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)

Reading Diary B: The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant Week 12

I am reading The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons fromthe Mahabharata by Annie Besant.  One of my favorite stories from the reading was the story of Ganga and Bhishma.  I found that the history behind the reason Ganga was on earth was interesting.  The fact that Ganga chose to marry Shantanu was interesting because he was the reason that she was reincarnated on earth.  Possibly the reason that she did this is because she seemed to be a kind goddess.  The reason for this believe is because she did not place the curse of Shantanu instead Brahma placed the curse on him.  Also another reason for this believe is that she was killing the children so that the Vasus could return to heaven.  In addition, in her explanation of why she did it she explained that gods did not like to be born on earth because it felt like a prison to them.  Something odd about the story is that the curse of the Vasus from the Rishi also affected Shantanu.  I think this because the eighth child was Vasu Dyau who was cursed to live on earth for a long time and when Shantanu finally breaks his promise with Ganga it is with the eighth child.  When he asks her to stop she tells him she will not kill the child but leaves him instead because he broke the agreement.  So in this story two different curses are affecting one another and it seems like Brahma new it was going to happen like that because of how he spoke the curse.

Ganga and Bhishma leaving Shantanu (Source: wikimedia)

Storytelling Week 11: The Yogi and his Wife

One day as Shiva meditated at Kailas a disciple came to him and told him of some heretical rishis in the Taragam forest.  The disciple told him that they believed that the universe was eternal and that performance of works alone was sufficient for salvation and that the souls had no lord.  Naturally, Shiva was intrigued about the rishis so he went to the Taragam forest to ascertain the truth.  Once there, he discovered ten thousand rishis who did indeed believe as his disciple said.  Wishing to convey the truth upon them, Shiva left the Taragam forest and went to heaven, where Vishnu currently resided.  He then spoke to Vishnu saying, “In the Taragam forest there resides ten thousands heretical rishis and their families, and come let us go and teach them the truth of the world.”

Vishnu then replied to Shiva saying, “I agree let us go and disguise ourselves as a wandering yogi and his wife.  We shall sow disorder in their ranks with our beauty.  They will then attempt to get rid of us but we shall then show our glory to them.”

So Shiva disguised himself as a yogi and Vishnu his wife and they went to the Taragam forest.  When they arrived at the hermitage news of their arrival spread like wildfire.  All the women began to struggle to get a look at Shiva and all the women became madly in love with him. Like with Shiva all of the rishi were madly in love with Vishnu.  When the whole camp had gathered and were declaring their love for Shiva and Vishnu, some of the rishi began to suspect that something was suspicious about the couple that had just arrived in their hermitage.  The rishi then gathered together and it was then decided to curse the couple and when the curse failed the rishi were surprised and began to cast even greater curses on them.  When these had all failed, they prepared a sacrificial fire and summoned a tiger to kill Shiva and Vishnu.  Shiva then simply picked up the tiger, skinned it with pinky finger, and wrapped the skin around himself.  Astonished the rishis summoned a serpent, which was even more powerful than the tiger but again Shiva simply picked the serpent up and wrapped it around his neck. 

Shiva Dancing (Source: wikimedia)

Finally, the rishis summoned the most powerful beast they could summon, which was a goblin with a club.  Shiva then pressed his foot on the back of the goblin, stood on its back, and began to dance.  As he was dancing the heavens opened up and the rishis saw the gods and the splendor of heaven.  The rishi quickly threw themselves at the feet of Shiva and Vishnu and began to worship them. 

Author’s Note:

This tale is similar to the original story of Shiva’s Dance from the book Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita.  The original story is shorter so I decided to expand on it and go into more details.  I added in the dialogue between Vishnu and Shiva and at the beginning of the story I added in the paragraph.  The original story does not say how he found out about them.  So I thought of one of the possible ways that it could have happened.  

Bibliography:

Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita, With illustrations by artists under direction of Abanindro Nath Tagore (1914)

Reading Diary B: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists and Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita

I read Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists and Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita.  One of my favorite stories of Shiva was the story of Shiva fishing.  I found it interesting that Shiva would curse Parvati to become a fisherman’s wife when she was his wife.  Then he thought later about it later, thought that he had been too hard on her, and decided to go down and marry her.  So instead of going down and declaring that she was his wife he sent a shark to harass the fishermen to the point were the head fisherman declared that the person to get rid shark would become the husband of Parvati.  Another story that I liked was the story of Shiva’s Dance.  It was interesting that Shiva asked Vishnu to go down with him to convert the heretical rishis.  In addition, to accomplish this goal of converting the rishi he asked Vishnu to pose as his wife and he was to be a wandering yogi.  They then used themselves to bring in uproar to the hermitage because of the longing of the rishis for Vishnu and the longing of the rishis’ wives for Shiva.  Then the rishi realizing all was not as it seemed tried to curse them but it did not work.  At this point, the rishi should have realized that they were in over their heads but it seemed they did not.  So after the failed curses and two failed summons they summoned a dwarf and Shiva proceeded to dance on it and then the heavens were revealed and the rishi submitted themselves.

Shiva and Parvati (Source: wikimedia)