Story of Ganesha

I like the months from April - Nov more, as it marks many festivals and gives us a festive atmosphere all around.
Tomorrow which is Tamil month of Avani (August), valarpirai chathurthi (4th day of waxing moon) is celebrated as Vinayaka Chaturthi.

All our prayers and worships start only after praying to Vinayaka. Let me start this post also after offering prayers to Vinayaka.
"Mooshika vahana mothaka hastha
samara karna vilambitha soothra
vamana roopa maheshwara puthra
vigna vinayaka patha namasthe"

As we celebrate his birthday, let us know his story of birth. This version of story is from Shiva Puranam.

One day Goddess Parvati wife of Lord Shiva, wanted to take bath. She made a small boy Ganesha out of the scurf from her body and placed him in the entrance and asked him not to allow anyone till she complete her bath. Lord Shiva returned home and was feeling thirsty. He was interrupted by the small boy Ganesha who was standing outside guarding at the entrance. Ganesha told, "Mother asked me not to allow anyone till she completes her bath. So please wait."
Shiva got angry on seeing this and told, "I am Shiva, Parvati's wife and no one can stop me from going inside my home." This created a tussle between them and Lord Shiva suspecting the boy to be an outsider cut off his head.
When Parvati came out and learnt what happened, she grieved for the state of the boy she created.
Lord Shiva in order to set things right, asked his Bootha Ganas to get the head of a creature which is sleeping facing north and bring that creature to Him.
Bootha Ganas found an elephant sleeping facing north and got its head to Lord Shiva. He then attached the head of the elephant over the boy's neck and made him alive.

Parvati was worried about Ganesha's elephant head, but Shiva consoled her saying Ganesha will be the foremost God to be worshiped before starting any activity or rituals. He bestowed that Ganesha will remove all the hindrances and obstacles in our efforts to achieve some task and bless us with success.

Let us all offer our prayers to Lord Ganesha and seek His blessings to remove obstacles on the path of our achievements.
Lord Ganesha's form has many significances which is good to know as we pay our worship to Him.

Big head reminds us to "Think Big"
Small eyes points us to "Concentrate in our work"
Large ears asks us to "Listen more"
Small mouth reminds us to "Talk less"
Long trunk symbolizes strength and fine discriminative power
(Elephant can pull off a tree with his trunk and also can pick a needle. A wise man should cultivate immense strength and fine capability to carry out big tasks as well as meticulous jobs)
Big stomach reminds us to digest patiently and peacefully the good and bad we face in life
Mothaka represents the rewards for our Sadhana.
(A point to be noted is that we cannot see Ganesha eating Mothaka. He just have them in His hand. So, a wise man never gets attached to the rewards of his deeds)
Mouse is the vahana (vehicle) for Ganesha and resembles that we should keep our desires under control.
(Senses and desires keep a man nibbling always and hence has to be kept under control, otherwise it will have a ride on us)

Let us listen to this beautiful Kids Bhajan on Vinayaka
http://vimeo.com/22187130

Inputs: The Symoblism of Hindu Gods and Rituals, by A. Parthasarathy

Finger puppets

I came across this website http://www.firstpalette.com/ when I searched for kids crafts ideas.
As my son started liking to play with CD like Vishnu Chakra, I thought of creating some more plays based on that. I tried finger puppets from the link below.
http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Animals/easterfingerpuppets/easterfingerpuppets.html

It was very easy to make it and my son finds it interesting to hold different animals on hand..
We also used to sing some rhymes based on the animal on hand and with some actions along with rhymes made the play packed with fun..

Simple to make; Worth trying it..

Can be tried for babies of 15 months and older..

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The sheer joy of sharing!

Krishna and Govardhana

Today is a special day as we observe Krishna Janmashtami. Kids always cherish Little Krishna and his stories. Let us listen to a story of Little Krishna today.

