Reading Notes - Ramayana, Part B

 Ramayana, Part B

                                                              Dasharatha and Rama
                                                            circa 1700
                                              (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Reading Notes

Page 6: Tales 51-60

• Kings wants Rama to succeed him
• Worried Rama would renounce the world
• Kaikeyi turned Dashratha against Rama
• Rama is exiled
• Bharata will become king
• Rama did not protest exile
• Lakshmana went with him
• Goddess of sleep appeared
• Dasharatha feels grief for Rama
• Can't leave his bed
• King died
• Bharata and Shatrughna didn't know what happened
• They learn about Rama's exile
• Bhrata and Shatrughna go to find Rama
• Bhrata wants Rama to return
• Returns with Rama's golden sandals

Page 7: Tales 61-70

• Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana visit Sharabhanga
• Sharabhanga told them where to go on their journey 
• He rose to heaven
• Sita is carried away
• Slashed off Viradha's arms with swords
• Mandakarni was besotted
• Rama visits Agastya
• Agastya gives Rama weapons
• Kakshmana tries to strike boar but missed
• Indra appeared
• Sita mets Anasuya, wife of Atri
• Sita receives gifts

Page 8: Tales 71-80

• Lakshmana tempted by a beautiful apsara sent by Indra
• Eagel: Jatayu
• Tells of their father's death
• Shurpankha wants to marry Rama but he refused
• Lakshmana sliced off her ears and nose
• Khara and Dushana attack
• Ravana is informed of what happened
• Maricha is needed to kidnap Sita
• Turns into golden deer
• Sita tells Rama to capture it
• Sita is left alone
• Jatayu fights Ravana
• Sita drops jewelry to leave a trail

Page 9: Tales 81-90

• Ravana tricked Jatayu
• Ravana brought Sita to Lanka
• Deer used Rama's voice
• Jatayu died
• Gooses got a long neck from Rama grabbing it
• Looking for Sita
• Lake Pampa: Shabari dwells here
• Kabandha: monster, head was in stomach
• Sugriva fled to Rishyamuka Hill

Page 10: Tales 91-100

• Anjana: Hanuman's mother
• Wanted a mango, bit into the sun
• Fell and broke his jaw: Hanuman (Big-Jaw)
• Brahma came to heal Hanuman
• Indra gave him thunderbolts as protection
• Hanuman grows up to be a monkey
• Hanuman asks Surya to be his guru
• Vali: King of Kishkindha
• Vail smashed Dundhubi into ground
• Matanga curses Vali
• Mayavi wanted to avange his father
• Vali fought with Mayavi
• Vali tried to kill Sugriva Sugriva fled to Rishyamukha Hill
• Hanuman joined Sugriva in exile

Bibliography 

TinyTales from the Ramayana, Laura Gibbs. https://sites.google.com/view/tinyramayana/home

Reading Notes: Ramayana, Part A

 Reading Notes - Part A - Tiny Tales

                                                                         Lord Rama
                                                                       (Web Source)

Page 1 1-10

-Dashagriva is Ravanas real name -Dashagriva’s parents we Vishrava and Kaikasi -Dashagriva was born with ten heads and ten pairs of arms -Dashagriva had 3 siblings -Dashagriva became immortal after Brahma granted him immortality  -Dashagriva's brothers Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna also prayed for boons. -Vibhishana was granted his wish but Kumbhakarna was not because he was a giant and feared. -Dashagriva got the name Ravana from Shiva after screaming under the mountain -After this Ravana became a devoted servant for Shiva -Shiva granted Ravana a beautiful woman named Mandodari -Ravana and Mandodari had a son named Meghanada -Ravana’s father then had another son named Vaishravana and he became the guardian of the world. -Ravana claimed the city of Lanka back

Page 2 11-20

-Ravana went and defeated Yama, the God of Death. 

