Week 13 Reading Diary Make Up: Mahabharata Film Pt 2

• He was angry that someone said that he had never felt anger? That doesn't make too much sense to me.
• Talk about a gambling problem! Dhrishtira gambled away everything in the matter of 2 minutes!
• Everyone seems to be taking things okay considering Dhrishtira is gambling them away.
• Really? Gambling away your own wife? What a jerk...
• "Look at my thigh"? Is that pickup line supposed to work?
• "Greed devours all" Right after that is said, Dhrishtira goes back and loses everything and is sentenced to exile right after he gained his family back. Addiction is difficult to overcome. During an addiction, people can only see what they can gain instead of what they can lose. This can cloud their judgement and leave them unable to realize the problems that they are having.
• Amba said that she stays young because of her anger and that she promised to kill Bhishma. Maybe I should be angry to keep myself young!
• I have noticed that there is not a lot of conflict resolution. Most of the time the conflict ends in one person killing another. This is a big difference of society a thousand years ago compared to today's society.
• No one seems to be too angry at Dhrishtira for gambling them away into exile.

Title: Mahabharata 1

Author: Peter Brook

Year: 1989

Dhritarashtra (Image Info)

Week 13 Reading Diary: Mahabharata Film Pt 1

• Is that actually supposed to be Ganesha or a person with a mask on?
• Bhishma sacrificed himself for his father's happiness
• Amba loves Salva and asked Bhishma to let her go to be with Salva. Salva then tells her that he does not want her because "she is Bhishma's"
• Pandu married Kunti and Madri
• Pandu shots a couple while hunting and is cursed to die if he ever lies with one of his wives
• Kunti could invoke any God. She has a son with the God of the sun, but is scared so she sends him (Karna) down the river.
• Pandu had 5 sons all from the gods
• After time Pandu sleeps with Madri and instantly dies
• All 5 of Pandu's sons marry Draupadi
• Pandu is made to seem like he is very unintelligent and unfit to be King simply because he is blind. 
• His 5 sons seems to be a little bit childish at times. They seems to complain quite often in order to get what they want.

5 Sons of Pandu (Image Info)

Title: Mahabharata 1

Author: Peter Brook

Year: 1989

Week 12 Reading Diary: Vishnu's Secret Pt 2 and Brahma's Secret

• Kingship or leadership is the most difficult role in society. He decides who is right and who is wrong, who will live and who will die.
• Only humans are able to fight for a cause that is not theirs if they wish to.
• All humans can discover the divine within them and joy comes when perfect and absolute realization, free of all prejudices, is attained.
• God and man are separate and joy comes when one submits himself to God
• Fish is a metaphor for jungle law, wild sex, restless material reality, non-vegetarian food
• Cow is a metaphor for cultural law, domesticated sex, tamed material reality, vegetarian food
• The purpose of life is the realize the soul. The less a man does this, the more he begins to behave like an animal
• Conflict arises when man acts for power and not for love
• Brahma is not worshiped because he creates and than forgets the reason why he made that creation.
• Brahma created the world to understand who he was. The world is like his daughter.
• Brahma is still seeking the material world so we cannot worship him
• Shiva is everything that Brahma is not. 
• The purpose of life is to realize the ego and overpower it.
• Human life is special because one can self-reflect and uncover self-discovery
• Karma determines everything that happens that is out of our control

Brahma (Image Info)

Week 12 Reading Diary: Devi's Secret and Vishnu's Secret Pt. 1

• Kanyakumari wanted to marry Shiva. He had to make it to Kanyakumari in one day. On Shiva's way, he heard a cock crow, so he assumed that it was day and turned around.
• Desire can satisfy need or greed
• Lakshmi - the embodiment of earth's wealth and bounty
• Desire is important in Hinduism. The world was created because of desire of the creater
• Cows are the most sacred animal in the Hindu religion
• Cows are gentle creatures, but they give milk to mils
• Does the cow produce milk for its calf or for humans
• Each society starts in perfection and then slows changes its moral beliefs and is then resurrected in perfection.
• Vishnu decides hat is beautiful and what is not, what is acceptable and what is not.
• An act of compassion creates society and civilization
• Civilization collapses when there is too much kindness and no one knows when to stop
• If sexual and material desire are not controlled by marriage and property, then they can destroy civilization.

