Week 11: Shiva's anger.

One day as Parvati, Shiva’s wife, was home alone because Shiva had gone to visit Brahma and Kartikeya, their son, was at a friend’s house. She wanted to go take a bath, but was worried that someone might come into the house during her bath. So, she got to thinking. What could she possibly do? Then, an idea finally came to her. She made a son out of mud that was outside her house and named him Ganesha. She gave him strict orders to not let anyone inside the house. After giving him these orders, she goes inside to take her bath.

Shiva was just returning from Brahma’s house, when Ganesha stopped him. Ganesha said, “ Sir, you may not go inside.”

Shiva angrily, yelled, ”Who are you to tell me I can’t go inside my own house?”

Ganesha still calm, replied, “ I have been given strict orders not to let anyone in.”

Shiva was annoyed and infuriated, so without a second thought took his sword and cut off Ganesha’s head. Parvati, who had heard all the commotion that was going on outside, had just walked outside and saw her son’s head on the floor.

Parvati just stood there with tears in her eyes, and said, “ What have you done? I had made him with my own two hands. He was guarding the house, while I was taking a bath. How could you do this? You cut his head off and ended his life, even before I got to show you him.”

Shiva thought to himself, “ How was I supposed to know who he was? He could have been anyone. He could have been an intruder for all I know. “

After looking at Ganesha’s body on the floor, Parvati couldn’t take it anymore. She ran to her room crying her eyes out.

Shiva thought to himself, “How can I fix this? There has to be a way to fix this situation and bring him back. Maybe, I should go back to Brahma’s house and ask him for help.”

He went over to Brahma’s house and asked him for a solution. Brahma had his servants sent out to look for any creature sleeping with its head facing north. His servants looked everywhere, but only found an elephant that was sleeping while facing north. So, they cut off the elephant’s head and took it back to Shiva and Brahma. They placed it on Ganesha’s body and restored life.  Shiva then took Ganesha back to Parvati. Seeing how much Parvati loved Ganesha, he said from that day forward Ganesha would be considered their son.

 

Ganesh, Shiva and Parvati. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography

Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata. 

Author’s Note

I really liked this story because it teaches people that anger can get the best of people and sometimes people need to know how to control their anger. It also talks about one of the oldest Hindu superstitions, which is that one should never sleep with their head facing North or West.

Week 11: Reading Diary B

Dhritarashtra makes the Pandavas leave the kingdom and go live in a house. This house was made as a trap for the Pandavas by Duryodhana, but the Pandavas are warned ahead of time. Bhima sets the house on fire and the Pandavas escape using a tunnel, leaving everyone else the impression that they're dead.

They start living in a different village. Bhima defeats a rakshasa king name Vaka. They go to Draupada's swayamvara and Arjuna wins the competition and wins Draupadi. She marries all five of the Pandavas.

The Pandavas are welcomed back by Dhitarashtra and given a part of the kingdom for them to rule. Arjuna goes to visit Krishna and ends up falling in love with Krishna's sister. He marries her. Krishna and Arjuna help Agni eat Khandava forest.

This is when Duryodhana invite Yudhishthira to play dices.

Week 11: Reading Diary A

The story starts off by telling the story he heard from sage Sauti, who heard it a snake sacrifice. Sauti explains that the Mahabharata was composed by Vyasa, while Ganesha wrote it down. He then explains how Ganesha received his elephant head, which was Shiva trying to cover up his mistakes of ripping Ganesha's head off after being mad at him.

King Parikshit killed, who once killed a serpent, was cursed that he would die in the next couple of days by a serpent. The Naga Prince Takshaka arrived to kill him and manages to do so. Parikshit's son Janamejaya holds a sacrifice to destroy Takshaka and obtain revenge. Takshaka finds a hiding place with Indra in the heavens, which is revealed by Astika. He then asks Janamejaya to hault the sacrifice and he does as asked. Vyasa gets happy and tells his companion to tell the Mahabharata and this is where Sauti hears it.

The story starts off with a king in the heavens that falls in love with Ganga and so  reincarnates to return to Earth in the human form. After Shantanu (the king) becomes  king on Earth, he goes to the banks of the Ganga and falls in love with Ganga. She tells him that if they get married, he must not question her actions. So they get married and she gives birth to seven kids, one kid each year. Each time she would go drown the child, the eighth child is born and Shantanu begs to leave the child, Bhishma and disappears into the river.

