Lindsey's Epics

For today's free reading notes, I am continuing with the epified Mahabharata videos. Since I am already familiar with the story and have taken notes from the first time I read it, I wanted to hone in my focus on a more specific part of the story. In most of my notes and blogs, I wanted to focus on parts of the stories that could inspire a karmic action that could be useful in my college and karma portfolio project. So far with my work, I have focused on stories that revolve around relationships between a man and woman, like the relationship between Sita and Rama, or the rejection and hard work overcome to get what is desired eventually, like Ekalavya's story of becoming the most skilled archer which he eventually gave up. In both of the above stories, I was inspired by the positive outcome that I could conjure up to make the characters inviting and inspiring. With this next part of the Mahabharata, I want to focus on Arjuna's journey during his exile. As I read through the ...

For another free week of reading notes, I chose to continue on with the Epified Mahabharata videos. Part C starts out by introducing Karna. Karna was found floating in the river in a basket. Karna wanted to be a great man of war so he sought out to learn from Drona. Drona rejected him as he did with Ekalavya because Drona judged him by his appearance and father rather than getting to know the real him. Karna returned home where he silently bore his pain. One day, Karna found a teacher and guru that was the greatest there was. This teacher would only take Karna on if he was not a Kshatriya, which is the opposite reason why the other gurus rejected Karna. Karna told Parshuram that he was a brahmin and Parshuram accepted him. Karna learned the highest secrets and most dangerous ways of fighting. Karna was stung by a scorpion, but he suffered in silence as to not disturb his guru. Parshuram woke to Karna bleeding and concluded that he was indeed a Kshatriya for he was able to withstand t...

Throughout this reading, most of the stories contain a plot of an animal taking advantage of other animals, whether it be because of their size or strength. I wanted to pick out a couple of my favorites of the section that stood out to me in a thematic way or simply because I enjoyed the story and the writing. In  Silence is Golden , there is a familiarity to the tale that reminded me of The Lion King when Simba roared for the first time and it was very weak. I think a rewrite of this story as The Lion King could be an interesting take. In this tale, there was a cub that had the physical characters just like a lion, but had the voice of a jackal. One day while playing with other young lions, the cub wanted to frighten them by roaring. His roar was weak and like a yelp. The cub was not accepted by the other lions. I think changing the ending of this to make it more accepting could be an interesting way to show humility of the other lions and braveness of the lone cub. (Lion cub...

Throughout this reading, most of the stories contain a plot of an animal taking advantage of other animals, whether it be because of their size or strength. I wanted to pick out my favorites of the section that stood out to me in a thematic way or simply because I enjoyed the story and the writing. (The Giant Crab; Source:  GoodFreePhotos ) The first story,  The Giant Crab , teaches many lessons. The crab was greedy and that got him killed in the end. The elephants were brave and that got them the respect of many and eventually they became king and queen of the animals. I think this story is a great example of a type of story that could be used for many different themes. Some of the themes I saw right away were karmic actions, courage, and greediness. The Dishonest Friend  is a story that I think I could use as a possibility for my portfolio. One man asked his friend to watch over his plough while he was gone. The friend instead sold it and pocketed the money he ...

In this week's reading, I read through more of Babbitt's Jataka Tales and have taken notes on ones that I think would be options for me to write stories about for my project portfolio. All of the stories in part B show some kind of karmic action, but I wanted to chose my favorites and the ones that would inspire me to write an original story using the plots and/or characters. The Foolhardy Wolf This story shows karmic action in a negative way for the wolf. A wolf who is desperate for life and food finds himself a servant to the lion. The lion instructed the wolf to go each morning to look what food there is for the lion to kill and return. Over many days, the lion has killed animals and given some food to the wolf. The wolf, feeling strong enough, decided he wanted to kill an elephant. The lion accepted his request eventually and let the wolf try and kill. The wolf sprang towards the elephant but missed and feel under the elephant's foot and was killed. This story could ...

