Week 11 Story planning: A few different ideas

Right vs Wrong: Pixabay

I have a few different ideas this week for story planning.  My story will be based off of Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Vishnu Link to Videos. 

I liked the idea of Vishnu and Mohini because they are two sides of one god.  It would make a cool story to have them be two personalities from one person.  I could also write up a story about them being twins.  I could use their characteristics and turn them into special talents or superpowers and create a story based off of that. 

Another idea I really liked was based on the story about the man and the fish.  He saved the fish from the water and let it grow big where it was safe, but the story points out that although he saved one creature he did an injustice to another.  This rule of Vishnu is interesting to me because it talks a lot about how humans are the only animals that can empathize and can make moral decisions, and that is what makes us different from other animals.  In this story I could create a place where animals make moral decisions or I could try to envision a world in which humans do not empathize or use their moral compass.  It would depend on which way I took this story, but it could be a scary story, or something with a moral.  If I base it around animals it could be kind of cute and it could be about baby animals trying to figure out the difference between right and wrong. 

I also thought it could be a cool idea to create a story about the balance between Dharma and Adharma.  The two forces are opposite of each other and one basically represents peace between humans and nature and sharing for all, while the other represents greed and destruction.  The two forces could be personified and they could fight which would be interesting to write about.  It could also be kind of comical if I personified them as twins and one is an evil twin.  They would have to run around cleaning up each other’s messes. 

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