Week 11 Storytelling: My Child, My Buddha

Dear Diary,

Today I sat in meetings just as I would any other day. It had started out as a normal day and nothing in my life would have lead me to believe any different. Until the moment that I learned my life would forever change, that is.

My dear wife sent a servant after me as I was providing justice and good fortune to my loyal citizens. It sounded urgent, and I love my wife dearly, so I decided to go to her straight away.

However, before I could come near where she sat in the wooded area beyond our gardens, something strange came over me. I could not move from the spot in which I stood. Some kind of… terror? No, I do not know the feelings that I felt while I was stood there. These emotions were strong and there were so many that I was left feeling terrified. Even in my days as a warrior I had never felt that kind of fear. I nearly cried from the feelings.

A strange voice then spoke to me, a voice from the sky!

It told me to be happy, and all of those strong emotions left me. It told be that a supreme being had chosen my family as its own. That my wife would conceive and carry it, and it would be our child to raise and nurture. It said that we were worthy of it for many reasons.

 I am happy, oh believe me, I am more than happy. However, I also feel as if I am not worthy enough. Yes, the being chose my wife and me to come to, but why? Am I really as valiant and virtuous as that being really believes? Are my wife and I capable of raising such a divine being?

I will love this child, I know that I will. Perhaps I already do. However, I do not understand why it is me that this child will belong to. Are there not better men than me? Are there not better women than my wife? The trust that this being has in us astounds me.

So I will do my best to stay virtuous, and I will nurture my child, this supreme being to be the same kind of person. I will give it all of my riches and protect it from all harm. It will be happy. It will be loved. And I will do my very best to live up to the expectations that it has of me and my wife. Our child, our Buddha.

Signing out for today,

Suddhodana

Image Information: King Suddhodana on His Throne; Web Source: Wikipedia.

Author's Note:

King Suddhodana and his wife, Queen Maya are seen as virtuous rulers who are wealthy and noble. Because their family is fully of good people, the being whom will become Siddhartha, or Buddha, chose them when he was to be brought to earth. It was revealed to Maya in a dream, who then wake up supremely happy and calls for her husband. Before King Suddhodana can reach his wife, he is overcome by an overwhelming amount of emotions, which stops him in his tracks. A god then explains the situation to him and he joins his wife, they are happy about this child.

I wanted to get into Suddhodana’s head a little more to figure out what he felt about the situation. It had to be one where he felt uncomfortable at first because his wife was suddenly pregnant with a divine being. I know I would be freaked out in that case. So, I wrote a diary entry to really get into his thoughts and emotions about the matter. I wanted to show both the confusion, clarity, and the need to raise the child well as its father.

Bibliography:

This story is based off of the chapter "Maya's Dream" in "Part One" of The Life of Buddha by Andre

Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Week 10 Storytelling: Hunter's (Not Quite) Delight

I had always had a passion for hunting. The game of sneaking through the forest and searching for animals had always been a thrilling exercise for me. However, because of the busy life I lived, I often times could not actually fulfill my desire to hunt.

However, one night, I got my chance. Everyone was sleeping, and I did not have anything that I needed to do in the morning. Well… anything important, that is. So, I decided to sneak off and find a plump thrush or hare in the woods. I’d had a bad feeling about it, you know, the kind that you get before something out of your control happens. But, I pushed it off. I was a warrior, so whatever happened to me would most likely be something I could fight off anyways.

I had my bow in hand, and I was deep in the woods. Hearing something to my left, I attempted to pinpoint it. However, whatever it was, it was gone before I could find it. Crouching down further, I closed my eyes and tried to hone my senses—my warrior senses—hoping that I could find something that was near to me. I could not return to my bed tonight without getting a kill; that would just be embarrassing, after all.

Hearing a river that was not too far off, I crept towards it. I expected that I would be able to find an animal there, quenching their thirst under the clear sky of the night. And there I saw buck, beautiful and marvelous, so I quickly grabbed an arrow from my quiver and I took a shot. But, some loud noise in the bushes behind the magnificent creature scared it off.

With a groan, I stepped closer to the water. Rats, what was so big in those woods that it was able to scare off my prey? Then, I heard a noise again. And the being did in fact sound rather large. It was also coming out of the woods, close to me. I don’t know what came over me then. It could have been fear, maybe panic. Whatever it was, I’m not sure. But what I do know, is that I panicked for a moment before pulling out another arrow and shooting in the direction of that noise.

I heard something drop to the ground, and went to find what it was, but a voice stopped me. Some old man was yelling in the woods.

“My cow! Oh, my poor cow, who could do such a thing to my blessed cow?”

