Week 12 Reading Notes: The Seven Secrets of Vishnu part D

Tivikrama's secret:  Ignorance breeds insecurity and arrogance. 

Vishnu:  Wikipedia

Saraswati= peace Lakshmi= wealth
It is interesting to see the relationships that revolve around Lakshmi.  Because she is jealous of Lakshmi's attention, Saraswati always leaves when Lakshmi shows up.  Lakshmi then uses Alakshmi for company. 

"The journey from what I have to what I am"
It could be really cool to write a story based around greed and it could have this idea as the moral.  Someone could have a lot of material things and lose them and discover the true wealth in knowing who they truly are. 

Devas- insecure and complacent
Asauras- generous

Evil means "the absence of God" but in this religion that doesn't make sense.  They say that everything on earth is a "manifestation of the divine" and thus it cannot be evil. 

This video also explains that evil actions are the actions that happen without a reason or explanation.  This also makes no sense in Hinduism because Karma is a force that causes everything to have a reason. 

It could be really cool to do a religion based story and talk about the forces behind everything in the world and just kind of combine pieces of all religions in it, but it would take a lot of research and I don't want to offend anyone. 

Source:  Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu:  Link to Part D video

Week 12 Reading Notes: Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu

Kurma- "Wealth eludes the insecure"

Kurma- Wikimedia Commons

Source of Videos:  Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu Link to Videos

Mining, hunting, fishing, harvesting- generate wealth but they are violent

It could be interesting to write something about using the world's resources for monetary gain and harming the earth.  It would be an easy moral or underlying message to add to any type of story. 

Spiritual morality- unaware of immortality

This could be interesting to incorporate in a story.  It could be about someone who does not believe in any sort of afterlife and their intense fear of dying as a result. 

The importance of food, especially milk and butter. 

It could be cool to do some research about why milk and butter are so important and write a story that revolves around food items.  It would add in a little bit of my own interests from the pre nutrition part of my degree. 

Vishnu and Lakshmi's relationship is interesting because she is powerful without him yet she chooses to rub his legs and sit at his feet.  He is important but so is she and they are always found together.  Alakshmi is the opposite and she goes with Lakshmi but she rises from the milk as a poison.  I really like these three characters for a story because they have interesting relationships. 

Desirable vs undesirable in nature. 

Week 11 Reading Notes: Seven Secrets of Vishnu: Part B

Fish:  Wikipedia

Matsya's secret:  "Only humans can empathize and exploit" 

Mark of Vishnu is on the forehead and it emphasizes imagination which separates us from other animals. 

Manu is swimming and a fish comes up to him and asks him to save him from a larger fish and promises in return to save Manu one day.  This could make an interesting prompt for a story post. 

The idea that there are no rules in survival is interesting as well.  The video talks about how animals do not judge what they are doing but they do whatever it takes to survive.  Humans do not do this because we have moral judgement and we choose what is right and what is wrong.  We do not abandon the injured or take advantage of the sick or injured or those who are not paying attention like animals do.  Animals will attack at any point to eat even if the other animal is giving birth.  It does not matter because it is for survival.  This could make a cool story if I wrote about animals with a moral compass or humans without a moral compass.  It is weird to imagine a world where nobody has a sense of judgement of right and wrong.  (Territory and Property) (empathy, greed)

Dharma vs Adharma

Nature is destroyed because of human greed. 

A king tries to save a dove from a hawk.  If the hawk cannot eat it is bad but the hawk cannot eat the dove or a different dove or a rat or serpent because someone will have a bad end in either decision. 

There are always exclusions somewhere= the root of this rule. 

Source:  Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu part B Link to Videos

Week 11 Reading Notes: Seven Secrets of Vishnu: Part A

Vishnu:  Wikimedia Commons

Mohini is the female version of Vishnu.  She enchants to bring attention to spiritual reality.  Material and Spiritual reality are interesting concepts that I have never seen before.  It could be interesting to write something about Mohini and her powers to draw attention to spiritual reality.  Maybe she and Vishnu could be twins instead of being male and female versions of the same god. 

