Dharma 6 - Mahabharata

Class Information -

This class covers: Give a connected account of this scripture covering the major episodes. Use these episodes to reinforce moral values and to highlight evils to be avoided. Philosophical sections such as the Shanti Parva should be avoided. Adult content should be modified appropriately. Selected verses from the Vishnu Sahasranama could be taught.

Ages: 9-10 / Grade: 4-5

Download PDF copy of book: CLICK HERE

Classroom: Classroom 4

Teachers -

Teachers:

• Bhaskar Mulugu

• Annette Kurek

EMAIL teachers: Click HERE

Teenage Volunteers:

• Akash Nagapurkar (teen)

• Neal Mukherjee (teen)

Class & Homework-

END OF YEAR -- ANNUAL DAY

Presentation Video:

May 6th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Bhagwan Krishna explained karma to every one before they were killed.

• Abhimanyu and Karna were most talked.

• We are almost there completing Mahabharata

April 22nd-

Hello all!

This is Neal Mukherjee, one of the TAs for your child's HATS Dharma Level 6 Mahabharata Class with teachers Bhaskar Mulugu, Annette Kurek, and TA Akash Nagapurkar.

Although these past several months have been a blast and we have learned so much of the Mahabharata and are now on the eve of the war we are also not far off from the HATS Annual day on May 20th. We have begun our preparations for a play to be presented on Annual Day called the Death of Abhimanyu. To ensure a successful performance we needed a few favors from you, the parents.

First and foremost we need your child (who has already been assigned a role) to attend each class from April 15 to the end of the year for rehearsals. Missing rehearsals is not only detrimental to your child's performance but also harms others and the overall play. Should they miss too many practices, their role may be reassigned. Furthermore, if you will not be able to attend the HATS Annual Day event, we would like to know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly.

The play is formatted so that your child will act out the scenes which will be narrated by the instructors. This means that we need help with costumes for the kids. If your child is a Pandava they should plan to wear a light-colored Indian piece and if your child is a Kaurava they should plan to wear a dark-colored Indian piece. There is only 1 female character, this means for our female students they will have to dress in unisex or male Indian clothing. We also need the students to bring in headgear if possible. You can wrap baseball/bicycle/football/hockey headgear or even baseball caps with either gold foil for the Pandavas and Tin Foil for the Kauravas. We also need a few props, does any family have a horse head on a stick or a Styrofoam head we could use for the performance?

Please let us know if you have any questions. It has been a wonderful experience teaching your kids and we are so excited for the upcoming performance.

Thanks,

Dharma Level 6 Team

April 1st-

Material Covered Class:

• We discussed about-

• Failure of Sanjaya's Peace mission

• Failure of Krishna's Peace mission, Krishna at the court of King Dhritarashtra

• Krishna Meets Karna

• Kunti meets Karna gets a boon

• Indra meets Karna , fascinated by Karna's generous nature , gifts him Vajrayudha

• Strengths of both armies Kauravas (11 Akshauhinis) and Pandava (7 Akshauhinis)

• Commanders on each side has been set

• Kids were so excited week by week . We are trying to complete Maha Bharata within schedule also preparing for class presentation

March 25th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We have discussed about

• Technically right vs Practically right - a story

• Sanjaya's negotiating to prevent WAR

• Dhritarashtra's blind love is more dangerous than being actually blind

• Vidhura Gita - some good learnings

• There has been a lot of practice going on every Sunday. Neal took a moment to write a short letter to all parents on what is being planned for May 20th Class performance.

NOTE TO PARENTS:

Hello all!

This is Neal Mukherjee, one of the TAs for your child's HATS Dharma Level 6 Mahabharata Class with teachers Bhaskar Mulugu, Annette Kurek, and TA Akash Nagapurkar.

Although these past several months have been a blast and we have learned so much of the Mahabharata and are now on the eve of the war we are also not far off from the HATS Annual day on May 20th. We have begun our preparations for a play to be presented on Annual Day called the Death of Abhimanyu. To ensure a successful performance we needed a few favors from you, the parents.

First and foremost we need your child (who has already been assigned a role) to attend each class from April 15 to the end of the year for rehearsals. Missing rehearsals is not only detrimental to your child's performance but also harms others and the overall play. Should they miss too many practices, their role may be reassigned. Furthermore, if you will not be able to attend the HATS Annual Day event, we would like to know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly.

The play is formatted so that your child will act out the scenes which will be narrated by the instructors. This means that we need help with costumes for the kids. If your child is a Pandava they should plan to wear a light-colored Indian piece and if your child is a Kaurava they should plan to wear a dark-colored Indian piece. There is only 1 female character, this means for our female students they will have to dress in unisex or male Indian clothing. We also need the students to bring in headgear if possible. You can wrap baseball/bicycle/football/hockey headgear or even baseball caps with either gold foil for the Pandavas and Tin Foil for the Kauravas. We also need a few props, does any family have a horse head on a stick or a styrofoam head we could use for the performance?

