Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Class Name: Narada Week#20: March 12th, 2017 General Assembly None. Class Hari Om! We started the session with three Omkars followed by opening prayers the Shanti Mantra. We also recited : The Ganesha Mantra The first and last stanza of the Guru Stotram. This session we started the Drona Parva and Ramesh uncle kept the children enthralled with his lively description of the battle and the happenings in the Drona Parva. The key learning of this session was : “Strength of mind is strongest, even stronger than Physical might” Read on to find out why … By now, Bheeshma has fallen from the battle, waiting to leave his physical body. Duryodhana now looks to finds a new commander in chief to fight the Pandavas. Although it seems that Karna can be the obvious choice to replace the fallen Bheeshma, Karna himself is unsure he should be the commander, since Karna knows he is not fighting the war on the righteous side (i.e. not on the side of Dharma). He advises Duryodhana that it still not late to end the war and give Pandavas the mere five villages they had asked for. Duryodhana however still does not realize and thinks Karna is being weak, and accuses him of not being a brave warrior. Karna is shocked to hear this, but suggests that Drona should be the commander in chief. At this time Drona feels like he can at last prove himself (Recall his conflict with Drupada, where they studied together and later Drupada betrayed his friendship when he becomes the King. And Dhrupada’s son Dhrashtadyumna is now the commander of the Pandavas army). Drona does not consider Karna a warrior worthy of fighting with, even when Drona himself is not a Kshatriya. But Drona also knows that Karna can easily outshine him in the battle and hence lays down a condition that he will be the commander only if Karna Sanskar Academy1 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update does not fight. Here we see that even a learned and accomplished guru like Drona falls into the trap of pride and arrogance. Hence the key learning mentioned above that “Strength of mind is strongest ...” But Duryodhana being his selfish self, only cares about winning the war and turns to Karna for help. Karna continue to argue that this is not a righteous war they are fighting and lets Drona be the Kaurava commander. Drona tries to from his army and formations as the new commander and tried to please Duryodhana, asking him what does he want? Duryodhana asks for Yudhisthira to be captured. Drona agrees, but offers to capture Yudhisthira on the condition that Duryodhana will not kill him. Duryodhana agrees, since he has other wicked plans once Yudhisthira is captured. Drona also has another condition to capture Yudhisthira, which is that the Kaurava army needs to keep Arjuna away from Yudhisthira. But spies from the Pandavas come to know of this plan of Drona and report it to the Pandavas. The Pandavas in turn decide to ensure Arjuna is always near Yudhisthira in the following days. Here ends the first day of Drona Parva. The battle resume the next day with Drona as commander. The Pandavas fight fiercely and the Kauravas suffer many losses and Yudhisthira is not yet captured. Duryodhana is disappointed and accuses Drona of not trying hard enough. Recall that there are 5 of the Trigartha’s brother who have helped the Kauravas invade the Virata kingdom when the Pandavas are living there incognito. They have been defeated by Arjuna (then disguised as Brinnhala) and continue to harbor vengeance against him. So they challenge Arjuna to a fight to the other side of the battle (And thus take him away from the Yudhisthira to aid Drona’s plan of capturing him). Arjuna asks Bheema, Nakul & Sahadev to protect Yudhisthira and leaves to fight the Trigartha brothers. He also seeks a promise from Yudhisthira that if he finds himself being attacked by Drona, to turn his back from the battle (Remember, the rules of engagement in the battle forbid killing a person who is not actively fighting in the battle). The battle continues, and Sahadev is hit by Sakuni and he falls. Drona’s arrows are rampant and he starts to approach the Pandavas. Arjuna hears of this and in his fury kills 3 of the Trigartha brothers. The remaining Trigartha’s ask him not to leave the challenge. So Arjuna persists and one more of the Trigartha brother is killed. While this is happening at the other end of the battle field, Drona gets close to Yudhisthira, but Bheema comes to his rescue. The last Trigartha brother again challenges Arjuna to stay his ground and fight him. So Arjuna fights him, but by now Bheema is hurt in the battle. Arjuna hears of this and pleads to Krishna, who urges him to kill the last Trigartha. Since Bheema has fallen and is hurt, Yudhisthira flees the battle field to save himself. Arjuna now come and attacks Drona and the battle ends for the day. That night Duryodhana is upset about the loss of the Trigartha’s and also a big loss of Sanskar Academy2 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update his contingent and decides to send an army unit of elephants to create havoc in the Pandavas army. There are many controversial versions to this part of the Parva which introduces us to the story of King Bhagadatta who fights on behalf of the Kauravas. Bhagadatta is very arrogant and powerful, and plans to attack the Pandavas, with his special weapon Vaishnavastra, seated on his wild elephant “Supratika”. Arjuna engages Bheema to attack Bhagadatta. Bheema is almost being trampled by Supratika, when he escapes and get under the Elephant, and it gets even wilder. Arjuna now attacks the elephant to rescue Bheema and shoots arrows in delicate areas of the elephant’s body to incapacitate it. Now Bhagadatta attacks Arjuna with his celestial weapon Vaishnavastra. But Lord Krishna comes in the way and the arrow land on his chest hitting a locket and turns into a garland of flowers! While Arjuna is upset that Lord Krishna has actively participated in the battle by putting his life at stake, Lord Krishna explains that he has just taken back a weapon that belongs to him. The story of the Vaishnavastra goes back to a long time ago when Lord Krishna had bestowed this weapon to a devotee who becomes arrogant and fought Bhagadatta. Bhagadatta kills this devotee and obtains the celestial weapon. Now Lord Krishna has taken it back and makes Bhagadatta powerless, and Arjuna kills Bhagadatta with his shower of arrows. But Arjuna knows that Bhagadatta is a friend of his father (Indra) and was one of the best kings, famous in all the three worlds. He gets off his chariot and goes around the fallen Bhagadatta by way of 'Pradakshina' to pays his last respects and asks for forgiveness for killing him and the celestial elephant. Arjuna again realizes the glory and power of Lord Krishna. This brings us back to the question of did Lord Krishna fight in the war? It is important to understand that in the above story, Lord Krishna merely takes back his weapon. The story is meant to depict the symbolism for the Bhakti demonstrated by the weapon turning into a garland and Bhagadatta only represents arrogance and unrighteous use of might which Lord Krishna takes away from him. We will continue with Drona Parva, day 12 of the battle next week. We concluded the class with ending prayers. Homework Write a narrative of about 2 paragraphs, a self reflection on how you have evolved from elementary to middle school. This is due in 2 weeks. Note : Look back at your days in early elementary school and think about one thing you used to do that you no longer do. And reflect upon whether that is something you gave up consciously or was it a natural consequence? This needs to be a deeper reflection on your personality /character and not trivial things like how you don’t get recess in school now etc ! Sanskar Academy3 Sanskar Gurukul Weekly Update Announcements Here are the upcoming events : Class Picture Day - Sunday, March 19th (Wear Indian clothes , no shorts , Jeans/trousers are ok) Spring Break – 4/09/17 and 4/16/17 Weekends, Gurukul holidays, no classes. Enjoy the break! Field Day - Sunday, April 30th from 9:30am to 12:30pm Sanskar Academy4 .