Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part B

Another great story of the Jataka Tales that I got to read this week was about The King’s White Elephant. This one showed, in my opinion, that good can come from working hard. I liked to read this one because it was useful for me to ponder over as I read it. When you work hard good things happen, and that is what happened in this Jataka. It starts with a great elephant who had a splinter in his fought hobbling over to some carpenters. The carpenters saw that he was hurt and aided the elephant by pulling out the splinter. Thankful for their help he decided to help the carpenters with pulling down trees and moving them around. He was happy to help since they helped him. The carpenters fed him well and treated him very well. When this elephant had a baby elephant that was all white, he told the young elephant to go help the carpenters because they helped him first. So the young white elephant helped the carpenters in the same way that his parent did. At the end of the day this white elephant would go into the river and play with the carpenters kids. That is when the king saw this elephant and loved its beauty. So he paid the carpenters for the elephant and it went home to the palace where it was kept very well. So really this story ends up being kinda sad in the fact that he leaves his play mates and his family. And it might actually be a story of the better of looks that you have the better chance good things would happen to you… I want to think otherwise so I have decided to think that it means the harder you work good things will happen to you. 

The Elephant used to pull up trees for the carpenters.

Link to Photo

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

Link to Story

Reading Notes: The Jatakas tales of India part A

One of my favorite pieces of literature that I have read this year has been the Jatakas. I am particularly interested in them because I am writing my story book over them, but they are also really interesting to read. Like in most Indian epic writings, the animals and humans have verbal communication to each other. I think this is particularly interesting and I wish I could do this… But they have tons of wisdom in each story. And each is equated to the spirituality of the Buddhist who have wrote and studies these. One of the interesting ones that I read this week was the story of The Ox Who Won the Forfeit. I was intrigued by this title because I did not know what it meant to win a forfeit. So I dove into this short story to get a good understanding of what it was. In this story a man who owns an ox claims that he has the strongest ox in the world. He boasted so much about this ox that he made a wager with some town folk for 1000 coins. He said his ox could pull 100 wagons. He yoked his ox and he yelled at him to pull and shouted bad names to his ox. His ox would not move so he lost his forfeit of 1000 coins. Later he went home and spoke to the ox who said that the bad names and whipping were cruel and so he did not move, but if he were to treat him better he would win his master his forfeit back. So they went back to the city and his master treated him so well. The ox pulled and won the forfeit. These tales are super interesting to me and I have loved to get to read each of them. I am looking forward to trying read and understand more. 

"Get along, you Rascal"

Link to Photo

The Jataka Tales of India

Ellen C. Babbitt

Link to Story

Reading Notes: The Jatakas part B

As I continued to read the Jatakas tales, I was happy to understand more and read more and more bout them. They are some of the most interesting tales and they have great fun and wisdom inside each of them. One of my favorite stories that I got to read in part of the stories was the Patient Buffalo. This story was so good to me because one, I love buffalos. Also because it shows the patients and the resolve of the Buddhist people. I believe that this story is filled with wisdom of how to treat yourself and how to treat others. Knowing that Buddhist are people of no desire, and that desire itself is a bad thing. Seeing how the buffalo did not desire anything for himself but only to not cause this monkey harm was his priority. And with his patients to this monkey he was able to find peace through the magic fairy. Another tell that I really enjoyed was the Sarabha. I enjoyed this story so much because it was a lot like one of the stories that I used in my storybook project, the Banyan Deer. I liked the was that the deer talked to the king, having been able to communicate with humans just like in the other stories. I liked this story because the Deer spoke with the king and was able to connive the king to not hunt in the forest again. This is just like the story that I used in my storybook project (though i retold it so much better,,,). This was truly a great story to get to read and i really enjoyed getting to read something similar to what I already knew. I have loved getting to read the Jatakas because of the wisdom and the fun stories that are in them. They are filled with greatness in each story and I always look forward to reading more of them. I will probably be reading more of these stories as we finish out the rest of the semester. 

