Week Two: Famous Last Words

This week I really enjoyed writing my story about the Ganga. I love personifying animals/things and I had a lot of fun describing how the Ganga was—quite literally—steaming mad! I am still doing well in my other courses, and adjusting reasonably well to having courses in full French! I am also looking into getting my certificate to teach English as a Foreign Language this summer—which will be an exciting, daunting task. I’ll continue doing research this week and hopefully find out next week whether or not I will be able to do this during the coming summer. Depending on cost, as well as time, I may or may not be able to go. My dad has offered to pay for some of the expenses, and possibly loan me the remaining portion needed, depending on exactly how much it would cost. (Interest-free, parent-provided loans=BEST LOAN EVER!) I’ll also be taking summer classes though, so it is important I ensure the two interests don’t conflict with one another. If I go, the course will be in New York City, which is awesome. I have only been in New York City once, when I missed my flight home from France and ended up having to transfer airports in the middle of the night, got screwed over by a private taxi (whom I’m thankful only charged me a hundred dollars for a ride, as opposed to kidnapping me), and then spent about seven hours waiting for my flight. So it will be cool to actually get to do a bit of sight-seeing while in New York, when I’m not obsessively studying for this course; I hear it is really intensive. Outside of school, I had a rough day. I am no longer tutoring. The father of the little boy I tutor doesn't really value education and thought the tutoring was a waste of time. He also didn't like me because I have an academic interest in Islam (I’m a religious studies major!) and he is a prejudiced person. So, unfortunately he overruled the mother who was very open-minded and pro-education, and decided not to continue having their son tutored. It’s their decision of course, but I do hope the son learns to value knowledge and be more open-minded than the father. Wish me luck in my search for a new job! Also, my older sister will be staying with me Wednesday and Thursday night, and my younger sister will be visiting me Saturday! I am looking forward to seeing them both! Ooh, and I am going to include a link to a Facebook event which is super relevant to this class. Please feel free to come, share the event among your friends/ FB groups, or even other classes! It is free and is sure to be an interesting discussion by a professor I have heard speak before; she is fascinating! Conversations with Dr. Nyla Khan

(Image taken from Conversations with Dr. Nyla Khan)

Possible Topics for Storytelling

1       Sita: I am interested in Sita because she seems to be an important figure in the Ramayana, at least. I was hoping she develops into a stronger character, but it doesn’t seem like that really happens. This kind of disappoints me; I would have liked to see a more impressive female lead. I only know of Sita what we have learned from our reading, and that she is an incarnation of Vishnu’s heavenly lover.

  

     Research: I did some reading over Sita on Mythfolklore.net. It seems like Sita continues to play a supportive role to her husband, Rama. She doesn’t appear to ever move beyond this role, though that isn’t particularly surprising given the time period these characters were written in. I also searched on Wikipedia and found a more detailed ending to Sita’s story. I was interested because although Rama never took her back in spite of her dedication to him, she attained a happy ending by being returned to her original realm. Sita was an incarnation of Vedavati, and was the heavenly soulmate of Vishnu—who was incarnated as Rama on Earth. In a sense, I guess you could say the two ended up together after all.

2     

            Karma: I have always been interested in karma. I studied it whenever I took a course on Buddhism, and it seems that Hinduism has very similar viewpoints. I like the idea of people being held responsible for their actions—both in the same life and the next, if there is a next life. I would like to see how karma plays out through the course of an individual’s lifespan, or lifespans.

v    Research: The Wikipedia confirmed by beief that Hindu beliefs regarding Karma were similar to Buddhist views. I think I would like to focus on a particular epic, or character, and discuss how karma affected that story or character in particular. Vedavati would be a good example of this, because she incarnated as Sita in order to get back at Ravana and therefore fulfilling the karmic cycle, at least for the moment.

3

        Vishnu: I am interested in Vishnu because I think knowing about him would be more applicable from a Religious Studies perspective because of what a major role he plays throughout Hinduism in his various forms. I also settled on him because he is the one I have a statue of, and I think that’s cool! Haha. I don’t know much about him, other than that Rama is one of his incarnations. I would like to know more about his other incarnations.

Research: I am a little overwhelmed. There is a female incarnation of Vishnu called Mohini. Mohini seems pretty interesting, from what I found on Wikipedia. She is known for enchanting men, and it seems we will be reading about her later in the semester in the Mahabharata. I am also interested in Vaishnavism, a branch of Hinduism devoted to Vishnu. I would like to study this; I think it would interest me because it would give me more definitive answers about at least that sect f Hinduism. Definitive answers can be very hard to find in Hinduism at large! I have found so far that Vaishnavism believes in Vishnu as the supreme god; follow a process of initiation; and focuses on the literal meaning of scriptures.