Devi (Image Info)

Week 11 Reading Diary: Ardhanari and Shiva's Secrets

• God can be visualized with and without form
• Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the sustainer, Shiva is the destroyer
• Male trinity is associated with verbs. Female trinity is associated with nouns
• Males make action and women are acted upon, according to Hinduism
• Men represent spiritual reality
• Women represent material reality
• There are 2 truths. Changing and unchanging. 
• Triangles are used to show stability and movement. Upside down is stability. Right side up is movement
• There are opposites to everything. That was said in many different ways
• Everything has a material and a spiritual half
• Ash is the symbol of destruction and permanence. It is the leftovers of destruction, but cannot be destroyed
• Shiva destroys by shutting his eyes. He is not an observer, so it doesn't exist
• Why is Shiva worshiped but not Brahma?
• Kali dances on Shiva as his opposite
• In society, there is good and bad, right and wrong. This means that society has judgement

Title: Ardhanari's Secret and Shiva's Secret 

Author: Epified

Year 2015

Shiva (image info)

Week 11 Reading Diary: Narayan's Secret

• The ocean of milk represents possibility
• When Narayan wakes, everything comes out of the milk, so when Narayan sleeps the world is still
• When Narayan sleeps, it is the end of the world because he is over the world
• Does the observer create the observation or does the observation create the observer?
• Narad provokes people and tries to create conflict and insecurity
• Death is considered a comma, not a period
• The soul is permanent and ever-present, but is without form
• A perfect truth is conveyed through imperfect forms
• Hiranakashipu is arrogant for thinking that he is a God for being immortal and was put in his place when he was killed by Narcima
• Intent and behavior can make anyone a demon
• Arjuna is expected to kill and start a war but refuses. Krishna speaks to Arjuna and explains the order of the world. Things die only to be born again.
• What is the purpose of life? Matter exists to draw attention to the soul. This means that we must live in society and do our part. We are part of society and there is no escape, unless one disciplines the mind and has no selfish desires
• God is all things, in all things, outside all things. Everything is God
• We are God, but just have not discovered it ourselves. We can once we strip ourselves of selfish behavior and thought

Title: Narayan's Secret

Author: Epified

Year: 2015

Narayan (Image Info)

Week 9 Reading Diary: 7 Secrets Hindu Calendar Art

• Ganesha: Different people see God differently
• Hindu beliefs can seem strange to some people, but isn't strange to those who are familiar with the beliefs
• Peoples beliefs vary immensely. What makes a person right or wrong? Does this shape that is important in a person's life?
• In Hinduism, there are many Gods and not a singular God.
• Having no way to understand totality, the Hindu gods form together to give us a sort of understanding of totality in pieces
• Each god represents different things, which gives the ability to look at a particular god for a certain ability or characteristic.
• Some Hindu believers decided to not be married in order to become more dedicated to the Hindu faith. However, the law later changed against this.
• Unlike Greek gods and goddesses, Hindu gods are not continued by succession according to power. They can be present at the same time.
• Ganesha is generally worshipped before the starting of a project. He is the remover of obstacles
• The Hindu gods try to show that they are both abstract and concrete
• Narayan's secret is that whatever dies is eventually reborn.
• Believing that another life will come after this one, makes Hindu believers to not have a sense of urgency because they will always have another life. More pressure is put on other religious beliefs to be better now because you only have one life here on Earth.
• While Narayan sleeps, the world still exists, but no one is aware of it, so it is as if it doesn't exist. There is no observation with out the observer (Narayan). This is the end of the world. Does our world exist when we are asleep?

Title: 7 Secrets Hindu Calendar Art

Author: Epified

Year: 2015

Ganesha (image info)

