Week 11 story: A Greedy Student

University of Oklahoma campus 

WikiCommons

Once upon a time there was a student, who went to the University of Oklahoma. His name was Adam and he wanted to get good grades no matter what. He was taking organic chemistry with Mr. Roxin. It was one of his hardest class this semester, but he was so made up on getting an A. He was a straight 4.0 student and did not want this class to bring it down. On his first test, he got a C and he was stressed out as he has never gotten a C in his life before. He studied hard for it as well, yet he was not able to pull off a good grade for this class. Then one day as he was leaving his class, he overheard a one of the frat guy talking about having a study guide to the next test, which had some of the similar questions as the test. He never cheated on the test, but this time was considering it as grades mattered to him a lot. He wanted to get into Ivy league medical school so he overlooked the morals he was taught as a kid. The next lecture, Adam went up to the guy:

Adam: Hey, I am in this class and really struggling. I heard you have some study resources and was wondering if you can give them to me.

Frat guy: How do you know? Who told you?

Adam: I overheard you guys talking the other day

Frat guy: I can give it to you, but be aware that this is just a study guide. Do not solely rely on it for the exam. Also do not tell anyone where you got it from.

Adam: I won't, thank you so much!

Adam went to his apartment and knew that he heard them say it is similar to the exam. He had exam next week so he decided to just study the study guide and not even open the book. He was so set on just studying the study guide that he barley glanced at the lecture slides. Time flew by and it was time for the test. As he got to the test, he saw there was just one question that was from the study guide and nothing else was the same. He was mad as this was his chance for redemption to get the grades up. He walked out of the test feeling miserable.

Few days later as he got the grade back, he failed the test. He never saw this coming and his overall grade went down a whole letter grade to a D. The other guys knew not to just study guide and study the lecture material as well. The test was similar to lecture slides and everyone did well on this test. Adam was foolish and greedy for the letter grade A so he was bound to do anything, but he did not do as instructed and lost his 4.0 GPA. He felt guilty as he could have just studied the lecture slides and could have pulled of a B or even an A on this test. However, his greed and foolishness got to him.

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Author's note:
This story resembles one of the story from Jataka Tales, The Merchant of Seri. The original story was of a greedy merchant who tried to fool a lady by buying her gold pot for cheap. However, the second merchant came and bought it by telling the lady truth on her pot being gold, and the merchant traded all his pots for one gold pot and lived happily after. Meanwhile, when the greedy merchant came back it was gone. I tried to create a similar concept on greed, but I used used grades and our campus for the context. Adam's greed of getting an A to keep his 4.0 GPA got to him and he lost it by just studying one material. I created a moral of not to be greedy or foolish.

Week 10 Story: Karna the King

Guru Parshuram becoming a teacher for Karna.

WikiCommons

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. 

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. 

Week 6 story: Reincarnation of Draupadi

Before Draupadi was born she was a reincarnation of Nalayani, who was a women happily married to her husband Rishi Maudgalya. They were know to be the most loving couple in the universe. When they got married they vowed to be with each other for all the seven cycles of rebirths. Rishi was into meditation and he wanted to be one of the best Rishi's out there so one day he went into the mountains to meditate. He spent almost a week by just meditations, until finally Shankar came down to visit him.

Shankar: Why have you summoned me?

Maudgalya: I want to be the best Rishi, who can get powers through meditation.

Shankar: Why you wish for such, only the gods can have such power.

Maudgalya: I will only use the power for the common good, help people around by spreading positivity. If you see me use it for evil, you can avenge me.

Shankar: I will only be able to grant you such a boon, if only you leave your loving wife forever.

Maudgalya: WHY? We have vowed to live together for 7 cycles of rebirth. We have been together since the very beginning. She is my destiny.

Shankar: I did not say this was going to be easy, if you want power then you must earn it.

As Shankar was almost about to leave. He hears Maudgalya shout.