Buffalo & Monkey

Link to Photo

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales

Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link to Story

Reading Notes: Jatakas part A

This week I chose to read the Jatakas tales. Seeing as I am writing my storybook project over some of the Jatakas tales, I decided that I would read more of them to gain a better understanding o the tales. I have really enjoyed guttering to read the stories that I have read this week and am looking forward to reading more later on. I believe that each tale has so much to offer on the wisdom of the buddhas and gives great wisdom for people. This week I got to read about the stories of the Monkey Bridge, which was a very good story in my opinion. I really enjoyed reading about how monkeys would not pay attention to their leader then realized they needed to. I liked how the monkey chief was the selfless one who aided and sacrificed himself for the good of the community and of his followers. This was a really good story. It made me think of my own religion, in how the people did not listen to God, and how Jesus came to sacrifice himself for everyone else. This story stood out to me the most because of this. I really enjoyed getting to read this story. One other story that I read was the story of the Guilty Dogs. I enjoyed reading this story for a couple different reasons. One of which is because I love the fact that the animals and the humans can talk to each other. This is the same in just about every Jatakas that I have read. All animals can have conversation with the humans. And most times the conversations take place between the chief of animals and the chief of man. This is interesting because it is not just conversation between a child and his puppy, but a chief dog and a king. This Jatakas also tells of the wisdom of the Buddhist, because you see just how the chief dog is able to tell that the palace dogs are the guilty party and not the city dogs. I think it is telling and important to know the wisdom of the Buddhist, because all of their stories illustrate just how wise these are. 

The Monkey Bridge

Link to Photo

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)
Illustrator: H. Willebeek Le Mair
Year: 1939

Link to Story

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part B

In the second part of the story Krishna does many more miracles and mighty acts to display his strengths. It starts with Indra going to see Krishna and seeing that he really loved his friends and shared food with him. Knowing Krishna was a god he thought that it was crazy that he would share his food with them. So he wanted to see if Krishna really loved his friends, so he stole them and all the cows that he was tending to. When Krishna could to find them, he created them with his mind and Indra only saw all of the Krishnas. He was very impressed. Later Indra set a storm against Krishna’s village, this made it pour rain and lighting for many days and was flooding the ground. Krishna took the mountain that they were next to and raised it up with just his pinky. Everybody was so impressed and marveled at his strength. When the villagers thought that he had been holding it too long they tried to take over and none could hold it so Krishna took it back. More and more people were amazed at his powers and continued to believe that he was more and more of a god. As he grew up he was told that his parents were not his parents and that his real parents were being held by his uncle, the king, in prison. He found his uncle and his uncle realized that he was the eight son of his sister, the one who was supposedly going to kill him. So they fought and Krishna killed his uncle with the help of his brother. This then set his family free. It is important to understand the story of Krishna because we begin to see who the Hindu’s believe in. They also know one of the most important gods of the Hindu faith. I really love this story. I love the movie that was made about it to. 

Krishna Holding the Mountain

Link to Photo

Krhisna Comes

Link to Video

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Comes part A

This week I decided to watch the epiffied version of Little Krishna. In this video, they tell the story of Krishna, how he was born to all the epic acts he did. It starts with his parents being imprisoned by his uncle who was told that he would die by the the eighth son of his parents. When he was born his father escaped his prison and went to a village where he exchanged his son with a daughter from the villager. When he returned the king was happy because he saw they had a daughter and not a son. The villager woke up the next morning and thought she had a daughter but woke up to a son. She was confused, but happy that she had a child. It didn't take long for her to realize that Krishna was special and not just an ordinary baby. She found Krishna eating dirt and when he opened his mouth, Krishna’s mom saw the universe in his mouth. Krishna became known as the trouble maker of the village, he would go around and steal from the villagers. I find it strange that in Hindu religion, people watch the gods and know that they came to show what not to do, instead of what to do. I am a Christian, so this was different to me. But anyways, the story is good. Krishna and his friends became known as the butter thieves for all the butter that they stole from the villagers. One day Krishna and his friends decided to go to the lake, it was a dangerous lake that had a deadly snake that poisoned the water along with the air. So while Krishna was playing his famous flute, all his friends became poisoned by the air. Krishna being upset about this summoned the snake and played his flute. While he played the snake was wrangled and his poison left. So his friends woke up and they all went home safely. This was the beginning of the story of little Krishna and his growing up. As He grew up he did a lot more awesome things and rescued many people in his village. I am excited to get to watch these stories because I really love the story of little Krishna. I think that his younger days were the best days and his adventures then were a lot of fun. I am looking forward to reading more. 

