Today's class marked the conclusion of the Mahabharata story. The part of the story we covered were:
Yudhishtira is coronated the King of Hastinapura after much persuasion by Vyasa and others to stop feeling guilty and sorrowful and to take on his duty as ruler. To help him with this Krishna advises him to learn from Bhishma who is still on the bed of arrows. As they visit Bhishma, Krishna grants Bhishma the boon to not feel pain until his death and with a clearer mind, he imparts his knowledge to Yudhishtira about the duties and characteristics of a ruler. At the end of this and the beginning of Uttarayana, Bhishma discards his body and returns to heaven. Ganga mourns the death of her son and Krishna comforts her.
Yudhishtira rules righteously for many years. After a few years Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti along with Vidura proceed to the forest and their life ends in a forest fire. The Pandavas are distraught at the death of their mother.
In Mathura, the unrighteous behavior of the Yadavas comes to a head. Krishna sees bad omens. The time for Gandhari's curse to come true arrives. Along with that, the Yadavas had previously incurred another curse when they played a mean joke on some of the Rishis by asking them if a boy dressed in a pregnant woman's garb was going to have a boy or a girl. The Rishis curse them that he would give birth to an iron rod that would be the cause of the death of all the Yadavas. Upon hearing this an upset Balarama has them powder it and put it in the ocean. However, over the years the iron had been washed to the shore and had formed blades of grass. When the Yadavas make camp is a place called Prabhasa, they get drunk and a fight breaks out in which many of the Maharathis of the war are killed. Krishna is disgusted and throws the grass at them that kills them all. He rushes to tell Balarama this who then gives up his life in meditation. A serpent emerges from his mouth and swims into the ocean. It is believed that Balarama was the incarnation of Adi Shesha.
Krishna too wonders how he should discard his mortal body. As he is resting in the forest, a hunter who has an arrow made of the same blade of grass thinks of his foot as a deer and shoots Krishna through the foot. Krishna blesses the hunter who tries to help him and grants him Moksha before he gives up his Avatar and ascends to the heavens.
A devasted Arjuna is in charge of taking all the women and children of Dwaraka to Hastinapura. On the way, they are attacked by robbers for wealth and women. Arjuna has great difficulty in stringing the Gandhiva and is unable to shoot arrows to protect them and the wealth and many women are carried away. When he brings the remaining people to Hastinapura, he relates the whole incident to the Pandavas. He also tells him that he dreamt that Krishna told him to join him soon. The Pandavas decide that it is time for their 'Mahaprasthana' an undertaking where people walked into the Himalayas without food and water till their bodies gave up.
Parikshit is made King. The Pandavas and Draupadi start for the Himalayas. A dog begins to follow them. As they ascend the Himalayas, Draupadi is the first to fall dead. Bhima asks Yudhishita what sin she had committed to fall dead. He states that she had always loved Arjuna more. Sahadeva falls next. Yudhishtira says that he was vain about his knowledge. Nakula falls thirsd. He was vain about his appearance. Arjuna falls and Yudhistira states that it is because he had boasted that he could single handedly kill all his enemies but did not in the end. Bhima falls beacuse he was boastful of his strength and ate too much. Finally at the top of Meru mountain, Indra comes to greet Yudhishtira in his chariot and asks him to come with him to heaven. Yudhishtira refuses to leave the poor dog behind and refuses heaven in order to protect it. The dog then turns into Yama himself and he blesses Yudhishtira and takes him to heaven. In heaven, he is shocked to see Duryodhana on a throne enjoying himself and his brothers are nowhere to be seen. He finds them in hell and in pain and refuses the pleasures of heaven and chooses to be with them instead. Once again Indra tells Yudhishtira that he was being tested and he had to spend that short time in hell for the lie he told about Drona.
Yudhishtira enters Indra's palace and finds Krishna, all his brothers, Draupadi and Dhrishtadhymna, Karna there standing by their celestial fathers. The Pandavas merged with their respective celestial fathers.
We ended the day with a debate on the pros and cons of 5 characters with one kid supporting and another opposing the actions of the characters. They were Yudhistira, Gandhari, Krishna, Karna and Bhishma.
We ended class with the pledge.
