Reading Notes: Jataka Tales part B

The second part of the Jataka tales had some really good stories. The Wish and Foolish Merchant and the Princes and the Water-Sprite were the ones that I enjoyed reading the most. The merchants story was interesting because it showed us how important it is to be wise and have some common sense. It showed to have your own thoughts and not just follow what people says or what they are doing. The princes and the water-sprite was also a good read because it showed us how important it is to have a good bond between each other. The Water-sprite tested all the brothers before keeping them in control and none passed but the eldest. She gave him back both of his brothers and they all happily ruled the kingdom. In that story it also showed how important it is to have wisdom, bonding, and to act nice towards one another. That story reminded me of the epics because the king as to send his sons away due to the queen asking for a boon that king promised during their last son's birth. The king ends up sending his two eldest sons to forests, but as the youngest prince sun hears about it, he also joins them.

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Queen asking king to sends his two eldest sons to forest until he dies

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Reading Notes: Jataka Tales

This week I decided to read Jataka tales, they were short little fun to read stories. The one that stroked me the most was the The Merchant of Seri. In the story two different merchant goes around town selling pots, tins and brass. One of the house they arrive at has a golden pot, however the grandmother does not know so when she tries to trade it with the first greedy merchant, he just throws  it on the ground by calling it half a penny worth. The merchant is greedy and was trying to get the pot of free but the grandmother wanted to trade it for one of his pots and pans. When he leaves a second merchant comes around and let's the grandmother know it is a golden pot and trades fairly with her. The first greedy merchant comes around again to get the pot by brining something cheap with him and he realizes the golden pot is gone. I would like to think of this as do good to others and you will be rewarded. If you are mean and greedy trying to scam people, life will return those favors back to you. This story also emphasis on Karma and how it can affect people in daily lives. 

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Merchant's pots on sale

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Week 10 Story: Karna the King

Guru Parshuram becoming a teacher for Karna.

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One day a farmer was walking to his farm from his hut, as he noticed something unusual at the bank of river. As we walked closer and closer to the he saw a basket with a child inside of it. The child was not crying or moving so he got close to the basket and grabbed on. He took the basket out of the river and toucher the child's forbad to see if it was still alive. The farmer heard the baby cry was relieved that it was still alive. The farmer was happy and confused at the same time because he wanted a baby, but could not have one. Him and his wife always wanted to have a child of their own, but due to some pregnancy complications she could not ever carry a child. The farmer thought his wife would be happy to see a baby, who was destined to be theirs. He rushed back to the hut. 

Farmer: Look! Look! what have I found at the farm my dear wife.

Wife: Rushed outside and saw his husband carrying a child. Whose child is that?

Farmer: Ours, I found him at the bank of river unattended. He was in the basket just floating down. 

Wife: I don't think we can just steal someone's child? What if they lost him and someone comes looking?

Farmer: Don't you see, we were destined to find him. He was floating around and could have been eaten by an animal or could have even drowned and died. We will raise him as our own child and give him all the love. 

They couple decided to keep the child and knew he had something special in him because he was wear a sun symboled vest. Looked like he had some hidden talent and came from a well known family.

Few years later:

Karna, the lost child was one the best at learning new things than other village kids. Whenever any games were played he would always win. He knew he had more talent so he asked his dad to find him a better instructor. His father was rather busy with farming and could not help him find a guru. So one day Karna decided to take things into his hands. He went to look for a guru, who was acknowledged and wanted to educated him. He went to many gurus but they all denied their services for him as they only served the kings. Karna was tired of going around asking gurus to educate him, the next guru he stumbled upon he seemed like a nice guru. His name was Parshuram.

Parshuram: Who are you child? I have never seen you around this area before?

Karna: I am the son of a king from a far away town. I have been lost for few year and now I am trying to learn skills to survive on my own and for future. Would you be willing to help?

Parshuram: Off course!  I cannot turn down a child of a king. You are welcomed to stay here until your training is done. Keep in mind I am a strict guru, who makes sure none of my students leave here without full knowledge.

Karna: He though to himself, this was a perfect plan. Yes off course. 

Soon Karna began his training and he was one of the best student Parshuram could have. He was determined, strong, and possessed all the qualities that could have been in super being. Guru was surprised that he was this talented. When all the guru's and their students had a competition on aiming  with bow and arrow or lifting heavy object and breaking it, Karna would always win. One day after almost done with the training guru decided to do some research on Karna. He figured out he was a child from a farmer and was not any king's son so he was furious. He went to go to talk to Karna and almost cursed him. Until he was stoped by Karana, who told him he was found by the farmers when he was little. Guru was shocked, he knew no ordinary men could have this good of performances. He did more research and found out that he belonged to the god of Sun. Karna was a god's child, Parshuram felt bad for doing the child wrong so he granted him a boon. Karna used it to become a king of a town Anga. 