Little Krishna

Link to Photo

Krhisna Comes

Link to Video

Reading Notes: The Bhagavad Gita part B

In this section of the Bhagavad Gita I learned that the that the character, Arjuna, was speaking to Krishna really with what seemed to be a loss of hope on his end. He did not want to fight his family but he was weighed down by the conviction of duty, dharma as they call it. So throughout this section of the story Krishna is really persuading Arujna to fight because of his dharma. This is important because Arjuna was really convicted against this but knew that Krishna was the god who was going to tell him what to do even through an undesired to do as Krisna commanded. Throughout this section we learn different stories that Krishna tell that relate to the faith that one must have. In each of these chapters of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells what it means, through story and theology what it means to have faith. So he described different types of faith so that Arjuna could really understand him. These theologies of the different types of faith help build the Hindu religion and what it looks like to follow on these different paths that one must take. These stories of theology also help build the backbone of the society that begins with the different types of classes that we still see today. It is important to understand as we read this book that it is not just an epic but it builds the religion and the society of India itself. I really enjoyed this book as I read because I got to lo ok at the conversation that was going on between Arjuna and Krishna during the Mahabharata. It is also great because we get to see how distraught Arjuna was over fightin his family. He was so upset about it that at one point he tells Krishna to become his charioteer again so he doesn't have to listen to a god telling him what he should do. I am excited that I will be reading the rest of this book because I want to dive deeper into an understanding of just how hard it is for Arjuna to fight and also learn about all the types of stories that were used to create an entire religion and society.

The Bhagavad Gita

Link to Photo

The Bhagavad Gita
Link to Text

Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part D

Peter Brook's Mahabharata continues to interest me as I finished it off today. I just really enjoyed the entire thing as it related back to the original story. I loved the acting, though not the best, it was fun to watch how excited the characters were to be in the roles that they were playing. I loved the final battle of the movie, where Arjuna's son went into the ring to fight. It was sad to see him die though since he was just a young man. The battle was great though, interesting to watch, and great to see the reactions of the characters as they watched and battled together. I thought that the scene of Bhima going into the battle to kill Duryodhana. The battle with the maces was kinda funny and great even though it seemed so dramatic for everything, but I kinda feel like every battle that was fought was super dramatic and wasn't as realistic as I would expect a battle to be. But that is okay with me, the fight was great and the ending of the movie turned great. It was weird to see Krishna dying in the end just because I would not expect a god to die. So seeing this part of the movie made it interesting to me because I was seeing the mortality of all the people and gods in the Hindu religion. The movie was great, it was a good epic to watch and being able to rehear what it looked like as compared to the book version of the story was great. I did like the book version more, but the story all around was great and I was happy that I decided to watch this film. I will be trying to get my wife to watch it sometime soon. 

Bhima and Duryodhana

Link to Photo

Peter Brook's Mahabharata
Link to Film

Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part C

As I keep watching this movie, the more ridiculous it becomes to me. It seems to me that it plays everything out very strangely. And I know that the actual story is quite strange when reading, very different than a modern story at least. But this movie just seems to be quite different. I am enjoying watching the film for the fact that I am relearning more what happened in the story and I can compare the words to film, which have been great to get to do because I get a better understanding of the film. I have enjoyed getting to watch the parts with Bhima. His character has been the best in this film because he seems to be the most unstable of all the brothers and all the characters in general. I  enjoyed watching his battle scene with the ruckshasas that he fought in exile. This part of the movie was awesome. The battle noises that he made and also the style of fighting that was taken up was just great. It seemed to me that it went well with the story as he fought and then married his second wife the ruckshasas. Then having a baby with

her, who in the film was a full grown man, and then never getting to spend time with him made it so interesting. The part of the story where he met his son for the first time was all around just an interesting and strange part. I was excited to continue watching because I wanted to see where else Bhima would make appearances. His actions when he killed the man who wanted to sleep with Draupadi was very interesting. I couldn't exactly tell what was going on but there seemed to be something funny happening before he killed him. 