The king of Chedi's sperm is accidentally dropped in a river and prints a fish. This fish is then caught by a fisherman and the baby girl, Satyavati, is raised by the fisherman. Sage Parashara falls in love with Satyavati and gifts her with the amazing scent of flowers. This scent makes King Shantanu fall in love with her. Bhishma, wanting his father to be happy, gives up his inheritance for Shantanu and Satyavati's child, Vichitravirya. Bhishma gets Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for his step brother Vichitravariya. Amba explains that she already promised herself to King Shalwa, so he lets her go. Vichitravariya dies before he can have children with his wives, so Satyavati asks her other son to pregnate Ambika and Ambalika. They each have a child with Vyasa and Bhishma deems Ambalika and Vyasa's son, Pandu the king.

Pandu marries his two wives, Kunti and Madri. Kunti has a mantra that allows her to be pregnated by a God. She tries this mantra out and gets impregnated by the Sun God, Surya. She gives this son, Karna, up. Pandu is then cursed to die if he ever makes love. So, he moves to the himalayas and allows Dhitarashtra, Vyasa and Ambika's blind son. Dhitarashtra marries Gandhari and create a hundred children. The first born was Duryodhana. Pandu also wanting children asks Kunti to use the mantra and creates tha Pandavas.

The Pandavas and Kaurava are taught skills by Drona, who asks his teacher fee;s by King Drapada. So they go and capture King Draupada. He then holds a show to show of their skills. This is when Karna shows up and is able to recreate Arjuna, Drona's best pupil, skills.

Week 3 Storytelling: Jatayu and Sampathi

Once upon a time, there were two vultures named Sampathi and Jatayu. They were the sons of Aruna, the charioteer of the Sun God or Surya. When they were young, they used to always fly together. They liked to visit new places and go on adventures together. Like Rama and Lakshmana, they seemed to be inseparable.

One day Jatayu challenged his brother, “ I bet I can fly higher than you. I bet I can even reach the heavens, where the gods reside.”

Sampathi, being the older and wiser, said, “I don’t think it would safe for us to fly that high. We might end up in some kind of danger and plus we don’t want to disturb the gods.”

Jatayu replied, “You are just scared and know you will lose. That is why you won’t accept this challenge. ”

Sampathi said, “ You won't understand. You are still young and foolish.”

Jatayu replied stubbornly, “ I’m going to fly up there with or without you. I’m not going to let you stop me just because you are scared.”

After saying that, he took off to fly as high as he could. Unaware of his surroundings, he flew right in front the Sun god’s chariot, making the Sun god furious at what had just happened. “Who dares disturb the Sun god, as I am a busy person and must maintain my schedule?” said the Sun god.

Jatayu replied, “ It is I, Jatayu, the son of Aruna.”

The sun replied, “Son, do you not realize that you can’t just be wandering around as you please? We gods are busy and don’t have time to be distracted with kids like you flying in our way and distracting us.”

Jatayu said, “ I was just trying to see how high I could fly. You are the one that ran into me.”

This angered the Sun and he replied, “How can you say I am at fault? How dare you disrespect your elder? Now, I will show you. From now on, you won’t be able to fly any more.”

Seeing what was going on and that the Sun was going to punish his brother, Sampathi, for his actions, he hurry up and flew over to his brother to protect him. The Sun turned his full energy in their direction to try to burn Jatayu, but Sampathi uses his wings to shield his younger brother from the energy of the Sun God.

Sampathi fell down as all of his feathers had burned off from the energy of the Sun. Jatayu, realizing his mistake and seeing his brother’s condition, went to the Sun god to apologize.

Jatayu started off with, “ I am such a fool. I am still young and have a lot to learn. My brother had warned me about this and now he suffers because of me. Please forgive me and restore my brother wings; I beg you.”

Surya replies, “ Sorry, son. There is nothing that I can do now. You are lucky to have a brother that cares so much about you. Unfortunately, I cannot restore his burned wings, but I am aware of a curse that was placed on your brother and that he will only regain his wings when the avatar of Vishnu passes by. That is why he lies here. He must stay here till he hears the problem of Vishnu and by helping Vishnu and his devotees, his wings will be restored.

After saying this, Surya continues on his way and Jatayu goes to check on his brother. 

