Reflections

I think I am most proud of my improvement in my writings.  Earlier in the semester, it took me longer to come up with stories and what to write about but later in the semester, I was able to write stories quicker and at the same time, the stories were generally better than the stories at the beginning of the semester.  So my most valuable take-away for this class would be my improvement of my writing.

Storytelling Week 14: The Journey to Heaven

Yudhishthira continued to walk along the pathway.  His brothers and wife had already perished along this path.  As he thought to himself, the sequence of events that had led to this appeared in his head.  The sequence of events had started when Yudhishthira had heard the Krishna had perished.  This had been shocking news to him and his brothers.  They had loved Krishna very much and when they had heard that Krishna had died had decided to also depart the mortal realm to ascend into heaven. 

So they began to walk on their journey to heaven.  First they traveled east to where they encountered Agni, the fire god, who had Arjuna cast his weapons into the sea.  With that single instance, he had severed all that had held him back in the mortal realm. 

They then turned northward to the Himalayas.  As they had crossed the Himalayas they came across a desert and while they were in the midst of crossing the desert Draupadi fell because of her partiality to Dhananjaya.

Journey to heaven (Source: Wikimedia)

As they continued, walking Sahadeva also fell.  With this the first of the pandavas had fallen.  As they had continued one by one the brothers fell.  The second brother to go was Nakula, who had been broken hearted with the death of his brother and Krishna. 

Then a little while later Arjuna also fell.  Bhima was saddened over these events and he mourned their deaths.  Finally, Bhima also fell and as he lay dying, he asked Yudhishthira why he had fallen.  Yudhishthira replied that he had not attended to others while eating. 

As Yudhishthira walked along Indra appeared before him telling him that if wanted to enter into heaven he must first cast aside the dog that was following him.  Yudhishthira refused to cast aside the dog because of how faithful the dog had been to him.  Then suddenly in the place of the dog, Dharma appeared and he blessed his son for his compassion and faithfulness.  Then Yudhishthira entered into heaven.

When he entered into heaven, he noticed that he could not find his family but had found Duryodhana in heaven.  So he had them bring him to his family but instead of being in heaven, they appeared in hell.  Yudhishthira was saddened in the suffering decided to stay with them instead of returning to heaven.  When he said this hell vanished and Indra told him that it had been a test and then Yudhishthira entered into heaven.

Author’s note:

This is based off the pandava’s journey to heaven from The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  I kept the text closely based on the original text.  I mainly just shortened and lengthened the story.  My main goal was to provide a third person view.  I wrote in a past tense almost memory based style for this story.

Bibliography:

The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant(1899)

Reading Diary B: The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant Week 14

I am reading The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  One of my favorite stories in this section of reading was the story of Krishna dying.  It was touching how he knew that he was going to die, accepted, and was willing to die.  It was odd however, that Krishna did not do anything to stop the destruction of his people.  Given his power, he should have been able to stop it.  But instead of stopping it, he accepted it.  It was nice at the end when the hunter he did not blame the hunter and comforted him had shot him.  Another story that I liked from the reading was the story of the death of Draupadi and the Pandavas.  It was odd that the order of deaths was as it was.  It seemed that Arjuna was a better person than Bhīma but he died first.  Something that I liked in the story was the devotion that Yudhishthira had for his dog.  It was touching that he would not abandon his dog to enter into heaven.  I also like how Yudhishthira said that he had abandoned his family and Krishna but only after they had died because he could not revive them.  Then in the end it turned out the dog was his father Dharma.  After that happened and Yudhishthira had completed his test in heaven with the illusions, it was a happy ending to a story that at times had seemed to be depressing.

Pandava's Journey to heaven (Source: Wikimedia)

Reading Diary A: The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant Week 14

I am reading The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  My favorite story in this chapter is the story of Yudhishthira sinning.  I found it interesting that even when he sinned he told the truth.  Another part of the story that was interesting was that Krishna advised Yudhishthira to lie but in actuality, he was testing Yudhishthira’s love for the truth. In the end Yudhishthira decided to lie but at the same time he committed a crime far worse than just lying by telling the lie in his heart and out loud but at the end of it whispering “the elephant”.  It was sad to read that after he told the lie his chariot, which had previously been floating above the earth, had dropped back down to earth signifying his fall from grace.  It was a nice touch at the end of the chapter to include part of Yudhishthira’s future.   It talked about how at the end of his life he was once again tested by a god.  This time however Yudhishthira did the right thing.  He was told by a god to desert his faithful dog in order that he could enter heaven but instead of deserting the dog he decided that he would instead not enter heaven and stay with his dog who had remained faithful.  Then the god revealed it was a test and they both entered into heaven.  That was a touching end to his life.  He had earlier in his life made the wrong decision but in the end he made the right one.

Yudhishthira entering into heaven (Source: Wikimedia)

Storytelling Week 13: The Gaining of Krishna in the Pandava War

After the Pandavas had fulfilled their thirteen years of exile, they were faced with a looming question.  What would they do now?  Duryodhana was supposed to give back their kingdom, but would he do so?  Yudhishthira then asked his brothers, “What should we do?”

Bhima was the first to reply and said to Yudhishthira, “We should go to war to reclaim our honor and our kingdom. Duryodhana has wronged us and we should seek retribution.”

Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva agreed with this sentiment and said to Yudhishthira, “We agree with Bhima we should go to war with Duryodhana.”

Yudhishthira replied to his brothers and said, “It is not better to seek reconciliation with Duryodhana but I agree that we have been wronged.  Let us first seek the council of Krishna.”