-After this, the Gods disguised themselves as animals to hide from Ravana

-Ravana moved onto the Himalayas to defeat Kubera and then he returned triumphantly

-Ravana got into trouble in the woods and was cursed and promised to be destroyed

-Ravana then went to fight the monkey king (Vali) but ended up becoming his ally.

Page 3 21-30

-Vibhandaka finally got a son (Rishyashringa) that was to be kept hidden

-Rishyashringa defied his orders and left isolation to find a woman and have a son

-King Dasharatha got a son after Rishyashringa conducted his ritual

-Rama was born

-Rama revealed his true cosmic form

-Dasharatha was saved in battle and promised Kaikayi two boons

-Dasharatha was cursed for killing a son in the woods

-Tataka defiled sacrifices and it was up to Rama to kill her now

Page 4 31-40

-Rama was given many weapons to prepare

-Rama then kills Tataka from an arrow to the heart

-Rama then went on to face Tataka’s sons

-Their journey still continued and the sons still were in trouble

-Sita has many origin stories, all very different, so whichever one you believe can change how you view other people.

Page 5 41-50

 -King Janarkamade sure Sita knew how to cook

-Sita lifted the impossible bow and that was her new marriage test, whoever else could lift it.

 -Ravana came to try and lift the bow but was unsuccessful and stormed out of Janarkas court

-Rama fell in love with Sita and was able to finally lift the bow but ended up breaking up

- Ramas three brothers married Sita's three sisters since he was able to lift this bow

- Sita and Rama then lived together

 Bibliography

TinyTales from the Ramayana, Laura Gibbs. https://sites.google.com/view/tinyramayana/home

Topic Brainstorm

Topics

Topic 1 - The first topic I am interested in writing about is a creation story. I don't really have any previous experience with Hinduism and its' creation stories but I feel as if I could write about it. I know Hinduism has a lot of Gods/Goddesses so it will be interesting to see which ones play a role in the creation story and how they depict it in their religion. Since there is no single story of creation in Hinduism, I will probably look at some of the most unique ones in Hinduism and retell them. 

URL: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2017/08/project-idea-creation-stories.html

Topic 2 - The second topic I am interested in writing about is an epic battle. I know that there are many epic battle stories across Indian culture and the epics that are written. I don't know a lot about the battle scenes but I think they would be easier to follow since they are more action-oriented and I am naturally more drawn to action scenes/stories. An interesting thing to do would change the outcome of the story and or make the battle change to the course of history. 

URL: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2017/08/project-idea-epic-battles.html

Topic 3 - The third topic that would be interesting would be a reincarnation story. Reincarnation has always fascinated me just because anyone could turn out to be anything based on what you do in this life. It's all about having good karma and focusing on what will happen in the next life so it seems like you don't really get to enjoy your current one. A good story would be about someone getting reincarnated and trying to get back into a good life after realizing what they had done wrong. 

URL: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2017/08/project-idea-reincarnation.html

Topic 4 - The fourth topic I could write about is animals, natural and supernatural. I think you could write a story bringing a lot of different animals together. Maybe a battle of good versus evil or an animal helping someone along their journey. There are a lot of different animals that do different things in Indian epics so finding a story to write about wouldn't be too difficult. 

URL: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2017/08/project-idea-animals-natural-and.html

                                  Nagas a serpent - One of the many animals in Indian epics

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback Thoughts

                                                                        Perfectionist (Wrike)

Article - 1: The first article I'm going to focus on is about how to crush self-doubt. I like this article because I think it can relate to everyone. Everyone has self-doubt throughout their life and this article gives you things to think about every day if you have self-doubt. 

Article - 2: This second article is about silencing the critical voice in your head. Obviously, everyone has that voice in their head and it can be good and bad. This article does a good job of telling you how to change the negative energy around. Changing that negative mindset is critical to living a better/healthier life. 

