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)

Reading Diary B: Krishna’s story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita.

For this week, I am reading Krishna’s story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita.  One of my favorite stories from the reading is the story of Krishna returning to Mathura.  I found it interesting that if King Kansa was so worried about the prophecy why did he go and invite all the cowherds to a festival so that he could try to kill Krishna by wrestlers.  Also instead of out-right killing Krishna he instead tried to have him sneakily killed by one of the wrestlers.  Which I found odd because King Kansa was already known as an evil man and a tyrant so I do not think that the people of his kingdom would find it odd if he decided to just go and kill him.  Something else that I found interesting is that King Kansa challenged Krishna and Bolarama to wrestling because Krishna and Bolarama were skilled in wrestling.  In addition, the power of Krishna was well known so it might have been more beneficial if Krishna and Bolarama had been challenged in the ways of war that they had been able to learn because they were from the cowherds and not from the Vrishnas.  Finally, after King Kansa had realized that the crowd was supporting Krishna and Bolarama and the wrestlers were fleeing, it was odd that he tried to have all that Krishna held dear slain.  He knew that Krishna was going to defeat him so it was odd he made the situation worse instead of trying to change his ways and beg for mercy.

Krishna killing King Kansa (source: wikimedia)

Reading Diary A: Krishna's Story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita

For this week, I am reading Krishna’s story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita.  One of my favorite stories from the reading was the story of Krishna and the snake Kaliya.  One of the reasons that I liked the story was that this was one of the first times that Krishna openly showed his power to others.  In most of the previous encounters, no one was there to witness his power.  I found it interesting that Krishna even though he was a baby was able to comprehend what was going on around him and even defeat asaras.  Most likely if King Kansa had attacked Krishna in his early childhood he would have been defeated even then because Krishna seemed to have all the power of Vishnu at an early age.  In the story of Krishna and Kaliya it was interesting that even though Krishna possessed the body of a human he did not seem to be affected by the poison of the lake.  Also it was interesting that Krishna’s companions did not believe that Krishna was alive when he threw up his flute because it was his most prized possession.  But then Krishna appeared and stomped on the heads of Kaliya.  It was odd that Krishna who first attacked Kaliya would then spare the life of Kaliya and force him to go to the ocean.  After the battle, it was interesting to see that Yasoda looked and saw Krishna swallow the flames when she was told not to.  It will be interesting to see were that leads.

Krishna lifting a mountain (source: wikimedia)

Storytelling Week 9: The Beggar God

Sati entered into the grand palace of Daksha Raj on top of Mahadeva’s bull.  She hoped that her father would see the error of his ways and treat Siva kindly.  As she entered the palace, her mother, Daksha Rani, ran out to greet her.

“I was worried that you were not coming,” said Daksha Rani.

Sati’s sisters saw the exchange and were jealous because they had not been greeted as such, so they went and told their father, Daksha Raj, that Sati had arrived to attend the yagna. 

“Sati is at the yagna?  She should not have come.  I will see to it that she does not remain.  Bring her to me,” said Daksha Raj.

Therefore, Sati entered into the palace and came into the throne room.  As she walked towards Daksha Raj’s throne, the thousands of guests all beheld her with admiration at her exquisite dress and grace.  When she arrived at the throne of her father, he began to berate her and Siva. 

“Siva is just a beggar god, he does not deserve to attend a yagna like this,” said Daksha Raj.

After angrily insulting Shiva for a while, Daksha Raj finally ceased to talk then Sati said to him, “While Siva is a beggar; he only cares about the love of his children.  Because such have words have exited your mouth and because such insults towards Shiva do not belong in a human, you shall no longer have the head of a human but of an animal.”

Therefore, Daksha Raj’s head turned into a goat.  Then Sati as she held the audience hall spellbound left the chamber.  As she walked to the stable were Mahadeva’s bull was stabled she marveled to herself that someone so powerful and had so many gods supporting him could be so wicked. 

So, Sati left the city and returned to her home with Siva.  When Siva heard from Sati, what he had foresaw what would transpire at the palace he was filled with rage towards Daksha Raj.

So Siva went down the mountains to the city where Daksha Raj lived and finding Daksha Raj he killed him and began killing everyone else in the palace.  When his rage finally began to subside, he restored the residents of the palace back to life and granted boons to each of them but to Dahsha Raj he said, “I will restore your voice and head but in your time of greatest need nothing shall exit your mouth but the voice of a goat.”

The yagna (Source: wikimedia)

Author’s Note:

This follows along the same storyline of Sati from the book Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee.  I wanted to tell a variation on the story were Sati does not actually decide to die.  So I had Sati return to her home and had Siva go on a rampage in the palace of Daksha Raj instead. 

Bibliography:
Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee (1919)

Reading Diary B: Nine Ideal Women by Sunity Devee

I read Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee this week.  The women that I read about today were Sati and Uttara.  One of my favorite stories is from the life of Sati.  It was the story of how she came to be with Siva and how she lived with Siva.  I found that it was interesting that Sita was discouraged from marrying Siva.  Even though Siva was a poor god he was still the god of creation and as such Daksha Raj should have been happy to have his daughter marry Siva but instead it vexed him that Sati chose to marry Siva.  Even Siva’s attire should have impressed Daksha Raj.  Cobras formed Siva’s crown, around his should was a tiger’s skin and he held in his hands the earth, sky and seas.  He also could see the past, present, and future.  After the wedding, Sati and Siva lived humbly but they loved each other so much.  They spent time with each other in a garden where nature sang praises about them.  Another story I liked was also from the story of Sati.  It was when she decided to go to her Daksha Raj’s yagua.  It is odd that even though she loved Siva so much she decided to go against his wishes and go to the yagua even though they had not been invited.  Then after she goes to the party, it is sad to read of how her father, Daksha Raj, treated her.  It was also sad when Sati cursed her father then she died.  Siva’s sorrow after that was understandable and it was odd that he could do nothing for her soul after she had died.

Shiva mourns Sati (Source: wikimedia)