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Click the chapters to read: Ghanshyam Charitra Chapter 17-18
Discussion Points:
1) Look at the picture and try to remember at which place Ghanshyam decided to play the games?
ANS:
One day Ghanshyam told his friends, “Let us go for a bath in the lake.” The boys got ready and, led by Ghanshyam, they all went to the lake. All of them jumped into the water, played hide and seek, swam for a long time, and in the end felt very hungry. Ghanshyam then took his friends to the mango grove. There was a big mango tree by the roadside with many ripe, tempting mangoes. Ghanshyam climbed up the tree, while his friends waited below. Ghanshyam began to pluck the ripe mangoes from the tree, and throw them down to Veni, Madhav and Prag, who caught them in a cloth stretched out under the tree. The rest of the boys kept watch.
2) It looks like we read or heard something related to this pot!!
Try to remember that the parasang correlates that to the given picture.
ANS:
Ghanshyam lifted the drinking pot that was hanging on a string from the Brahmin’s shoulder and rushed back to the top of the tree. Ramdatt’s anger knew no bounds. He climbed up the tree with the aim of catching Ghanshyam and pushing him off the tree. But Ghanshyam made Ramdatt chase after him from one branch to another without falling into his hands. Ramdatt was at his wit’s end. He asked the other Brahmins, who were standing below, “All of you climb the tree. And then let us all make efforts to catch Ghanshyam.” So, one by one, they all climbed up the tree, and each one sat waiting on a separate branch. Ghanshyam then climbed up to the topmost branch, Ramdatt also began to climb after him to the topmost branch, but before he could reach the top, Ghanshyam had disappeared.
3) How does Ramdatt understand that Ghanshyam is a god? How Ghanshyam taught him a lesson?
Look at the picture and remember the parasang to get the answer.
ANS:
When the Brahmins looked down, they saw Ghanshyam standing below, teasing Ramdatt by holding aloft the drinking pot with the string. Then Ghanshyam told his friends, “Don’t allow a single Brahmin to come down. Let us keep throwing stones at them.” So they all began to hurl pebbles at the Brahmins. Soon, the Brahmins became tired and completely exhausted in their efforts to avoid the pebbles. At last they realized their folly in challenging Ghanshyam. They thought that this boy must surely be God himself, for how else could his disappearance from the tree be explained. When, at last, they beseech him to stop the attack, Ghanshyam agreed, and Ramdatt and his group of Brahmins were allowed to come down. Ramdatt then asked Ghanshyam to forgive them. Ghanshyam forgave them and returned the drinking pot. After paying homage to him, the Brahmins went on their way.
4) Identify the tree in the given picture.
Do you think that this tree is famous?
If yes, then try to remember the story where Ghanshyam saw a future devotee who was waiting for him?
ANS:
One day, as usual, Ghanshyam left his friends in the middle of a game, and climbed the pipal tree, and sat on a high branch, and began looking west with great concentration. His friend, Veni, saw this. Ghanshyam sat on the tree till late in the evening, and then got down from the tree to go home. Immediately, Veni went up to him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him softly, “Ghanshyam, what were you looking at to the west from high up on the tree?”
5) Look at the given map and identify which region is this?
Do you know in which direction Ghanshyam was looking from the Pipal tree?
Why was he looking in that particular detection?
ANS:
Ghanshyam replied, “I was looking in the direction where there are spiritual aspirants. Thousands of miles away from our village, in the west, are the lands of Gujarat and Kathiawad. Shri Krishna’s Dwarika lies there. Many aspirants who yearn to meet Ghanshyam climb the pipal tree and look west God live in that region. One day I want to go there from here. I want to see the sacred places in the Himalayas and elsewhere in India too, but I want to live in Kathiawad. The devotees there are calling me.” Veni could not follow what Ghanshyam really meant. He simply took Ghanshyam’s hand and began to walk towards home slowly and silently.