Maudgalya: I WILL DO IT!

Therefore, Shankar granted him the boon. However, Maudgalya certainly felt guilty of such deeds. He meditated more to get power. Until He was so immense in meditation, he finally forgot his wife Nalayani. 

Nalayani looked for her husband for days. The forest was so big and since Maudgalya was meditating in a secret spot, she never found him. Nalayani spent rest of her life in sorrows, until finally one day one of the gods visited her and asked what she wanted. This is where Nalayani asked god for a happy marriage life, where she will always be taken care off and never left alone. As always there was a twist, god did not just give her one loyal and caring husbands, but five. She was assured that in her next birth cycle, she would be queen Draupadi and she will marry five princes.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata

Rishi meditating to get power

WikiCommons

Author's note:
Originally this story starts with the Rishi wanting to focus more on meditations and Tapas, giving up his wife and life. His wife Nalayani gets upsets as she is not satisfied with his love and want him to be there for her throughout the many cycles of rebirths. However, her husband just leave and she starts meditating, where she gets visited by god, who grants her five husbands because she says I want my husband five times. I wanted to make it more interesting, on why Rishi wanted to leave her and how he is granted the boon of power. I changed up the story by flipping the point of view.

Week 5 Story: Cleverness over Foolishness

Dhobi as an evil rat, as cursed by Rama

Image

Rama and Sita re returning from Lanka to Ayodhya. All the people are so happy for Rama killing Ravana and returning back safely. His brothers were so happy to see him and Lakshmana. Eventually,        they all crown Rama as a king. Soon, Sita is pregnant and she goes to the dhobi to get her family's Laundry.

Dhobi: How are you dong today queen?

Sita: I am really happy, what about you?

Dhobi: I am doing well, What's the occasion behind the happiness?

Sita: I am going to be a mother soon.

Dhobi sees this opportunity and spreads the rumors all around the town of Sita carrying Ravan's kids. All the town's people find out and believes his rumors. They are furious and goes to the king Rama and advise him to exile Sita so the town is not in future danger. Rama gets angry and asks them who told you all this rumor. Eventually, Rama figures out it was Dhobi, who was spreading the rumors. Rama goes to the laundry mat, where Dhobi resides and curses him to be a rat. 

Sita and Rama have ceremonies to decide on the name for their child, where they invite many respectful sages. The sages tells them they are going to have twins, they will be named Love and Kush according to their fate. The sages also tells Rama that they is going to be an evil force, which will try to harm your kids. Rama and Sita becomes petrified so as soon as the twins are born they are protected by many soldiers. As the twins are growing up, Rama prepares them for a possible war between them and a evil force. 

One day, when the twins are playing alone in the backyard the rat decides to sneak up on them and try to poison them with his bitting. The twins realize, he was the evil force that would try to destroy them so they get their bow and arrow to kill him. The rat is sneaky and roams around and hides from them until Kush finally grabs him from his tail and change the rat into a person. 

Dhobi: Please, do not kill me

Kush: Why should we not, you have caused many trouble to out family and us.

Dhobi: He distracts the boys by making up a clever story, but the kids are intelligent and realize that he is lying and just trying to escape from him. (Dhobi makes a run for his life)

Love: Grabs his bow and aim it at the dhobi with his arrow. He shoots and kills the Dhobi.

The Twins rush to Rama and tell him what happened in the garden. Rama and town people are happy and realize how bad the Dhobi was. They all cherish the deeds of the twins and celebrate with a big Festival of greatness over evilness. 

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Author's note: Originally, the second part of the movie started with Dhobi spreading the rumors of Sita carrying Ravana's sons. Rama is furious and believes the town people and exile Sita to the forest, where she has the twins and sings for her love, Rama. I did not like the way Sita was sent away so I made it into a happy ending, where Rama would not treat Sita so ruefully. Also I wanted to punish Dhobi for starting this so I made him into a rat and killed him by the twins.  