Jatayu and Sampathi. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Author’s note

In this story, I tried to include more dialogue, than the original story I read about. I also didn’t separate the two brothers from one another, which is what happens in the original story in the book. Sampathi falls down to Earth and Jatayu spends all of his life in search for his older brother. This was mainly due to the fact that I have a bother of my own and wouldn’t want to be separated from him. There were two main morals in this story. One moral was that you should never disrespect your elders. If Jatayu had just apologized to Surya and moved from his path, the consequences might have been quite different. The second moral of this story is that you should always heed the warning of your elders. Elders tend to have more knowledge about situations and, usually, try to stop you from creating a problem. If Jatayu had just listened to his brother and not flown up as far as he did, he wouldn’t have caused his brother to lose his wings. I really like this story because it had two morals and it is also about their brotherly love. Even though Sampathi had warned Jatayu, Sampathi takes the punishment for Jatayu and never even blames or gets mad at him for his foolishness. This is exactly what I would expect from two true brothers. The older brother usually has to deal with more problems and always makes sure his younger brother gets a better and easier life than the struggles he had to go through. This is why this would be a great story for kids. There are a lot of great lessons to learn from this story.

Week 10: Reading Diary B

Krishna goes to Hastinapur to plea for the peace and justice. Duryodhana hears about this and thinks about taking Krishna hostage, but realizes that it is impossible to take them hostage. Krishna also goes to Kunti and gives her the news about her sons.

The battle begins. Yudhisthira appoints Draupadi's brother as the commander in chief of his army, whereas Duryodhana appoints Bhisma as his Chief commander. The battle is supposed to take place Kurukshetra. Before the battle actually takes place, Krishna recites the Bhagavad-Gita, which tells Arjuna and the others to detach themselves from material objects. This is due to the fact that Arjuna is having a hard time thinking about attacking his own cousin brothers.

Krishna is attacked by Bhishma and he draws blood. This angers Arjuna, who shoots and wounds Bhishma. Bhishma no longer able to continue the war, Karna now joins in. Drona is now made the commander in chief of Duryodhana's army. Abhimanyu is requested to break the formation of the enemy. He breaks the formation, but is unable to escape. He is then killed by Duryodhana's son-in-law. Arjuna vows and completes this vow with the help of Krishna to kill Duryodhana's son-in-law.

Drona is killed by a lie that was told to him that his son was killed. Karna was killed by Arjuna when Karna's chariot got stuck in mud. Slowly, everyone is killed off, even Duryodhana is killed.

 After the war, the Pandavas return to Hastinapur. Dhritarashtra wants to kill Bhima in anger, so Krishna places a metal statue and Dhritarashtra crush this statue thinking its Bhima. Gandhari curses Krishna. Narada explains to Yudhishthira the causes of Karna's death. They perform a ritual for the dead. Yudhishthira after a lot of compeling agrees to become King.

Yudhishthira goes to Bhishma about learning about how to be a King. He passes away after lecturing Yudhishthira. Krishna is killed by a hunter as Krishna laid on the banks of the river. The Pandavas die one by one and Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu takes over the Pandava's line.

Week 10: Reading Diary A

In this part of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana looks foolish because he is captured by the gandharvas, who were sent by the gods and had to be saved by the Pandavas, who he was trying to outsmart and look foolish.

During their time in the forest, they meet a brahmin who had his possessions stolen by a deer and ask for the Pandavas help. The Pandavas runs after the deer and on their way, stop at a lake to get some water. Before drinking the water they are asked to answer some questions, but due to their failure to comply they all die except Yudhishthira. He is told this was a test from his father, Yama the god of death, and his brothers are then restored.

After their years in exile, they must spend one year in disguise and so they began this in king Virata's kingdom. They were all living there peacefully until one day when Draupadi gets raped by the King's general. Bhima kills this general and shocks the whole kingdom. The death of the general opens up the kingdom for attack and that is exactly what happens. During the attack , King Virata gets captured and Bhima fortunately saves him.King Virata's son, Uttara hears about a cattle raid that is going to go own and takes Arjuna as his charioteer. Out of fear Uttara wants to turn around, but Arjuna takes over the war and wins in behalf of Prince Uttara. King Virata apologizes to the Pandavas after learning their true identity an offers his daughter to Arjuna's son for marriage.

Krishna sends an urge to Duryodhana, that half of the kingdom be given to the Pandavas. During this process the Pandavas and Duryodhana prepare for war. They both go to Krishna for his support. Krishna says one can have his one million soldier where as the other one would get him. Arjuna asks that he be supported by Krishna and that Duryodhana have the allies of Krishna's million soldiers.

