Na-Ima-Sthae at Home

Lakshmi Rubs Vishnu's Feet Because I only have 16 points left until I am finished with this class, my reading notes for this week are just to learn as much as possible! It was so nice not having to think of stories while watching the video. I just got to learn a lot!  Kurma’s Secret: wealth eludes the insecure Lakshmi Goddess of wealth Everyone worships her She is the food, clothes, and houses that we have  Does not discriminate  Humans worship devas because they are known as the ones that will release Lakshmi so she can come and help All the wealth Indra had should have made him feel secure and happy, but he felt more insecure instead He was insecure in his relationship  He doesn’t trust his wife bc he doesn’t trust himself  His wife does leave him because she is driven away by his behavior Lakshmi then leaves and Indra lost all of his fortune Righteous conduct, wealth, and pleasure are the gifts of Lakshmi that announced her arrival ...

Yamuna and Balaram (start at 2:43) Matsya’s Secret: Secret mar of vishnu is on the head Save me from the big fish and I will save you- Big fish story Law of the fishes Vishnu takes form of a fish to interact with human kind and draw attention to jungle law  No rules in the jungle Only the fir survive  Humans judge uaniamls but they are driven by a need to survive Only humans can imagine a world where might is not right Men interfere with nature which has its roots In empathy We fear the fear of the little fish and do something to allay it.  Story of river goddess who is requested to go to the kings place so he doesn’t have to go to the river every time he wants to bathe. The goddess gets mad and the king has to be aggressive in order to force her to come back with him.  Two story ideas come to mind. First, I could tell a story as the beginning of creation with everyone living in a jungle style, and then an animal I can name Ma...

Fastforward to 1:20 to get to the good stuff This week I decided to change my note taking up a bit so that I could learn as much as possible when watching the video. So below I have provided my rough notes that I took while watching the video. Mohini is the female version of Vishnu  enchantress, temptress, but not a nymph  Known for being bale to seduce sages and demons  Gender is a vehicle to communicate metaphysical ideas.  Material: tangible that can be perceived through the senses  Typically representing using through female form  Spiritual: Intangible reality that cannot be perceived  Typically representing using through male form  Apsara enchants to distract humanity from spiritual reality Mohini enchants to draw humanity’s attention to spiritual reality within material reality Spiritual reality and material reality is best expressed through the interdependence of a man and woman. These two things are best explained as a...

The Savior of Dharma : In this story Krishna wants to marry Radha, but his mother refuses to let him. His mom seeks out his father's help, but Krishna refuses to listen. His father seeks the advice from the family priest who then goes on to tell Krishna the truth about his past. He reveals to him that he is unable to marry Radha because he is to fulfill a greater prophecy, and that he was not really the son of Nanda and Yashoda. I think this story could be told from a kid's point of view when he find out he is adopted. I think that would be an interesting way to tell the story! Krishna Kills Kuvalayapida : In this story Kans tries one last effort to kill Krishna. He created an evil plan to put an elephant, Kuvalayapid, at the gates of the palace to stomp on Krishna and Balram. When Krishna and Balram arrived at the gates, Kuvalayapid tried to attack Krishna, but Krishna grabbed its trunk and flung it out of the way. Refusing to give up, the elephant ran back at Krishna, but...

Kamsa : In this tale Kamsa is prophesied to be killed by Devaki's 8th child. In order to prevent that from happening Kamsa threw Devaki and her husband into prison so that every time Devaki became pregnant he could kill the infant. One by one Devaki bore a child and Kamsa continued to kill them with his bare hands. Devaki's 7th child was transferred to another woman's womb which made it appear as if Devaki had a miscarriage, but there was still one more prophesied birth left. When Devaki had her 8th child a sleep spell overcame the kingdom and the husband was able to escape the prison with baby Krishna to keep him safe from Kamsa. When I rewrite this tale I think it could be interesting to try and create a less gory storyline that doesn't consist of the babies being smashed against the cell walls. Durga Speaks To Kamsa : When Krishna's father escaped the prison with him on the day of his birth he switched baby Krishna out with another girl who had been born on the...

The Elephant And The Dog:  I really enjoyed reading this Jataka. The friendship between the elephant and the dog really warmed my heart. I think that the best friendships are sometimes the ones you cant see coming, or that don't make sense. I think it could be fun to retell this one this week. Since I have 4 stories for my portfolio, I may ditch the fairytales for the rest of the semester.  The Golden Goose:  This tale made my heart so sad after I read it. The dad gave his self up to be a golden goose so that his family wouldn't struggle with money anymore, but they became so greedy and fearful of returning back to their poor lives that they took advantage of him. To me this Jataka tale just has an underlying message that money really doesn't solve all your problems. The mother was doing fine financially with the golden feathers she had already sold, but wanted more.  Friends Furever

The Red Bud Tree: In this story 4 brothers go to a tree at 4 different times of the year, which causes them to see the same tree different ways. When each brother described the way they saw the tree they each claimed the other brother was wrong, but the end of the story it is revealed that they were all indeed right. When reading this story I thought I could write a story on the over all theme that just because someone doesn't see something the same way as you do, doesn't mean they are wrong. The Stolen Plow: I kind of found this story humorous. There once were two traders that were friends. One man borrowed his friends plow, sells it, and then claims that it gets eaten by mice. The owner of the plow thought that sound ridiculous so to combat it, he created a ridiculous story of how his friends son got carried away by birds. In the end the friend takes him to court and he says that if his story of a bird carrying away a boy is ridiculous, that mice eating through a plow i...

