Thursday, December 10, 2009

Arjuna winning Draupadi's hand

Dear parents,
Hare Krishna.

I was not there last week. I got the class information from Vraja Bakti mtj. The story in her own words:

I told then the story of Draupadi Swaymwar. We recited the names of all pandavas, their mother’s name Kunti. We also talked a bit about who Karna was and who was Duryodhana. I mentioned that Arjuna and Krishna were cousins. Also after Rukmini, Draupadi was the most beautiful and sought after woman. I talked to about Draupadi rejecting Karna and insulting him for his lower birth by saying that we was not raised to be kind even if he was a king now and therefore an unfit husband for her. I described the story of how Arjuna hit the rotating fish on the ceiling by looking at its reflection in a bowl of water. I veered into the story of how Arjuna was so focus and told them the story of how Arjuna could hit the wooden bird in the tree because he could only see the bird’s head and nothing else. Once Arjuna married Krishna I told them on about Arjuna taking Draupadi to Kunti and told Kunti to guess what he had got. Kunti unaware of the marriage told Arjuna to share whatever he had gotten with his brothers. At this both Arjuna and Draupadi were shocked and did not know what to do. Kunti was also shocked once she learned that Arjuna had gotten Draupadi and she had told him to share her. I described in short the past life of Draupadi where she had undergone penances and attained boon from lord Shiva for a perfect husband. But since a perfect husband cannot be in one man she now had 5 husbands.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

BG 10.8 and class update

ahaḿ sarvasya prabhavo

mattaḥ sarvaḿ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māḿ

budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ



TRANSLATION

I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.


This is my favourite sloka and a very important too.
The mangalacaran line which we discussed last week is

śrī-rūpaḿ sāgrajātaḿ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaḿ taḿ sa-jīvam

The story we discussed was the past time of Bhima marrying Hidumbi and killing Hidumba and also killing the demon who was disturbing the village. We also discussed the Varnavat palace escape of the Pandavas. We stopped Pandavas going to Panchal.

Thank you
Nama Priya