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Link To Photo

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Link to Film

Reading Notes: Peter Brook's Mahabharata part B

The second part of the film was very interesting to me, seeing the sons of Pandu as all different race of men was funny. I thought that the adaptation of this was to make white people feel more comfortable with it, but just knowing that they would have been Indian and not white made me a little upset to see. This was just one of those things that I did not care for but I tried to not let it affect the way that I watched the movie. I know that the movie had a lot of good material in it, and I was excited to see an adaptation to the film. One of the pieces that stood out to me the most was the way that Drapudi prayed to Krishna and how Krishna granted her prayers. Though I do not remember the part where Drapudi was forced to have her clothes taken off of her in the actual epic, it definitely made for a way to understand the power that Krisna had in the epic itself. Krisna was obviously a large figure in the story and I am glad that he was made as a large figure in the film as well. Watching the part of the gambling match was really interesting as well. I liked the way that they gambled each person away one at a time, it made it more of exciting, hoping that at least one of the characters would not get won by the bad guys in the film. Knowing what was going to happen in the future though made me sad because I just knew after every roll that they would all get bet away into exile. I am excited to continue to watch the film and see what happens to the brothers through the films version of the story.

The Fatal Dice Game

Link to Photo

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Link to Film

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Film

So I decided that I would watch the film the Mahabharata by Peter Brook. The first part of the film that I watched was very interesting. I enjoyed it, but it was different to me, maybe thats because I don't have a great taste for older movies, or something of that sort, but it was truly interesting. I thought that parts of the film were rather mellow dramatic in the end, maybe a lot less dramatic then the actual story would say. I feel like everything in the storybook that we read was very dramatic. This film seemed to me just to make the story almost get to the dramatic level, but then it just dies. One scene that sticks out to me as being this form of melodramatic was the scene of Pandu's death. There was that of a build up between him and his wife and then all the sudden he just rolls over dead. It wasn't that I wanted to watch them make love or anything, but the whole scene just build and died so quickly that it made it kinda strange in my view, especially when I look at the story and see the drama that is added into it. Over all the story was good and I felt like it followed the epic really well to the best of my knowledge, I enjoyed seeing it played out by humans in "real life". It made the story more real to me and helped me to understand how in human ways of life these events could have played out. I really did enjoy this film as interesting as it was. I am excited to continue to watch the film and see how this adaptation finishes. I am hoping to see it follow the rest of the epic as closely as possible.

Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Link to Photo

Peter Brook's Mahabharata
Link to Film

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata

This week for my reading I decided to watch the videos on youtube. I thought that they were very interesting to me because I felt like they had much more to them than the reading that I did the past few weeks. And maybe I just missed something from the last week, but I felt like there was more to Bhisma in this story than there was in the readings that I did the other weeks. I enjoyed the story because of the way they illustrated it as they went and how I could really get into it and understand what was happening because of the drawings. It definitely kept my attention as I watched because I could see how it was being read and not just listening to it. It also felt more like a telling and not just a reading of the story. In the long run of the story it felt for the most part the same as the reading that I did the last few weeks. I like how it was told by people who follow and understand hinduism really well because I thought that they could make much more of a understandable story. So this was a very good reading in my opinion. I didn't realize that Bhisma had kidnapped the princess to give to his sons. That part was very interesting to me because I do not believe that I caught that in the other reading and I feel like it is kind of a big part to the story, kidnapping usually is pretty big. I story of the archery competition was one of my favorite parts, I liked listening to how they battled it out based on the way they shot their bows. That was a great story overall and I was glad to read it. 

