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.