Introduction (Short)

The Kahani Gurukul presents the moral stories from 10 million scriptures of Hinduism written in the last 10,000+ years. The purpose of these stories to build strong character where students embrace peace, harmony, equality, justice, family values and Dharma.

 

Introduction (Detail)

India has a dynamic history and its culture spanning back to the beginning of human civilization. While the rest of the world is trying to find happiness using materialistic means and looking outward, Hinduism from the east believes happiness is an inner experience and provides means to achieve with self-exploration or looking inward. The Ancient sages and saints of Indic civilization developed the technique of Yoga and Meditation, which allowed them to gain the knowledge about this universe and self that does not change with the place, time and circumstances. The modern world calls it “laws.” These universal laws or eternal laws are called as Sanatana Dharma which is the original name of Hinduism.

 

The person who acquires this knowledge was known as Rishi. They simply called this knowledge as “Veda”  because the word knowledge in Sanskrit named as “Veda”. Vedas is the knowledge that contains the laws that govern the outer world (physical) and the inner world (spiritual). Hence Vedas are the encyclopedia of knowledge that is beyond place, time and circumstances. Vedas are universal laws irrespective of race, religion, caste, creed, and region. The reason we say this is because thousands of Rishis of the Indian subcontinent have verified these universal laws overtime at various places and at different circumstances. Then they have developed a system of transferring this knowledge from one generation to the next by oral recitation. In this system, students used to live in near the teacher’s hermitage and practice strict discipline to learn Vedas. This system is called “Gurukul”, the first school system of this planet. The modern school systems are simply an evolution of it.

 

The 4 Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samveda and Atharveda) is composed by 861 Rishis and contains 20379 Mantras.

 

As time passed, Treta Yuga started; there was a need to convey the message of Veda using historical events. Maharishi Valmiki documented the story of Lord Rama and his life story how he upheld the Dharma, which is simply the message of Veda. 24000 verses written in 7 Kandas (chapters) contain hundreds of stories about Rama’s life and events surrounding Him.

 

More time passed, Dwapar Yuga started, moral values declined from Rama’s time. Veda Vyasa composed the largest epic on this planet, the Mahabharata, with 100,000 verses documenting how Lord Krishna helped Pandavas to uphold Dharma and preserved the message of Vedas. Mahabharata contains hundreds of stories about daily life and moral values.

 

Then came Kali Yuga, morale valued declined further, people did not read Vedas as much. So, the need arose for a simple explanation of the Vedic message using examples of historical and daily life events of celestial beings, sages and saints. The tradition of Puran started, and 220+ Puran text were composed. This became the most extensive collection ever written in ancient time which is full of stories.

 

Over time, the tradition of Kahani (or Katha or stories) became so popular that the majority of Hinduism, its samskaras (Values) were transmitted and known via these stories.

 

The Kahanis of Hinduism are vivid, colourful, full of imagination, futuristic, exciting, creative, adventures, and contain a variety of characters.

 

Mythology vs Sattology (History): If you line up 100 people in a row and pass down the simple sentence “Jack and Jill got married” to the first person’s standing in the line. By the time it reaches 100th person, you may hear “Jack and Jill got divorced”. This is what happens when information is transmitted over time and generation after generation. For the thousands of years, the message of Vedas has been conveyed by various methods so that it reaches to the mass. India followed an oral tradition, so some level of exaggeration has taken place; as a result of many time, those who walk may run, those who run may fly. Rather than focusing on the morale of the story, people started labelling them as Myth and started calling some of the scriptures as Mythology. The Hindu scriptures are not Myth or Mythology but Sattology (Sattology is opposite to Myth, based on Satya or Truth) While Puran are an extension of Itihasa – as indeed it happened (loosely translated as History).

 

From thousands of years, various forms and methods of storytelling have evolved like Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, Ram Lila, Krishna Lila, Folk tales, Satsang, Jatak tales, Puran tales, etc.

 

The Kahani Gurukul presents the moral stories from 10 million Hindu scriptures written in the last 10,000+ years. The purpose of these stories to build strong character where students embrace peace, harmony, equality, justice, family values and Dharma.

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Goals and Objectives

• To develop storytelling from Veda, Upanishad, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puran and other texts.

• To develop storytelling from Panchatantra, Hitopadesha, Ram Lila, Krishna Lila, Folk tales, Puranic tales, Jatak tales and other books.

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Students

• eYogi Gurukul students

• All other interested community kids

• All adults interested in learning

 

Goal

• At least one activity per week published on Youtube/Facebook and Whatsapp.

 

Duration

• 20 Weeks Course taught by professional Gurus. 

• 8 years plus age.

• No prerequisite.

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Course

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