In this week's reading, I read through more of Babbitt's Jataka Tales and have taken notes on ones that I think would be options for me to write stories about for my project portfolio. All of the stories in part A show some kind of karmic action, but I wanted to chose my favorites and the ones that would inspire me to write an original story using the plots and/or characters. The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls In this story, the girl monkey steals the queen's pearls and the chief guard is put to the task of finding out who stole them. He uses a unique way to prove who he thought had stolen them was indeed the girl monkey. He basically caught her in a trap by offering up other string beads for grabs and catching her not wanting them. This story could be a useful as it shows an occurence of karma on the girl monkey and I can work with the plot in a way to change the setting and time frame to college. (Monkey on a tree representing the monkey's looking for the ...

Brahma found Krishna sharing food with cowherd friends amusing. Brahma had kidnapped the cows and Krishna's friends. Krishna wanted to teach him a lesson and created the stolen cows and cowherds out of himself and returned to the village. No one knew that they weren't real. Brahma then acknowledged Krishna's divinity. Hastin was a great, violent cow. Balram wanted to kill Hastin, but Krishna told him that was not a good idea. Krishna challenged that he would ride Hastin by the next full moon. All warned Krishna against this but he didn't listen. Every night for a month, Krishna got closer to Hastin. By the next full moon, Krishna achieved riding Hastin and calming him. This is the lesson of kindness that Krishna taught. "The ultimate strength" (STORY) Yashoda refused to let Krishna marry Nadha. Krishna could not marry Nadha as he was the saviour of Dharma. Krishna learned that Yashoda was not his real mother. Kamsa was still aware that Krishna had not be...

The videos done by Epified tell the story of Krishna. It talks about all his enemies, friends, and on lookers of his life. Krishna's story begins after the birth of the Pandava brothers. Kamsa was a cruel ruler. His cousin, Devaki, married Vasudev. Kamsa was told the 8th child born from the couple would be a slayer. To save himself, Kamsa wanted to kill them, but rather placed them into prison. Kamsa decided to kill all their children. He killed 6 of their children. The 7th child was transported to Rohini, Vasudev's first wife. People thought Devaki was suffering a miscarriage. The 8th child was the incarnation of Vishnu. Although Vishnu was a divine being, Kamsa still caught word about the 8th child, the slayer being born. The guards left Vasudev's prison unlocked and he left with his son. The voice that told him to leave the cell told him to go to the Yamuna. He needed to cross the river and a serpent protected them both to cross the raging waters. On the other side o...

Kunti is a great example of Karmic revolution. Kunti was the only one who really accepted the Sage, which he in turn rewarded her by giving her a way to summon any god she wanted. She tested it by summoning the Sun god. She was taken into his arms and in return was given a child. Except she was unmarried and she felt unworthy, so she put the son in a basket and put him into the river to float away. Pandu took his wives into the forest for some quiet time. They were treated like gods by the forest people. Pandu was hunting one day, and carelessly, shot a hermit couple. Before he died, Pandu was cursed. The moment Pandu became intimate with a woman, he would die. He grew sad, and his wives were sorrowful. Kunti tells Pandu about her gift and he happily asks her to give Hastinapur and give them kings. Yama, the god of truth and death, was the first god who gave Kunti the first son, Yudhishthir. The wind god have the strong son named Bhima. The King of the devas gave the great warrior so...

In this version of the epic, they focus on Karmic Revolution. I chose to "read" this version of the Mahabharata because I am focusing on Karma. (Mahabharata in sanskrit; Source:  Wikimedia ) The epic starts with Shantanu and Ganga's meeting. She made him promise to never question her. As they began to have children, one by one Ganga drowned each in the river. On the eighth child, Shantanu had had enough. Ganga told him about the 8 Vasus who were cursed and how Ganga agreed to give birth to 8 celestial spirits in order to free the Vasus from mortality. Ganga then left Shantanu, taking his last son. Karma is quite prevalent as Ganga would have good Karma done onto her as she was sacrificing her sons to free the Vasus. Shantanu also had consequences for breaking his wife's promise which led to her leaving and taking his son. Devavrat is introduced, as Shantanu and Ganga's son. Devavrat and Shantanu reunited and returned to the kingdom where the people welcome...

