Parikshit Maharaj

Hare Krsna!!!

Dear Parents,
Last week, we started the class with prayers and we revised the previous sloka.
[Note: Please visit the older posts for the prayers and the sloka]

Story: We heard the story of Parikshit Maharaj.

Maharaj Parikshit was the son of Abhimanyu, who was the son of Arjuna. Arjuna was one of the five Pandavas and was the best friend of Krishna. During the battle of Kurukshetra, Parikshit was still in the womb of his mother, Uttara. At the end of the war, Asvatthama, the son of Dronacarya, tried to kill the child in the womb by throwing a weapon called brahmastra. The Supreme Lord Krishna saved Parikshit by entering into the womb of his mother.

After the Pandavas left this material world, Maharaj Parikshit became the ruler of the entire planet. He was a just king. There were no social problems, no crime, no poverty and no disease in his kingdom.

Once when Maharaj Parikshit went into the forest for hunting, he became very tired and thirsty. He entered the hermitage of sage Shamika Rishi who was meditating at that time. The king again and again requested for water but the rishi deep in meditation did not hear him. This enraged the king and he completely lost his intelligence. In his anger, the king picked up a dead snake and placed it on the shoulder of the sage.
The rishi’s son Shringi came to know about this incident and angrily cursed the king. He cursed that on the seventh day from that day, a snake-bird would bite Parikshit Maharaj. When Shamika Rishi came to know about the curse, he chastised his son. When king Parikshit received the news of his death, he accepted this curse as good news. 
Maharaj Parikshit was a great devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna. He had full faith in the protection of the Lord. He did not try to make any arrangements to protect himself. Instead he immediately gave up his royal duties and went to the banks of the Ganges.
He knew that one who engages in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Lord gets liberated from the cycle of birth and death. He desired to associate with great saintly devotees who could speak to him about Krishna. By the arrangement of the Lord, many great saintly devotees also came to the banks of the river Ganges. The great sage Sukhdev Goswami, the son of Vyasadev appeared on the scene. Maharaj Parikshit accepted him as his spiritual master and requested him to narrate the transcendental, glorious pastimes of the Lord.
Being very pleased by the submissive and devotional attitude of the king, Sukhdev Goswami then narrated the nectarean pastimes of the Lord and His various expansions. These are recalled in the book Srimad Bhagavatam. 
Maharaj Parikshit was completely absorbed in hearing about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. Anyone who regularly hears Hari Katha becomes eligible to get liberated from the cycle of birth and death. After hearing the katha for seven days and nights without sleeping, eating or drinking, Parikshit Maharaj fixed his mind on the Lord and meditated on Him. The snake-bird Takshaka bit the king. The body of the kind immediately burst into flames and burned to ashes due to the fire of the snake-bird’s poison.
Parikshit Maharaj went back home, back to Godhead by perfecting his life by hearing the transcendental glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Thus all of us can perfect our life by regularly hearing and reading about the beautiful and transcendental pastimes of Lord Krishna and His different avatars.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha

 

Vidura - a Mahajan

Hare Krsna!!

Dear Parents,
Thank you for training the kids at home to recite slokas and lead the class in prayers. It gives us so much joy to see so many kids confidently willing to come in front of the class to recite. We would like to see all the kids to do the same. If anyone has any questions or needs more help, please don't hesitate to talk to us.

Last week,
Sloka: Radhika Mataji taught the Bhagavad-Gita Sloka (chapter 10: Verse 9)
mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Translation: The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.

Audio Link: BG 10:9

 

Story: We heard about Vidura - a gread devotee of the Lord.

Vidura was the younger brother of King Dhritarastra and Pandu and a chief advisor of King Dhritarastra. Dhritarastra was partial to his sons Kauravas and did not treat Pandavas, the sons of Pandu equally. Kauravas out of envy tried to kill Pandavas. Vidura hated injustice, but he couldn't persuade the king to control his sons.

Vidura's sense of fairness was because he had been Yamaraj in his last life. It was Lord Krsna's plan for Yamaraj to be born as Vidura.

Once upon a time. Manduka Muni was in deep meditation. A group of soldiers asked him if he had seen thieves. Since the Muni didn't answer them, the soldiers were very angry and went to search the thieves and found them hiding in the Manduka Muni's ashram.

The soldiers thought that the sage must be the leader of the thieves, so they bound him and took him to the chief judge. There Manduka muni was sentenced to death. When he was about to be executed,  knowing abouth the sage, the king came just in time to save Manduka Muni. The king begged forgiveness and released him.