The Lion In Bad Company : The theme of this story is one that I live my everyday life by. Bad company produces bad morals. I think it would be fairly easy to create a fairy tale from this Jataka. It could be my first story told about a prince instead of a princess. A prideful young prince can receive bad advice from someone he think she can trust. The king can try to warn him that the idea is not good, but the prince lets his pride take control and follows through with his bad idea any way. Making the wrong choice will seem promising for a short while, but then when trouble comes knocking the "Friend" disappears, leaving the prince to pick up the pieces. Beauty and Brownie : This story has a theme of paying close attention when wise people give instruction. I can't think of a better character to miss directions than a princess who think she knows everything. The Jatakas make it a little harder to add on to my already existing stories, but they can make for short stories...

The Ox Who Won The Forfeit : Overall theme that encouragement is a better tool to use than intimidation when it comes to leadership. My last Cindiarella story ends with the evil stepmother taking over the kingdom. My final story can have the stepmother playing the role of the ox owner who is uses his authority in a bad way. The Kingdom would be upset with the switch in power and the king and his daughter can create a resistance that can overthrow the queen. At the end of the story the king and his daughter can resume their rightful place at the thrown, thus showing that an encouraging leader is desired more. I could even possibly bring back Steve and Ella to help them gain the kingdom back! The Ox Who Envied The Pig : I loved the theme from this story. Its the typical "things aren't as they appear." I feel like its so easy for us to lose sight of what really matters and be envious of the things that we really don't fully understand. I think if I wanted to ditch my...

Son of the Sun : I really liked this story. I think it could be interesting to see if there is a way to incorporate her gift to summon any god into a fairytale. It kind of made me think of being able to summon a fairygod mother. If I decide to continue adding to the sleeping beauty story, I may be able to use this! One Hundred Sons : With the darkness in this story I really felt like I could use this part of the Mahabharata for the evil witch in my sleeping beauty story to get her revenge on the king! I'm not really sure what that would look like, but I think it could make for an interesting story! Evil Minions

Dragon The Night Raid : In this story the Pandava brother's camp is targeted and Draupadi's sons and brother are killed. Draupadi naturally wants revenge after this is done. When reading this story I thought it would be cool to make the bad character turn into a dragon like the villain does in Snow White. The Drago would go and seek out to kill the dwarves who saved the princess, and then they would have to slay the dragon. The Forests and It's Ghost : In this story those that died in the battle get to come back to life for one night. If through out my fairytale I decided to kill off any of my characters I think it would be a great plot line to include this story and have them come back to life! In the story them being alive isn't permanent, but I think I would to give everyone a happy ending.

Rumplestiltskin Jayadratha and Draupadi : What better fairy tale story than one where the princess needs saving? In this story Draupadi is stolen from the Pandava brothers. Even though my sleeping beauty character from last week's story is about a different character from this epic, it could be interesting to put her in the place of Draupadi to add some drama. Either that or I can switch to a whole new fairy tale and tell it from Snow white's point of view since she lives with 7 dwarves and gets taken from them.  Riddles At The Lake : In this story the brothers must answer riddles before taking a drink from this particular lake. 4 of the brothers refuse to listen to the directions and end up dying because of it. I think it would be interesting to use this story as a task for  the dwarves (or whoever) when they are trying to save the princess that gets stolen, or I could tell it based of the fairy tale with rumplestiltskin! The riddles are pretty much the only...

Dwarfs   Wife of the Five Pandavas : This was one of the few stories to catch my attention, mainly because I thought it was interesting how a woman had 5 husbands, when typically you only hear of men having more than one wife during those times. As I read it I thought to myself "how interesting/ terrible would it be to be a woman living with 5 guys?" Then I thought it would be fun to write a story from snow white's point of view when she was living with he 7 dwarfs, but in this case she would be living with 5! Just trying to keep the fairytale stories alive. Arijuna and Ulupi  : I really enjoyed reading this one too because it tied hand in hand with the first story I like from Part B. When reading about the "rules" the brothers had established, I thought it would be fun to combine these two stories and replace the "rules" with the "Bro code".  It would be a fun spin for the part of the code that is broken to be that no one falls for ...