One day Krishna woke up from his bed and when he came out of his home, he found many people moving busily along with their children towards some place. He enquired his father ,"Father, is there anything special today? Why people are rushing towards something?"

Nanda Raja replied, "Today is the day to worship Indra for his grace on us and the rain he gives us every year. So people are going to Yagnya Bhoomi to perform the rituals."

Krishna was thinking for sometime and asked again, "I think the rain we are getting every year is because of our mountain Govardhana. He is the one who helps in gathering clouds and make them pour as rain towards our land. So we should worship and thank only Govardhana and not Indra!"

Nanda was taken aback on hearing Krishna's different thinking on this subject and told, "No Krishna, we should not do that. If we do not worship Indra, he will become angry  and can destroy us."

Krishna added, "Do you accept my theory on why we get rain and who helps us for this?".. "Yes", told Nanda. Krishna continued, "Then, let us worship Govardhana this time and see what happens. We should not worship someone out of fear!"

Nanda was bewildered with Krishna's pestering questions and this discussion slowly spreaded everywhere and gained momentum. Some of them supported Krishna and agreed with his theory. Nanda also got pacified by Krishna's words and soon they all decided to perform pooja and thank Govardhana for his grace on giving rain to them. As they started their worship on Govardhana, Indra came to know about this.

On hearing the villagers decision to ignore him and worship Govardhana, Indra became very angry. He wanted to teach the villagers a strong lesson for their decision. He used his thunderbolt and sent strong thunderstorms, wind and heavy rain. Soon Brindavan was filled with water and people started running out of their houses in fear of water washing out their houses. People understood that this must be the act of Indra, who was angry on them for their decision of worshipping Govardhana instead of Indra. They exchanged words that they should not have followed Krishna's words, which resulted in this devastation.

Krishna also understood that this heavy rain was indeed carried out by envious Indra. He wanted to teach a lesson to Indra's arrogance. He assured the villagers not to panic and consoled them that he will save them from heavy rain. Saying so, he went near Govardhana Giri (mountain) , bowed before him and prayed him to save them from Indra's envious act. He then lifted the big Govardhana Giri with his small finger and held it as an umbrella. Village people were astonished to see Krishna lifting Govardhana Giri and rushed under the Govardhana Giri umbrella. They were all happy that Krishna saved them from heavy rain.
Indra on seeing this understood his mistake and felt bad on his part of being arrogant. He bowed before Krishna and accepted his mistake.

This story emphasizes that we should never be arrogant, but try to be humble always. Though Krishna is all powerful, he bowed to Govardhana and seeked his blessings before lifting him up. Let us all try to be humble as we do our daily duties.

Listen to this kids performing a wonderful song on Govardhana Giridhari!

http://vimeo.com/22207066

Also there is an intersting story behind Krishna lifting Govardhana Giri here - http://meinall.blogspot.com/2011/03/story-behind-giridhara-gopala.html

Source: Amar Chitra Katha's "Krishna and Govardhana"

Some interesting play ideas with things around at home

Our son one day got bored with his usual play stuff..We had some old CDs which we placed in a shelf and he started throwing them all to the ground..
It just struck me to turn the old CDs to an interesting game. There were some rods (they stayed as xylophone rods only for a day!) in Barathraam's toy box and I showed him how he could put the rod into the hole in the CD and take it away from the other side of CD.
Barathraam tried few times and found it to be challenging and interesting to insert the rod and take it away. He got immersed into it for some time and started finding other kinds of it like inserting his finger inside the CD hole (like Vishnu Chakra) etc..
This became his favourite past time, but yes of course only for the next few weeks..

and then we had to discover some thing else :)

This play idea could be tried starting from 12 months old babies..

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The sheer joy of sharing!

Kids play ideas

This digital age is very special in the sense it promotes sharing and support open developments.

I am impressed on the ample number of blogs that mothers worldwide have been writing and sharing their ideas and tips to bring up kids. I decided that I also have to be a part of it and share the ideas I tried out, for it will be useful for someone in some part of the world. The sheer sense of sharing without any expectations, gives me the pleasure to be part of this blog world.

