Hari Om All,
Hope everyone had a nice quarantine Diwali with family.
The past couple weeks were focused on the students researching and presenting their presentations on the symbolism of Lakshmi, Durga, and Sarasvati. After doing so through the assigned presentations, the class dove deeper into Navadurga and her various forms and what it means to be fierce but calm at the same time. The class after the presentations was the Annual House Games where the 8th graders were mixed with the high schoolers to create a presentation relating to their game topic. Before leaving for that, we began the Mahabharata and gave an introduction to the characters, time period, and overall background of what the Mahabharata was.
This week, we recapped all the Karma and Dharma key takeaways from the previous multiple classes to ensure that the concepts were fresh in their mind. The whole goal for the Mahabharata in this class is to understand the stories and characters, have discussions relating to the situations, and apply the Karma and Dharma tools to the events.
We then began the story part of the Mahabharata, starting with Shantanu meeting Ganga. We described the story in detail, highlighting the point that Shantanu was driven by desire and allowed his senses to distract him from his responsibilities as a leader. A point of discussion was about the condition Ganga puts on Shantanu - "If you ever question my actions, I will have to immediately leave you". The students concluded that none of them would ever agree to such a condition, making them understand more clearly that Shantanu went to great extremes to marry a woman he had just met. Additionally, the class discussed the actions of Ganga (in regards to drowning the newborn babies). The students were saying that it was a horrible action, but upon finding out the back story (when the 8 Vasus tried to steal Kamadhenu), we realized that it was Ganga's duty to do so. After the Vasus had begged her to liberate them from a worldly life, Ganga needed to fulfill her promise and do what she had to do.
Something to quickly mention, is that the Mahabharata is a web of stories where human emotions/desires manifest to fulfill a larger cosmic plan. The main objective is to show how to uphold Dharma. Many great personalities seem to fall victim to basic frailties and our objective is not to pass judgements on them but to rather understand their limitations. Every character has things to learn from whether it be positive or negative from which we can try to make ourselves better.
We then went through the story all the way until Devavrata returns to Hastinapura. The story of Satyavati was taught and we saw Shantanu's desire-driven nature again. The reason why Devavrata became Bheeshma (he took the "Terrible Vow") was discussed and analyzed as well.
An important aspect of this set of stories was the different intentions behind the promises given by Shantanu versus Devavrata. Shantanu's promise to Ganga was a compromise in his own values for the sake of marriage to her. Bheeshma's promise to Satyavati and her father was a sacrifice for the sake of his father's happiness. This understanding led into the discussion of how "leadership is not about privileges, but rather shouldering responsibilities".
The students asked some interesting questions throughout the class. One was, "if you think about doing a good action before you do it, do you get good karma from that too?" — Our answer to that was, "A thought is also an action. So, if you are having good thoughts, those are considered to be good actions!" The teachers also conveyed that we can never be actionless. Therefore, might as well make our actions good!
That's all for now. Have a great week and students, keep asking questions in class! More participation equals more understanding!!
Best regards,
Nikhita and Partha
Hope everyone had a nice quarantine Diwali with family.
The past couple weeks were focused on the students researching and presenting their presentations on the symbolism of Lakshmi, Durga, and Sarasvati. After doing so through the assigned presentations, the class dove deeper into Navadurga and her various forms and what it means to be fierce but calm at the same time. The class after the presentations was the Annual House Games where the 8th graders were mixed with the high schoolers to create a presentation relating to their game topic. Before leaving for that, we began the Mahabharata and gave an introduction to the characters, time period, and overall background of what the Mahabharata was.
This week, we recapped all the Karma and Dharma key takeaways from the previous multiple classes to ensure that the concepts were fresh in their mind. The whole goal for the Mahabharata in this class is to understand the stories and characters, have discussions relating to the situations, and apply the Karma and Dharma tools to the events.
We then began the story part of the Mahabharata, starting with Shantanu meeting Ganga. We described the story in detail, highlighting the point that Shantanu was driven by desire and allowed his senses to distract him from his responsibilities as a leader. A point of discussion was about the condition Ganga puts on Shantanu - "If you ever question my actions, I will have to immediately leave you". The students concluded that none of them would ever agree to such a condition, making them understand more clearly that Shantanu went to great extremes to marry a woman he had just met. Additionally, the class discussed the actions of Ganga (in regards to drowning the newborn babies). The students were saying that it was a horrible action, but upon finding out the back story (when the 8 Vasus tried to steal Kamadhenu), we realized that it was Ganga's duty to do so. After the Vasus had begged her to liberate them from a worldly life, Ganga needed to fulfill her promise and do what she had to do.
Something to quickly mention, is that the Mahabharata is a web of stories where human emotions/desires manifest to fulfill a larger cosmic plan. The main objective is to show how to uphold Dharma. Many great personalities seem to fall victim to basic frailties and our objective is not to pass judgements on them but to rather understand their limitations. Every character has things to learn from whether it be positive or negative from which we can try to make ourselves better.
An important aspect of this set of stories was the different intentions behind the promises given by Shantanu versus Devavrata. Shantanu's promise to Ganga was a compromise in his own values for the sake of marriage to her. Bheeshma's promise to Satyavati and her father was a sacrifice for the sake of his father's happiness. This understanding led into the discussion of how "leadership is not about privileges, but rather shouldering responsibilities".
The students asked some interesting questions throughout the class. One was, "if you think about doing a good action before you do it, do you get good karma from that too?" — Our answer to that was, "A thought is also an action. So, if you are having good thoughts, those are considered to be good actions!" The teachers also conveyed that we can never be actionless. Therefore, might as well make our actions good!
That's all for now. Have a great week and students, keep asking questions in class! More participation equals more understanding!!
Best regards,
Nikhita and Partha