Arjuna struck Bhishma by arrow on the last night of the battle. With great sorrow, Arjuna wept and carried water to Bhishma. Yudhishthira and his brothers along with the Kauravas grieved together over Bhishma. This night, Bhishma told Duryodhana to become comrades with the Pandavas. Bhishma did not die until the conflict was over. The Pandavas went to rescue Arjuna's son but Jayadratha and Karna held them back. Arjuna's son was killed and he wept for him. Arjuna vowed to slay Jayadratha. In which Jayadratha heard of Arjuna's plans and worried for himself. Arjuna did not find him until night but Jayadratha was guarded by Karna and 5 great warriors. Krishna was on Arjuna's side and made it night while Arjuna overthrew and cut of the head of Jayadratha. The Kauravas grieved for his death. Arjuna called a truce to sleep. Drona died upon hearing of the death of his son, Ashwatthaman. (Ashwatthaman; Source:  Wikipedia ) Arjuna and Karna engaged in war. Arjuna became di...

Surya, the sun god, brought the Pandava brothers food in the forest. They lived in the forest for 12 years with Draupadi and Dhaumya. Krishna went to visit the Pandavas. Krishna went to forest to help them as he feels he could have stopped it from happening by being present during the matches. Arjuna, is a brother who can not be defeated. He set out for the Himalayas. He was worshiping one day when he came across a boar in which he seized with his bow. Although another sportsman, a rival of sorts, also shot the boar with a bow. Arjuna wanted to fight the man, but it was the Great God. The Great God gifted Arjuna the divine bow and blessed him. Indra, Varuna, Yama, and Kubera, all gods, appeared. Arjuna lived in Indra's city for 5 years where he learned and became skilled in music and dance along with the training of celestial weapons. Arjuna waged war with demons and giants, who were the ancient enemies of Indra. Arjuna was successful in the battle of overcoming the demons and gia...

Prince Vidura, half-brother to Pandu and Dhritarashtra, guessed the plot of Duryodhana. Yudhishthira realized the condition of the palace and spoke his fears to his mother and brothers. Vidura sent a miner to dig Kunti and the Pandava brothers an underground passage. Once to safety of the forest, Bhima returned to the palace to seek revenge on the guardhouse in which he set fire to it. Wind blew the fire to catch on the lac palace which had happen to be housing a low-caste woman and her 5 sons all whom perished in the fire. The next morning, people thought the perished were Kunti and the Pandava brothers. The Pandavas entered the forest. Bhima watched over Kunti and his brothers. Hidimba and a disguised rakshasa human woman, who was his sister, tried to lure the Pandavas. Hidimba battled Bhima, but died. Bhima married the rakshasa woman. Her son vowed to aid them whenever they called upon him. Kunti and the brothers minus Bhima were in Ekachakra. Bhima appeared and went to Baka. Bhima...

(Ganesha writing the Mahabharata; Source  Wikimedia ) The birth story of Vyasa to begin the Mahabharata can be important in my project of karma. The king of Chedi, Uparichara, dropped his semen into a river and the result was 2 children, a boy and a girl. The king took the boy, but he did not want girl so left her with the fisherman's wife. She had a fishy smell and worked as a ferryman. She met the sage Parashara and had a son with him (out of wedlock) named Vyasa. Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges river took form into human as the eight Vasus came to her. She became their human form mother and promised she would cast upon them her children. King Shantanu saw Ganga in human form and was taken with her immediately. He asked her to wed him and she would so long as he never spoke harshly to her or question her actions. They eventually had a son, but she gave him to the Ganges. The king was horrified, but kept his promise to not speak to her about it. Seven children later, all of...

