Week 14, Reading Diary C, Sita's Ramayana

Author: Samhita Arni

Artist: Moyna Chitrakar

Title: Sita's Ramayana

Year: 2011

Sita's Ramayana

pages 72-110

It appears that everyone tells Ravana to stop being foolish, and give Sita back because it means ruin to the whole of Lanka if he won't stop. He is like a pitbull and is relentless and refuses to budge from his mission. His son is killed without honor. I think it is important that the story points this out and also adds how war itself is without honor.

The magician that tries to deceive Hanuman also is lacking in honor. He tried to poison the cute monkey man and then tried to get him killed by the crocodile. Hanuman frees the crocodile who was trapped in the body by magic and tells Hanuman of the deceit. The good guy wins, the bad guy never does for long.

Hanuman goes to retrieve the herb needed to cure Lakshmana and can't find it, so he brings the whole hill. I am sorta wondering right now if this is how it normally looks in other depictions too. This looks to me like the pinecone thing that the Persian kings have.

Week 12, Reading Diary C, Devi, Vishnu 1

Birth of Lalita Devi for slaying of Demon Bandasura
image found on Google images

Title: Hindu Calendar Art

Author: Devdutt Pattanaik

Year: 2009

Devi, Vishnu 1

The Goddess and Shiva are to be married, but a trickster makes a cock crow and Shiva believes he has missed the ceremony and never shows up. The Goddess is powerful and is angered. The food for the wedding went to waste and so she kicked the pots and pans and wiped her face of makeup and it caused the sands to be multi colored.

The point is that the power of the female is best channeled as married to create a home, and if unmarried the energy is channeled as protection.

The Goddess is the world we live in, what we see with our senses.

I LOVE THIS, SO MUCH ! 

I THINK SOMETIMES THAT ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS I AM DRAWN TO HINDUISMS IS BECAUSE IT SEES THE NEED FOR THE THE BALANCE FOR THE FEMALE AND MALE DEITIES. THE GODDESS IS EXPRESSED IN SO MANY WONDERFUL PRIMAL FORCES. I LOVE HER SO MUCH! 

THE GODDESS HAS SO MUCH SASS!

The earth is our mother, she protects us and feeds us. To force change and domestication upon the earth is not nice to her. But we do it because we DESIRE a better life for ourselves. So this creates a conflict. Desire can satisfy need or greed. Humans exploit nature to satisfy the need to care for ourselves.

SO THE PART THAT STRIKES ME AS INTERESTING HERE IS THE STORY WITH HANUMAN AND SITA. HANUMAN HELPED THE GODDESS WITH TRUE PIETY IN HIS HEART AND WAS ABSTINENT HIS WHOLE LIFE, SO HE BECAME WORTHY OF WORSHIP. THIS SCREAMS TO ME OF THE IDEAL CONCEPT OF CHIVALRY IN THE  MIDDLE AGES. TO BE A KNIGHT AND TO LOVE OUTSIDE OF YOUR STATION, HAS TO REMAIN CHASTE ETC. 

Week 6, Reading Diary C,Public Domain Edition: Mahabharata,Arjuna and Indra

Arjuna and Indra

Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

  I found that I was not very drawn to any one particular story in this part of the readings. This story I liked more than the others though. I copied and pasted the part that caught my attention. I like that it is describing a place I would like to go and take a vacation. Tropical resort? Spring Break fever is on my mind!
Indra is the father of Arjuna and they are on Indra's turf where Arjuna is enjoying the lounge lizard life by night. Brilliant. Oh and studies like a Jedi during the day, of course. His divine family gave him a pile of celestial weapons to wield,  so he must learn to use the force!

Thereafter Indra transported his son to his own bright city, the celestial Swarga, where the flowers always bloom and sweet music is ever wafted on fragrant winds. There he beheld sea-born apsaras, the heavenly brides of gods and heroes, and music-loving gandharvas, who sang songs and danced merrily in their joy. And Urvashi, a fair apsara of faultless form, with bright eyes and silken hair, looked with love upon Arjuna, but she sought in vain to subdue him, whereat she spoke scornfully, saying, "Kama, god of love, hath wounded me with his arrows, yet thou dost scorn me. For this, O Arjuna, thou wilt for a season live unregarded among women as a dancer and musician."

Arjuna was troubled, but Indra said, "This curse will work out for thy good."

Arjuna abode in Indra's fair city for the space of five years. He achieved great skill in music and in dance and song. And he was trained also to wield the celestial weapons which the gods had given unto him.

www.besthomedesign.gq

Week 3, Reading Diary C, The Rainy Season

Image of Rama and Sita found www.hindustantimes.com

The Rainy Season

Public Domain Edition: Ramayana

Author's Note; I chose to focus on this chapter because of the part of Rama's Laments. I am hoping to write stories that highlight the relationship of Rama and Sita that will make for comedy in couples therapy. I know how the story ends for these two, so for Rama to feel this deeply for Sita is beautiful. I wish I could write poetry as beautifully done as is here in the lament, but I don't think I can pull it off. I think I will try to stick to using a satirical tone, and remember to use some dialogue while sticking to the story of what Rama is sharing about missing Sita so much.

This part kills me:

One thought consoles my worst distress;

Through this I live: I cannot die

While she lies down in loveliness

Upon the self-same earth as I.

Swoon.

Bibliography; The prose portion comes from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913), and the verse portion comes from Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899).