Indian Epics Blog

Vahanas of the Gods: Wikimedia Commons   Lakshmi the Mother Goddess Lakshmi is the Mother Goddess as well as the Goddess of wealth, love, prosperity, joy, and beauty. She appears in The Ramayana as Sita, Rama's beautiful wife. Lakshmi is seen riding both an owl and an elephant. Elephants symbolize work, activity, and strength, as well as water, rain and fertility for abundant prosperity. The owl signifies the patient striving to observe, see, and discover knowledge, particularly when surrounded by darkness. As a bird reputedly blinded by daylight, the owl also serves as a symbolic reminder to refrain from blindness and greed after knowledge and wealth have been acquired (Wikipedia). Perhaps I could retell a story from The Ramayana and use this owl or elephant. Perhaps when Rama first sees Sita, or when Sita is alone in the hut and Ravana comes to take her away. The owl could also be pictured as Lakshmi's twin, the goddess of misfortune and strife, Alakshmi. Sources to use: The

 The Ramayana Battle: Wikipedia Link to Storybook: Ashley's Storybook

Ravana's Death: Wikimedia Commons Okay, do you remember where we left off? Sita has been taken away by the evil Ravana. Rama was heartbroken and wept for many days. He searched and searched for Sita. "Is my beautiful Sita here?" he asked the mountains. "I am sorry, but no" wept the mountains.  "Is my love hiding in your shallows?" he asked the river. "No, my dear Rama" wept the river, causing flooding of the nearby lands. Rama and Lakshmana then came upon the kingdom Kiskinda, which was ruled by a monkey race that were extraordinarily intelligent and had godly parentage. One of the most intelligent of these monkey's was Hanuman, the companion and helper of Sugreeva, the chief of Kiskinda. Hanuman sees Rama enter the kingdom and is so curious to know who he was, he decides to go talk to him! Hanuman changes his form to appear as a scholar instead of monkey to perhaps trick Rama. "Hello, my name is Hanuman and I am a scholar who has lo

  Rama and Sita: Wikimedia Commons Hanuman landed in Lanka and shrunk down to an unnoticeable size so that he could search for Sita. Hanuman finally found Sita and she looked dirty. Ravana was trying to console her into becoming his prime mistress. Sita declined as she has been since the beginning. Ravana was angry and told the guards surrounding her to break her will. Sita then was planning on hanging herself on a nearby tree when the guards left. Hanuman slowly went towards Sita as not to scare her. He told her of Rama's search and gave her Rama's ring. She was overjoyed and gave Hanuman a memento of hers to give Rama. Hanuman then became huge again and destroyed many parts of Lanka. He shrunk down and allowed himself to be captured so he could warn Ravana of Rama. This angered Ravana and he set his tail on fire. So, Hanuman grew huge again and set most of Lanka on fire with his tail and then hastened back to Rama's camp. Ravana then had his city rebuilt by the architect

  Hanuman: pixabay Rama and Lakshmana journey southwards following Sita's trail by hearsay and hints. They reach the kingdom of Kiskinda, which was ruled by a monkey race that were extraordinarily intelligent and had godly parentage.  Hanuman, the companion and helper of Sugreeva who is the son of the sun god and chief of Kiskinda, sees Rama and studies him. Is he a warrior or an ascetic? Too curious to turn away, Hanuman confronts Rama and Lakshmana. They tell Hanuman who they are and why they were there. Hanuman believes them and turns from his scholarly form into his true monkey form. Hanuman then tells them of Sugreeva and his story. Sugreeva is the brother of Vali, who has immeasurable strength due to churning Mount Meru to create nectar for the gods. Everyone and all of nature was afraid of Vali due to this strength. One day, a demon named Mayavi challenged Vali and then retreated into the underworld. Vali followed him into the underworld and did not return immediately. Twent

