Reading Notes: Krishna and Shishupala

“For he is destined to die only at the hands of the one born to slay him” this makes it seem like Krishna’s role (or one of his purposes) was to kill Shishupala. This would fit into the Jaya-Vijaya interpretation of these incarnations. Shishupala was a three eyed and four armed baby born to Krishna’s aunt. I think that it’s very interesting how excited Krishna is to see Shishupala and this familial connection will cause problems. Krishna will know that he must kill Shishupala but is forcing him to grow and grants the boon because of this.

Just like the others, Shishupala will get very mad at Vishnu, and stealing Rukmini is a good place to start. Krishna takes Rukmini away from Shishupala at his wedding day. Rukmi and Shishupala go after Krishna and their armies battle. Krishna, however, can’t attack Shishupala there because of the boon. Krishna and Rukmini get away and Shishupala goes back to Jarasandha’s capital. He then offends the Yadavas but Krishna still can’t do anything about it.

Jarasandha dies and they blame it on the Pandavas. When Yudhistira chooses to bless Krishna, Shishupala flips out. It’s important that Krishna pardons Shishupala 100 times so that after 100, he can kill Shishupala. He also knows that it is his destiny to kill Shishupala.

Second half of the story is all about Shalva.

Krishna kills Shishupala

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna and Shishupala by Kamala Chandrakant, Ram Waeerkar, and Anant Pai. 

Week 12 Lab: Ted-Ed Videos

How languages evolve: I actually really like this video and think that it actually meets its title very well. The concept of languages slowly changing over time is very similar to how biological evolution would occur which is what makes this so cool. Evolution doesn’t only occur with living things, but can affect anything. So long as it’s given enough time to change. The language tree is also very similar to how some species are related to each other with a phylogenetic tree. Just as we try to link and differentiate between species, we try to do the same with languages.

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki, and Na’vi real languages?: I had no idea that these languages were actual “real” languages. They are actual functioning languages because of their grammatical construction, instead of the words they contain. The video has a deeper look into what makes a language, a language. Different characteristics were listed but the fictional conlangs hit those points. Tolkien sounds like he covered all his bases so that Elvish could hypothetically be used.


How to use a semicolon: This is a good video for me because my semicolon usage is subpar. I knew that a semicolon could probably be used in a situation but I was never sure so we stuck with less compact punctuation. I always forget the differences between semicolons and colons, but now I like to think of semicolons as just commas on steroids. They do very similar things but are just much better at doing it. Instead of using a comma and conjunction, the ‘roided out semicolon can do it by itself. The embedded video is from "Semicolon" by The Lonely Island. It might be explicit at times, but it really shows the frustrations of semicolon usage.

Reading Notes: Kubera: The Lord of Wealth

Vishrava and Kubera are some sort of brahmin because Trinabindu was a sage and had an ashram. It’s confusing when some stories mention the time that it takes to accomplish some tasks. It took Kubera a thousand years to complete his penances so it affects the flow of the story in my view. Kubera, of course, could withstand the thousand years because, well, Brahma was his great grandfather. I’m not sure if an ordinary person in these times are every depicted as living that long.

The lineage of Ravana is long and confusing as it leads back to Brahma through Sumali. This story does show why Sumali wanted Ravana to dethrone Kubera and take Lanka. It’s because he always wanted Lanka back after Vishnu took it from him. Unfortunately for him, Vishnu is gonna take it from his grandson again. I didn’t know this, but Ravana actually defeats an attacking Kubera and then takes the Pushpak Vimana. However, this story doesn’t talk about Shiva protecting Kubera so they may just be different versions. Then Kubera is still alive at the end when Rama defeats Ravana and gets the Pushpak vimana back.

Kubera, the god of wealth

Pexels

Bibliography:

Kubera: The Lord of Wealth by Nimmy Chacko, Sundara Moorthy and Reena Ittyerah Pai

Reading Notes: Tales of Shiva

I like how you get introduced right in the middle of the Mahabharata’s story with the Pandavas in exile. This is the penance that Arjuna performed for Shiva, but it is interesting that it had such an effect on the forest. The reward from the penances came not from Arjuna’s direct doing, but from the sages begging Shiva to stop the penances. It’s good that Shiva is testing Arjuna because Brahma seems to just hand out celestial power like it’s candy.

