In
today’s Balavihar, we learned about the origins of Mahabharata which consists
of over 100,000 verses. Sage Vyasa, who conceived and composed this great epic,
needed a scribe to write all the verses. So he prayed to Lord Brahma who
recommended Lord Ganesha as the scribe. Ganesha appeared before Vyasa and said
that he would write Mahabharata on the condition that Vyasa should continuously
dictate without a break. Vyasa agreed to this but made a condition that
Ganesha had to understand each verse before writing it down. Vyasa made this
condition so that he could gain time to compose while Lord Ganesha pondered
over the meaning of an occasionally difficult verse. It is believed that
there are 8,800 such difficult verses. This was how Mahabharata which is also
known as the fifth Veda came into existence. We also listened to the
story of the King Shantanu who married Ganga after agreeing to her conditions.
The eight Vasus were born as their sons due to Sage Vasishta’s curse, but Ganga
threw seven of her babies in the river to redeem them of their sins. We
will learn more about Shantanu, Ganga, and the eighth baby in the next
class.
Uday Samavenkata (Section 1)
September 22, 2013
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