Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update

Class Name: Kanwa Week# 20: March 03, 2013

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

The mini-hall GA students did a good job chanting the first few verses of the Shishya- anushasanam. This was followed by all students chanting the same. Then Aparna Aunty talked specifically about the words "Shraddhaya deyam". It means to give with "shraddha". There is no one word in English which is equivalent to the word Shraddha - it is a combination of devotion, reverence, strong faith, dedication. When you give to society, for example through volunteer work - do so with the sole purpose of helping / giving back, and not just to earn volunteer hours.

Aparna Aunty then led everyone through a guided meditation session.

Class We started the class with three Omkars followed by the Shanti Mantra. Students have been interested in vamsha (solar race) and vamsha (Lunar race) and we went over the lineage as follows:

Daksha and : SuryaManu or Vaivasvata Manu - the King of all mankind and the first human being on Earth. He had nine sons, and one daughter, Ila, who was married to Budha of the Lunar Dynasty).

1. Ikshvaku - the first prominent monarch of this dynasty, giving the dynasty another name the Ikshvaku dynasty. 2. Bhagiratha - Sagara's great-grandson, after strenuous penances, at last succeeded in bringing River Ganga down from Heaven. When she flowed over the remains of his ancestors, their souls were redeemed, and the ocean was refilled. Ganga also bears the name "Bhagirathi", in honor of his deed. Some other important names are: , Mandatha, Dilipa etc. 3. Aja 4. Dasaratha 5. SriRam 6. Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha)

Chandra vamshis: Of the many branches of the Chandravansh line, the Yaduvanshi lineage is a major one, which Srikrishna belonged to.

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Atri and AnusuyaChandraBudhaPururava Nahusha Yayati….-->Hasti KuruShantanu (Chitrangada, Vichitravirya and Bhishma)--PanduArjuna (and brothers)AbhimanyuParikshith

We completed chapter 23: The jewel originally belonged to the Sun god, who wore it around his neck. It was said that whichever land possessed this jewel would never encounter any calamities in the form of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, earthquakes or famines, and would always be full of prosperity and plenitude. Wherever the jewel remained, it would produce for the keeper eight bhāras of gold daily, meaning the Syamantaka jewel was producing approximately 170 pounds of gold every day. It was also the source of the dazzling appearance of the Sun god. , a nobleman, and a devotee of Surya, the Sun God, received this jewel as a boon.

Satrajit later let his brother Prasenjit borrow this jewel. Prasen wore it often, until once while hunting in the forest while wearing it, he was attacked by a lion, which killed him and fled with the jewel. But it couldn't get away with it, for shortly after, it was attacked by , described as king of the 'bears', who killed it after a fierce fight and took off with the booty. Jambavan was loyal to , and was considered one of the seven immortals or Chiranjeevi.

Now there was a rumor that Lord SriKrishna also had an eye on the Syamantaka jewel, and when the incident of Prasen's mysterious disappearance became public, the people accused SriKrishna of murder and theft. In order to prove his innocence, SriKrishna sought to find out the true culprit and recover the jewel. As he followed on the trail of the deceased Prasen, he came to the spot where the corpses of Prasen and his horse still lay, along with pieces of teeth and nails of a lion. From there he followed the footsteps of the lion, which led him to the spot of the second struggle, where the corpse of the lion was lying. From there, he followed the tracks of a bear, which finally led him to the entrance of Jambavan's cave, where the latter's children were playing with the priceless jewel. Thereafter, he engaged in furious, protracted combat with Jambavan for 28 days, and Jambavan gradually grew tired. As he was the strongest living entity at that time, he wondered who could be weakening him. It was then that Jambavan realized that he had been sparring with none other than Lord himself. Jambavan, who was hot- headed but pious by nature, returned the jewel to SriKrishna, and offered his daughter, , in marriage to the Lord.

Meanwhile, SriKrishna's companions, having waited twelve days for him to come out of the cave, returned to Dwaraka despondent. All of SriKrishna's friends and family members became extremely sorrowful and began regularly worshiping Goddess

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to assure the Lord's safe return. Even as they performed this worship, SriKrishna entered the city in the company of his new wife. He summoned Satrajit to the royal assembly and, after recounting to him the entire story of the Syamantaka jewel's recovery, gave the jewel back to him. Satrajit accepted the jewel, but with great shame and remorse. He went back to his home, and there he decided to offer Lord SriKrishna not only the jewel but also his daughter so as to atone for the offense he had committed against the Lord's lotus feet. SriKrishna accepted the hand of Satrajit's daughter, , who was endowed with all divine qualities. But the jewel He refused, returning it to Satrajit.

After a few days, SriKrishna and were off to Hastinapura after there were rumors that the have been burnt to their deaths in a fire. , and Satadhanwa, who had their eyes on the dazzling jewel, conspired to make use of SriKrishna's absence from Dwaraka as an opportunity. Satadhanva one night entered the house of Satrajit and killed him in his sleep, making off with the jewel.

A sorrowful Satyabhama rushed to Hastinapura to inform SriKrishna about the ghastly death of her father. SriKrishna and Balarama immediately started for Dwaraka to avenge Satrajit's death, hearing of which Satadhanwa fled on his horse, keeping the jewel with Akrura. He was chased down by SriKrishna and Balaram and finally killed by SriKrishna near Mithila. Later SriKrishna returned to Dwaraka, and upon realizing that Akrura had already fled to Kashi with the Syamantaka jewel, summoned him up, and asked him to admit his guilt. When Akrura complied, let him keep it, on the condition that it was to remain in the city of Dwaraka. Srikrishna had to exonerate himself yet again. We talked about “guilt by association”, where a pious Akrura got in with the wrong crowd and finally was redeemed by Bhagavan.

Homework Homework: Please complete the exercises on Chapter 23

Announcements 1. Next week, i.e. March 10th is picture day. Please come dressed in an Indian outfit. 2. We will be switching to daylight savings time on March 10th and the clocks will be moved ahead by 1 hour. Please remember to set your clocks so you are not late for Gurukul. 3. Please participate in the yearbook drawing event to enter a chance to get your pictures of Ganesh-ji published in the yearbook. We have chosen the trait ‘modaka’: Focus on the ‘rewards’ of spiritual education and create an image as discussed in class and GA. Due on Sunday, March 10.

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