Week 7 Reading Diary: Epified Mahabharata Pt 2

Title: Epified Mahabharata

Author: Epified

Date: 28 January 2016

• Not really sure why Karna wasn't able to train. I know it is something to do with what he is, but not sure really why.
• If Karna could simply lie about who he was. What really is the difference about the different "races"?
• There are too many names of different characters to keep them sorted in my head.
• It seems to me that every male character wants to be king, and every female character just wants to be married.
• I have noticed that any time there is a person in someone's way, they just decide to kill them off. Does anyone ever get punished for murder?
• It is also very repetitive in the fact that one person does something wrong, and then they are generally cursed with a curse that will ruin their lives.
• Most of the kings and royalty tend to have more than one wife, so why shouldn't Draupadi have 5 husbands? It's only fair...I guess..
• Pretty crazy how quick they seem to have built Indraprastha. 
• Many of the men seem to fall in love with the same woman too. 
• Draupadi agreed with the 5 brothers to rotate each year from one to the next. I'm sure there was all sorts of jealousy going on when she changed husbands. If the brothers failed to do so, they would be forced to go into exile for the next 12 years.
• Not sure that it's fair for Arjun to go to exile for 12 years, when he accidentally saw his brother presumably sleeping with Draupadi.

Draupadi and Her 5 Husbands (image info)

Week 7 Reading Diary: Epified Mahabharata Pt 1

     Title: Epified Mahabharata

Author: Epified

Date: 12 April 2015

Everyone seems to fall in love when they are at a river. Funny coincidence

·         How is it possible for Shantanu to watch as Ganga downs 7 of his kids? I would drown her!

·         Did Devavrata question why Ganga kept him from his father for so long?

·         He fell in love again by the water! A fisherman’s daughter

·         Shantanu didn’t have very much luck the first time he fell in love, so why is Devavrata so quick to give up his promise that he will never get married when he doesn’t even know if Ganga’s second marriage will be any better than the first?

·         I like how Bhishma’s first reaction to go and find the king a wife is to go kidnap 3 princesses instead of just find someone who is willing.

·         Why is Amba rejected when she was simply kidnapped and never gave herself to anyone?

·         Why was Parshurama so upset with Bhishma when he would not marry Amba, when it was simply because Bhishma and made a vow to never marry.

·         So if Vyasa’s wife didn’t love him and didn’t want to sleep with him, was it a form of rape?

·         The three sons of Vyasa have a rivalry for the throne.

·         Is it not a little too much to blindfold yourself just because your future husband is blind too? It would probably be more helpful if she used her sight to help her husband live a more normal life.

·         Kind of a strange sequence to hug a God and then have a son appear in your arms randomly.

·         Sending her son away in a basket on a river is similar to the story of Moses.

Leaving with Bhishma's son (image info)

Week 6 Reading Diary Mahabharata PDE Edition Pt 2

 Title: Mahabharata PDE Edition

Author: Vyasa

·         If I found all of my furniture, wouldn’t run and get my family to see it, but I would get everyone out of there as soon as possible.

·         The rakshasa woman really fell in love fast. All she had to do was see Bhima sleeping and she was love struck. He must have been really good looking!

·         I like the detailed descriptions of everything that is going on and the surroundings

·         So many decisions are being made in order to get personal gain or receive more power. A lot of importance is being placed on being a power over someone else.

·         It is hard to follow the story due to the fact that a lot of time is passing by from section to section

·         Arjuna seems to have some sort of a special connection with Krishna.

·         Duryodhana is really jealous of the palace that is built for the Pandavas. I wonder if his jealousy will lead him to act out and do something.

·         Why is it required that Yudhishthira needs to fight another king in order to be a supreme monarch. If the kings are ruling separately, what is the connection between the two?

·         I like how such a big thing is being settled over a gambling match.

·         Most of the stories seem to be driven by the motives of jealousy or vengeance. The is a lot of individual search for power.

·         How terrifying would it be to be told that you were gambled away in a game?

Shakuni (Image Info)

Week 5 Reading Diary: Mahabharata PDE Edition Pt 1

·         Title: Mahabharata PDE Edition

Author: Vyasa

How did Uparichara drip semen? How did it fall to the river when he was in a car??

·         King Shantanu must have really loved Ganga if he allowed her to kill their first 7 children. Who loves someone that much? Or was there something else going on behind the scenes?

·         I feel like the story is moving extremely quick and hard to follow because so many people are getting married/born/introduced

·         Bhishma killed many people with a single arrow each and was awarded 3 princesses and brought them back to Hastinapura, so they could become the wives of Vichitravirya

·         It’s a little strange that Amba was willing to kill herself in order to be born again as a man, so she/he could have the power to kill Bhishma.

·         How difficult would it be to throw yourself into a fire and still have the concentration to chant something?