Manduka Muni did not blame the king, knowing that suffering is the result of his past sins. As he looked back over his life and considered that he was sinless, he went ot Yamaraj to find out what had he done wrong. Yamaraj told him that the reason for his difficulty was, as a child he had stabbed an ant with a thorn and killed it.

Manduka Muni said that he cannot be blamed for the act of an innocent child and was so furious he cursed Yamaraj to live on earth for one hundred years. Yamara being a great devotee of Lord Krsna could have easily counter-cursed him but accepted the curse as the arrangement of Lord Krnsa.

So. Yamaraj was born as Vidura on earth , tried to be just with everyone, always thinking of Krsna and after 100 years went back to his planet Pitriloka to take up his position again as the Lord of Justice, Yamaraj.

 

Finally, we concluded the class with the coloring picture of Yamaraj.

 

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.

Haribol!!

Gopala Class Teachers

Radhika Mataji

Amutha

 

Brahma's test and realizations

Hare Krsna!!
Dear Parents,
Last week, we started the class with prayers to Lord Krsna and His devotees.
Prayers : We learnt the invocation prayers of Srimad Bhagavatam(SB 1.2.17)
srnvataam sva-kathah krsnah
punya-sravana kiirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadraani
vidhunoti suhrt sataam
Translation: Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramaatma[Supersoul] in everyone's heart and  the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire fro material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.
Audio link :  srnvatam sva kathah

Story : We heard the story of Brahma testing Lord Krsna.
Lord Brahma, the granfather of the gods, was reluctant to believe that His Supreme father, Lord Vishnu would come as a child and live in Vrndavan.  Lord Brahma thinking if Lord Krsna is his master then Lord Krsna must be more powerful than him. So, he wanted to test Lord Krsna.
Lord Brahma flew on his swan carrier to the place where Krsna and His cowherd friends were having lunch near the banks of river Yamuna. Lord Krsna was sitting in the middle of the boys sharing their lunches and eating.  The cows were grazing near by and moved further away from the boys. Lord Brahma used this oppurtunity to put the cows in magical sleep and put them in a cave. One of the cowherd boys noticed and said that the calves were not there.  All the boys were frightened about the calves being lost and how would they explain this to their parents.
To relieve His friends fear, Lord Krsna stood up with a handful of rice and yogurt, told them to continue with their lunch and went in search of the calves.  As soon as Lord Brahma decided to test Krsna, the supreme Lord Krsna was aware of this and the reason behind it. But to play along with Brahma's test and to have some fun, Lord Krsna acted as if He didn't know about it.  Krsna searched for the calves but appeared unable to find the calves, came back to the picnic area looking worried.
When Brahma saw that Krsna couldn't find the calves and looked worried, Brahma believed that Lord Krsna was not Lord Vishnu after all. To be certain, Brahma wanted to conduct one more test. So, he placed all the cowherd boys in magical sleep and put them in the same cave along with the calves.
When Krsna returned and couldn't find His friends, He looked worried and didn't want the parents of His friends to be sad. Brahma noticed that Krsna had failed to find both the calves and His friends and decided to give more time to Krsna and returned to his own planet - Brahmaloka - for one second, which is equal to one year on earth.
As Brahma left the Earth, Krsna created a duplicate set of his friends and their calves  to keep His friend's parents happy and at the same time play along with Brahma's test. They all  went home and all the parents experienced an overwhelming feeling of love in their hearts for their sons. Not only the human parents experienced this love, but the cows also felt the same for their calves.
After one year, Brahma returned riding on his swan carrier. He went to the cave and saw them still lying in their magical sleep, Brahma proudly thought that if Krsna could not find them then he couldn't be his master. He wanted to see how Krsna was doing and flew to the riverbank. There, he couldn't believe that Krsna was playing with his friends and their calves. He was completely confused and went back again and again to check on the boys and the calves in the cave.  He thought the best solution is to go to Krsna and talk to him. As Brahma landed on the bank, he watched something amazing - each boy and calf changed itno Lord Vishnu's form and merged into Krsna. Now there was not the slightest doubt in Brahma's mind that Krsna was the source of everything.
With palms together, he fell at the feet of Lord Sri Krsna and begged forgiveness. He said sorry for trying to test Krsna and prayed for His mercy. When Krsna smiled and nodded affectionately, Brahma respectfully circled Krsna three times, bowed to him once more and flew to Brahmaloka on his swan.

Finally, we concluded the class with the coloring picture of Lord Krsna with Brahma.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the next class.
Haribol!!!
Gopala Class Teachers
Radhika Mataji
Amutha