Week 4 story: Life of Kumbhkarna

Kumbhkarna, destroying the town Danville

Wiki

Once upon a time, there was a big monster named Kumbhkarna, who lived in Danville. He was known all over the town as the biggest evil monster and everyone feared him. He goes around the town messing up people's lives by eating their food, messing up their houses and also eating some of the people. Many people were tired of his behavior so they all decided to go to the king's palace for some help.

People: "We are tired of Kumbhkarana and all his evil doings, can you do something about it."

King: "I know his deeds are getting worse day by day, I will come up with a plan to defeat him. Just be patience my people."

People: "We can not wait any more, that evil troll is eating people. We are all going to die soon."

The king was furious and had to come up with a plan to kill the beast. One day he decides to call a meeting with all the nearby kings. They eventually end up confronting a brave man, who decides to take on the challenge. The brave man, named Indra goes and tries to destroy the monster, but before he could Kumbhkarna takes all away all his weapons. He is helpless so the monster ends up killing him. The great being is mad at him for doing such and destroying many other innocent lives so he curses Kumbhkarna, who will sleep for six months and eat for six months. However, when the monster is awake, he causes more trouble then ever. The god is mad and finally sends Vishnu, as a form of Rama to earth. Rama is destined to go to Jungle for fourteen years due to a boon that his father was responsible for. While in Jungle, one day Rama is passing by the town and he hears people talking about this evil monster. He feels like he can help the people so he goes up to them and talks to them about it. Eventually, Rama finds about more about the monster. Where he stays and when he will be up. Rama and his brother both goes to the monster and see him sleeping. They try to wake him up, but they had no luck. Then one of the townsman, hit a rock into Kumbhkarna's eyes and he wakes up.

Kumbhkarana: His eyes are red and smoke is coming out of his ear, "Who dares to wake me up, while I am in my hibernating period."

People: In fear, they all rushed to their home

Rama: "It was me, you big monster. I am here to put an end to your evil behavior."

Kumbhkarana: "HAHAHAH, No one can defeat me. I would like to see what you got.'

Kumbhkarana throws a big rock towards Rama and his brother, which luckily they pass by. Rama was furious too now so they start fighting. Rama knew he was in a big danger as he saw what the monster was capable off. They go through many rounds of throwing things at each other. Gods are seeing that Rama is struggling, so they send a fire weapon for him to use. Rama uses the weapon, which eventually ends up killing Kumbhkarana as the fire weapon passed through his head and body.

The king is pleased with the Rama's deed so he ends up crowning him as a prince for the town of Danville.

Author's note:
This story was actually about Kumbhkarana, who is cursed by Brahma when he defeats lord Indra. Therefore, he is a monster, who sleeps for six months and eats for a day. I wanted to make the story into a children's version so I added extra details. Rama kills him in the actual story and I wanted to keep it same because I like the way he defeated him so I used the same story line.

Bibliography: PDE ramayana, Kumbhakarna Link

Week 3 Story: Karma

Priest telling King the reason for his misery

wikicommons

One day the king of Ayodhya, Dasharatha went hunting with is sons in a nearby forest. It was time for his sons to learn archery. As the royal family, the sons will have to be trained in numerous aspects to not only protect themselves, but also for the purpose of defeating evil for the common people of the Ayodhya. The king taught few lessons and later they practiced it on the tree. While practicing they heard a weird noise from one direction of the forest.

Rama: "Pita, Did you hear that?"

Dasharatha: "Dear son, what are you talking about?"

Lakshmana: "There is a noise coming from that side of the forest" as he points in that direction

Rama: "It almost sounds like a beast is growling in the water"

Dasharatha: "Do not get hesitant, I will take care of it now"

He then takes out an arrow and lines it up with the bow and shoots in that direction. In few minutes the noise had disappeared. The kids asks him to go see what it was, but as soon as they were about to go look, a server comes to fetch king to return back to the palace. The server specifies, there is a highly praised priest, who came to visit you.