Finally we get to see the main characters, who are either demigods or avatars, be manhandled by someone like they do to everyone else. Not that it isn’t fun to see the good guy win, but the bad guys never stood a chance. It’s just nice to see that Arjuna and others can be put down, granted it did take Shiva to do it.

Shiva’s exile of Parvati is similar to Rama’s of Sita. They both push away their wives even though their wives loved them like crazy. What a name that the fisherman picked for Parvati… So nice that they are back together. My only question is, does Parvati know about marrying Shiva from before? Because she is gonna be mad when she finds out.

Shiva’s power as one of the Trimurti can be seen as he saves Markandeya. Yama kneels and begs forgiveness from Shiva while they are both gods. This shows how much higher Shiva is than the other gods, except maybe Brahma and Vishnu.

Shiva and Arjuna fight

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Tales of Shiva by Subba Rao, C.M. Vitankar, and Anant Pai

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

Hey everybody! I created a weather widget on my blog with DarkSky. The tech tip shows you how to use Accuweather, but they are actually changing up their weather widget so the site is down. However, the steps are pretty much the exact same with DarkSky, so follow the tech tip, use your noggin', and you'll have a weather widget in no time.

Wikimedia Commons

Famous Last Words: MCAT = Over (...for now)

Boy this was a long week/weekend. Luckily, the beginning of the week wasn't too bad as I was able to get the reading in here done pretty early. This opened up my studying for my molecular biology test that was supposed to be on Friday but was moved up to Thursday. All because I had that little MCAT on Friday all the way in Tulsa. So basically I tried to finish up all my work in other classes so that I could study for that biology test, so that I could take the big one. On Thursday, unfortunately, I was taking a rest day before the test so I basically did nothing. Included in this nothing was my story post because I thought about doing it really quick but also was in a relaxation head space. Therefore, I kinda didn't do it. But, we are doing a little bit of extra credit right now to try and balance that off. I even had a pretty good story idea. Maybe I'll use that for one of the free weeks.

Now I wouldn't say that last Friday was one of my favorite Fridays ever. Getting up a 6 am to take a career defining test that isn't very easy does not match my definition of fun. Sitting down in a chair answering question after question is also no fun, especially when it's for seven hours. For a good amount of people who are in this class, they can probably relate. It seems like it worked out for them for the most part. I walked out halfway defeated, halfway optimistic and it took me the rest of the weekend to want to start doing things again. But we are back now and doing okay. Now I am looking forward to a nice, easy week and then Game of Thrones on Sunday. 

My feeling now. Slightly sarcastic thumbs up!

Pixabay

Week 11 Review

I decided to use this cute corgi (pretty sure it's a corgi) graphic because it makes me feel good, but also slightly sad. The cute doggy is very happy and it being so nice to me because it will eat all my homework. I don't want to do homework so that's nice. However, I know that the doggy can't eat my homework so that's sad.

Online Course Assignments

For my video I watched Why We Worship Trees from Epified's YouTube channel. It's pretty interesting that trees are worshiped like they are considering each tree has been given a different purpose. It makes me wonder how this tradition was started, and how they knew that trees were important for the sustainability of life. It would be very interesting to see if these practices are still used today.

Wikipedia Trails: from Hiranyagarbha to Ashwatthama

Hiranyagarbha: I chose this article to start because the golden theme is present with Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu who are main characters in my storybook. The golden egg has a great deal of importance in the Vedas, but I didn't know exactly what yet. Apparently it is pretty much the big bang and is the source of the universe.

The Hiranyagarbha

Brahma: After reading on the Hiranyagarbha page, I found that Brahma was born from the golden egg. Of course I went to his page because Brahma is a good branching point to a ton of different pages.

Brahmastra: After the Mahabharata, I knew about astras and how they were very powerful weapons that were given to Arjuna. I didn't know much else, so I wanted to see what the weapons actually were. Turns out that one of Brahma's astras is just a missle launcher of Brahma's fifth head and it can destroy the whole world. Fun!

Kurukshetra War: The Brahmastra article said that Arjuna and Ashwatthama almost used Brahma's head missle on each other at the end of the Kurukshetra War but were stopped. I had no idea what the Kurukshetra War was so I went deeper. Apparently, in true Sanskrit literature fashion, it's just a different name for the Mahabharata War. It was interesting to see how the course of the battle was, especially how it took 18 days.