Although women are represented by material reality it is not because of a patriarchal society.  It is because women "give form" to life when they have children and men do not.  For this reason women are associated with material reality.

Material reality- red, spiritual reality- white, Vishnu- infinity

Unborn child does not think or feel while it sleeps

Maya- mental material reality and Brahma uses Maya to judge Phrakrhatii

In this section of the videos it talks a lot about the state of the child in the womb and how that relates to the gods.  The unborn child is in an undisturbed sleep and he or she does not know about what is going on around them.  It is compared to a god sleeping on water undisturbed. 

"Without Maya man would be at the mercy of nature, but with Maya man can dominate nature"  This is an interesting idea that could make some sort of story.  Maya could be a magic power or something like that. 

Source:  Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu Link to Videos

Week 10 Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part F

Notes- goodfreephotos

The Pandavas and Draupadi are gambled away by one of the brothers in the gambling match.  Draupadi is especially devastated by the event.  They take their clothes, but Draupadi's clothes don't come off because the material keeps multiplying.  Bheen pledges to get revenge for Draupadi's embarrassment.  The brothers vow to kill their capturers. 

It seems like there are a lot of themes of gambling in these two sections of the story so I think I might use that as a theme in my story that I write this week.  Maybe I will keep the Pandavas in the story or maybe I will remove the idea from the story and write about a different setting. 

Krishna is an interesting character.  He says that if he was present at the gambling match he would have stopped it from happening/ stop it from going wrong.  However, supposedly Draupadi prayed to Krishna in order to receive the miracle that kept her clothes from coming off when they tried to humiliate her.  I want to learn more about Krishna, so maybe I will watch the epified videos about him for my next reading notes for week eleven. 

The part of the story that involves Shiva and the crown is interesting.  He and Arjun fight and the crown shatters, but it is put back together by some form of miracle and then Arjun realizes who he is fighting. 

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified Part F

Week 10 Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified part E

I still like Arjun's story and I think it is interesting that he had to get blessings from his first wife in order to marry the second.  I could easily write a story about the relationship between the two wives.  They could resent each other at first and then become best friends and get into trouble running around being girls.  The idea is interesting because the first wife did not have any friends besides her five husbands from what I have seen. 

The idea of the unborn child who listened to the stories is interesting as well.  There could easily be some kind of twist on this story.  It was interesting that when they told the story in the Mahabharata they made the young boy absorb the story but not the end because the mother fell asleep. 

It is also really interesting that the Pandavs cannot lose.  They will always win in everything, so this could make an interesting story because the idea could be put in a bunch of different settings.  They could be holding a match so that people come to try to defeat them, they could be facing monsters, or they could be just fighting other bad people. 

The gambling part of the story is interesting as well.  I could use this to create a story of two kings that gamble with their kingdoms.  It could be funny if the townspeople in the kingdom were used to it and just got kind of mad about it but they didn't really care that much.  Weird things could happen in the town as a result of the gambling.  For example, if the king gambled and won a bunch of cows they would all have to live somewhere so they would show up overnight.  Maybe another day all of the flower pots are gone because the king gambled them away.  It could be interesting to write from the townspeople's perspectives. 

Reading:  Pixabay

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified Part E

Week 9 Reading Notes: The Mahabhrata Part D

Mandala: Pixabay

Draupadi has grown up to be very beautiful and many princes want to compete in a contest to win her.  The Pandavas are going to try to compete as well.  The quest was to string a bow and shoot a fish in a bowl filled with oil.  None could lift the bow except for Arjun who completed the challenge. All of the five brothers marry Draupadi. 

The Pandavas have to leave the kingdom so one of their brothers is not called to rule because it would cause war and chaos.  They move to a forest that doesn't have anything useful in it.  There is a big forest with bad creatures in it.  They clear it with forest fires and they build an amazing city in it and give their residents mansions. 