They all return back to the palace, without knowing that king has taken a life of an innocent.

Few Years later:
King Dasharatha has to send his beloved child Rama to forest for fourteen years, which was a wish from his wife. He did not know why she would do such a thing or why was this happening to his life. The king was depressed and could not bear sending Rama, Lakshmana (who decided to join his brother) and Sita (Rama's wife) to the forest for 14 years. He thought this was too cruel and no parents should be faced with such agony. He calls priests, thinking his wife was possessed to ask for such a dreadful thing. Priests performed many rituals, where they find out the real reason for Rama's exile.

Priest: "oh king, your wife is not possessed, but it is Karma that is causing you the suffering. You killed an innocent man, while hunting. The man was getting water for his blind parents and you shot him with your arrow. The boys blind parents waited for his return and they found out from a bird that their only son was killed. The parents were furious with such injustice that they cursed the person who killed their son with a life full of sorrows like their. They cursed you with not being able to see your beloved son for years so you can feel their pain."

King had no idea he created such a big crime and he wept for days. He lived last few days of his life miserably, which lead to his blindness and eventually death.

Author's note:
The story is based of King Dasharatha's hunting scene in the jungle. He kills an innocent man, who is getting water for his blind parents, thinking it was a deer. As king approaches the pond, the innocent man tells him to go get his blind parents and tell them what happened truthfully. As the blind parents find out the story from the king, he is cursed. I changed the story by putting it into a different context, where king did not find out till later that he was cursed for his deed. I wanted to emphasize on the meaning of karma and how it lead to Rama's exile and therefore, king's sorrows.

Bibliography: PDE Ramayana, Dasharatha's karma Link

Week two story: Two athletes and a Freshman

A football player showing his next move

Football Image

It was time for college to start again and all the upcoming freshman's were excited to experience their college life. One day, one of the freshman was lost looking for a Dale Hall and ran into two football players. He overheard many people talking how great it is to be a student athlete at the University, how they get access to anything for free so he tried asking them questions about the university and the classrooms. Which eventually lead to asking questions about student life and the night life.

"What is there to do at night around here" said the Freshman.

"There are lots of interesting scenes around here, if you want to meet lot of higher end people you need to go to an all exclusive party" said one of the football player.

"We will invite you to this all exclusive party full of athletes, you might be able to meet your dream start there too" said the other football player.

"There is one restriction, you have to keep this low and not tell anyone" said the first football player.

"I promise, I will keep it low, thank you for the invite" said the freshman.

"When you come to the tower, just call us to get you inside the party and make sure you do not tell anyone about it" said the football players. 

It was the first week of college, and the freshman was excited to get an all exclusive invite to an awesome party. He could not wait to get to the party. Slowly it was getting to him from keeping down his excitement. By the end of the day he had told his whole floor mates about the party and many more. The news was spread to so many people that there were around thousands of people trying to go to the party. 

The freshman showed up to the party and just few inches behind him there were many others.

"We told you to keep this all exclusive party low" said one of the football player 

"You are not allowed to get in anymore" said the other freshman 

So at the end all the freshman's started going home, but that one freshman, who told everyone about the party. The freshman went to the party again and met up with the football players to say sorry. The football players were so angry that they just beat him up and the freshman returned to his dorm with a black eye.

Author's Note:

This story was based of The Turtle and The Geese, which was about the turtle being able to fly. The story started with the geese inviting the turtle to the dinner and the turtle asked them how he was going to get there since he can not fly. The geese told him, we will make it possible but all you have to do is keep your mouth shut. The turtle agreed, however he opened his mouth when others were making fun of him so he fell to the ground and died. I wanted to recreated the story but in a different perspective so I made it more college related.

Bibliography: "The Turtle and the Geese" Jataka Tales  by Ellen C. Babbitt, Text