·         Vidura’s birth sounds very similar to Jesus Christ’s birth. A God who was born among men.

·         Kunti and her son sounds a lot like Moses’s mother sending him down the river as a baby to escape death and was discovered by Egyptian royalty.

·         Pandu really needs to stop killing deer. He kills one dear and gets cursed to die in the arms of one of his wives. Then he kills another deer who was having sex and was cursed to die with his wife when he was having sex..

·         Hard to believe that snake poison counteracted the poison that was already in Bhima. Were his ties so loose that he could simply break out of them?

Bhima and the Nagas

Week 4 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues Pt 2

Author: Nina PaleyTitle: Sita Sings the BluesYear: 2008

Full cartoon can be watched here

• Rama seemed to have this internal doubt that Sita wasn't faithful to him when she was in captivity. However, the test of fire was supposed to prove her innocence. 
• Rama's true character is shown when he cares more about what the people are thinking about him than about his pregnant wife. He completely shirks the responsibility to take care of his future child.
• What is done to Sita seems even worse when it is shown in today's time. 
• The "Rama does what Rama must" song is funny. It's satirical that they act as if it is a song of praise for Rama when it actually highlights all of his inconsiderate actions.
• How many times does Sita have to be mistreated before she will get over Rama?
• If Sita told the story to Valmiki who wrote it all down. How would the story have been if it was told from Rama or from Hanuman's perspective?
• I was waiting for the film to end with the girl in New York to make her boyfriend realize that he was making a mistake, but tell him that it was too last. It never happened.
• What happens after Sita is swallowed by the earth? Do her children go back and live with Rama? Are they angry that their mother decided to leave them? Is Sita still alive?
• There were some parallelisms that occurred between New York and The Ramayana, but I feel like more connections could have been make to make the story be even more relatable to today's lifestyle.

Valmiki Writes Ramayana (image info)

Week 4 Reading Diary: Ramayana PDE Part D

Notes for Ramayana by Valmiki

  Ravana’s 10 heads reminds me of the multi-headed dragon that grows back two heads every time one if its heads get chopped off.

·         Rama probably gave the lamest reason ever to not take Sita back. Does that mean that all of the killing and fighting that he did was all in vain?

·         Rama said that he knew that Sita was pure and only looked upon him, yet he said that she needed to go into the fire in order to cleanse herself, so the people accept him for receiving Sita back by his hide. Is this a sign of Rama’s weakness of trying to please and prove himself to his people?

·         Did Rama know that Sita was going to be saved by the fire?

·         Looks like I was right. Rama cared more about his image in the kingdom and what people thought about him then about his own wife. When Sita was preserved from the fire, I wonder if he was just “playing along” acting as if he knew what was going on in order to not make himself look dumb.

·         I’m glad that Sita decided to permanently leave Rama because he didn’t deserve her. He already showed what mattered most to him.

·         I feel as if the ending was not satisfying because they all reached a “heavenly state” that I feel was undeserved due to recent decisions that Rama made.

·         Overall, I feel that it was a great story of a man who would go to any lengths to rescue his bride, but it simply lacked the fairytale ending.

The Earth takes Sita.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Ramayana Sita Sings the Blues Pt 1

·      Author: Nina Paley

Title: Sita Sings the Blues
Year: 2008

Full cartoon can be watched here

   The cartoon movie highlights what might not seem logical according to today’s standards

·         Skips the  introduction of how Rama and Sita meet and fall in love

·         Sita is portrayed as a wife who is just completely obsessed with Rama and has almost no other thoughts whatsoever. A few too many songs of Sita just singing about how in love the is with Rama.

·         Does a great jobs as focusing on the main characteristics of the character. This helps their skills and differences stick out and makes the characters more memorable.

·         Makes Sita rescue seem pointless because she could have simply gone with the monkey. There is speculation that she stayed to Rama could find her and prove his strength to other for rescuing her from Ravana.

·         The way that Rama treats Sita raises the question, “Why did Rama love Sita?” Did he love just just because of her looks or the challenge he had to go through to get her father’s approval? Or maybe, did he have reason to believe that Sita was unfaithful that we didn’t know about?

·         Sita shouldn’t be so forgiving and submissive to Rama. He accused her of being unfaithful, but doesn’t seem to care that Rama didn’t believe her unless he had proof.

