This Sunday, we had a short class. We began with Gurustotram. We then had a Kahoot game on the Mahabharata. This was followed by a quick recap of the previous class. Then we had the next part of the Mahabharata story.
Ashwattama, Kritavarma, Kripacharya are deeply saddened by the plight of the dying Duryodhana and Ashwattam vows revenge upon the Pandavas for all the unfair things that they did during the war. They reach the Pandava camp in the middle of the night and Kritavarma and Kripacharya stand guard at the door while Ashwattama wrecks havoc inside. He finds the sleeping Dhrishtadhyumna and strangles and beats him. Dhrishtadhymna begs him to kill him with an arrow so he could die like a Kshatriya but Ashwattama refuses and says that he does not deserve it for the way that he killed Drona. He also kills the Upapandavas in their sleep.
After destroying the Pandava camp and setting it on fire, the three return to Duryodhana and tell him what they had done. He then dies knowing that he had had some revenge. Ashwattama and the others disperse knowing that the Pandavas will soon come looking for Ashwattama. Soon, the bad news reaches the Pandavas. Draupadi is heart broken and seeks revenge against AShwattama. Bhima sets off to find him and is followed by Krishna and Arjuna. Ashwattama releases the Bhrahmasi astra and so does Arjuna but they are stopped by Veda Vyasa and Narada who tell them that it would cause the destruction of the entire planet and they should withdraw it. Arjuna does so but Ashwattama does not know how to and redirects it at the womb of Uttara Kumari who is to bear the child of Abhimanyu. Krishna is very angry with this. He saves the baby. Ashwattama has to surrender the gem on his forehead and loses its protective powers. Krishna curses him to live alone in pain and suffering forever.
Dhritarashtra and Gandhari meet the Pandavas. Dhritarashtra is overcome with grief and crushed the iron statue of Bhima thinking that it is Bhima before being overcome with grief. It is then that he realises that Bhima is still alive. Although Gandhari is very angry and sad, the humility of the Pandavas helps her calm down and she reconciles with them. She curses Krishna that in 36 years his entire Yadava clan will kill itself and die. Krishna is not sad to hear this as he knows that it is coming. He also explains Gandahri's mistakes in raising her sons to her and states that she too is to blame for her plight.
Everyone is offering the last rites to the dead at the banks of the River Ganga and Kunti finally steps forward and tells Yudhishtira to do the last rites of Karna as well. The Pandavas are perplexed but then shocked when she reveals that he was her first born son. Yudhishtira is very angry with her and curses all of woman kind to never be able to keep a secret.
We then listened to Swamijis chanting of chapter 2, shlokas 17,18.
The kids then entered the zoom session for the 7th grade program.
