Satyavan-Savitri: The story of persistence, belief and wisdom

The story of the couple Satyavan and Savitri speaks the power of persistence and belief. The story is associated with a fasting ritual called "Karadayan Nonbu" in Tamil. Today, marks the transition of Tamil month Masi to Panguni and people celebrate it as "Karadayan Nonbu". Eager to know the story behind it!! Continue reading below..

King Ashvapati had no children and prayed towards Sun God "Savitr" (another name for Sun God) to bless him with a progeny for his lineage (a son). Soon his prayer was answered and he was blessed with a daughter. He named her "Savitri".

Savitri was very wise and beautiful. When she attained marriage age, her father asked her to choose her husband. She went in search out to woods and found Satyavan serving his parents with utmost dedication. Even before she knew that Satyavan was a Prince with his parents being thrown out of their kingdom, she fell in love with him and decided to marry him. Satyavan's parents & Satyavan also accepted her proposal. On her way back to her kingdom,  Narada told her that Satyavan has limited lifespan of one year from now and it would be better if she change her mind about the marriage. Savitri did not pay importance to Narada's words and replied that she has decided to spend her life serving Satyavan and his parents.

Later, she went and informed her father Ashvapati about her choice of Satyavan and he consented to it as well. Narada again came to his father and briefed him about Satyavan's lifespan. The news made Ashvapari worrisome and he talked to his daughter and told not to marry Satyavan. But Savitri was persistent in her decision and replied the same way as she did to Narada.

Soon the marriage of Satyavan and Savitri took place and Savitri accompanied her husband and in-laws to the forest.

When she knew that Satyavan's lifespan is going to end, three days before the destined death date, she started her fasting and prayer. Though her in-laws were hesitant initially, later they supported her vratam (fasting). On the destined day, she decided to accompany Satyavan wherever he go. Satyavan went to the forest to cut trees and Savitri accompanied him. Suddenly, Satyavan felt dizzy and fell down. Savitri knew that he is going to die, laid him to her lap. Satyavan died the very next moment. Savitri could see that Lord YamaDharma is approaching Satyavan's body with a rope. She went towards him and bowed down.

At first YamaDharma was surprised to know that he was recognized by a human. Because, YamaDharma cannot be perceived through human eyes. He enquired about her and she being a Pativrata (noble wife), begged and prayed to Him to give back life to her husband, so that they can live together and serve their parents. But YamaDharma denied saying its impossible for him to give life back to a mortal and also it is against nature laws. Savitri kept on saying verses from literature in praise of belief, obedience and noble conduct and presented her request again. YamaDharma pleased with her approach and her choice of marrying Satyavan even after knowing his limited lifespan, offered her 3 boons to make except the life of Satyavan.

Wise Savitri proceeded asking him, "May my in-laws be blessed with eye vision and kingdom they lost! May my parents are blessed with hundred sons to continue their lineage! May I be blessed with hundred sons as well!"

YamaDharma replied, "Dadastu (Done)"  and later realized the trick in her boon, that she wanted hundred sons for herself, which would mean Satyavan to be alive.

YamaDharma then replied her that he was impressed with her persistence and Pativratvam (noble chastity) and he would give life back to Satyavan. Savitri paid her obeisance to YamaDharma and was happy to see his husband waking up from his drowsy state. On return to her in-laws, she was happy to see them with eye vision and a news that they got their kingdom back.

People in South India (especially Tamil Nadu) observe this time of the year (when the month transition from Masi to Panguni) as "Karadayan Nonbu", the same way as Savitri did her 3 days pooja and fasting. They make sweet adai made of rice and offer it to Goddess Shakti, Durga or Ambal  and draw inspiration from Savitri's belief and persistence. Married women pray for their husband's long life and unmarried women pray for a good devoted husband.

Simple pattern matching game

We had borrowed from library a Finnish book on numbers and pictures corresponding to the numbers.
The picture below is a page for number 100 listing 100 items.

While Barathraam enquire asking names of each objects, slowly he also started identifying that there are more dogs, bears in it and started recognizing the patterns.
Then I realised how wonderful game it was for him to identify star shapes, dog shapes in this picture of random objects.

And I thought I could share here, for kids of all ages would love to recognize patterns and locate objects. Try it out and share your ideas.

-- Sheer joy of sharing

Introducing Numbers - fun way

One day, we just came across the number train rhymes in youtube website and it became Barathraam's one of the favorite videos. He could count from 1-10 in Tamil & English now.. So I just thought of making a number train at home using color charts, that way he could associate the numbers he tell with the way it is written.
And, it turned out to be good that he could now point to the correct number as he tells it [ah, yes provided he is in a good mood :-)]

I read in "Baby Minds" by Linda Acredolo et al, that kids find it interesting to see patterns in what they see.. To aid this skill, they suggested drawing some simple figures from numbers and alphabets. I could come up with my limited creativity the below figures associating it to numbers.. Barathraam does enjoy it and hope he could come up with better ones as he grow.