Bibliography: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India)

Author's Note:

Karna was a lost child, found by the farmers from a river in a basket. They decided to adopt him, but as he grew up he was hungry for knowledge. The farmer could not give him enough knowledge to survive in the forest. He went seeking for gurus to learn but all of them turned him down because he was just a warrior. Until every end he found a guru, Parshuram who taught warriors only. He was a great guru and Karna was a great student. All was well until the day where Parshuram fell asleep close to karna and a scorpion came. The scorpion bit karna, but he did not move because he did not want to disturb his guru. When the guru woke up, he saw Karna bleeding and question him of being a warrior. He knew a warrior would not have been able to sit through this incident and cursed him of losing all the knowledge he taught him, when Karna would need it the most. The story goes on how he challenged Arjuna and won all the battles. Then the Panadavas guru came in and said the fight could only be valid if Karna was king, which he could not prove so the oldest Kaurava announced him the king of Agna. I did not like the ending of guru cursing Karna and Durodhana declaring him the king so he could see Arjun loose. I used most of the similar background except changed the way he was declared king and instead of Karna getting cursed, he was given a boon. 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film Part D

Part D of Mahabharata was more focused on Arjuna and his Exile. First Arjuna wins Draupadi's Swayamwara through a competition among many princes. He is the only one who could even lift the bow and aim at an eye of fish while revolving on the wheel. The idea of even trying to do such a thing is crazy. Then all the five brothers end up marrying Draupadi after one of the sage discusses her fate. He convinces Pandavas to marry her due to her curse in her last life that guaranteed for Draupadi to marry five princes. Arjuna then exile's himself because he disturbs one of his brother with Draupadi. Arjuna is showed unfaithful as he goes around many mountains and palaces marrying someone along the way. I think that deserves a punishment, especially if he is already married. Also I did not really get background go how Krishna met Arjuna so I think it would be a great idea to create my own version of them first meeting instead of just Arjuna meeting Krishna at Dwarka and marrying his sister. I did not understand how Krishna would allow him to marry his sister after all he was married to may woman. I could create a big story where Arjuna is cursed for being unfaithful to his wife that he won at a competition. By the sound of it, Arjuna was just after beauty of these woman and he feel into each of their traps. He even has baby with one.

Bibliography:  Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India)

Arjuna wins Draupadi's Swayamwara 

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film Part C

In this week's Mahabharat's film, one main thing that stuck out to me was Karna's education. He went around looking for a guru, who would train him to be at his best but no one would agree since he was not a king. Only one sage agreed to train him thinking he was a brahmin, which was Parshuram. Karna got most of his education from Parshuram, making him one of his best student. Until one day when Parshuram was sleeping on karma and a scorpion bit him, but Karna decided not to move at all as he did not want to disturb his favorite teacher. Parshuram was upset because he knew only one of the best could have done it, and saw that Karna was not a brahmin. He felt betrayed and cursed Karna of not being able to use his powers when in need. I can talk about Karna not being able to win the final big battle as he forgets his powers. In the original story he becomes the king and I did not see the curse come alive so I was thinking about talking about the curse and stoping Karna from becoming a king. Another story that intrigued me was Bheem killing Bakasura, it was interesting concept on how Bheem ended up killing him after eating all his food. I liked that he was able to protect the sage, who gave them a place to live after escaping the fire from palace.

Bibliography:  Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India)

Parshuram waiting for his student Karna to arrive 

WikiCommons

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film Part B

In this week's film, It was focused on Pandu's five sons, who were all born from gods. It was interesting to know that Kunti was given mantras, which summoned different gods all the time and was blessed with sons. I wonder what happened to her first son, who was born from the lord of sun. The story talks about her drafting him away as she thought he did not belonged to her long time ago. There were two scenes that were interesting to me, one where Kunti calls upon all the gods and gives birth to legendary sons with also helping Madri to get children as their husband was cursed. I could talk about the resemblance between the Ramayana and Mahabharata of killing sages and getting cursed for this week's story. Another scene that I found interesting was when Kauravas trick Pandavas into eating food mixed with herbs in the forest, just to kill one of them due to jealousy. It was interesting when Bheem was thrown into the river, but he finds a different world where he relates to Vasuki, who gives him magic potion to become one of the strongest on the planet. It was interesting to change things up on how he meet with Vasuki and give a different twist.