4.       Ravana: I decided it might be interesting to look at Ravana, as he is the enemy of our current heroine, Sita. He really disliked Rama, too, as the husband of Sita. I haven’t fully decided how I feel about Ravana. I know he is supposed to be the evil character, but I also know stories tend to be very one-sided. I would like to make up my mind for myself! I know nothing about Ravana, other than what I have gathered in our reading.

Research: According to Wikipedia, Rama is also his enemy because Rama cut of Ravana’s sister’s nose! I found it interesting that two of Ravana’s siblings tried to convince him to return Sita to Rama. I also read about Sita’s sneaky trick to keep Ravana from attempting to string the bow and win the right to marry her. This made me like Sita a bit more!

(Image found on Wikipedia)

The Descent of the Ganga

Once upon a time, there was a wild, massive river flowing freely throughout the heavens. This river was so massive, it stretched to every corner of the seven levels of the heavens; it was so wild that no one, not even Kali—the goddess of power—could tame it. However, one very lucky—or simply special, some might say—young man set out to bring this mighty river down from the heavens. For you see, the river had mystical powers, and could cleanse the soul of a human. But I’m getting ahead of myself I suppose…

Before all of that, this ‘lucky young man’ had been one of sixty-thousand sons! Amazing, huh? Tragically, he was the only remaining living son, as his brothers had all been killed. Oh, but that’s another story… This young man, by the name of Bhagiratha, wanted to bring down the Ganga in order to set free his brothers’ souls—which had been trapped, unable to ascend to the heavens in their afterlives. Unfortunately, the Ganga felt that she was entirely too valuable for such a menial task. She was irked at this request and felt she must have a proper revenge on the mortal who had such audacity to solicit her help. Therefore, the Ganga decided to destroy Mother Earth upon her descent!

During her long drop downward, the Ganga was so angry that huge, steaming fumes were coming out of her in all directions. In fact, she got so hot that the entirety of the Ganga began to boil and turned into a giant tunnel of steam! Thankfully, steam is not nearly as harmful as water can be. The Ganga continued rushing towards Earth, but the Earth was no longer in danger. The steam reached Earth and dissipated, so quietly that hardly even a mouse would have noticed. But Bhagiratha was watching, and was much dismayed. He thought his brothers would never be saved with the Ganga having completely disappeared. Little did he know, the droplets of steam did not actually disappear, as much as separate from one another. Many of the droplets fell right to the Earth, landing on the soil and in the great oceans. However, exactly 108 droplets were carried off by the strong winds. These droplets landed in various sacred places throughout Mother Earth, but one such droplet is of significance for this story. That was the droplet which landed on the souls of Bhagiratha’s brothers.

Bhagiratha’s brothers were saved! He was overjoyed! Now he knew with certainty that his wonderful brothers would be able to reach the heavens and live on in the afterlife in peace and happiness. No longer hindered by his burning guilt regarding his many fallen brothers, Bhagiratha went on to live a happy, wonderful life. He fell in love, traveled throughout the lands, and raised a beautiful family. Our sacred places of today come from the places on Earth where the Ganga landed. The number 108 is used for meditation training because this is how many droplets landed on the Earth. This number is sacred and represents a tie to our past, to the time of the Ganga’s descent. The end.



(Image from Wikimedia)


Author’s note: I chose this story because I was fascinated by the story of the Ganga and I also really enjoy personifying things/animals. It was especially challenging to personify the Ganga’s emotions; doing this with animals in the past was much easier for me! Working with only the inner thoughts of the Ganga and limited outward expression forced me to think outside the box, which is why I thought of the Ganga’s entire being reverberating with her rage—something I myself have felt, but never literally experienced in the way the Ganga of my version did. I chose the picture above because it shows a lot of steam blowing off, but it is actually from a volcano—not a giant mystical river! It looks similar to how I imagined the Ganga would have looked, though. The original story tells of another god coming down and literally holding up the Ganga to prevent her from smashing the Earth to pieces. In my version, the anger of the Ganga is what prevents the Ganga from destroying the Earth. I liked this twist because the story becomes more than just a story; it teaches a lesson: when you allow yourself to be angry, you often thwart your own plans. I think this is an important lesson for everyone to learn and one that I myself struggle with more than any other form of self-control and self-discipline.


Bibliography:

Narayan, R.K. (1972) The Ramayana, Naray.