The Mahabharata

Link to Photo

Epified: Mahabharata Story

Link to Videos

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata part D

The battle is raging on now, and it seems, by the telling of the story, that it is a very brutally and bloody battle. Arjuna gets worried about the war because he is loosing many men, but Krishna reinforces him and tells him that Bhisma, the other armies big hitter, is going to die. So Arjuna takes this news and fights hard and ends up killing Bhisma himself. Though Arjuna was very unhappy because Bhisma was like a father to him, so he wept over his death. Abhimanya, Arjuna’s son, was fighting in the battle and found himself surrounded by many foes and nobody could make their way to him to help him out, he soon fell in battle and Arjuna, learning of his death, became furious and full of vengeance. Arjuna swore to kill all his enemies by the time the sun went down, and Krishna made the sun stay up a little longer so that Arjuna could do just that. Arjuna finds his way to Karna, and they have it out, and with Arjuna’s celestial bow he shot off the head of Karna and victory was theirs. Many were left dead including many of the sons of Draupadi. They had their ceremonial fires to honor the dead and then they had a horse sacrifice to honor the gods for their victory. But time came for the Panduva’s to depart from the world and go to heaven. As they were traveling to heaven along the way they began one by one to fall short of heaven and die. In the end Udistera is the only one to make it to the mountain where heaven is. He says to the gods that he will not go in without his brothers and wife. The gods show him to his brothers and wife who are in some form of hell. But it was just a test, and the brothers and Draupadi were actually in heaven with him.

Arjuna Confronts Karna

Link to Photo

The Mahabharata

Link to Story

Sources used: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie,Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata part C

After the brothers wagered themselves into exile they left and took Draupadi with them. The bad guy tried to win her but slaves couldn’t wager anybody, so she got to go with them into exile. They met some people out in the forests including some gods and sages, who told them that they would win back their kingdom from the Kauravas. Arjuna went away by himself to the mountain to fast and pray where he met a god who blessed him and gave him a celestial bow. The rest of the brothers met the god Indra in the forests and praised him, and then they met a sage and finally running into Arjuna as well. They all met Hanuman, who told them about his adventures with Rama. They just kept meeting all the gods, cause Krishna was there too. Draupadi, just like Sita, was kidnapped, but this time it was Jayadratha who took her, and Draupadi seems meaner than Sita, cause she wanted Jayadratha to die for touching her. The brothers found their wife, yea they all share a wife, and made Jayadratha their slave, he wasn’t the best slave. The family made their way to the kingdom of Virata where they all took up places in which they could serve and lead. Everybody in this kingdom, including the king, loved the Panduva’s so they were given the best places in which to work and serve. The brothers, along with the gods tried to make peace with the Kauravas, but they would not listen to reason, so the act of war slowly began to take place. When they made it to the battlefield, Arjuna felt compelled not to fight and this is where the famous story that Bhagavad Gita takes place. Krishna gives Arjuna reason, and all consent to battle, so they fight.

The Bhagavad Gita

Link to Photo

The Mahabharata

Link to Story

Sources used: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie,Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Reading Notes: The Mahabharta part B

This part of the story got more interesting to me, as I have read part of this section previously. This section caught my attention and got me hooked to listen to it more. It started with the Panduvas making it to the palace where they were to stay for their banishment. Not much of a banishment if they are staying in a palace, but thats alright. One of the brothers sees that the building is covered in oil and lets everybody know that about the plan to kill them all that he found out. So, they begin to dig a tunnel, the tunnel was supposed to go from the palace to the forrest. A few days later after the tunnel had been finished, the captain set fire to the palace, but the Panduvas went into their tunnel and escaped. The captain found the bodies of some beggars in the building and thought his mission was finished. He went crazy then and began to set a fire on the guard house. That fire got so big that it killed all the guards and he got caught in it to and it killed him too. Draupadi goes to a city where the whole place is under siege by Bukah, a man eating monster. He eats flesh for a tax to guard the story. Each family has to take turns on sacrificing a person to Bukah. Draupadi was at someone’s house whose turn it was, and she wished that her son was there to help them. When she thought that he came and killed Bukah. Panduvas began to gamble with Kama and lost everything that they owned to him. Including themselves, then they were banished to the forest for 12 years. Because they were good people the followed the rules of what they said they would do and went into banishment. 

Link to Story

Sources used: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Kunti and Pandavas Escape

Link to Photo