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)