Week 2 Story - Crazy Kids

 Crazy Kids

Note: Here I remade the story I focused on yesterday (The Foolish Timid Rabbit). This story was easy to recreate because using real-world experiences of someone being foolish. People say the world is going to ending all the time so maybe the story isn't so far out there. 

Story

Luke was tossing and turning and woke up in fear. He was scared that he was not living up to his full potential. The crazy thought crossed his mind that the world could end at any given second.

There was a storm that night. During the storm, a branch fell and hit his window.

Luke panicked.

"It's happening!", he screamed. His worst nightmare was coming true, so he thought.

He turned on all the lights and began running through his house. He woke up Carson in the room next to his.

"What are you doing up at three in the morning?", asked Carson.

"The world is finally coming to an end, we need to get out of here and fast," said Luke.

Carson woke up Mitchell to share the news. The three boys ran downstairs, slammed the door opened, and got into Luke's car as fast as they could.

The door woke up their last roommate, Ty. He was confused and did not know where his roommates went and why they all left the house running at three in the morning.

He saw the door was wide open and that Luke's car was gone. He texted and called all of them until they answered.

"What are you doing!", Ty yelled while on the phone with Mitchell.

"I don't know, Carson woke up me."

Mitchell handed the phone to Carson.

Ty asked Carson the same thing. Carson responded and said that Luke said the world was ending.

Finally, the phone was passed to Luke.

"Why in the world would you think that the world is ending Luke?" asked Ty.

Luke explained the noise he heard and told Ty that he needed to come to save himself.

Ty investigated and saw the branch that fell outside his room.

"Luke! It was just a branch! The world is not ending!" Ty yelled.

The boys returned home and went back to bed.

Luke was grateful that the world wasn't ending, but was embarrassed by his ignorance. If Ty had never called, they would all this be on the road. 

Fin.

                                                                       Lukes's Storm

                                                                                            (StormGeo)

Bibliography

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, Ellen C. Babbit. https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/rabbit

Week 2 Reading Anthology

 My Favorite Story

    The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, Ellen C. Babbit. https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/rabbit

The Animals Depicted in The Story

                                                                       (Ellsworth Young)

Reading Notes - One Character Strategy (Rabbit)

• The rabbit is the main character in this story
• Because of him, everyone else starts to run
• All he had to do was turn around and the whole thing could've been avoided
• The rabbit would still be running had the lion not stopped him
• The lion has the respect of every animal
• What if the lion played a joke and told them to keep running to keep the story going
• How did the elephant keep up with the rabbit when they were running?
• Has the rabbit never heard a coconut fall before if he lives around them?

Week 2 Reading Overview

 Choose your Ramayana for Week 3

    So the Ramayana I chose to read was the Tiny Tales. I clicked through a few and they seemed pretty interesting. I chose this one mainly because it was free and there was an audiobook option. Sometimes hearing it can make me understand it better. Also, I like how each section is short and not one big chunk of text. It can be a little overwhelming sitting down and staring at a big chunk of text on a screen. 

Explore the comic books and videos

 Comic Book - 1; This comic book interested me because it is about a powerful giant who has to go into battle and try and defeat an army. It has more action than other comics so it grabbed my attention. 

Comic Book - 2; I chose this comic because it also has more action in it. The story involves a rescue mission for someone in trouble and that seemed pretty interesting.

Video - 1; I chose this video because it relates to life today and can give you another way of viewing life. Going into the four aims of life may help someone find what drives them every day.

Video - 2; I chose this because it's another video that makes you think about life and just our daily existence. It goes deep in this short video and tries to explain the concept of dying. 

Finish the blog post

                                                            Hayagriva and Brahma
                                                                     (Wikimedia: Mahabharata)

    To finish up this blog post, I chose this image. This image really stood out to me just because of what is pictured in it. First off, there is a person with four arms and a horse head that is some sort of god. Being worshipped by someone with four arms as well as faces all around their head. It just reminded me that Indian epics come in all shapes and sizes.