Image source:
Wikimedia Commons

Meme Generator Tech Tip

Source: imgflip

This meme is supposed to fit with my storybook stories. Every time one of Vishnu's avatars kills an incarnation of Jaya, he will call him Jaya. This always leads Jaya to be confused as he doesn't remember who that is. So he thinks "wait a minute, who am I" from the classic vine.

Reading Notes: Krishna and Narakasura

How does one turn into a rakshasa or asura? Is it a predetermined thing or is it due to consequences from actions? I can already assume that Krishna will defeat Narakasura which will probably be less than ideal for Vishnu. Because it’s almost like Vishnu brought Narakasura into the world but then has to destroy him. Why is Naraka invincible to Indra (who is very powerful in his own right)?

Amaravati seems like a Mount Olympus type place where all the gods gather. It might be cool to do a story where Olympus is attacked and one of the demigods saves the devas. It would be very Percy Jackson like. Krishna would pretty much be Percy. His discus could be reused for whoever saves Olympus.

Krishna attacking Narakasura

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna and Narakasura: Confidence versus Arrogance by Kamala Chandrakant, M.N. Nangare and Anant Pai

Reading Notes: Krishna

I wonder why Kamsa cared about the first seven children. The mysterious voice clearly says that it will be the eighth child of Devaki that will slay Kamsa. It’s also different from the Epified videos as I don’t think that Vasudev and Devaki willingly gave away their children to Kamsa. Why was the seventh child so important compared to the rest of the children? It’s also interesting that both the seventh and eighth children were blue skinned. 

The river story is similar, however, the serpents of Vishnu do not appear to shelter Vasudev. I think that the Epified version had Nanda knowing that Krishna was not their son. It seems like they would have no idea whose son Krishna was, but I think they knew in the other version. Krishna ate straight butter from a jar. That’s disgusting. Balarama also had blue skin when he was a baby, so it looks like he should have it now as well.

Krishna’s cunning will come in handy later. It shows his leadership even when it is used to steal butter. I think it would be cool to implement Krishna’s musical skills later, but highlight them as a great strength. If someone lifted a mountain with their pinky I think that I would just accept fate because there is no way I’m taking him down. Maybe Krishna will get attacked by a whole army of people, but he will just put them to sleep with his tunes. Maybe his skills can be used in a Mahabharata type story. 

Krishna with his flute

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna: Retold from the Bhagawat Puran by Anant Pai and Ram Waeekar

Reading Notes: The Lord of Lanka Comic

Ravana is born to Kaikesi and Vishrava along with his siblings Kumbhakarna, Shoorpanakha and Vibheeshana. He already has ten heads and is arrogant and ambitious. The plan is to hopefully describe the beginnings of his strength and power. Kumbhakarna will also be described as Vijaya. Ravana performed penances just as Hiranyakashipu did to gain his semi-immortality. Vibhishana must be described as noble through the story as he is the noble son of Kaikesi. Vedavati presents the first conflict between Vishnu and Ravana as she turns away Ravana for Vishnu. When she says no, there will be a flaming flash of hatred in Ravana as the “Reverse Jaya” in him makes Ravana hate Vishnu.


After Ravana loses Vedavati and she becomes Sita, I will have to describe that he continues to torment people and grow his land. Nalkoober’s curse will come back to haunt Ravana when he takes Sita. For my storybook I might deviate from the comic and tell the Narayan version of how Ravana takes Sita. Shoorpanakha reports about Sita and Ravana does the Golden Deer trick. Might tell the Hanuman story where he lights Lanka on fire and then have Ravana react as though he knows that he is Shiva’s avatar. When Rama calls him Jaya he will react as though he has heard the name before, indicates he is getting closer to being back with Vishnu. Kumbhakarna will die by Hanuman’s hand, then Ravana will notice Hanuman. The epic battle between Rama and Ravana will be more detailed than in the comic as the flying chariot battle is iconic in my opinion.