 As someone who overthinks a LOT I tend to struggle with giving negative feedback. I am always worried that I will hurt someone's feelings, come across as mean and too harsh, or will cause someone to think they are stupid (which I guess is the same as hurting feelings). For this assignment, I decided to focus on articles I believe will help me put my overthinking fears to ease. Feedback: Max Pixel How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk First of all, I believe we have all heard of the compliment sandwich. You start off with a "Good Job!" or "Nice Work!" and then put all the "bad stuff" in between and then end with a final compliment. According to this article, there is data that shows the compliment sandwich actually braces people for impact, as the compliment was just softening the blow from your mean words. People also usually only remember the beginning and ending of things, thus, any negative feedback you give might just be drowned out by the

Lakshmi the Mother Goddess Lakshmi is the Mother Goddess as well as the Goddess of wealth, love, prosperity, joy, and beauty. She appears in The Ramayana  as Sita, Rama's beautiful wife. Lakshmi is seen riding both an owl and an elephant.  Elephants symbolize work, activity, and strength, as well as water, rain and fertility for abundant prosperity.  The owl signifies the patient striving to observe, see, and discover knowledge, particularly when surrounded by darkness. As a bird reputedly blinded by daylight, the owl also serves as a symbolic reminder to refrain from blindness and greed after knowledge and wealth have been acquired ( Wikipedia ). Perhaps I could retell a story from The Ramayana and use this owl or elephant. Perhaps when Rama first sees Sita, or when Sita is alone in the hut and Ravana comes to take her away. I am sure more stories will come to mind whenever I finish reading the book.                                                                                  

                                                                                    Rama and Sita: Wikimedia Commons Once upon a time there was a king that was very sad because he had no children. This king's name was Dasaratha. To become happy, he begged a sage to give him children. The sage was kind and gave the king a sacrificial rice that would allow his wives to become pregnant. When the king gave his wives the rice, they both had two children. The king was now overjoyed because he now had four sons: Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha, and Sathrugna. Dasaratha did not know this, but his son Rama was the human incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu. Once the boys grew older, a sage by the name of Viswamithra, comes and tells Dasaratha that he needs Rama to protect him as he travels to a sacred ground. Dasaratha is highly upset by this, but allows Viswamithra to take him if he allowed Lakshmana to go as well. Now this journey was treacherous, crossing a vile desert, going to a demon infes

     Ravana killing Jatayu: Wikimedia Commons  Fearing that staying close to Ayodyha would inspire citizens to encourage him to return home, Rama and his group decided to move on. They set off towards Panchvati. During the journey, they met Jatayu, the Great Eagle. Jatayu was very close with Dasaratha and felt as a foster parent to Rama. He guided them to Panchvati. Once there, Lakshmana built them a hut; however, Rama still remembered his true reason for coming to Panchvati: to kill fiends and ultimately kill Ravana, the chief of the demons. To start his task, Rama set out to the woods where he met a beautiful woman. He discovers that this woman is in fact Ravana's sister. She claims that she rejects evil and wants to help Rama. She asks him to marry her. He immediately denies this claiming that he cannot marry her because she is not high enough class. She replies that because of her mother's class, she is able to wed anyone. Kamavalli, the woman, then sees Sita and is jealous

                                                                                               Rama: Wikimedia Commons There was a king named Dasaratha who was sad because he did not have any children. He then finds a sage, Rishya Sringa, who performed a sacrificial fire that caused a supernatural being emerging with sacramental rice. When Dasaratha's wives ate this rice, they each had two children: Rama and Bharatha, and Lakshmana and Sathrugna. We find out later that Rama is the human incarnation of Vishnu, a supreme god. Later, Sage Viswamithra comes to see Dasaratha. He asks Dasaratha to allow him to take Rama to a sacred ground that is surrounded by evil. Distressed, Dasaratha initially says no, but then allows him to take Rama if Lakshmana is also allowed to go. Thus, Rama and Lakshmana leave with Viswamithra, During the journey, they come across a desert. Viswamithra tells them the story of Thataka. Thataka was cursed to become a demon and became a scorcher. She carries a tr