So here goes some of the play ideas which we explored along with our son under the label "Kids play ideas"

As always, I all ears to your comments and critics :-)

and would be glad if you like to share your ideas too...

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The sheer joy of sharing!

Kappalotiya Thamizhan - The Tamil man who drove ship

We always cherish our journey on ships and kids like to see ships as they float on water. Ever wondered how difficult it was to manage building and running a shipping company? Especially running it against a strong British influence? It was the period during our independence struggle, a man famously called by his nick name as "Kappalotiya Thamizhan" meaning "Tamil man who drove ship" did it! On the dawn of Independence day tomorrow, let us listen to his story and know the reason behind his nick name "Kappalotiya Thamizhan".

There were many movements like Non-Violence, Quit India movement which joined hands towards Indian Independence from British rule. One of the important movements was Swadeshi movement, which had an economic strategy to remove British rule, by creating protests against British trading in India. It involved boycotting British products and promoting more Indian made products.


V.O.Chidambaram pillai (also known as VOC) was born in Ottapidaram in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu. His father was a famous lawyer and VOC followed his father's foot steps and became a lawyer too. As a lawyer he worked for the welfare of poor people by taking their cases on labour condition and poor wages. He was also the leader of trade union and headed many protests in favour of Indian peasants and poor people.

He was inspired by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak's Swadeshi movement and joined Indian National Congress and became an active participant in Swadeshi Movement. VOC was also influenced by Ramakrishnananda - a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and wanted to do something for stopping the monopoly of British India steam navigation company in Tuticorin. As the transport costs were high on British shipping company people could not afford it, but they had no other alternative. The British shipping company exploited this opportunity. VOC could not withstand this monopoly management and planned to start a comprehensive shipping company providing all kinds of shipping services from Tuticorin to Ceylon. Lokmanya Tilak and Aurobindo Gosh helped him to buy two ships; S.S.Gaelia & S.S.Lawoe and VOC started his venture by name "Swadeshi Shipping Company". Britishers thought that Swadeshi Shipping company would not survive when compared to their services. But to their mistake, people started using Swadeshi Shipping Company services for various reasons like lower costs, more frequent services, etc. It is worth to mention, that it was not easy for VOC to achieve this transition from people. He had to overcome many obstacles.

Now that people started using Swadeshi company's services, British shipping company suffered loses and wanted to squeeze out Swadeshi company. British shipping company lowered their prices to Re.1 per person and to counter their pricing strategy Swadeshi company also reduced their price to Re 0.50. This counter attack was not expected by British company and in order to retain their customers, they offered free trips along with a free umbrella. Swadeshi company however could not afford free trips and hence started losing customers.

But the bitter truth was the customers were none other than Indian trade people! They were the one who did not support the Swadeshi company and was attracted towards free trips! It was during this time, VOC and other freedom fighters started communicating strong messages to Indian people to support Swadeshi shipping company and hence support independence movement. These provoking talks made people slowly change their minds, however British company people saw this change as a threat. They wanted to take some powerful decision to stop this and arrested VOC charging him for his sedition.

Though his arrest called for many protests around Tuticorin and other places, it did not survive after few days. VOC's plea for release was rejected and was given life imprisonment. He was subjected to in humane treatment by asking him to yoke and extract oil, instead of using bulls for yoking. Because of this he was also called "Sekkizhutha Semmal" meaning "Great man who did tough yoking".

After some years, in 1912 he was released from the prison. He expected that people who supported him during his shipping company venture and Swadeshi movement would welcome him. But to his disappointment, people forgot him and his activities towards independence movement. His shipping venture was sold to their competitors which was a great shock for him. During his last days he lived in debt and even had to sell his books. As per his last wish, on November 1936 he died in Indian National Congress office at Tuticorin.