The Pandavas are warned of a story of two brothers who fight over the love of a woman.  They decide that to avoid conflict, they will each have a year of marriage with Draupadi that is uninterrupted by the others.  Arjun is exiled when he interrupts one of his brothers when it is not his year because he needs to get his weapon.  Arjun lives in the forest for 12 years and meets a woman whom he marries while he is in the forest.  He has a son with her and then leaves. 

I think I want to write my story this week over Arjun's feelings over his situations with his brothers and wives. 

Source:  Epified Reading Guide and Videos Part D 

Week 9 Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part C

Karna was found in the river and his armor and ear rings grew as he grew.  He cannot follow his dreams because his parents will be dishonored if he does.  Then he encounters someone who can help him learn a way to fulfill his dreams.  Bashran agrees to teach him how to fight.  But Bashran believes Karna lied to him about a Scorpion sting and he sends him away with a curse.  When Karna needs his powers most he will be unable to use them. 

Karna doesn't know his lineage and so he cannot compete even though he is well trained.  He wants to challenge the Pandavas and he is declared king of a small area so he can compete. 

Two boys are friends and one offers half his kingdom to the other.  They joke about it but one day when one man is poor he goes to the other and is humiliated.  He plans to burn the king and his family in a flammable  palace.  The Pandavas move into the palace and they realize that it is a trap to kill them.  They created a tunnel from the bottom of the palace and the Pandavas and Kunthi escaped into the forest when the fire was set. 

The Asur is a large monster who lived in a cave.  He attacked and ate people from the city because he was very hungry.  He now has to be offered a huge cart full of food from a family each week.  But every week he eats the person who delivers the food as well.  Bheem agrees to take food to deliver to the Asur. 

Video Film:  Pixabay

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified:  Part C Reading Guide

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified part B

The Mahabharata Family Chaos:  Wikimedia

Pandu- cursed by a hermit
Kunti- summons gods to have children
Madri- Pandu's second wife

1st son: Udishtil- stays calm always even in battle
2nd son:  Bheen- is strong and fast like the wind- was tied and pushed into the lake and attacked my snakes
3rd son:  Arjun- will become a great archer

Madri has 4th and 5th sons.  Nahkul and Zeedhev

100 sons born to the blind brother and his wife- they came from a lump of flesh put into vats of oil and they are demonic.  There are bad omens. 

This section of the story helped me to understand the family tree of the Mahabharata much better.  I have made some notes here- although the names are probably spelled badly.  I think it could be interesting to talk about the 100 sons.  That was part of the story that I did not understand when I read the book but it is intriguing.  The birth story of these sons could be twisted in many different ways.  One idea I had while watching the video is that they could be similar to aliens.  This would  make the battle interesting between all of the cousins at the end of the book. 

I think there could be a good moral in the story as well because the parents are blind.  The story could say something about how you act when nobody is watching or it could represent that the love of a mother and father is blind in many cases.  The 100 sons could have easily gotten away with anything they wanted to if they were quiet about it because their father was blind and their mother gave up her sight.  Would it have been better if she had not tried to be honorable and given up her sight?  Would her sons be more honorable if she had kept her sight and held them accountable for their actions?  Is the pride and greed of their blind father  to blame for their demonic actions? 

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified:  Link to Videos

Reading notes: The Mahabharata Epic Video Part A

The King in the River:  Wikimedia

This week, I chose to watch the Epified version of the Mahabharata.  So far I have found it much easier to understand the story because the animations help me to remember names a little bit better.  The family tree in this book is really long and complicated, nonetheless. 

I noticed more specific details about the family in the beginning.  There are a lot of similarities between Rama and Devavrata because they both just want to honor their fathers and make sure that they are happy.  Devavrata is an interesting character because he holds his vow of celibacy even after the fisherman's daughter's sons have a chance to inherit the throne.  It would make sense to me that he would go back on his vow after they all had a chance to be heirs, but he is an honorable character. 

I like the switch that they did with Devavrata and his half brother so that there could be a new heir to the throne.  It is interesting that everyone- the queens and mothers and all the people in the castle- went along with this idea. 