       Writing: Pixabay Reading: I had plenty of time to do this week's reading, as it was only reading a story and not from the book. The story I read was about a crocodile that wanted to eat the monkey. However, the monkey was smart and tricked the crocodile by making the crocodile open his mouth. When crocodile's open their mouths, it makes their eyes shut,  so the monkey escaped from the crocodile! Once the crocodile realized he had been tricked, he told the monkey that he had the four virtues to escape his foes and that he would not try to eat him again. Best Writing: My best writing was actually an essay I did for English II (Yes, I am a senior just now taking my English...). I wrote about patriotism and whether or not it is actually beneficial to society, or if it just leads to harmful outcomes. Other Classes: Since I am moving this summer, I had to take a lot of classes this semester to make sure I can graduate on time and virtually. Thus, I am enrolled in three separat

            Self Critical: Pixabay I have always been a perfectionist which means I am very critical on myself whenever something is not exactly how I imagined. I was excited to read these articles because I figured that maybe I could find something helpful. How to Rewire a Self Critical Brain The post I read really emphasized how setbacks and failures do not mean everything and you are always worthy of love and happiness. Reality-based self-congratulation (REBS) is what the author calls a rebellion against your inner critic. REBS allows us to become more forgiving and encouraging friend to yourself. When you use REBS, the chaos of your challenging life may seem less chaotic by utilization of self-congratulation. Even just using five seconds to calm down and take a breather can help by a landslide. Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head Critical voices in our heads are a poison that leads to depression and inhibits one from pursuing goals.  While taking negative criticism is importan

 Indra, The Thunder God Indra: Wikimedia Commons I found Indra really interesting because he is a God that is in both the Ramayana and Mahabharata. I honestly did not know anything about Indra. I think I will enjoy learning about his elephant, horse, and thunderbolt weapon. Indra is also in Buddhism under the name Shakra/Shakka. Overall, I find the topic of Gods very interesting. I think I would want to tell stories about his elephant, horse, and thunderbolt weapon. Surya, The Sun God I chose Surya because he has sons that are in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. I do not have any prior knowledge of Surya. One interesting thing I read about Surya was that he is usually shown with seven horses. These horses represent the seven days and seven colors. I believe reading more about Surya's importance in both books we will be reading will be fascinating. I believe stories about Surya's importance to astronomy would be a good topic. Hanuman For the first week's assignment, I did a sto

                                                                  Estuarine Crocodile: Pixabay Once there was a tiny monkey and a ginormous crocodile that devoured all in his sight. This monkey would hop across lily pads on a river to reach an island that had the most delightful fruits. He would eat until he was full and then leap back across the lily pads at sunset. The crocodile knew this and desired to eat the little monkey. The monkey knew the crocodile desired him and always made sure to look for the crocodile's giant eyes before making his way across the river. The crocodile knew he must try and deceive the monkey, as he was too small and fast to catch. One day while the monkey was across the river the crocodile went underneath the lily pads so that they would stick to his back. Believing the monkey would be tricked, the crocodile remained there until sunset.  When the monkey reached the shore, he noticed some of the lily pads were crooked and seemed bumpy. As the monkey was

                                                                              A crocodile: Pixnio At this point in time this is an encounter between the Buddha-as-monkey and the crocodile. Devadatta is planning on trying to murder him; however, the Master claims this is not the first time and tells a story of the past about a previous failed murder attempt. Here is the story: Bodhisatta came to life as a monkey and was big and strong. He could jump large distances and would do so onto a large rock that allowed him passage to an island that was fruitful. He would go eat many fruits to his filling and then return home. A pair of crocodiles saw Bodhisatta and the female mate longed for his heart to eat. Wanting to fulfill his mate's wish, the male crocodile set out to the rock that he knew Bodhisatta would use to return home. When Bodhisatta wished to return home, he noticed that the rock appeared to be taller than normal, thus he suspected that there was a hungry crocodile waiting f