Hari Om All,
This week we started our class with Likhita Japa followed by Shlokas. We completed all the 8 verses of the Sri Mahalakshmi Ashtakam in this class. We continued with Mahabharata - covered the first 10 days of the Kurukshetra War. The following topics were covered:
- The Kurukshetra Field: The night before the war, Sage Vyasa offers to give sight to Dhitarashtra to see the war, but he refuses because he's afraid of seeing his sons die. So Vyasa gave the divine sight to Sanjaya to see the war as it happened. Sanjaya was able to know the thoughts of each person in the war as well. Both the Kauravas and Pandavas agreed the follow rules of the war: Fight should be between equals for example between two chariots or two archers; No fighting after sunset; Krishna will not use weapons in the war.
- Description of the Army: Kauravs had 11 Akshauhinis and Pandavas had only 7. An Akshauhini contains 21,870 chariots, as many elephants, three times number of horses and five times as many foot soldiers. Duryodhana's chariot had the famous banner of a serpent embroidered on a cloth of gold. Arjuna's chariot has the banner with Hanumanji embroidered. Krishna was Arjuna's charioteer. Many different arrangements of the army were used on different days of the war including Vajra, Chkravyuha etc.
- Noble act of Yudhishtira: Before the beginning of the war, Yudhishtira removed the armor and went to Bhishma, Drona, Kripa and Shalya (all elders of the family) to ask their permission to fight with them. Bhishma with a smile blessed him and told him "My child, you know that victory is yours. Krishna is on your side" After receiving permission and blessings from all elders Yudhishtira returned to his position.
- Bhagavad Gita: Sri Krishna understood the mental weakness of Arjuna and wanted to give him mental strength based on spirituality. This is how Bhagavad Gita started - it's a discourse from Krishna to Arjuna. Bhagavad Gita is one of the three basic scriptures of Hinduism (Prasthana Traya). The important teachings of Bhagavad Gita are: "Arjuna a wise man never weeps for the dead nor for the living. You think that you are the one killing and the victim thinks he's getting killed. In reality it's the body that's getting killed. There are two things in a person - body and soul. The soul can never be destroyed. Weapons cannot hurt the soul. Every human has a duty in life - this is called Dharma. You are a warrior therefore it's your duty to fight. ". Further Krishna says " There are two paths for realization of God. One is Knowledge through meditation and the other is work without expectation of reward. Arjuna you and I have passed through many births. I am not an ordinary soul - I am God myself I take birth on this earth in a human form to destroy the wicked, to protect the good and to establish Dharma. People worship me in different forms - all paths lead to me and I accept them all". After this Krishna revealed his Divine form (Vishwaroopa Darshanam) to Arjuna. Upon hearing all these words from Krishna, Arjuna was ready to fight again.
- The Battle Begins: The terrible war began. The first move came from Kauravas - Duryodhana ordered an attack on the enemy. Arjuna took up his bow Gandiva and attacked Bhishma. Arrows were flying everywhere. The fight was very fierce and Uttara died on the first day. At sunset all went to their tents to rest. Next day Arjuna was on the attack again and the Kauravas had a lot of casualties. Krishna was getting impatient with Arjuna - he was not attacking Bhishma directly. So Krishna took up a chariot wheel as a weapon to attack Bhishma but Arjuna reminded him of the promise of not using any weapons in the war. On the fourth day Bhima killed eight of Duryodhana's brothers. On the ninth day the Pandavas along with Krishna went to Bhishma's tent and he told them that the he would not fight a woman. Next day (10th day) the Pandavas used Shikhandi (who was a eunuch) to fight Bhishma and Bhishma refused to fight with Shikhandi. As a result Bhishma fell that day. After the fall of Bhishma, Drona became the commander of the Kaurava forces.
We concluded the class by chanting Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 1 - verses 1-16.
Announcements:
1. Art Contests registration is now open. Deadline for submission is Jan 12, 2020. Theme this year is 'Daanam' or 'Giving'. Participation points and prizes for everyone.
Please register at:
2. Shlokathon registration is now open. Shlokathon will be on April 4, 2020 from 1-4pm. Shlokas have to be memorized. Participation points and prizes for everyone.
Please register at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ceAyR0VinKl6iX_DOCCZjNIAkUt_1iJTxL5KBw_C9qw/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ceAyR0VinKl6iX_DOCCZjNIAkUt_1iJTxL5KBw_C9qw/edit
3. Next Class on Jan, 5, 2020. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to All!
Thank you!
Krishna and Shasi