Notes taken on the video:  Sita Sings the Blues The start of part B begins in NYC and Nina. Nina has received an email from Dave that says "Don't come back" with inevitability breaks her heart. Back in the Ramayana story, Sita tells Rama she is pregnant. There is a new story included in this video where dhobi, a laundry man, is explaining how he is not like Rama in the sense that he will not take his wife back since she has slept in another man's house. Because of this story, Rama sends Lakshmana to take Sita to the forest and abandon her. The narrators include that they feel as though Rama always had doubt about how pure Sita was. I think this is interesting since this feeling was not portrayed strongly in the book version. (Rama thinking Sita is not pure; Source:  Wikimedia ) Back in the U.S. with Nina, she is dreaming of Dave and caught up on him which is similar to how Sita feels with Rama. Both women show loyalty to their men and complete sadness about no...

( Sita Sings the Blues ; Source:  Flickr ) This video tells the Ramayana story in another way. The video starts out with a human, modern day couple, Nina and Dave. Dave accepts a job in India, which is when the video starts to explain the ancient story of Sita and Rama. Some foreshadowing that can be taken possibly, is the comparison from Nina and Dave in the beginning of the video with Rama and Sita. As the video plays out, it will be interesting to see if there is actually a connection between the 2 couples. The video tells the story of Rama and Sita through 3 narrators. They are comical and add a relaxed and enjoyable aspect to the story that makes it easy to understand what is happening. Within the video are short segments where Sita sings her feelings. This makes the story more relatable as she is singing about her love, or how she misses Rama. The video is very similar to the book version of the story so far as Rama is sent to exile due to Kaikeyi wishes. Sita goes w...

Hanuman has arrived in Lanka and is now searching for Sita. He thinks he sees here, but realizes that there are difference between the woman he sees and how Rama described her. This woman is living luxuriously. After further searching, he finds Sita at Asoka Vana, which was basically a garden. She was being watched by the rakshasa women. Ravana still was trying to win over Sita to become his, but she stayed loyal and true to Rama. Ravana became mad and told the rakshasa women to break her will. Sita became sad that Rama forgot about her and had plans to hang herself. Hanuman went to Sita and explained everything and before he left, destroyed Asoka Vana. Ravana's son caught Hanuman, which was what Hanuman wanted. Hanuman burnt down the capital and returned to Rama to tell him what was done. Ravana's capital is rebuilt by Maya, the architect of the gods. Ravana is in awe of his new city, but realizes that he needs to do something about his present situation. A big battle is in ...

This reading starts with the abduction of Sita by Ravana. Sita thought she heard Rama in danger and sent Lakshmana after him. Lakshmana did not want to leave her, but among her stubborn request he left her vulnerable to strangers. Ravana had approached her disguised as a kermit. He was taken with her beauty and decided to reward his sister Ahalya with his kingdom. This to me is a display of good Karma for Ahalya, in which she believes she did something good for her brother and in return is getting a reward. Sita, being very loyal to Rama, was speaking of him with Ravana which makes Ravana mad causing his disguise to wear off. A scared Sita realized who he was and had all the hope in the world that Rama would save her and destroy Ravana. Ravana would be cursed if he touched a woman so he lifted her by digging on the ground she stood and left with her in a chariot. Jatayu, the great eagle that was friends with Dasaratha, saw the danger Sita was in and went to save her. After attempts t...

Rama's exile to the forest got all the people and animals in the kingdom very upset. They were mad at Kaikeyi and were willing to kill themselves in order to not be ruled by anyone else or go with Rama. Lakshmana was very angry about the exile. This shows the loyalty he has to Rama and creates a deeper level to his character. He swore to kill anyone who got in the way of Rama becoming king. Rama calms him, but blames himself for not thinking of the consequences of accepting the crown so eagerly. Rama eventually comes to the conclusion that his exile and Bharatha becoming king is the doing of a higher power and he can not disobey. The relationship between these 2 brothers shows a strong bond between not just bloodlines but also family ties. Lakshmana says he has "no meaning in my existence... unless I establish you on throne...". Quotes like this strength the readers' understanding of loyalty and brotherhood. Along with the higher power, Rama believe that Kaikeyi deser...