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

WikiCommons

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