Indian Epics

For the second part of this weeks reading I went ahead and continued reading the Jataka's tales. I have come to really enjoy them and love the messages that they give through the story. I was even beginning to think to myself that if or when I ever have children of my own, I would like to read them some of these stories. In this way they get to hear a great and fun story but maybe also they will pick up on some of the lessons that they are trying to teach the reader. I have to admit for this second A Beautiful Cover for Jataka's Tales That I Hope to Buy section of the Jataka's I was not reading like a writer like I had been in the past. Instead, I really wanted to soak in all the information and really dive into the story with having to judgement or ideas to change the originals in the back of my midn. I just wanted to read the story for its pure self. Like I said, I have come to love these stories and for that reason wanted to get the full effect of what they have to ...

This week I decided to not read more about the Krishna series and instead take a look at the Jataka Tales. I was really excited to get to read some of these great tales because I enjoy fables like Aesop's so much. All of the stories from part A were so good and all had great lessons embedded in them. Some of my favorite ones were "The Turtle that Couldn't Stop Talking", "The Monkey and the Crocodile", "The Ox who Won the Forfeit", and "The Foolish Timid Rabbit". As you can probably tell I enjoy the stories that use animals as characters the most. Different animals seem to put just another layer to the story that humans simply couldn't. Some even give you an idea of how the story Crocodile wishing for the Monkeys Hear t will go. For instance in the story "The Monkey and the Crocodile", before I even began to read the story I figured this would be a type of trickster story because monkeys are known to be very intelligent ...

Years had past since the last time we saw the preacher. He had decided to stay with widowed woman that he met in the first story. They began to live together and soon after had a son. The preacher began to teach the word of God again but also still took leave from time to time to deal with bandits and the like in nearby areas. He also saved his now home time a couple times since his stay began. As the child that they had began to grow, he became very strong for his age and was as healthy as an ox. This was not what was usual for this time and in this town. In recent years the town had been plagued with the deaths of many of the newly born infants.  This terrible situation was felt in many of the families. One that had been plagued by this infant death syndrome more than any others was Martha DeVill. Martha, ever since she was a child, always loved little children. When she was small she loved to play with dolls and spent most of her time acting like they were hers. She would f...

I once again decided to watch/listen to the videos put together by epified. I really like the playful stories of how Krishna grew up. He played many tricks and grew up like most children would it seems. If any kid had these great powers I am certain that they would be playful with them and pull the same tricks. I think  I could create a western story from the 12 episode of the part B series of the epified videos. In this video "Krishna Rides Hesten" Krishna told everyone that he would ride the largest and most aggressive bull in the village. I think I could change this story up by allowing the preacher to tame and ride a crazy bronco. In the story I would use the preachers love for all of God's creatures as his motivation. This horse could be very crazy and have an angry owner that just wild bronco wished to kill the horse after many defeats. The horse could then turn out to be the most trusting and fastest steed in the west. In a future story the horse may turn ...

The Child Krishna   I decided to do my reading this week as watching the videos. I really liked the epified videos I had watched before in week 6 or 7 I believe so when I saw we had the chance to watch more epified short stories I knew that is what I was going to do. Right off the bat in the first episode of the tale of the birth of Krishna, I thought that the birth was much like that of the birth of Jesus in the Christian religion. Yes there are many differences but both were born in a lowly state. One in a stable in a manger and one in a jail cell. In both instances the animals seemed to know what was happening. That a god was being born on earth. Further more in the second story the father and son snuck out of the prison because of the fear that the evil king would kill the child. This also is like the Christian tale that King Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus so Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus. I thought that when Krishna's mother looked in his mouth and saw all the unive...

So for this week I decided it would be a good idea to do a story planning post so I could get a few thoughts together. I really want to continue the epic of the preacher. I now have a pretty good backstory and a solid intermediate story but now I need to begin creating stories of his travels. Maybe he should make his way out toward California. I think that could work but the hardest part now is find a story from the Mahabharata to use as a base story to manipulate. This is partly also why I decided to do a story planning post too, so this way I will be able to have all the stories from the Mahabharata at my disposal. I do not think that this next story should be one with a battle in it. I think instead it should be about the preachers tough travels across the desert to the California border. Or maybe across the Rocky Mountain range. Now what story could be one that would work with this? Nevada's Desert For this first section of the Mahabharata I can think of one story where th...

Kaliya I continued my reading notes assignment for the week as listening to the epified videos. Much like part A I enjoyed how the narrators are able to put all the characters together and make sense of what all is going on in a great manner. I really like being able to hear the pronunciation as well. When I read the stories sometimes I wondering if I am even close to getting the names and such right. I particularly liked the episode "The Magic Potion". First because the evil plan that Théoden had was shown to not be able to work. It also contains a cool new place that was underwater much like Atlantis but home to serpents instead. That is just really cool! Bibliography Epified TV (India). " The Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution" 2015-2016