Bibliography: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India)

Bheem fighting off snakes in the river

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film Part A

I decided to do the Karmic Revolution for this week's reading. In the film version of Mahabharata, the narrator draws out all the major events that happened in the epic, which is a good way for the audience to visualize and grab the details. The film were concise and straight to the point. The story that grabbed my attention was king Shantanu marrying Ganges, where they have kids but Ganges throws each of them into the river. Shantanu was not supposed to question any doings of Ganges if he wanted to keep her, but as soon as the eight child was about to be thrown into the river, he spoke up and ganges left him. I liked the explanation behind why she threw the kids into the river and want to recreate it. My story will be focused of why each child is thrown in to the river to give them mortality off earth as they were cursed long time ago. Maybe I can talk about why they were curse and how Ganges saved their lives.

Bibliography: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India)

Ganges drowning her own child

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Week 8 Progress

Looking back
I am happy with my progress for this class. I think I have gotten almost all assignments done on time, before their due dates. I like my schedule with this class as well, I am able to finish reading and reading notes by Tuesday or Wednesday. It only gets difficult when I have exams or some major projects due that same week. I still try to get this class work done first so I can focus on those major assignments more without worrying about missing the deadline. I enjoy reading and taking notes on it the most because it is exciting to learn new things about Hinduism and then coming up with ideas to tell the stories about it.

Looking forward:
I want to try getting some of the extra credits done. I just do not have time to finish all the assignments during the weekend typically because I am busy with work. Something new that I would try to do next time would be finishing up half of the week's stuff before time during test weeks so I can study for them. Especially when there are two to three tests in one week. I am going to avoid waiting till last min to finish the weekend homework.

Keep working to achieve your dreams

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Week 8 Comments and Feedbacks

1. Feedback in:
If I had to rate the feedbacks and comment I have been getting, I would most likely say it's a 8 on scale of 1-10. The most useful feedbacks I have been using is for my class project. Those feedbacks really points out what's wrong in a specific sentence or paragraph. It is useful to see the mistakes that otherwise are missed by me. Most of the comments are similar, they all are positive and haven't really seen any negative towards stories so I guess that's good.

2. Feedback out:
I think the quality of feedbacks and comments I have been leaving behind are prolly on scale of 7. I think my best feedbacks are on the class projects because I go into details for the things that I like and things that I see that needs to be fixed. When I read stories, I usually don't look for criticism. I read the stories and comment on what I like about it or How they changed it. When I read stories I see so many creative ideas that students incorporate into their stories and defiantly wish that I could recreate something completely different as them.

3. Blog comments:
Reading introduction posts are for sure helpful in connecting with other classmates. I am pretty happy on how my introduction post turned out and how it helped me to connect with other classmates. I loved reading everyone's introduction posts, it helps to find similarities between each other and also learn something new about someone. I liked how many of the classmates introduction involved adventures over the summer. Everyone either went on fun vacation or did internship, which was really easy to connect to.

4. Looking forward:
In future feedbacks and comments, I would pay attention to not only the context of the person's story but also to the grammar. I give detail feedbacks during class projects mostly because it asks us to do so. I think giving honest feedbacks is a good criticism, as it helps the author work on their writing styles that could only benefit them in the future.

I choose this pic to show the importance of feedback. No matter the type of feedback it is, it will help you reach higher towards your goal. Feedbacks will help you fix your mistakes and help you from making a possible same mistakes again.

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Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back at all the assignments and readings for this class, I think I enjoyed both Ramayana and Mahabharata. They both were similar in many aspects. I think writing out reading notes have been very helpful for me. I wrote about that interested me the most and how I would recreate a story about that specific scene. In my every story, I have used one of the topics that I talked about in that week's reading notes. I think the biggest accomplishment for me as been coming up with stories every week. I use similar settings but just change up the context. As for my class project, I don't think it is really coming along. I need to work on it or completely change it up. I am doing Harry Potter related class project, but there are many difficulties with tying it all together.

Ganges

Image: WikiCommons

This is one of my favorite pictures used for the story. It represent beauty of the river Ganges. It shows how vibrant and colorful the river is. It shows that it holds a religious value for Hinduism, as it is surrounded by many temples. Ganges is used for many ceremonies in India mostly for the people who are dead to give them peace.

Looking forward, I would like to work on my class project efficiently. I hope to keep coming up with creative ideas for the stories and projects. Slowly, I hope to improve on my writing style. I hope to read more folk stories in future, I enjoyed reading them at the beginning of the class. I hope to use dialogues in my future class project stories instead of just writing the story out. 

