Week 2, Reading Diary: Ramayana

This reading went a lot smoother than the last. I don't know if I just had to get into the swing of reading again or what, but this section was also more exciting to me.

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived ... Continued
The rest of the story pretty much goes like this...
So, Kaikey has pissed everyone off in the kingdom, ESPECIALLY Lakshmana, Rama's half brother. He basically went around town like a macho man on steroids wanting to fight everyone. Rama told him to chill and that it was fate's decision that he should go into the woods. Lakshmana and Situ, Rama's wife, go into the woods to be with him. On their way out of town, half of the town follows them. Rama decided to take off in the night with Situ and Lakshmana so he could finish his 14 years in peace. Soon after Rama's dad died, Bharatha came home and realized what his mother had done and took off after Rama. After much heeing and hawing they settled on the fact that Bharatha would be King until Rama returned 14 years later.

Ravana, Demon-King of Lanka. Watercolor painting by unknown artist, 1920.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Four Encounters in Exhile
In this chapter, as Rama and company are moving through the woods, they come upon Jatayru, a great eagle, who was once divine. He had also, at one point, been on the battlefield with Rama's father and so Jatayru joined the group. As they went to Panchuati to destroy some demons-especially Ravana, who was head MF in charge-some hot chick showed up in Rama's yard. Turns out, she was really Soorpanaka, Ravana's sister. So, she basically tried to con Rama into ditching Situ by saying that just by being with her he would be safe from Ravana. Rama then said he ain't scared, and told her to bugger off. She gets love sick and decides to take Situ out of the picture herself. Needless to say, she ends up noseless, earless, and boobless...not a good day for Soorpanaka for sure! So, she runs to her brother and gripes hoping he will take Situ for himself so she can run off with Rama. Ravana then goes to his unc's, who has already had two run-ins with Rama before this, and he's like, nope, nuh-huh, not beefin' with Rama again dude. Ravana then threatens his life, so he's like, well, I'm danged if I do and danged if I don't, so let's do this...

Week 2, Reading Diary A: Ramayana

Wow, where to start! Ramayana is a really cool story so far. I like how the story progresses pretty quickly in the beginning with the adventures of Rama and Viswanithia while telling stories of others along the way and then moves right into the good Jerry Springer kind of stuff going on in the family! I did find a few quotes that really stuck with me and wrote those down.

"A seed that sprouts at the foot of it's parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted." 

Viswanithia to King Dasaratha.

"We attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine

and other associations of every piece of ground we tread on."

Thataka's Story
This story is about Sukitha who is a demigod and her two sons, Mareecha and Subahu. Basically they went crazy and tore a bunch of stuff up on the earth. Sundra, their dad, dropped dead because a saint wanted him to. Sukitha and Sons wanted revenge! The saint said that since they were destroyers they would be degraded to demons. Their mother stayed and made the land bad, but the boys, I assume, just roamed about in whatever world that demons hang out in.

Mahabali's Story
This is a story about a sneaky little guy named Vishnu. Mahabali had seized the heavens and the earth and Vishnu told him he just wanted what he could cover in three steps. Vishnu appeared small to Mahabali, so he said, sure, why not, it can't be that bad and then BAM, Vishnu became HUGE and took one step on the earth, one step in heaven and the last on Mahabali's head and sent his butt straight to the netherworld. There are some other things that happened in that story towards the end, but that was the really cool part :)

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived
This is the story about how Rama and Situ met in this life. Before this life they had been husband and wife many times before. The beginning reminded me of Romeo and Juliet a little and I was hoping it wasn't going to end up the same and I wasn't disappointed. I was, however, surprised at the twist. So I guess the King had many wives, not sister wives, but anyway, so the one that wasn't Rama's mom decided she wanted her son, Bharatha, to have the kingdom and not Rama. Long story short, she conned the King into almost sending Rama away for 14 years.

Rama's Coronation. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Ravi Varma Press, 1910.