Therefore, the kings and princes gathered in the hall of King Virata and Krishna spoke to them saying, “An ambassador should be sent to Duryodhana asking for half of the kingdom that should be returned.  If Duryodhana does not agree with this then the righteous ones will be the Pandavas and war may be waged.”  Then Krishna returned to his home in Dvaraka.

Sanjaya meets Dhritarashtra during peace negotiations (Source:wikimedia

So an Sanjaya was sent to Dhritarashtra with the message.  At the same time, however, messages were sent to the various surrounding kings asking for the help.  Arjuna wishing to gain the alliance of Krishna set out to Dvaraka.  When he arrived, he saw that Duryodhana had also just arrived and was there seeking an alliance with Krishna.  They went up to Krishna’s room where he was sleeping an Arjuna placed himself at the foot of his bed and prostrated himself while Duryodhana took a seat next to head of the bed.  When Krishna awoke, he saw Arjuna prostrated at the foot of his bed then he saw Duryodhana at the next to him.  Krishna then said, “Greetings, what is the reason for your urgent visit?”

Duryodhana replied, “I was the first to arrive and I seek your help in our impending war.’

Krishna then said, “Indeed you were the first to arrive but I saw Arjuna first so I must also help him.  One of you can have an army the other can have me but I will not fight.”

Arjuna who was younger was allowed to pick and because he loved Krishna, he picked him over the army.  Duryodhana was pleased with the arrangement and went home with the army and Krishna and Arjuna departed to their camp. 

Author’s Note:

This story is based off the story from The Story of the GreatWar: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  This version of the story follows the basic outline of the original story.  I added in the conversation at the beginning and I increased the amount of dialogue in the story.  I chose to do it like this to make it feel like the reader was there which was the main goal for writing this story.

Bibliography:

The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant (1899)

Reading Diary B: The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant Week 13

I am reading The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  One of my favorite stories from the reading was the story of the Pandava war.  One of the most interesting parts about the war for me was the politics right before the war started.  It was interesting how each party vied for support from different leaders.  One of the interesting ones was Krishna.  Krishna knew that Duryodhana was not a good person and that he had wronged the Pandavas but when Duryodhana asked him for help, he still gave him help.  I found that it was odd that he would support both sides.  It surely most have been odd for the soldiers that he sent to Duryodhana to be fighting one of their leaders.  Another of the interesting times that Duryodhana got support was when he tricked Shalya, King of the Madras.  Shalya was allied with pandavas but Shalya was tricked into thinking that Duryodhana was a servant of the son of Kunti and offered him anything he wanted.  It was also interesting that Krishna went to the Kurus to try and prevent the war from occurring even though he knew that it would still occur.  The wickedness of Duryodhana was displayed when Krishna went to visit Kurus and Duryodhana had pavilions set up to sway Krishna to join his side but Krishna had already made an agreement between both parties.  It did not work but the fact that Duryodhana tried to get Krishna to betray the Pandavas was an unsettling fact.

The Pandavas and Draupadi (Source: wikimedia)

Storytelling Week 12: King Shantanu and the Maiden

After King Mahabhisha had ascended to heaven there was a festival hosted there by the gods and King Mahabhisha was among the guests that attended the festival.  Now during the festival a great wind blew by and lifted the sari of the goddess Ganga.  All of the gods present turned their heads so that Ganga might not be embarrassed but King Mahabhisha did not turn his head.  When the gods and goddesses saw this, they were filled with anger.  Brahma then cursed him saying, “In time you will leave earth and be reborn as a human.  In addition, Ganga will also be born as a human where she shall inflict harm on you.  When she has done so my curse will lift.”

After a period of time passed, King Mahabhisha was reborn on earth as the son of King Pratipa.  His name was Shantanu.  Prior to Shantanu being born Ganga had appeared to King Pratipa and had him promise to marry his son to her and Ganga also left a warning for Shantanu.

When Shantanu had become a man, King Pratipa told him about the warning saying, “A celestial maiden will be your wife, but do not judge the propriety of what she does or who she is and she will be your wife forever.”

Later after King Pratipa had crowned Shantanu king, he was walking along the banks of the river Ganga when he saw a breathtaking maiden and fell in love with her.  He then asked her to marry him.  She agreed but with some stipulations.  He had to promise that he would not interfere with her actions nor could he ever address her unkindly.  The maiden said to him, “As long as you behave kindly, I promise to live with you but as soon as you treat me unkindly or interfere with me I will leave you.  King Shantanu agreed to the conditions and they were married. 

King Shantanu lived happily with the maiden and soon a child was born.  The maiden then took the child and threw it into the river killing it.  Then when the maiden had gotten pregnant again gave birth to the second child she threw it again into the river killing it.  The maiden continued to kill the babies up through the seventh child.  When the eighth child was about to throw it into the river King Shantanu stopped her and said to her, “Do not kill your own child, your sin is heavy, why do you keep killing your sons?”

Ganga leaving King Shantanu (Source: wikimedia)

King Shantanu who had forgotten his promise with his father and the maiden was then addressed by the maiden, “I will not kill this child, but I will now leave you because you have broken our agreement.  I am Ganga and I am here because of a curse placed upon you in your previous incarnation.  The children I was killing were the Vasus who were cursed to be born upon the earth and I was killing them so that they could return to heaven but the eighth Vasu was to remain on earth for a long time as part of the curse.  I will keep this child and raise him and will return him to you in his youth.”  Therefore, Ganga and their son descended into the river Ganga. 

Author’s Note:

This story follows the basic outline of the original story of King Shantanu and Ganga from The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant. I retold it in my own words and tried to change it so that the language in the story was modern. I tried to place importance on the conversations and tried to give background information in the story on why the event occurred

Bibliography:
The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant(1899)