It could be interesting to do a story around Devavrata and his father Shantanu and his mother Ganga.  I find her story intriguing that she is a river goddess who came to earth just to have eight children.  Why did she let the last one (Devavrata) live?  I could open up this idea to make a unique story as well. 

Source:  Epified Mahabharata Videos:  Link to Videos

Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata part D

Source:  Narayan's Mahabharata Link to Reading Guide

Arrow:  Pixabay

The last section of the Mahabharata was mostly focused on a big battle.  I liked some specific parts of this section of the book for my story, but I think I will use the battle scene as a whole in my version of the story. 

One specific detail I thought was interesting was the man who was a god incarnated who could choose when he died.  He chose to die on a bed of arrows and one arrow was shot into the ground to give him a spring of water when he said he was thirsty.  He said that when he died, the battle should end then and there. 

I think I have decided what I will make my story like from this week's readings.  I want to make the role of the woman with 5 husbands larger.  My story will tell about her past life, how she got into this predicament in this life, and what she does now.  I think that she should be a strong character.  I want her to be a character that can and does take care of herself, even though her five husbands always insist on rescuing her.  I think she will secretly be the reason that they succeed in their battles, because she is working behind the scenes to make sure they succeed. 

I am not sure yet what theme I will go with for this story, but this plot seems like it will work well.  I will use several of the small details from the other sections of the book and I will try to incorporate them all into a story narrated by her. 

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata Part C

Water in the desert:  Pexels

While reading part C of Nayaran's Mahabharata, I came across a few more interesting details that could work well in my story.  I am not sure which ones I will use or how I will fit them together yet but here is what interested me from this section:

I liked the part about the five brothers being exiled to a forest life.  When they were very thirsty and they came across the small pond, four out of the five were too impatient to treat it with respect.  The spirit that was overseeing the pond killed them instantly from drinking the water, but when the fifth brother came along the story took a twist.  He talked to the owner of the lake and he answered all of his questions.  It was a trying task, but from the respect that he showed for the lake, he was able to revive one brother- then when he chose his half-brother to honor his second mother, he was rewarded with the lives of all of his brothers being returned.  This part of the story seems to have a strong moral message and it could be interesting to use in a story. 

Another part that was interesting in the story was when the wife of the five brothers was staying in a castle with other royals.  She was supposedly very beautiful and the queen was worried that she would cause the men to go astray.  She told the queen that her five husbands would come after anyone who wronged her.  I am curious to see why she needed to stay at the castle another 13 days longer.  Perhaps this will help my story. 

Source:  Narayan's Mahabharata:  Link to Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata Part B

Source:  Nayaran's Mahabharata: Link to Reading Guide

Colorful Material:  Wikimedia

For part B of the reading, I again had a hard time following the family tree of the Mahabharata.  There are so many different characters in this book in comparison to the Ramayana.  For this reason, I still think that my story will be focused on a smaller part of the large story and I will omit names this time.  I will probably story plan this week and write my story after I finish the entire book. 

In this second of the book, I enjoyed reading about the girl that experienced a miracle when people were trying to take her clothing.  I think it is interesting that the clothes stayed on her and more material just kept coming off.  This could be a really interesting beginning to a story. 

From this section, I was also intrigued by how the five brothers treated their shared wife.  In the beginning it seemed like it was all going to be okay, but now they are questioning her honor and people are treating her badly.  This whole situation could make for an interesting story as well with the right twists. 

Reading Notes: Nayaran's Mahabharata part A

River Rocks:  Pexels

So far I have found it difficult to read the Mahabharata (and spell it correctly!).  I am having a hard time getting confused with all of the names involved, so I think I will do in a different direction for my story posts than I did with the Ramayana.  In those stories, I used the names and the plot and I changed the story and time and place up to make it interesting. 

For this book, I think I will focus on smaller pieces of the story that interest me.  I really liked the first part of the book, where the man is married to the woman who demands to do as she wishes.  I found it interesting that he let her drown seven of their children before he spoke up.  I also liked the aspect of trickery in this part of the story, because she was actually a god all along and she was fulfilling what she was meant to do. 

