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 3: Reading Diary B

Once Hanuman reaches Lanka, he goes through every house and building looking for Sita. He finally finds her meditating under a tree, ready to commit suicide, thinking Rama is not coming for her. That's when Hanuman introduces himself and explains why Rama hasn't been able to come to her. He then presents Rama's ring as proof that he is Rama's messenger. Unfortunately, one of Ravana's guards finds him and ties him up and takes in front of Ravana and his chiefs. Ravan tells his chiefs to place cotton on the monkey's tail and set it on fire. Hanuman able to set himself free, sets the who city on fire except the tree that Sita was sitting under and returns back to Rama with the news.


Ravana upset with what happened, asks his commanders and chiefs what he should do. Most suggest that they should cross the ocean and fight Rama at his camp. In the end, they decide they shall wait because it might be a little pathetic if it seems Ravana and his army is scared of puny humans and monkeys.


Rama, on the other side, is trying to figure out how to get his army to cross the ocean. He meditates and fasts for seven days. Finally, the god of the ocean appears and asks Rama how he may be of help. When Rama asks if he can move the water so his troops can get through, the god says , unfortunately he has to play by the rules of nature. Angrily, Rama threatens to shoot the ocean dry. The ocean god scared, says that he will allow anything they throw in the water to float. So using this gift from the god of the ocean, they create a bridge.


When Rama reaches Lanka, Ravana's troops are waiting for him and start fighting him one by one. One by one Ravana loses his troops and chiefs. When Indrijit goes out to fight Rama he is able to wound Rama and Lakshmana with serpents venom, but the eagles the enemies of serpents come to their aide and revive them. Finally, Rama and Ravana come head to head in a fight and even though Rama cuts Ravana's head off, they just grow back. So with one last weapon that was Brahmashtra, he shot Ravana in the heart (the only vulnerable place).

Week 3: Reading Diary A

After killing Jatayu, Ravana runs off to Lanka with Sita. Upon returning to the house, Rama and Lakshman realize what had just happened and how they had been tricked. Rama depressed thinks to him, " How could I have let this happen? What does Sita now think of me? I unnecessarily allowed her to get in harms way, what a foolish husband I am." Lakshman trying to help consoles his brother and tells him everything is going to be okay.


They start traveling south in the direction, which Jatayu had advised them to go. They came across Hanuman and Sugreeva. Hanuman tells Rama the story of Vali and Sugreeva, the two brothers. The gods with immense strength and power blessed Vali. He would take on any challenger, knowing that he could destroy them. One day, Mayavi challenged Vali. Mayavi getting scared seeing that Vali accepted the challenge ran inside a cave. Vali didn't seem to come out and so the chiefs appointed Sugreeva King, even though Sugreeva wanted to go in search of his brother. When Vali returned, he misunderstood what had happened and out of anger tried to fight Sugreeva. Sugreeva ran to the one place where Vali wouldn't follow him, Mount Mantaga. Sage Mantaga had cursed Vali, that if he ever returned to Mount Mantaga he would lose all of his powers and therefore Sugreeva came here. Hearing this story, Rama asked how he could help. Sugreeva asked for his help when he would ask Vali to fight him. When the fight actually takes place, Rama shoots Vali with an arrow and ends Vali's life.


After the rainy season, Sugreeva gets an army together to help Rama. First, Rama sends Hanuman, a small army and Sungreeva's son, Angada to find Sita with one month’s time. After searching everywhere for one month, they still don't find anything and when they have lost hope meet Sampathi, Jatayu's long lost brother. He tells them where they can find Sita in exchange for the story of Jatayu's death. Sampathi leaves depressed about what had happened to Jatayu, leaving Hanuman and Angada to find Sita. Lanka was on the other side of the ocean, so how were they to get there. Then, Jambavan reminds Hanuman of his powers and tells him he is the only fit to cross the ocean.