The Lord of Lanka Cover

Indian Epics: Amar Chitra Katha

Bibliography:

The Lord of Lanka: The Rise and Fall of a Demon King by Anant Pai and Pulak Biswas

Week 10 Lab: Crash Course Mythology

All the areas of study and knowledge coming together to make mythology is very interesting and it will be cool to see how they are represented in mythology. When the man talked about one reason why it is hard to talk about mythology which is that there are multiple versions of a story, that hit home. All these different versions and retellings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata make it difficult to keep up. Some names become different in the same story and can be confusing.

The line between myth and religion is also very interesting because I might be reading these stories under the pretense that they are just that, stories. However, to a different person these may be their religious texts and sometimes I have thought about that. Staying power of a story is definitely one the main characteristics that I would prescribe for a myth.

Interesting that the Persephone myth explains how we got the seasons while the traditional folklore theorists explained that folklore describe how the world came to be. This causes a mix between traditional folklore and mythology. Euhemerism makes me think of Star Wars with the “a long long time ago,” where the Force and all the lightsabers may have actually occurred or were retold incorrectly as distorted by time. The thought that myths were used to explain the impossible sounds very reasonable and appears many times.

These theories on the hero story subparts are cool because I can see them occurring with Rama and other mythological heroes. Other heroes will have different mixes of these subparts and it is very interesting to find the subparts when you know what to look for.

Mount Ngauruhoe, the real world Mount Doom

Wikimedia Commons

References:

Crash Course: Overview of Mythology

Reading Notes: Epified: Krishna Part B

Brahma praising Krishna’s divinity is very interesting as this might show that Vishnu is more powerful than Brahma. Their status in the Trimurti makes them seem to be equals. The feeding and flute playing for Hastin by Krishna reminds me of Hagrid and Fluffy. Wow, so apparently Krishna’s destiny is to save the Dharma, which is the nature of reality. His destiny seems to be so different from other avatars.

Vishnu presenting himself makes it seem that his avatars are like a mixture of himself and his children in terms of power. It’s not that Vishnu is locked up as Krishna, and Krishna doesn’t have all the power that Vishnu has. Destiny is destiny. That means it’s going to happen so we know Kamsa is just delaying the inevitable. I feel like when you see the face of a god, you should know that it’s over.

Krishna defeats Kuvalayapida

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna by Epified

Reading Notes: Epified: Krishna Part A

Kamsa’s rage seems similar to Duryodhana’s with them trying to kill innocent people who have threaten their throne in some way. Obviously the two stories are linked, which may be a reason for this. If Vasudev was so sure that nothing on Earth could harm his son, why was he worried when Kamsa came for his son? If nothing comes to light with the seventh son, I might make a story with him coming back.

The serpent protecting Vasudev and Krishna shows how much power that the gods have given Krishna as he is a powerful incarnation. Why did Putana want to kill Krishna? There could be a backstory there. Rather how did Kamsa gain control of demons? Could do a Game of Thrones thing where Krishna is a Dany, who is exiled but has immense power. Kamsa is on the Iron Throne as Robert Baratheon who sends assassins (demons) to kill Krishna/Dany. It is interesting that Krishna is never seeking to kill these demons but he is simply protecting himself. Radha drinking the scalding milk is similar to Sita walking into the fire for Rama.

Krishna holding up Govardhan Hill

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna by Epified

Tech Tip: Word Counter

I find word counts to be kind of tedious as I am working. The constant checking of my writing to see its number of words is annoying. That's why this tool is really nice. I don't have to keep copying and pasting into a new window, just a simple highlight and right click. I'm usually okay with hitting word counts, but if I have to meet a requirement, knowing my word count is important.

Week 9 Story: Mjolnir

A shimmering sea was seen from the heights of Valhalla. Odin looked out upon the realm of Asgard with great pride, especially in this two children sparring in the courtyard. Thor and Loki were both formidable fighters, even at their young age. However, Odin could already see the differences between the brothers with Thor progressing slightly faster, with more focus and poise. Loki had shown to be more reckless with his actions inside and out of battle, where he made brash decisions in an attempt to surpass his brother. These types of actions would prove to be important as they had predictive power for Loki’s future personality.

Odin took notice and great interest in the development of Thor’s skills in both his physical strength and tactical abilities. All the strength and power in the world will be of no use if it is employed without direction. Along with the development of these physical attributes, it was important for Thor to be able to control his god given powers. Being the god of thunder, if Thor could focus his powers, his strength would be immeasurable.

