Famous Last Words for Week 11

Happy Easter y'all! 

(Personal picture at my aunts house of her Easter flowers)

I hope everyone has had a great day with their families celebrating the true meaning of this day! Even death couldn't conquer our Lord! :) I know I have been really enjoying it, and it isn't even over yet! 

Anyways, this week has been crazy ad I am so glad it is over and I lived! This week I just have two tests on the same day, and then, I can start preparing for finals. Yippee skipee. Not. 

I really enjoyed writing my story this week so if you get a chance to read it then please do! If not it will be in my portfolio soon anyways.

So, this weekend, a few friends and I went to see Furious 7. It was great. However, I kept waiting to see how they got rid of Paul Walker and they never did. I'm not bummed about it though. It did make the movie more suspenseful though! I felt retarded once it ended and that didn't happen.

Another thing that happened this weekend was Wisconsin beating Kentucky. I watched that too and it was insane. I loved watching my bracket blow up. Not. 

Something I really enjoyed about this week was the weather. I was able to go outside and play with my precious Carmi several times. I went on several runs, and even had time to go out to the lake where my friend lives and ride fourwheelers. It was a really great week. It is crazy how much stuff you can get done when you are being productive and not sitting on your booty. I had a lot of stress this week, but I did a really great job balancing that out with some time to relax and have some fun. I am ready for summer because this semester is on crack all the way until the end for me now. Just gotta take it one week at a time. That's what I keep telling myself or I would pull my hair out.

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a less stressful time then I am! Have a great week! I almost have an A in this class and I hope everyone else is getting to that point as well. Good luck!

Storytelling for Week 11: Milk to Salt

Before the ocean was made of salt, it provided the earth with the creamiest, most refreshing potion known as milk. This potion was worthy of drinking, and so, people would come from all over the land to see and taste this magnificent beverage. It smelled sweet, and looked like a soft blanket of snow like you would see at the top of the mountains where no one has ever walked before. The people had never tasted anything like it! The desire for more made them come back day after day. 

One day, Narayana, an incarnated version of Vishnu, came to the milk sea and shouted to the gods, "Churn the ocean! Unearth the nectar of immorality for me!"

And so, the gods began. They placed the mountain Mandara in the middle. Mandara is the snow mountain, and it is far taller then the sea's depths. Therefore, the milk and snow on the part of the mountain that was visible blended together seamlessly. It was hard to tell the two landscapes apart from one another. However, no one nearby saw this spectacle as the sound of the commotion had pierced their ears, and everyone was hunched over with their fingers in their ears for protection. 

Then abruptly, the great serpent, Sesha, wrapped himself around the mountain and stretched the length of the mountain so that he could be used to churn the ocean. At this moment, Sesha looked like an octopus stretched out to be used in a grand tug-a-war match, good versus evil! Holding onto Sesha's tail were the Asuras which are the unusual-looking, immoral gods. Grabbing onto Sesha's neck were the devas who are the mortal gods including Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Each side took turns pulling back and forth causing the mountain to spin in opposite directions, and of course, messing up the perfect snow on the mountain and throwing boulders into the, now, bubbling milk.

(Image Source: Churning the Milk Sea)

At this, glorious creatures began emerging from the frothing ocean. First, the crescent Moon appeared. Then, to list some of the most notable creatures, Indra's white elephant, Airavata, Surabhi, the white cow who grants wishes, and finally Dhanwantari, the physician robed in white carrying a cup full of amrita, which was the essence of life. 

Narayana screeched with excitement, "At last! I will live forever! This treasure is mine." He had now begun doing his happy dance like a little school girl. Narayana, or Vishnu, was so excited! He proclaimed again, "Thank you, gods. Thank you!"

In the meantime, with all the commotion in the sea from the churning, the sea shot poison up into the air turning the milk into salt water. Milk is a drink that sustains life, and salt water is a drink that destroys it. This was devastating to the people watching.

While the gods were busy elsewhere, the poison shot up into the sky and was going to land all over the worlds. This would instantaneously kill anything that came in contact with it. Miraculously, out of nowhere, Shiva, The Lord of the Mountains and Songs, came flying in to gather all the poison into his mouth in order to swallow it. With this, Shiva saved the worlds. He was a hero!

Unfortunately, the poison was lodged in his airways and his face turned blue. He grabbed the crescent moon that had just emerged from the milk sea and placed it in his hair. With this, Narayana became a woman named Mohini. The cresent moon became a hair jewel for her, and Mohini seduced and confused the asuras who were trying to steal the cup full of amrita. Thankfully though, Mohini succeeded at bringing the devas the armita before the asuras could took it for themselves.       

