Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part B

For part B I am continuing to watch the Epified Mahabharata videos. I really enjoy the simple quick presentation of the content. Part 9 continues where 8 left off. kunti is preparing to be married but has a dark secret. When she was younger she accidentally summoned Suryadev, the sun god to her room. After being embraced by the god and enveloped in his light, she is left with a child. A beautiful child clad in armor, destined for greatness. Because she was unmarried she decided to but the child in a basket and cast him off down the river. I think this has a lot of potential to be a story. One thing that surprises me with these stories is the similarities they have with a lot of the stories in the bible. Another interesting part was ep 14-The Magic Potion. Bheem is pushed into a body of water, asleep, and tied up. As he sinks he begins to be bitten by poisonous snakes. Instead of dying he breaks free and kills the snakes. He finds himself in another realm and meets Vasuki, the snake king and a relative. Vasuki gives him a magic potion that gave him super powers-strength of a 100 elephants. Bheem swims off and decides to become all he can be. This has a lot of good elements for a quest story. Him escaping and defeating attackers. Meeting a weird king. The magic potion. I can see taking this story the exact opposite direction. Instead of tied up and thrown in water to sink, my hero will tied to balloons to float away in the sky. Instead of sea serpents it will be giant birds. I will replace the underwater kingdom with a sky/cloud kingdom with a giant bird creature ruler.

A castle in the sky

Pixabay link

Blogspot link to video Playlist

Epified: Mahabharata

Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part A

For my reading this week I did the Mahabharata series of YouTube. This is a series of short videos that narrate while an artist draws. I did another series like this a few week ago and liked it a lot. I was interested in this reading immediately. The first story is about the king Shantu and his wife the river goddesss Ganga. Ganga married him under the stipulation that Shantu could never question her decisions. This is put to the test when she has his child. She kills the child immediately. She does this for their first 7 children. Before she kills child number 8 Shantu questions her. Shantu explains that she had to give birth to the 8 Vazus. Celestial spirits cursed to live as mortals. Ganga agreed to kill them at birth to release them from the curse. Because Shantu questioned her Ganga left with the 8th child. This story reminded me of a lot of fantasy style writings like lord of the rings. I can see using this material in a lot of different types of stories. Some ideas I have is telling a story with animals. I also could see this story working in a sci fi setting. A Post apocalypse world where live births are very rare. I will need to think of why the first few will need to be killed. I also think having someone who does ridiculous things, but can not be questioned would be another story direction. Maybe have a boss or military leader who does increasingly crazy things. In the end it is revealed to be for an important purpose. A Nazi life regime where questioning your commander is death. One underling finally cant take it anymore and has to question his orders. A lot of the other stories did not have a lot of striking details for me to latch onto. The last story the Blind Bride was also interesting. A blind king must marry. A suitable candidate is found but her family does not want her to mark a blind man. She knew she was destined to marry a blind man so she decided to blindfold herself for life. Another story detail is the kings younger brother actually has most of the power.

Ganga leaving with child 8

wikimedia image

Blogspot link to video Playlist

Epified: Mahabharata

Reading Notes: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales Part B

For todays reading I read the second part of Inayat's Twenty Jaka Tales. These stories continued in the trend of the others. They usually have a lesson and theme to them. This theme is usally taought through animals. One story I liked was The Quarrelsome Quails. This story tells of how the birds must always work together. As long as they work together they will always be able to escape the net. The bird king tells them that if they fight and do not work together they will die. This eventually happens and two birds begin to fight. The king and those who heeded his warning left. The fighting birds were captured as well as those around them. The message being to stand strong and work together. This story is short and impactful. This leaves a lot of room open to create my own unique story. I can writa story about a group of people that must wor together to survive. When they stop working together, this leads to their demise. I could see this story taking place in a modern, desperate survival situation. Another story i enjoyed was "The end of the world". This story tells the story of a small mouse that has a piece of fruit fall on his head. The mouse panicks and sets of a chain reaction of all the animals panicking over nothing. I like the message of rationale thought an not getting caught up things.

