Gurus, Yogis, and Rishis: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My portfolio will be about Gurus, Yogis, and Roshis. Possible ways to set this kind of portfolio up could be to tell a new story about the same Guru each time, and if I did it that way, the Guru I would most likely pick to tell the stories about would be Parashurama since there is so much information on him and he plays a big role in the Indian epics. I think a more fun way to set this portfolio up though, would be to tell a story about a new guru each time, so that the reader can learn more about the different Indian epics characters instead of just learning a lot about just one.

Bibliography: 
Parashurama, from The Divine Archer, by F.J. Could (1911).
Shabari, from the Ramayana, University of California Press (2000).

Possible Styles

First Person. One possible way to tell these stories would be to do it from the point of view of the gurus themselves, as their dialogue is used to tell the story each time. This would be kind of interesting as you get a story told from a different perspective each time and everything feels new to the reader. The problem with this style is that it might get too cluttered going through all of the different stories being told in first person but from a different character each time, that might be way too confusing to follow. Another problem is that I tend to struggle telling stories in first person, it's hard for me to get the flow of dialogue just right for some reason.

Stories told around a Campfire. I think it would be really fun if the anthology of stories were told from the perspective of an elder, or mother/father, etc telling stories of the different mighty gurus to young children late at night around the campfire before going to bed. This way, it would be like every story comes from a new night that the parents are telling these stories to the children, and each story contains a moral so the children have something to learn and take from the story each time. This also sounds appealing because I think I could do a good job of putting together a portfolio of stories in this fashion.

Quest/Journey. Another cool way to tell the stories of the different gurus could be to tell stories of the different gurus and yogis and rishis from the perspective of Parashurama as if he is personally recalling all of these stories from past events that he personally witnessed. He would be reliving and telling all of these stories of the different heroes to someone that is accompanying him on a journey or quest as a means of passing the time. Maybe the events of the journey or quest will actually tie in to the portfolio too, or maybe it will just be entirely focused on the past stories themselves. Either way would be a really neat idea.

Yoga Class. The most creative idea I have for telling these stories is through the voice of a yoga instructor, teaching her students the history behind this art form and its spiritual importance. Maybe there is a student that starts complaining about the exercises being too difficult or maybe she starts every yoga session off with a story about different yogis and their paths to enlightenment.

Parashurama

Wikimedia

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

I really enjoyed reading of Indrajit early on in this section of the reading.  I am very fascinated in learning more about Rakshasas and as Ravana's powerful son, he sounds intriguing to learn more about.  Reading the part of the story about the great battle between the monkeys and the Rakshasas, led by Indrajit, kept me very interested.  Again, I couldn't help but be reminded of one of my favorite stories of all time, The Lord of the Rings, while reading this part of the Ramayana.  As the battle scene was being described, it reminded me of the humans led by Gandolf fighting in their last battle against the orks who were led by the With-king of Angmar, who also had magical powers just like Indrajit.  This battle too, was fought between good and evil, and both the heroes and villains fought with magical weapons, as in the Ramayana battle.  I also enjoyed reading of Garuda, the winged beast mount of Lord Vishnu.  It is really fascinating reading about a hero's mount being able to do great works and save other heroes, because in most types of mythology and stories, this role generally does not get to perform such heroic feats.  Again, I was reminded of the Lord of the Rings while reading of him, because in the Lord of the Rings epic battle, when the heroes were starting to get hurt and their armies were pushed  back by the evil army of orks, Gandolf's allies, the griffins (winged horse with the head of an eagle), came to their rescue and began fighting the evil army to drive them back and protect Gandolf and the other heroes.

Going back to Indrajit, another thing that really fascinated me about him were his choices of weapons.  The nagastra, a serpant weapon, is extremely unique to anything that I have ever  read before, because it is a bow that shoots magical arrows that can turn into snakes.  There was so much information and interesting topics in this half of the reading, I could write a story based off of Indrajit and his nagastra weapon alone.

Reading Diary A: Ramayana

I have actually enjoyed reading the Ramayana very much. I honestly wasn't very sure what I should be expecting with reading this story as I have never read an Indian epic before, but I have been very pleased with the story telling.  For some reason, the part of this story that really struck my attention was the part about Sampati and his brother Jatayu.  It was cool to hear the story about the two vultures flying too close to the sun and burning their wings.  Its very similar to Greek mythology and the story of Icarus, except one of the brothers lives to tell the story.  The story then goes on to Sampati telling the story of meeting with Nishakara and begging him to give him death so he does not have to live a life without wings, to which Nishakara replies that life is not about living for one's own pleasure, and that there must be a greater purpose in life for Sampati since he has not yet died.  I'm not sure why, but reading that really struck a cord with me and I couldn't help but read it over again.  I think that is such a strong message to embed into the story and makes me want to read more about Nishakara.

 Picture of Sampati and Jatayu flying too close to the sun

Two Brothers