Farquaad King Shantana & Satyavati:  The story of Shantana and Satyavati caught my attention because for some odd reason I could just envision a fairytale with it. I'm not quite sure why my creative senses automatically go to fairytales, but they do so I just roll with it. I'm thinking that I can change the characters around a little bit to make them more fitting to a prince and a princess. I'll probably make  Satyavati's character a lost princess instead of her not being chosen by the rajah. It will probably resemble the story of sleeping beauty a little bit. Bhishma At The Swayamvara : This story was kind of interesting to me because Bhishma had to go seek out the King's brides for him. Why couldn't the King do it himself? It made me think of Lord Farquaad from Shrek who made Shrek risk his life in order to save his princess. I think it may be a fun twist to combine both sleeping beauty and Shrek, but I'm not sure how I'd do that just yet ...

After finishing the film I was just sad. It was one thing to read the story of Rama and Sita, but another thing to watch it! There are so many things that I would have changed about the ending of the film. 1) I would have had Sita jump on Hanuman's back instead of causing Rama to kill hundreds of people (like the storytellers suggested). She didn't need revenge, she should have just been content with getting away from Ravana! 2) Rama would never have questioned her purity as much as he did, nor would he have banished her! I understand Sita loved him and was devoted to him, but that was crap and she shouldn't have put up with it. 3) I would have ended the story with Rama and Sita, and the cartoon characters actually living happily ever after! It was all just sad and depressing! I enjoyed the film though, and the way it told the Ramayana! It was very fun to watch. Bibliography:  Sita Sings the Blues , Nina Palay Screenshot

I enjoyed the first half of Sita Sings The Blues! It was very interesting to see a film tell a story from 3 different perspectives. At first the 3 different cartoon designs really threw me off, but then I realized it was because it was different for each perspective. My favorite perspective was definitely from the storytellers. They had small hints of humor while they told the story, and also simplified it way more than the actual Ramayana we read. They only told the parts that really mattered, and then sometimes they would put in a fun fact. I think one of my favorite parts overall was how simplified the Ramayana was that you could still follow the story well even when she was singing a song that only talked about how much she loved Rama. If I were to change anything about this particular video I  probably would have kept it from the story tellers point of view, and used the cartoony design for all of the characters instead of switching back and forth. I also would probably get ri...

Kumbhakarna:  This epic was interesting to me and really made me think of a Kid who couldn't wake up to his alarm. I think it might be cool to Make it all a dream and that through out the entire dream he is being interrupted by multiple things, and then he loses the 'fight' between sleep and being awake, and his dream has to be over. Ravana and Lakshmana: As I read this epic all I could think about is when you play multiplayer in COD and have to revive players. It might be a fun idea to write a story of two soldiers from the game going through and beating each level, but then something goes wrong in the last level and the other partner has to revive him so they can win the game, and then they kill their enemy as he is trying to revive his partner. QuickMemes Bibliography:   Kumbhakarna , Ravana and Lakshmana

Sugriva and Hanuman: I love a character in disguise. I think Hanuman's ability to transform into anything is really cool. While reading this epic I realized I could go a couple different directions. I could continue my fairy tale storyline and turn Hanuman into a fairygod mother for one or both of the princesses! If I wanted to ditch the storyline I have going I could create a super hero league and Rama and Lakshmana are two super heroes in need of a new member to defeat the evil Robot Monster. Hanuman's super power would be shape shifter. Hanuman's Leap: The Entire Time I was reading this epic all I could think of was a pole Vaulter or Long Jumper competing in a really big meet. So I thought it would be cool to broaden my story horizons and ditch the fairytales and go for a real world example and turn Hanuman into an athlete! Giphy Bibliography:  Sugriva and Hanuman ,  Hanuman's Leap:

Viradha : I'm all for a great battle, but there sure is a lot of death through out this epic and I'm not the biggest fan of that. However, one battle I can get behind is a Dance battle! So I think it would be a great idea to have Rama challenge Viradha to a dance battle, Rama wins, and then they fist bump it and call it a day. Shurpanakah and Rama: To me it just sounds like Shurpanakah wants to be loved, so in my perfect story world I would fulfill that desire of hers! Instead of her being oddly obsessed with Rama, I would prefer her think Lakshmana is worth her fancy. Rama and Sita would work their couple magic to make the two of them work out, and they would live happily ever after! Giphy Bibliography:  Viradha ,  Shurpanakah and Rama

Rama Wins Sita I loved this short story. It really did make me think of a fairytale! While I was reading it I thought it was just too easy for Rama. There really was no challenge. So I thought the story would be more interesting if instead of breaking a bow, it was shooting a bow and arrow, and you had to get a bullseye to win Sita. Once I thought of that plot change, I thought it would be even more dramatic if Rama didn't actually win and someone else did, leaning more towards a 'forbidden love' theme! Rama and Sita's Wedding Rama winning Sita and marrying Sita would kind of go hand in hand, so I thought in my short story I could combine the two stories! Obviously Rama would be invited to the wedding since his siblings were getting married to Janak's other daughters. The story would have more 'wow' factor if Rama stood up in the middle of the ceremony and objected to Sita marrying another man. Giphy Bibliography: Rama Wins Sita , Rama and Sita...