Author's note: I wrote this tale because I like the significance of the churning of the ocean in Hindu mythology. Also, while writing, I felt like I was able to better understand the events that were happening which helped me to realize why this tale would hold that kind of importance. The beauty of the white milky sea was important in this tale because it is sacrificed in order to bring Vishnu amrita, the essence of life. It is interesting to me that the "dark" gods are pulling against the "mortal" gods like tug-a-war in order to bring Vishnu what he wants. This is very symbolic about the meaning of asking for amrita. When the milk sea began to bring out the glorious creatures, I only named the white creatures that appeared to emphasize the significance of the color white in the story such as, the milk, the elephant, the cow, and the robe. White symbolizes purity so I thought it held a lot of meaning in this tale as the sea was once pure, but now it has been used as a sacrifice and turned into salt water. However, salt is still white. How ironic! I chose this picture because it helps to vividly visualize the event of churning the ocean along with the creatures that surfaced from the ocean during the scene as well. 

Bibliography:  

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata          

Reading Diary B: The Pandavas are sent away from Hastinapura

Dhritarashtra sends the Pandavas and their mother Kunti away

• Duryodhana, of course, makes a plan to build them a house that will be easy to burn down
• Vidura warns the Pandavas of the plan
• The Pandavas build a tunnel under the house to escape
• They leave 6 corpse to burn in their place so that Duryodhana believes they are dead
• The Pandavas flee to a village
• The village has to send yearly sacrifices to the demon Vaka
• Kunti sends Bhima to destroy him even though he is weak from hunger
• Vyasa arrives and takes the Pandavas to win the daughter of Drupada 
• Arjuna wins her by showing his strength with Shiva's bow 
• Krishna is present and congratulates Arjuna
• Krishna remembers Arjuna from another life
• Dhrishtadyumna brings the Pandavas to marry his daughter, Draupadi
• Dhritarashtra is glad to learn the Pandavas are still alive--> gives them Khandava to rule
• Arjuna goes to visit Krishna and falls in love with his sister, Subhadra
• The fire god, Agni, comes to Krishna and Arjuna and tells him he is hungry and he needs to burn the forest to regain strength
• Agni needs Arjuna's and Krishna's help to defend Indra while he "eats"
• Agni gives Arjuna the bowl Gandiva and Krishna his iron chakra (discus)
• The gods watch Arjuna and Krishna take on Indra
• Arjuna comes to the rescue of the asura, Maya, the heaven's architecture
• Maya builds the Pandavas' an unbelievable palace as a thanks
• Duryodhana visits the palace
• He is fooled by one of the illusions and someone laughs and he thinks they are mocking him
• Duryodhana goes to Yudhisthira and demands an apology but he denies this request
• So Duryodhana challenges Yudhisthira to a game of dice
• Vyasa goes to his mother and takes her, Ambika, Ambalika, and Vidura's mother to safety from the events that he forsees

 

(Image Source: Arjuna wins Draupadi by Ramanarayanadatta astri)

Reading Diary A: The beginning

The book starts out being told by Pandu's grandson

Then the poet Vyasa tells the story of Mahabharata while Ganesha, the scribe, writes it down

Before the sea turned to salt water it was milk

Takshaka disguises himself as a beetle on the last day of the king's, Parikshit, death curse time limit

Parikshit tries to show that he is no longer living in fear by putting the beetle on his neck whenever Takshaka turns into a snake and bites him

Parikshit's son takes over the kingdom and plans to hold a sacrifice to kill Takshaka

(Image Source: Satyavati, the girl born out of a fish by Tropenmuseum) 

Mahabharata finally begins

• Ganga falls in love with the king
• has 7 kids and drowns the first 6
• Bhishma is spared because the king finally says stop
• semen in a fish--> fish smelling man (Vyasa) 
• Chedi renounces his kingship and gives it to Santanu
• Santanu and Satyavati have a son named Vichtravirya 
• Vichtraviyra is given 3 wives by Bhishma
• One of them is sent away because she already gave her heart away (Amba)
• Vichtraviyra dies before he has kids
• Satyavati summons her son Vyasa to have kids with the two wives
• Dhritarashtra (blind), Pandu(pale), and Vidura (normal)
• Pandu marries Kunti and Madri
• Kunti has a mantra that she can make love with gods
• Kunti tried it first with the sun god, Surya
• Kunti sent the baby up stream --> Karna
• Dhritarashtra marries Ghandhri and becomes king
• Ghandhri is pregnant for 2 years and has 100 babies
• They have to incubate for 2 more years in jars full of butter
• Pandu is cursed and can't make love 
• Kunti uses her mantra and has 2 kids when Madri wants to have kids and she uses the mantra to have 1 more child and twins
• Pandu can no longer resist and makes love to Madri and dies and Madri does too
• Drona marries Kripi and is so poor he can't even afford milk for their child
• Drona asks Drupada for help but Drupada denies Drona's friendship and calls him his enemy
• Bhishma makes Drona the trainer for all the Pandava and Kaurava princes
• Kripa became archery teacher
• Arjuna is the best bow person until Karna arrives and shows his skills and is named king (everyone wonders who exactly he is--> son of gods?)
• But he is the son of a chariottor--> found him when Kunti sent her baby up stream and raised the boy