Epics of India Fall 2020

Silence the Critical Voices in your Head     This article by Sabina Nawaz gives a real life example of how negative thoughts can impact someone who is performing at their highest level consistently well. The article stresses that even one negative thought, or critique, no matter how small can slow down your productively exponentially. However, there are ways to combat these thoughts and they all dwell on one main topic: the positive thoughts. Whenever a negative thought pops into your head you have to push past it to find the positive and use that as motivation. Seven Questions to Ask After Feedback     When you first receive feedback sometimes your first thought is to just disregard it; however, a lot of growth is missed when you do not take that feedback into account as it can elevate your work and perfect it. The article provides seven good questions you can ask yourself when you receive feedback and what to do with it. 1) What are the opportunities in the critici...

Indra     Indra has always interested me as he has always been a popular pop cultural reference and I have heard about him many times in Indian stories. One new thing I learned about Indra was that he is present in some Buddhist epics as Shaka. I would be interested to delve more into his background and see how his character changes over history. Gurus and Sages     In every Indian epic that I have read, even most Indian folklore that I have read, involve gurus/sages in one form or the other. I would like to look more into Parashurama and Vishvamitra, and learn how they have affected Indian epics and how they grew into that prominent role. Chiranjivi     Immortals have always intrigued me and I have never heard of the seven immortals before, besides Hanuman and the sages, so this is a very new and interesting topic to me to explore. Karma     I am a big believer in karma and I know of its prominence in many religions, especially Hinduism. In ...

    On this day a great many millennia ago the Bodhisattva lived as a monkey, but not as an ordinary money. No, here the Bodhisattva lived as the Great Monkey and was as a big as an ape that resided in the jungle. Because of this the Great Monkey had to feast on many fruits to satiate the hunger it always felt. However, one day the Bodhisattva realized that it had ate all the delicious fruits on its side of the Ganges and while she was looking for more nourishment the Bodhisattva spotted the abundant fruit trees on the opposite side of the Ganges, but there was just one problem: the Great Monkey did not know how to swim.      To get to the other side she needed help and decided to ask the male and female crocodiles who lived in the Ganges to help her get to the other side. When the pair of crocodiles heard her proposition the wife got greedy and very much wanted to eat the Great Monkey, so she told her husband to trick the Bodhisattva and bring her to the wife i...

     My favorite story was The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart   , Marie L. Shedlock's translation. I always love reading a good underdog story and this is the epitome of an underdog. The monkey is first tricked by the crocodile since the crocodile offers the Bodhisattva, the monkey, a ride across the Ganges to the bank with more fruit. However, it was all a ploy so that the crocodile's wife could eat the monkey's heart. When the Bodhisattva realizes this he lies to the crocodile saying his heart is actually on a fig tree by the bank, tricking the crocodile to take him to the safety of a tree. With this the Bodhisattva is saved by using his cunning. One thing I would like to point out about this story is how static these characters are. Even though it is a short fable the only character development we see is in the monkey, but the lesson is still there: no matter how dire the situation looks there is always a way out.  The Jatakas from the MadrasCourier

    I have chosen to read the Public Domain Version of the Ramayana since it features many different illustrations from different artists which give me new perspectives on the stories themselves. The two comic books that caught my eye were Guide: Tales of Arjuna and Guide: Parashurama . Tales of Arjuna interested me as I have heard of Arjuna before and his character development interests me as well. Parashurama interested me as I have not heard of him before and reading the summary was very informative.     The two videos that I watched were: Hindu Creation Stories  and Robert Goldman Sings From the Ramayana . I love learning about origin stories and this one is one of my favorites as it is fascinating to see how each of the three main gods represent the circle of life. For example, Bhrama represents birth, Vishnu life, and Shiva death. The second video caught my eye as I have always wanted to hear the Ramayana in its original language and prose. Hearing the c...