The Selfless Rabbit
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Reading Diary B: Twenty Jataka Tales
For part B of this week's reading, I finished reading the rest of Twenty Jataka tales. The most notable theme throughout the readings of individual stories in this book was that of self sacrifice. An overwhelming amount of the stories involve a king who sacrifices himself for the better of his followers, and ends with the person or thing putting his people in danger to begin with becoming so moved by the king's love and self sacrifice that he changes his mind and decides to do none of them any harm. The king and his followers are generally a group of animals, ranging from a broad range of different types of animals, and the things putting them in danger are generally a group of humans acting out of selfish desires. Other short stories read in this book include stories about self sacrifice for one's family or even for a stranger, as when the hare wishes to sacrifice himself into a fire in order to provide food for a mysterious stranger, or when the father gets turned into a golden goose in order to provide food for his family. I liked these stories because they promoted good morals and doing the right thing. The most important moral this book teaches, as mentioned earlier, is to be purely selfless and put all others, not just your loved ones, above yourself.
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Hey Tucker!
ReplyDeleteI have yet to read the Twenty Jataka Tales. I have been focusing my readings on Krishna since that is the topic of my portfolio. Based on your post though I might have to look into the Twenty Jataka Tales. It sounds really interesting. It sounds like a lot of the tales were about self-sacrifice. I enjoy reading about martyrs and noble people who put others before themselves. It is inspiring.