Parent Portal 2024-25: Nov 17, 2024 - JCHYK Gr. 10-12 (Sunday AM)

Hari om everyone,

We started today's class with a meditation session. Aunty was so eager to ask the Quirky Question (QQ) that she forgot all about Geeta chanting! Apologies for that — we'll make sure to practice more next class.

The QQ of the Day was: Can you spell candy with 2 letters?
We had a couple of answers: One said C and Y, another said M & M.
M&Ms are delicious, but not the answer. The correct one is C and Y — together they spell "CandY"

Why this quirky question? Well, it connects to a story from Mahabharata. During the war, when Yudhishthira told Drona that Ashwatthaama had died, he paused (like the spaces in candy), and then added, "the elephant" at the same time the drums were beaten. Technically, he spoke the truth — the elephant Ashwatthaama did die — but Drona was led to believe that his son had died. It's a clever example of how things aren't always as they seem.

This led us into a deeper discussion of how every character in Mahabharata, except Krishna of course, has some flaw or weakness. None of them are perfect. We continued reviewing the Mahabharata from Draupadi's swayamvara. We explored her rejection of Karna and discussed the varNa system (which is often misinterpreted as the caste system).

We made the point that every society needs order to function, and even something like a school is a good example of this. In our metaphorical "school," the different roles are like the four varNas:

The principal (the decision-maker) = braahmaNa
The teacher (who faces the students) = kShatriya
Parents (the financiers) = vaishya
Janitors (the cleaning staff) = shoodra

Every role is essential! No one is more important than the other, and when we understand this, we can see that the varNa system isn't specific to Hinduism, but is simply about maintaining order in any structure.

We also discussed the division of the kingdom, the building of Indraprastha, Duryodhana's jealousy, the game of dice, and the dharma (or lack thereof) in the game. We explored how even small vices can bring us down, as seen in Yudhishthira's weakness for gambling. He gambled away everything, even his wife! Imagine that... and yet, Bhishma, Drona, and others did nothing to stop him.

These lessons resonate in our own lives. Karna, for instance, slandered Draupadi just to fit in with Duryodhana. How many times do we act in ways that are not true to ourselves, just to fit in, especially when we feel insecure? It's a trap, and we must remain true to our values, no matter the pressure.

We also discussed Arjuna's curse, which led to a conversation about gender identity. It was refreshing to see that even in ancient times, respect for all individuals, regardless of identity, was part of our culture.

By then, we had parents coming in for a special Parent-Teacher Meeting. We had invited them to share about the upcoming Annual Chinmaya Vrindavan Fund Raiser. We shared all the information slides and postcards with the parents.

It was heartening to see almost 18 parents who took time out of their schedule and came to our class. We had promised them a surprise, so we gave them a surprise... test that is

. Yes, you guessed it — a trivia contest on Mahabharata! Most students outperformed their parents, which proves that all their hard work in class is paying off

A special thanks to all the parents who came to join us — we hope you enjoyed the surprise! Apologies to anyone we missed in the photos.