Indian Epics

This story is about King Shantanu's first wife, Ganges. Although King Shantanu did not know his wife was a goddess of the Ganges River when he first met her, he soon finds out. One day, Vasus interrupted a brahmin's, Vashishtha, meditation. Vashishtha got angry and cursed Vasus. The curse was for Vasus to be mortal. Therefore, Vasus came to Ganga to help them. She said that she could would be their mother and kill them immediately so they could go back to being a celestial. I guess being a mortal for one lifetime is so bad they would like to die a quick death. King Shantanu is walking near the Ganges River when he sees a beautiful woman. That woman was Ganga in her mortal form. It was love at first sight for King Shantanu. This man was forward. He asked for her to marry him immediately. Ganga agreed to marry him, but on the condition that he would not be mean to her. If he was, she would leave immediately. And so, the couple got married. They even had children. But as Ganga...

The Pandavas Depart  and The Afterlife  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Vyasa, a priest, came upon the Pandavas. He told them it was time for their departure. Yudhisthira divided the kingdom. The Pandavas and Draudapi got rid of their materialistic items to prepare for their departure. Then the Pandavas, Draudapi, and a hound departed. Draudapi was the first to fall. She fell because her heart was still with Arjuna. The next one to fall was Sahadeva. Then Nakula fell. Finally, Bhima fell and Yudhisthira and the hound were the only ones left standing. Bhima fell because of his cursing, gluttony, and pride. Yudhisthira was the one who explain why each of them fell. It was weird to me that Yudhisthira was calm through all this. It is like he did not care until he came to Mount Meru where he met Indra. It was then when he pleaded with Indra to allow everyone to go to heaven with him. When Yudhisthira said everyone, he meant everyone even the hound. Yudhisthira would not aban...

Arjuna and Indra  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Indra is Arjuna's father. Urvashi  was smitten with Arjuna, but Arjuna did not feel the same way. Therefore  Urvashi put a curse on saying " thou wilt   for a season live unregarded among women as a dancer and musician". However, Indra told Arjuna not to worry for it will work in his favor. Karna and Indra  by  Sister Nivedita Arjuna and Karna were destined to slay the other. Karna had celestial armor and earrings to protect him. These were tokens of invincibility. Indra appeared to Karna in the form of a brahmin so that he could remove these tokens of invincibility. However, Karna knew it was Indra. Karna struck a deal with Indra. Karna would give Indra his tokens of invincibility if Indra gives him an invincible dart. I like this story and may retell the story.  (Picture of Indra and Karna  Wiki ) Jayadratha and Draup adi  by  Donald A. Mackenzie Some men really like kidnapping...

I liked the video  How Languages Evolve  by Alex Gendler. It is crazy that there could be somewhere between 3000-8000 different languages. So far, I know English, Korean, Latin, and Spanish. I learned Latin in high school and it really helped with learning Spanish because it was my first experience with conjugating. Although Latin is not a spoken language, many languages derive from it. I learned Spanish in college and I am planning on minoring in it. I used to get annoyed when people would ask if I could understand another Asian language because of languages are so different. The Korean alphabet doesn't share the same alphabet as the Chinese or Japanese. It is even difficult to understand North Koreans even though we speak the same language, because they have a different dialect. However, after learning Spanish I understood a little bit why people thought Asian people spoke the same language. People in Mexico and Spain share basically the same language although there are diff...

In  Wife of the Five Pandavas  by Donald A. Mackenzie, Shiva granted Draupadi five husbands because in her previous life she was a pious woman named Nalayani who prayed to him for a husband. She prayed five times to Shiva about a husband so he gave her five husbands. Her five husbands were the five Pandava princes. This is so weird to me. It kind of reminds me of the show 'Sister Wives', but I guess it would be called 'Brother Husbands' for this story. As the story continues on, they made a pact that only one of them should be with  Draupadi at a time. However Arjuna broke this pact and he was sent to exile for twelve years. He goes on and finds different women. I feel like there are a lot of gaps in this story so I would retell this story by filling in these gaps. A recurring theme in the this part of the stories is the unique births. In the  Birth of Draupadi  by  Donald A. Mackenzie,   Drupada wanted children so he performed a sacrificial rit...

I was very surprised at the story of King Shantanu and Ganga  by  Donald A. Mackenzie . King Shantanu fell in love with Ganga. Ganga is actually the goddess of the Ganges River. King Shantanu did not know this because when they met Ganga was in her human form. She agreed to be his as long as King Shantanu did not speak harshly towards her. Whenever Ganga and King Shantanu had children she would drown them in the Ganges River. She did this seven times. By the eight time, King Shantanu had enough and went off on Ganga. She left him and revealed that she was the goddess of the Ganges River. I appreciated the fact that Ganga was a strong woman who knew when to leave, unlike Sita in Ramayana. Ganga agreed to stay with King Shantanu did not speak harshly towards her. However, I feel like Ganga abused this statement. When she drown their children in the Ganges River, Ganga should have told King Shantanu she did this so they could return to their celest...

I did not know that google had a timer. Using a timer will be a great way to keep me on track. One of my friends uses a reward system. She times herself studying for like 30 minutes and then rewards herself by showering or taking a break. She manages to get good grades, so I may have to use her reward system and use the google timer to keep on track. (Picture of a Timer  Pxhere )