The part of the story with the five brothers also interests me.  It is weird that they all won the same princess as a wife, but I like the backstory that she was treated badly in another life and the man said that she would be loved as if by five men.  I think it could be used in a story with some sort of romantic plot very easily. 

Source:  Nayaran's Mahabharata Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part B

Rama turns his back on Sita Flickr

In part B of Sita sings the blues, a new part of the Ramayana was presented to me, which I did not read in Narayan's Ramayana.  In this part of the story, Sita and Rama return to the castle and Rama becomes king.  Shortly after, Sita tells Rama that she is pregnant and Rama again begins to doubt her character.  He tells his servant to take her to the forest and leave her there.  She has twins in the forest and they are raised to love, worship, and respect Rama.  Rama returns years later and wants to take the boys back to his castle as his sons to rule, but he makes Sita prove her faithfulness to him yet again.  This results in Sita's death (at least it is implied in this movie) and Rama feels some guilt. 

I have enjoyed reading the Ramayana and experiencing it through film, until this last section.  I want to believe that Sita is a strong woman and she is not dependent on Rama's love.  The move ends with Rama rubbing Sita's feet and Sita winking, so I think that Nina wanted the story to end with the woman in power as well, but I want it to be less implied in my version of the story. 

For my storytelling this week, I will write about Rama and Sita's love story in the 1920s.  Sita will be a flapper girl and the story will unfold so that Rama again questions Sita's character, but this time, Sita will control the power and Rama will realize his mistakes in treating Sita badly. 

Source:  Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues:  Video and Viewing Guide

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part A

 

Sita Sings the Blues Flickr

This week, instead of reading, I watched the movie Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley: here is a link to the reading guide and YouTube Video. 

This story follows really closely with Nayaran's Ramayana, but it is a lot more artistic.  The music that Sita sings reminds me a lot of the 1920's and I think I may want to use that as a theme for my writing.  I also like that the story focuses more on the love between Rama and Sita rather than the fighting and battle like in the other Ramayana I read.  It is also interesting how Nina intertwined the story of her personal relationship with the story of Rama and Sita and with India.  I am curious about how that part of this movie will end and I am looking forward to watching part two. 

My story this week will most likely focus on the relationship between Rama and Sita, but I will move the time to the 1920s and maybe Sita can be a flapper girl or some kind of show girl.  I am not yet sure of the setting for my story, but I am pretty sure I want to write about Rama and Sita's relationship this time and cut out the battle parts.  Hopefully I will inspired with a good setting and more parts to the story in the second half of the movie!

Reading Notes: The Ramayana Part D

Narayan's Ramayana: Link to Reading Guide

Stack of Magical Books Pixabay

Obviously Rama will fight Ravana, but should Sita save herself or should she be saved by Rama and his brother and team?  I think I will continue with the version of the Ramayana that I started in last week's post and I will create it from the point of view of Sita being held captive by Ravana.  Once again, the names will stay the same, but the details and setting will change. 

Rama and Ravana fight and Rama sends a sword to cut off the heads of Ravana, but every time he cuts off a head, another one grows back.  The fight gets desperate and Ravana faints and Rama calls the fight off until he feels better.  When it resumes, Ravana is desperate for help in any form and uses anything he can as a weapon against Rama. 

Ravana has a weak point in his heart, and that is where Rama strikes him to win. 

Rama wins Sita back but says they cannot be together since she has been alone with another man.  She jumps in the fire, proving her loyalty and they can be together again.  Maybe this can correspond to some sort of fire in my story as well. 

I think I will continue my story from the point of view of Sita and I will involve the character Hanuman as well.  It will parallel some of the fighting but it will have some changes.  The fire will be involved, the weapons will be changed to more modern weapons, and the ending will be similar.  The setting will be New York City. 

