraged to submit artwork for the year book. The theme for this year is “Saraswati Devi”. It can be a picture or any writing about Saraswati Devi. If you are planning on doing a drawing do it on a 8-1/2 x 11 size paper. Don’t use pencil as it does not print well. On the back side mention your first name, last name and class. The deadline for turning it in to your class teacher is the week after thanksgiving. Sanskar Academy 3 .