·         It isn’t portrayed in the movie, but was Rama upset that Sita gave up on him when he was lying on the ground with arrows in him? She thought he was dead and began to weep thinking that he had failed to rescue her.

Sita's Test of Fire (image info)

Week 3 Reading Diary: Ramayana PDE Part 2

·    Notes for Ramayana by Valmiki

     I enjoyed how Rama finally has found someone that he can relate to in Hanuman because they both have been removed from the kingdom.

·         Rama could easily just be helping Hanuman because he might need Hanuman’s help in the future, but because of his previous actions he could easily be doing it just because he is being kind.

·         When Rama killed Vali his entire family began be visually upset, even Sugriva was sad over his death when Sugriva was shot and killed by the arrow

·         Another proof of loyalty and keeping promises when Sugriva stayed and remembered that he owned a favor to Rama

·         Sita’s reaction to Hanuman when he found her shows how scared and afraid she really was while she was captured. It was necessary for her to send something of Rama’s in order for her to be completely sure that it was you.

·         Hanuman is so loyal to fill the promise that he made with Rama that he would rather die while looking for Sita, then to return empty handed and say that he was unable to find and rescue Sita

·         The story makes it seem that Rama has not been there very long, but has an incredible amount influence and respect throughout the forest.

·         I find it interesting that Ravana’s younger brother Vibhishana warns Ravana that Rama might come in to kill him, and when Ravana refuses to have up the fight Vibhishana instantly switches said and it working against his own brother.

Ravana Comes to Rescue Sita (image info)

Week 3 Reading Diary: Ramayana PDE

Notes for Ramayana by Valmiki

·         Bharata was extremely close to his father and brothers.

·         Jabali’s attempt to convince Rama to return to the kingdom was extremely powerful and well thought out. However, Rama showed his resilience when he decided to remain in the jungle. He had no other desire than to obey and honor his father by obeying his last and final command.

·         Loyalty is shown throughout this part of the story; brother to brother, son to father. Rama stays in the jungle and Bharata acts as though his is in temporary control of the Kingdom, reminding everyone that Rama is the true king

·         Rama is also very loyal to Sita when he sends the temptress Shurpanakha off to try to get with his brother.

·         Everyone is out to get Rama! He was exiled to the jungle, yet he is still being threatened by Shurpanakha.

·         During The Chase portion of Ramayana, I find it interesting that someone imitates his voice in order to try and trick him and his loved. His only weakness might simply be himself.

·         When Ravana kidnaped Sita, she continued to refuse to be unfaithful to Rama

·         A great love story is developing between Sita and Rama. Both resisted temptation to cheat on their marriage. Both have endured physical traumas, and Rama is currently searching for the “damsel in distress”. The world needs to take a life lesson from Sita and Rama. Too many marriages are ending because of one person in the marriage cheats on the other. Everyone needs to just read The Ramayana

Jatayu trying to save Sita (image info)

Week 1 Reading Diary: Ramayana PDE

   Notes for Ramayana by Valmiki

     Many characters introduces very quickly

-          Not sure how it’s possible to raise 60 thousand kids!

-          Rama and Lakshmana both think that Sita is beautiful. I thought that there was going to be conflict between the two brothers, but everything turned out fine between the two

-          Reading this has made me wonder how much of my own religion is not as simple as I think. This story is a little difficult at times to follow because I am not familiar with some of the words or symbols. I bet similar things happen when others explain religious beliefs that they have become very familiar with

-          I find it interesting that during Rama and Sita’s wedding, holy water was sprinkled on their heads. This is similar to baptism that is performed at many Christian churches. I’m not sure what the meaning of the blessed water is in this story, but I would assume that it has a similar meaning.

-          This is a classic plot where one of the antagonists (Kaikeyi) finds a weakness about the protagonist (the 2 favors Dasharetha owes to Manthara). This turn of events gives the villain a chance to win

-          I’m not sure why, but Manthara’s description reminds me of the creepy lady (the one that turns giant). See image below.

-          Dasharatha is having true remorse for his previous actions. What he did in the past is not affecting him, but is affecting his son.

-          Rama didn’t say much when he was told that he would be going to exile. It really shows the loyalty and trust that he has for his dad.                

Manthara (Wayang Kulit puppet)