Please let us know if you have any questions. It has been a wonderful experience teaching your kids and we are so excited for the upcoming performance.

Thanks,

Dharma Level 6 Team

March 18th-

Material Covered in Class:

• War preparation from both sides Kauravas and Pandavas how multiple kingdoms getting divided

• Shared a short story on belief

• We practiced Abhimanyu (Chakra Vyuham) episode for Dharma show in May

March 11th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Today we discussed about

  • Yudhisthar and Gandharva question/answer

  • Virata Parvam, Pandavas hiding in Virata's kingdom

No homework

March 4th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We discussed about

• A. Krishna saving Pandavas from Rishi's curse by filling Rishis hunger

• B. Kaurava's evil plan to fight with Pandavas, in turn how Pandavas saved Kauravas from Gandharvas

• 1. About mindfulness and presence of mind a story and learning

• 2. Not to say like umm when we speak , how to speak fluent and gain attention

• 3. Practiced Abhimanyu episode for presentation on May 17.

February 11th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Duryodhana's evil plan, Veda vyasa convinces by explaining cow story and discussed about equality vs justice

• Krishna and Dhrishtadyumna meet Pandavas

• Discussed about dialog about forgiveness between Draupadi and Yudhishtara

• Arjuna gets divine weapons from Indra and god Shiva.

• How world is changing with AI and automation why acquiring new skills is so important every day

• Nakula Dharma story

• How mom Giraffe protects newly born from predators

• Talked about english language, what is the right way of reading. Language is an art.

• Diction

• Pronunciation

• Vocabulary

• Tongue twisters

January 28th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We have discussed how dangerous addiction to bad habits can cause problems

• Leadership qualities , how much support Pandavas got from all their followers

• Being on the side of Dharma Pandavas are blessed with so many good things like : Akshya Patra for food, lot of boons from gods

• How difficult to live in forest, how could we be prepared for these worst case living conditions - Not addicting to mobile phones etc.

January 7th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Meditation in class today

Homework:

• None

December 17th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We celebrated 12/9 Game participation with Donuts

• We have reviewed what we did on 12/9.

• We discussed about

• Kingdom was split between Kauravas and Pandavas

• Pandavas worked hard to bring the waste land into fertile land and made the kingdom rich.

• Shishupala's 99 sins and Krishna taking care of Shishupala

December 10th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Played Jeopardy in class

Homework:

• Keep reviewing characters learned so far and events that took place.

November 19th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Covered some of the stories related to following topics and discussed aspects of 'Dharam" in relation thereto -

  • Royal graduation, Varnavrat and Lakshagriha, and Vadh of Hidimb and Bakasur.

November 5th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Explained “Dharam”; it is not a definition or word based explanation.

• Discussed with respect to stories sequentially narrated by Neel – Yuddh-sthir, Ek-lavya, Bheem, Dur-yodha, Du-shasan, Bheeshm, Karn and Parshuram’s curse…..more.

• What is evil vs good (that we hear all the time) – duel between Mind and Soul.

• What is Mahabharat (mental duel we have every moment)

• Closed with a puppet show on Karn and Guru Parsha-Ram’s curse

October 29th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We covered the story of Ekalavya and Dronacharya.

• Thinking Question for the students: Who was more at fault for Ekalavya's demise, Arjuna or Dronacharya?

October 15th-

Material Covered in Class:

• We read couple of Gita Slokas

• Did quick Yoga session

• Discussed about Birth of Pandavas and Kauravas

Homework:

• None

October 1st-

Material Covered in Class:

• Had meditation in class today:

• I invited interactively what the students know about meditation. what meditation does and why should we do it.

• Who are we and how we spend our day with respect to our entity as SOUL.

• Discussed and unveiled the truth about SOUL as we truly are, but we spend our day and thus the whole life on body or mind (caring, nourishing and maintaining) believing ourselves to be so. Opened the topic as to what should we do as SOUL.

• Understanding the concept of 3rd eye or Shiv netra. Meditated for 15 minutes in three brakes of 5 minutes each- stilling the body, Stilling the mind, and experiencing the light within (the light of SOUL) and since our eyes are closed how do we see this inner light -nothing but third eye.

September 24th-

Material Covered in Class:

• Review from previous week,

• Practiced Yoga

• Story about Sage & Boatman, Knowing is not enough but practicing is most important

• Learnt about Shakuntala, Dushyantha, Bharata, Bheeshma - the key person of Maha Bharata

• Bheeshma's Promise to Satyavathi

• Bheeshma cursed by Amba

• Dhrutarashtra, Pandu and Vidhura were born

• Dhrutarashtra got married to Gandhari ( Discussed power of blind person)

• Shakuni and his tricks - His key role in future.

• Quiz about few characters so far from Maha Bharata

Homework:

• None

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