The bold decision he took to create Swadeshi Shipping company and his efforts to sustain it against British shipping company made him acquire the name "Kappalotiya Thamizhan". However, when he returned from prison and heard that his company had been sold, he experienced only sorrow feelings in return to his hard labour.
This story made me wonder how our Indian freedom fighters would feel seeing our current state of our country! Isn't it each one of ours responsibility to make them feel proud and happy for all their toil and hard labour to get Independence for us? Let us not play the blame game now, instead take oath to contribute our two cents towards our Indian Nation's prosperity.
Jai Hind.

Listen to this inspirational song from the Tamil movie "Kappalotiya Tamizhan"

Source: Biography of VOC, wikipedia

Rani Chennamma

As our Independence Day is approaching (August 15th), we can listen to the story of valorous deeds of our country's women and men who devoted their lives for India's freedom from British rule. This week let us listen to the story of brave Rani Chennamma.

Rani Chennamma ruled the Kingdom of Keladi (present day Shimoga district in Karnataka) for 25 years from 1671-1696. She was not born to a King's lineage, but married to a King Somasekhara Nayak who ruled Keladi. She was very beautiful and known for her wisdom and adherence to justice. She helped the King in maintaining justice in the kingdom. After some years of their marriage, the King slipped away from his virtuous life and went behind a dancer. He was intoxicated by the dancer's father and started behaving mad. Knowing the state of King Keladi,  the Sultan of Bijapur who was ruling the neighboring state planned to attack Keladi kingdom. When Rani Chennamma came to know about this, she decided to take sword in her hand in order to protect the people of Keladi. Her clever planning kept the enemies at bay. However, Keladi kingdom started facing internal threats from its own Ministers. As the King did not have any child, some ministers started proposing to Rani Chennamma, that she could adopt their son and make him adorn the throne of Keladi. They threatened her that if she did not oblige to the plan, they might gather people and act against the kingdom.
Rani Chennamma was very sad  about the happenings. Though she faced threats from many persons like dancer's father who had made King under his control, ministers with their demands and other neighboring rulers, but did not want to give up to the situations. She thought its was the right time to show her prowess and save her citizens. She adopted a virtuous boy named Basappa Nayaka and gave proper training on all skills which would enable him to be a good King. The bold step from Rani Chennamma made the ministers to follow her.
Rani Chennamma is known for her bravery in giving refuge to Rajaram, the second son of Shivaji, when he ran away from the clutches of Moghuls. Though Rajaram pleaded for refuge to many Kings, they denied him. All of them were afraid of being against Moghuls by giving refuge to Rajaram and hence did not provide him their support. When Rajaram asked support from Keladi kingdom, Rani Chennamma decided to extend Keladi kingdom's support to him. Her rationale was that Shivaji Maharaj being a powerful person to establish freedom from Muslims, its the duty of a Hindu to give refuge to his son, when he was under threat from Muslims. Yet many ministers commented that this would pave way for serious consequences and in addition to that giving refuge to Rajaram, at the time when Moghuls had already taken his Maratha Kingdom was of no use. Despite the ministers criticisms, Rani Chennamma believed that it was her duty to house Rajaram and save him from Moghuls attack. This act of hers drew war between Keladi and Moghuls. However, with diligent planning of Rani Chennamma, Keladi kingdom won the war and paved way for Rajaram to rejuvenate his kingdom. After few decades, Marathra kingdom with their sustained efforts, threw away Moghuls and proclaimed freedom.

It was because of Rani Chennamma's bold decision then to give refuge for Rajaram, which paved way for Maratha kingdom to gain their freedom from Moghuls. She set an example of taking bold decisions according to virtues for the welfare of the society.
Rani Chennamma's actions are indeed inspiring. Even when we face mounting problems in our lives, we have to look unto those deeds of her even during difficult times and draw motivation from them.

Jai Hind
Source: Biography of Rani Chennamma,  http://hinduhistory.blogspot.com/