The sky is falling
flickr image

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)

Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

For my reading I read the first part of Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. I really enjoyed these short stories. What I liked most about them is the theme and message that they carried. One popular message was that of a leader being willing to sacrifice their selves for their people. Also that a leader should lead through love and compassion. In the first story the monkey king says to rule your people through love because they are your children. I think this message of self sacrifice and leadership would be easy to turn into my own story. This is a theme that is present in a ton of literature and media today as well. I liked the first story, The Monkey Bridge. A monkey tribe wants to keep their delicious fruit secret. It must never float down the river to be discovered by man. When this happens the king comes to take all the fruit and kill all the monkeys. The monkey leader sacrifices himself by using his body as a bridge to allow his people to escape. This kills him, but he has a minute to share why he sacrificed himself for his people to the human king. I also liked the story Banyan. In this story two kingdoms of deer are herded and captured in the human kings yard. every day one of them is killed for food. In order to prevent further harm and pain they decide to send one deer a day as a sacrifice. One day a young mother is chosen, the first deer king says she must do her duty, the second king goes in her place. The human king is so moved by this act of co0mpassion he frees all the animals. Important to note the leaders were special golden deers that were never to be killed. 

Majestic Golden Deer

Wikimedia deer link

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)

Reading Guide

Week 10 Story: Riding the Bull

      Krishna never fit in, in his hometown. All anyone cared about was hunting, fighting, and bull riding. Krishina was more interested in helping the less fortunate and spreading kindness. Krishina knew that if he could somehow earn the other cowboys respect they would come to understand and follow his teachings of love. After thinking it over Krishina knew what he had to do, he had to do what every other cowboy was too afraid to do, he had to ride the bull named Hastin.

       Hastin was the biggest meanest bull in town. He was so mean that most people wanted to have him killed before he hurt someone. Krishina gathered the other cowboys around and told them what he planned to do, "In one months time, I shall ride the great bull Hastin in the annual rodeo," he declared! All the other cowboys mocked him, but he was undeterred and began his plan that night. Krishina knew that kindness was the ultimate strength and even Hastin could be rode if someone showed him some kindness. Every night Krishina would visit Hastin. He would play his banjo and feed Hastin the freshest grains and the sweetest moonshine. As the month wore on Krishina could tell his plan was working. Hastin seemed to love his music and even let Krishina feed him out of his hand. By the end of the month Krishina saw Hastin as his friend and he knew the bull felt the same way.

       The morning of the rodeo, Krishina was exited to show off and earn the other cowboys respect. Before he rode Hastin, Krishina explained what he had done.Looking out at the crowd Krishina said "This past month I have been able to tame and befriend Hastin; not through cruelty and fear, but through kindness and compassion. Kindness is the ultimate strength. With his motive explained Krishina sauntered over to Haskin. With one last wave Krishina leaped onto Hastin. As soon as Krishina's butt grazed Hastins back, the bull went wild. What Krishina thought was his friend was still the same wild bull and Krishina went flying off into a pile of manure. Covered in manure as the crowd laughed at him, Krishina decided it was time to go spread kindness somewhere else. 

Authors Note: I retold the Story of Krishina rides Haskin. In the original he is able to ride the bull. This shows his message of  "Kindness is the Ultimate strength" and shows his glory. Krishina is the God of compassion and love. I retold the story in an American setting and had Krishina fail in his task and be ridiculed. 

A bull rider attempter

Link to Bull riding Article

Title:  Krishna

Author:  Epified TV (India)

Year:  2015

Link to Video playlist
Krishna rides Hastin

Reading Notes - Epified: Krishna

For this weeks reading I watched the krishna YouTube shorts. I really enjoyed this format. They were quick, to the point, and I loved the illustrations. I thought that a lot of these shorts had potential for my story this week. The first story Krishna Humbles Brahma had a lot of potential. I like the aspect of people dissapearing and being replaced with a doppelganger. The rest of the village did not notice for the entire year their people were missing. I think this leaves a lot of room for a sci-fi or horror story. In the original Brahma realizes  Krishna's power when he comes to return the people and see's everything has been replaced by Krishna and continued on as normal.  The next story, Krishna rides Hastin also interested me. This one is about a mean bull that everyone wants to kill. Krishna decides he will ride this bull in one month. He spends the month feeding the bull and playing music, building up the bulls trust. At the end of the moth he is able to ride the bull through the street. This is a theme I have seen in popular culture before, and I think it would be interesting to do a story on this. I would like to do a story where at the end the bull is still mean and Krishna gets bucked off.  What I liked most about this story is the end message. Krishna says "Kindness is the ultimate strength. this seems to be the overarching theme of the videos and Krishna later on in Episode 16. Krishna has compassion for an old crippled woman and heals her. The woman comes to him as her savior and his healed by her faith. i saw a lot of parallels between Krishna and Jesus in the Bible. A lot of the stories were similar to parables in the Bible and both Krishna and Jesus act very similar. This also opens up a lot of new ideas for potential stories.