-- Sheer joy of sharing

Introducing days

I just came across some website which mentioned a fun way to introduce days to kids..

I thought I could introduce the days to Barathraam along with the significance of the day by representing a God deity.

Here it goes,

In the small carboard box we used to put the current day's significant deity  while telling name of the day..
like for example, picture of sun and tell that it is Sunday..
We can alter it slightly with any specific activities like music/reading/drama and let them guess name of the day..

Try out and do let me know if you have any suggestions..

-- Sheer joy of sharing

Navarathri Special - Story of Kalidasa

The festival Navarathri commences from today (which is day after full moon during the month of Puratasi in Tamil calendar month). The word "Navarathri" means nine days which corresponds to worship of three forms of Goddess Devi namely, Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi; three days each for three forms of Devi.
During Navarathri, people display the idols of Gods in their home and invite neighbours and friends to visit. Children used to visit their friend's home and sing songs at their places and get some Prasad (food which is offered to God) usually called "Sundal".
During this auspicious time of worshipping Goddess Devi, let us listen to stories of Her great Bhakthas and Her divine grace.

Kalidasa is a well known poet in Sanskrit literature. He was not born intelligent, but was blessed with poetic prowess by Goddess Kali. There is an interesting story behind Kalidasa being blessed by Goddess Kali.

The King of Tejavathi had a well-learned daughter named Vidhyakumari. When the king wanted to arrange marriage of Vidhyakumari, she told that she will marry the person who defeats her in a debate on Shastras. A minister from the King's court wanted to make Vidhyakumari as his daughter-in-law, but his son was demeaned by her during the debate on Shastras. The minister kept vengence on her and wanted to teach her a lesson. He was set in search of a dumb man and found one near a forest. The man was cutting a tree branch while sitting on the branch edge. Seeing this the minister understood him to be a fool and plot a trick to make him marry Vidhyakumari.

The minister took the dumb man to Princess and introduced that he is one of the brilliant citizen of their country. He added that the dumb man would not speak anything, but could answer her questions. Princess got interested and the debate started. The princess showed him one finger saying `shakti is one'. He thought she will poke his one eye, so he showed her two fingers. She accepted it as valid answer, since `shakti' is manifest in duality (shiv-shakti, nar-naaree etc). She showed her the palm with fingers extended like symbolising a slap. He showed her the fist. She accepted it as answer to her question. She said `five elements' and he said `make the body' (earth, water, fire, air, and void). The mute debate continued and finally the Princess agreed that the dumb man is indeed a scholar and told that she would like to marry him.

Soon after the marriage got over, the Princess could understand that her husband is indeed not a scholar but a naive, dumb person. She felt grief-stricken and realized her mistake. However she did not deserted him, instead she tried to cultivate the knowledge in him. However being dumb he could not understand anything. Being a devotee of Goddess Kali, she asked him to pray to Her to bless with knowledge. The dumb man prayed to Kali everyday, but seeing that Kali did not bless him with knowledge, he decided he could sacrifice himself. Seeing his devout, Goddess Kali appeared before him and wrote Om syllable on his tongue and blessed that he will become a Sanskrit scholar. He is none other than Kalidasa (Devotee of Kali).

Kalidasa gained prowess in Sanskrit literature and became a poet with Kali's blessings.

Let us pray Goddess Kali to bless us with prowess in our field of knowledge and remove our fear.

Alongside, let us listen to this Shyamala Thandakam from movie Mahakavi Kalidasa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVnRlyhqAk

Source: Movie Mahakavi Kalidasa, Discourse of Sri Muralidhara swamigal

Big & small

Here is another interesting activity for toddlers around 15 months old to teach them big & small.

There are nice jungle animals, safari animals and polar animal picture layout available from the craft website,
http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/jungleanimals.html

Here goes the simple easy steps:
1. I printed these animal picture layouts in two sizes; same image size as given and 30 % reduced size.

2. Cut these pictures and cut the same shapes into to some carton boxes/chart paper/cardboard sheet. The carton boxes containing groceries, corn flakes etc are good to use for this.

3. Glue the print outs over the carton layouts and dry it.

4. You and your kid is now ready to explode your creative games..
 like mixing them all and showing him big elephant, identify and match it with the smaller one.

Here is the picture of our big & small game.

I made from Black & White layouts.. Its also fun to have colored ones, or uncolored ones (and colored by your kid with crayons)!

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