Week 7 Story: Krishna and Yudishthira's Afterlife

Ganges on a clam day 

Image: WikiCommons

Once the battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas was over, Krishna's work here on earth was done. He helped Arjuna fight his own blood for justice. It was time for Pandavas and Krishna to leave earth. Out of all five brothers only Yudishthira agreed to go with Krishna as the rest of the brother claimed they still have to finish up some of their business here on earth.

Krishna and Yudishthira decides to get going on the journey to the river Ganges. They planned on uniting with their past loved ones by walking into the holy river. Once they reached to the river, they performed mantra with the sage they brought from Hastinapur. Suddenly, Ganges appeared from the river. 

Ganges: Why have you came to disturb me?

Krishna: We are here to depart this land and unite with our fellow friends and family.

Ganges: Who are you all?

Sage: This is Krishna and Yudishthira, who have fought in the great war and now are here to leave their body behind.

Ganges: Oh, so you are the great heroes! Before you walk into me I will unite you to your loved ones for the last time as you may or may not see them ever again.

The waves started getting bigger, there was lightning and thunderstorm and the wind was rustling the leaves off the trees. Krishna and Yudishthira saw their family's ghost walk out of the river. They saw them for few seconds as it was time for them to go. First Krishna walked in, while following his father. Later, Yudishthira walked in following his brothers. Slowly, they both were out of sight and everything went back to normal as if nothing had ever happened here. 

Krishna walked into clouds full of light and shine. He reunited with other gods, as he took his original form of Lord Vishnu. He was happy to see Krishna's family and he looked for Yudishthira, but he was nowhere to be found. On the other side, Yudishthira walked into a different world, where he was blood river on the side and skulls everywhere. He saw Kauravas, whom he hated as they were the reason behind most of his misery. He prayed to lord Yama and he appeared, he asked to be with his wife Draupadi and his companions who was on his side. Lord Yama saw his loyalty to people who did him right and vanished all the illusion. Yudishthira was taken back to Ganges, where his soul was cleansed and sent to heaven. He united with Lord Vishnu, his wife, and all the others who he knew from earth. 

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata

Author's Note:

Originally Lord Krishna was killed by a hunter, who had mistaken him for a gazelle and shot him in his right foot. The arrow hit a spot that injured him mortally, killing him. I did not like the way he was killed as it was so easy and not dramatic. I made him choose his death in this story and united him with Yudishthira. They both died died together in more of a dramatic way. I also wanted to include Ganges in the story as she is the holy river, where most of the after life rituals are performed. I also incorporated some of the similar scenes from Mahabharata like the heaven and hell scene. I ended the story in a similar way as the original. Yudishthira is sent to hell, but he is then later sent to heaven for his loyalty and his good deeds for human kind. 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part D

This week's part D reading was intense. The Pandavas lost many of their family members and also the people they loved from the big battle. It was interesting that most of the Pandavas brothers dies by arrows. It was also soothing to listen to lord Krishna's wisdom to Arjuna. The wisdom that he gives can still be used in today's lifestyle. There was also one strong on bathing in Ganges to forget the sorrow of loved one's death, which still relates to today's society as when someone dies in Hindu family they are suppose to take the ashes and perform rituals to clean ones body and let the ashes go in the holy water. It is said that if such rituals are performed, the person who dies is at peace. It was shocking to see Krishna die at the end just by one of the solider's shooting an arrow to his foot. The arrows hits a spot that wounds him mortally. The hunter also thought he saw a gazelle and not krishna that's why he shot him, which resembles many stories of when king shoots a deer in Ramayana and also of a Brahmin who was disguised in deer and shot.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata

Krishna shot in his foot by a hunter

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part C

Krishna and Arjuna in the battle field 

Image: Flickr

There were many incidents that were similar to the other Indian epic, Ramayana. This part also had Pandavas exiled in the forests, but for twelve years. They almost face the similar troubles of a guy trying to steal Draupadi, their wife and facing Rakshas. I like how it addressed the issue of Arjuna going to Himalayas to mediate, where he gains boon to wish for weapons. One story that I enjoyed was about all the brothers trying to get water, but they are stooped by a voice of god Dharma, a god of wisdom and knowledge. All the brother disobey's his saying, therefore all die from drinking water but Yudhishthira. After he answers all the questions to the riddles, he is granted two boons to help. where he brings back his brothers and ask for them to be unrecognizable for one year. The story basically had the moral of being patience and using your knowledge when faced with struggles to get through that phase. The results of patience and taking tasks slowly, but wisely can be successful. I like at the end how they added Krishna into the battle and how they also mentioned Gita, a holy book for Hindus. 

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata by R.K.Narayan