Man is unsuccessful at riding bull
Pixabay bull rider image link

Title:  Krishna
Author:  Epified TV (India)
Year:  2015
Link to Video playlist

Week 9 Story: The Last Boy Scout

The scouts all gathered friday evening. They all bought ther survival gear and everything else they would need on their camping trip. Tents, rope, matches, trailmix, it was all there and they were eager to step off into the wilderness. "Today we will finally earn our survival badge, and with that I will have all the badges a scout could earn," the leader of the group Yudhisthira declared. The other three scouts all nodded in exited agreement.

          They arrived at the park shortly before sundown and quickly began to set up camp. Arjuna was eager to show off his knot tying skills and created a haphazard shelter of ropes and canvas. Sahadeva attempted to start a fire with his new flint rock, before conceding to use his lighter. The boys told a few ghost stories and quickly fell fast asleep

     They woke to the morning sun already beating down upon them. Thirsty, the boys began to look around for their water. " Hey who has an extra water bottle, I forgot mine, " Nakula said. "I forgot mine too," replied Arjuna. Quickly the boys all realized they were in trouble and they would have to figure out how to survive if they ever hoped to earn their survival badges. Yudhisthira attempted to contain the panic but even he was starting to become worried. "I think there is a pond nearby, why dont you check it out Nakula," he said.

     Nakula ran off and quickly reached the pond. When he reached the shore suddenly the pond spoke to him and said "before you may drink, riddle me this". Nakula was to thirsty to be bothered by a talking pond and quickly drank anyway. Almost  immediately, he fell over dead.

      Worried Shadeva decided to go investigate. He too reached the pond and saw his friend lying dead. He too heard the voice of the riddling pond, but was so thirsty he decided to drink anyway. He too fell over dead almost immediately.

      Next Arjuna grew impatient and went off over to the pond. He saw his two friends lying dead and then the pond spoke to him. Arjuna would not be taunted by a talking pond, and with a mighty "Come at me bra," began to throw rocks at the pond. When this did nothing he too decided to go ahead and drink from the pond anyway. Unsurprisingly he too fell over dead.

      Alone Yudhisthira decided to investigate the pond as well. When he saw his friends dead he bagan to cry. Suddenly the pond spoke to Yudhisthira as well, "Riddle me this, scout," the pond declared. "I will answer your riddles magic pond, but first tell me what happened to my friends," Yudhisthira replied.  The pond was silent for a moment and then said "Your friends died from drinking dirty water from a stagnant pond, look at me, this water is full of all kinds of bacteria. Now for your first riddle; What three things are needed for a fire?"

Yudhisthira remembered his scout training and confidently declared "Heat, oxygen, and fuel."

Immediately the voice said "If you do not have any water, what should you drink?

For this question Yudhisthira had to dig deep. He thought about all the Man V Wild with Bear Grylls he had watched. Again he confidently replied "You drink your own pee"

The pond then spoke again "What should you do with pond water before you drink it?"

"You should always boil it," Yudhisthira replied.

Suddenly the pond transformed into William Dickson Boyce, the founder of the boy scouts."You have passed my test wise scout, You may have two wishes," Said Boyce.

"I wish my friends were alive and I wish we could all get our survival badge, exclaimed Yudhisthira.

Suddenly all three boys arose and the four of them happily left the forest, shiny new badges in hand.

The Great scout Yudhisthira and all his badges.
Yudhisthira Image
Scout Image

Authors Note. I told the story of Yudhisthira from Chapter 50 of the Mahabharata reading: Riddles at the Lake. The story is about five warriors who encounter the God of wisdom disguised as a pond. Yudhisthia is able to answer his difficult riddles and save his friends. I was pretty pleased with how the story turned out. I think telling the story as boy scouts worked perfectly and fit the theme of the original story. The story turned out a lot longer than most of mine, but I like the details I was able to include, such as their complete lack of survival skills, and the absurdity of multiple men drinking form the same pond that just killed their friend.


The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921). Mahabharata