In order to facilitate this, Odin decided to visit the dwarves of Nidavellir to have them fashion a hammer of great power. Because of the progress that Thor had made in training, Odin felt that it was time to grant Thor what would be his famous hammer, Mjolnir. It would help the god focus his celestial powers and attain new strength. This kind of power was not given lightly with only the most disciplined receiving a gift of such power. Loki was one that showed too much ambition and brashness, so he couldn’t be trusted with this weapon.

Loki had felt slighted by the news of Odin giving Mjolnir to Thor. Even if he wasn’t Odin’s direct son, it was known that he cared for Loki deeply. This lead Loki into a fit of rage which further showed Odin that he wasn’t ready. Mjolinr wasn’t the only source of supposed favoritism for Thor in Loki’s mind. As these perceived experiences continued, it pushed Loki further and further until he made a plan to rid Thor of his hammer. When the god of thunder was suddenly found unworthy of his hammer and his godly power, Thor was banished from Asgard. The cunning god of mishief, Loki, had succeeded in fooling his father. 

Thor and Mjolnir

Flickr

Author’s Note:

This story is intended to highlight the development of Thor and Loki as warriors in Asgard. I decided to use the Marvel counterparts of these gods because my knowledge of the actual Norse gods is lacking. It was intended to describe the acquisition of devastras by Arjuna (Thor and Mjolnir), but not by Duryodhana (Loki). This lead to Loki using a suspect method to get his brother banished, just as Duryodhana got his cousins banished. I chose not to finish the connection to the Mahabharata, but Thor would come back just as the Pandavas did.

Bibliography:

Mahabharata Episode 16 - Drona Trains the Pandavas

Reading Notes: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution Part B

The mantra seems like it could have been used later for different purposes. I don’t really know why Kunti got rid of Karna, unless it was simply because she was unmarried. Pandu seemed to get some rough karma even though he didn’t mean to shoot those people. It’s odd to me that Pandu was so happy that his wife could have a child with someone else, even if it is a god. I always thought that Yama was the god of death so Yudhistira would be very powerful. It seems that Yama is better known as a god of judgement and truth which would make Yudhistira a good leader for the Pandavas.

The two Pandavas that were not Kunti’s sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, seem like the least important of the Pandavas. When I think about the story, these two didn’t show the level of responsibility or power as the other three, and even Karna. The music for the birth of that lump of flesh was very appropriate and kinda terrifying. I don’t remember the birth of the lump and the splitting of it into 100 sons from Narayan’s Mahabharata and I feel like I would remember something so disturbing.

Seeing the arrogance of Duryodhana again really hurts me, why does he think he can defeat his demigod cousins. This story of the underwater realm sounds like a snake filled Atlantis and this is also a new story, unless I forget. If Drona was a brahmin, how did he know so much about combat and warfare? Didn’t Drona also teach the Kauvaras? The astras are some of the coolest parts of the Mahabharata when it comes to weapons. (After the thumb is cut off) Wow Drona sucks.

Ekalavya cutting off his thumb

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Epified: Mahabharata, Part B

 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution

I like how the Mahabharata is going to be shown in a different view. Using karma as the main driver will be interesting to see in the stories. Karma seems to appear when Ganga put her children in the river to release them. I really like the animation for the telling of the story because it can be helpful in distinguishing who a character is between the all the names.


The vow of Devavrat is presented with much more significance than in the Mahabharata by Narayan. That must be part of the benefit of telling the story in this way because the narrator can break out of the story telling to discuss a topic. In hindsight, I know how important this oath is because I already know about the Pandavas and Kauvaras, while when I first read this, I didn’t know how important this oath would be.


It’s nice to see this again because I had forgotten the earlier lineage of the cousins and didn’t really understand it the first time through. Now, I can remember a little bit so it’s good to hear it again. The Amba story is one that I definitely forgot and might be a depiction of karma to come. I don’t see how Vyasa’s children would become the heir because they would not be descendents of Shantanu. I have to say I completely forgot who Vidura was when reading the story. This makes a lot more sense for him being in the Mahabharata. Now I also know where Sakuni came from as well and it seems like he is the main issue.

Bhishma coming back to his father

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Epified: Mahabharata, Part A

Tech Tip: Embedding YouTube

I embedded a video for a song from Rocky into my Week 7 Story.