Reading Notes: The Ramayana part C

Narayan's Ramayana: Link to Reading Guide

Book and Flowers Pixabay

Vali- Sugreeva's brother-forced out his brother and stole his wife (monkey)

Sugreeva- Vali's brother- forced to leave his community by his brother (monkey)

Hanuman- giant monkey- goes to try to help save Sita

Rama

I may want to continue my story from last week, or I might start something completely new.  I want to see how this book ends, so after reading 2 I will know for sure.  Meanwhile in section C of the book, here are some good ideas to go off of: 

The concept of 7.  It says that Rama shot an arrow that went through 7 worlds, seas, and 7 trees. 
The concept of a really powerful arrow. 
Dundubi- a monster/demon who looks like a buffalo
Sita dropped her jewelry down to show where they were taking her

It is interesting how the men in this book will not listen to their wives but sometimes the wives are smarter.  It would be fun to write something from the perspective of the women in the story.  There are a lot of strong women in this section of the book.  I also wonder what Sita would be thinking and doing on her end to try to get back to Rama.  Although she is portrayed as beautiful and not much else, I am sure she would not be as helpless as the book makes her out to be.  Maybe she is a really strong and powerful woman.  Maybe she has secret training to get out of situations like this.  She was a princess after all, maybe she was raised with secret talents to help keep her safe and to prepare her to help lead a city.  Maybe I will write this as a reflection of the last story I wrote using the New York City Sita, or maybe I will use this book more directly. 

The Rakshasa women guard Sita and try to frighten her.  She is wearing rags and dust and does not let them intimidate her.  Sita refuses the advances of Ravana and gives Hanuman her last piece of jewelry to give to Rama. 

Reading notes: The Ramayana Part B

Narayan's The Ramayana Link to Reading Guide



Rama is really quiet during all of this time in the book, and it would be interesting to know what he is thinking about everything. 

The forest exile could be paralleled to a prison, and the kingdom compared to a business. 

Prison: Pixabay

It is interesting to me how Rama looks at Sita.  The book is written in a way that when he sees his wife, he notices the early things that she is wearing, but each earthly think to him is linked to a characteristic of her as a person. 

Lakshmana is Rama's brother.  Kamavalli/ Soorpanaka is the sister of the man Rama wishes to defeat (Ravana).  Kara is Ravanas stepbrother. 

I think I could rewrite this story pretty easily using New York City as the setting and rewriting the character of Rama as a heroic villain. 

Reading Notes: The Ramayana Part A

Narayan's Ramayana:  Reading Guide part A

Open Book: Pexels.com

Personal Index of Characters: 
Main characters: Rama and Sita
Ravana: evil antagonist
Kosala: setting city
King Dasaratha- childless
Sage Vasishtha- advises king to feed his wives rice
Sage Viswamithra- former king now a sage who convinces the king to let Rama go with him to defeat demons
Sidhasrama: where the brothers travel to with Viswamithra
Kausalya- wife of king/mother of Rama
Kaikeyi- wife of king/mother of Bharatha
Lakshmana- broher of Rama

The Ramayana has been told as a bedtime story, made into a TV drama that people protested for, some study it as a religious experience, it is told as a narrative and performed as plays and dance dramas.

For this portion of the book I really enjoyed reading the background of the story; how popular it is and how people use these readings.  When I began the story I noticed that the plot consists of something similar to Native American Creation stories, where the small tales within the reading tell about how something came to be.  Some of the stories also teach Rama and Lakshmana a new skill or something about themselves or the world, and sometimes through these tales they also affect the lives of others. 

This portion of the book inspires me to write something that contains a Sci-Fi influence.  It would be great to take some of these stories and turn them into a child's bedtime story that they become immersed in and take the place of the hero to help people and learn about growing up.  It could also be interesting to write about a traditional story that has been opened into a portal, so every time someone reads the story, they are sucked into it and they experience the tales as Rama. 

Another interesting take would be if the story was performed and it transported the audience into the world of Kosala or Sidhasrama.  They would have to work together to get out of it, and they may learn some life lessons along the way.  Perhaps the mini-stories within the larger story will be individual reflections of people who have been accidentally taken into this strange world on an impromptu journey.