Many ask for the war to be stopped and Yudhisthira be accepted as the heir to the throne, while Duryodhana be exiled. King Dhritarashtha wanted to accept this, but couldn't do it in front of his son Duryodhana. Duryodhana compels him that he will win the war because he has a bigger and more powerful army. 

Week 4 Storytelling: Brahma gives Ravana his boon

One day Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana are hanging out with their parents, Vishrava and Kaikesi. Kaikesi asks Vishrava, “ Should I tell them the great news or do you want to?” 

Vishrava replies, “ Maybe I should. So, kids, your stepbrother, Vaishravana, the treasure lord, is going to be visiting us and he should be here pretty soon. So be nice and try to learn things from him. He is really successful and has always been a great son. You kids should probably follow in his footsteps and use him as a mentor. He would be really happy to help you guys if you guys ask him for his help.”

Their brother, Vaishravana, finally arrives and introduces himself to the rest of the family, since it is his first time meeting Kaikesi and his three brothers. Ravana is speechless at the first impression of his older stepbrother. He thought that his dad was just more proud of his older stepbrother, but he actually is impressive. Their stepbrother had managed to achieve the treasures of the gods. Ravana and his brothers all are jealous of all the treasure and Ravana tries to figure out a possible way of becoming like him. Vibhishana recommends, “ How about we pray to Brahma? I have heard he always grants his devotees' wishes. It never hurts to try. What is the worst that could possibly happen? Brahma won’t come down and help us achieve what we are after.”

So the next day, they go to the forest and sit down to pray. They start their prayer and won’t stop for anything because they are all determined to achieve their goals. Ravana is just looking for protection; Vibhishana never wants to be able to forget Dharma; Kumbkarana thinks it is useless to be awake so he wants to sleep for six months for every day he is awake. After about a thousand years, Ravana gets impatient and breaks his prayer and asks his brothers, “What are we doing? This is useless. We are never going to achieve our goal this way.”

 Vibhishana replies, “ Don’t be immature and question the power of prayers. You are just being impatient and we should just continue.” 

Ravana, angrily, replies, “Okay, only because you say so, but I will give Brahma ten chances, just like he gave me ten heads, and every thousand years I will cut off one head.”

So they continue and like Ravana had said they take a break every thousand years and Ravana cuts off one of his heads. When he is only left with one head, he turns to his brother, Vibhishana, and says, “See, I told you. Brahma wouldn’t come to save me, even if we spent all this time praying.” As he finishes the statement, Brahma arrives.

Ravana said, “ What are you here for?” 

Brahma replies, “ Well, you guys do deserve some gift from me. Tell me what can I give you.” 

Ravana asks, “ First, tell me why it took so long?” 

Brahma replies, “ Well, I wanted to see how devoted you were to me and getting your goals fulfilled. So, what would you like?” 

Ravana asks for protection from the gods and the underworld demons. Vibhishana asks to always remember Dharma. Kumbhakarna asks to sleep for six months for every day he is awake.

  

Brahma, the god of creation. Source: Wikimedia commons.

Bibliography

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Author’s Note

In this story, I chose to increase the amount of dialogue and detail because the amount of dialogue and detail was briefly in the original story and I feel like there is more involved in the story than actually mentioned in the Ramayana by Buck. I didn’t change much from the original story. I just made some inferences about what was going on in their heads at the time. I also included some characteristics about the brothers as I thought Buck would think of Ravana's ego, Vibhishana's innocence, and Kumbkarana's laziness. In my story, I chose the brothers to be more understanding about the power of prayers and how to achieve their goals by manipulation. I picked this story because I wanted to show that Ravana had to work really hard for his boon, and this same boon was the his doom. This would be a great children’s story because children tend to be impressionable and tend to judge people based on where they come from, their skin color, etc.; Vibhishana even though he was Ravana's brother still is a great role-model for children, asking to always remember Dharma. Even though Ravana got greedy and power-hungry, Ravana deserved the boon he received from Brahma because he worked hard for it (also a great message for children 'they can achieve whatever they want if they work hard for it'). Even though he is a bit greedy for his wish, he might not have been seen as such an evil person throughout this book if he managed to work with the gods and treat them with respect. A perfect example of the exact opposite of Ravana is Vishvaravana. He obtained a boon and didn't get greedy and lived happily with the god's treasure.