Realizing I had made a mistake—a very bad mistake—I ran deeper into the woods to where the man was. Before me was a hermit, kneeling next to a cow that was bleeding out. He was visibly upset, and turned to give me one of the most horrifying looks of anger that I have received even to this day. I opened my mouth to apologize, but he cut me off before I could say anything.

“I curse you!” He cried. “One day, while you are in the middle of a moment very critical to your life, the earth will open up and swallow one of the wheels of your chariot.”

Taken aback, I tried to apologize, offer him a new cow, money, anything. However, he accepted none of it. I did in fact feel quite bad about the idea, but nothing I did would console or please the man. So, I walked away and returned to my bed, now cursed and regretful. Maybe I should have listened to my gut feeling, and stayed in my bed tonight.

Image Information: A Cow; Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note:

I love reading stories about Karma, and if you’ve read my Storybook then you know I also like telling them. So, when I read in The Mahabharata about how Karna was cursed by a hermit, I wanted to tell it. In the epic, Karna goes out hunting and accidentally shoots a cow, so the owner of the cow whom was a hermit grows so angry that he lays a curse on Karna for killing his beloved cow. I know that cows are sacred in India, so killing a cow would lead to much more negative Karma than just from the old man.

I wanted to tell the story in a first-person narrative so that we could see why Karna was out hunting in the first place. I also wanted to show why he accidentally killed the cow, and that it was in fact an accident. It reminded me of another Storytelling I did from The Ramayana.

Bibliography:

• Story Based Off Of Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
• Image Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Week 9 Storytelling: Dazed and Confused

Dear Diary,

I know I have gone on and on many a time to you, dearest diary about how amazing and beautiful my wife is. But, she is. She is the most beautiful woman that I have every laid my eyes on. Her voice is like the north wind on a hot day, refreshing and pleasing. Her hair is as soft as the mossy banks of an old river, and as long as a stalk of wheat. And oh, how she moves like a river, graceful and lovely on a calm day and brash and tumultuous when she is hyped up. Before I pull myself off topic talking about how amazing she is again, I would like to say that she is pregnant with my child and I could not be happier! Even with my wife’s quirks that I am not allowed to question, I find myself to be the happiest man right now.

Signing off happily for today,

Santanu

About 9 months later

Dear Diary,

Today my wife gave birth to our child. Yes, I know I should be overcome with joy. However, she then took it out of this palace and drowned it in the river. I am in shock as to why she could do such a thing. She returned to me acting as if nothing had happened, as if the child hadn’t existed in the first place. Oh, why can I not ask her why she has done such a thing? I made her that idiotic promise that I would never question her about any of her actions. Yet, she has gone and killed our child. There must be a reason she has done this, right? If I am not allowed to question her actions, there must be a reason behind them. No matter how crazy that reason may be. Oh, how will I heal from this pain of losing my child?

Moping and regretful I will be,

Santanu

About 6 years later

Dear Diary,

She has done it yet again. My beautiful wife has drowned our seventh child in the river. I have gotten to a point where I cannot even be happy when I learn that she is with child. I have become numb to my child growing in her womb throughout those long nine months. I love my wife; I love her quite a bit actually. But, I want to know why she is doing this. But of course, I had to make that stupid promise to never question her acts. I can’t take it anymore, though. I love her, even with this crazy quirk of hers and she will forever be the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. I want a child, though. I want someone to carry on my name, but I doubt that I will ever have that happen. Instead, my wife will only continue to kill every child that we conceive. So, I’ve had it. If we are to conceive another child, I will stop her and finally ask her why she has been drowning our children. Screw the consequences; I don't care if she leaves me for asking her about it. I love her, but I also want to love a child. 

Biting my tongue for now,

Santanu

About 1 year later

Dear Diary,

I feel stupid. As you know, my beautiful wife and I had conceived another child and she was due to give birth today. And she did. So, living up to the promise I had made myself when our last child had been born, I went to stop her from drowning it. I knew there would be consequences and she would be angry, but I just didn’t care. I then learned that she had been drowning our children for a reason, and that she is actually Ganga. Yeah… You would think that after this many years of marriage, I would have known about that, right? Not at all. So, she is gone. Obviously it was because I went against my promise, but she swore that she would return my son to me one day. I think I’m walking out of this situation as a winner, right?

Still confused,

Santanu

Image Information: Santanu meets Ganga; Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note:

One day while by a river, Santanu whom is the ruler of a kingdom, comes across a very beautiful woman. He instantly falls in lover with her, and she also falls in love with him. So, he asks her to marry him and she agrees only if her never questions anything that she does. He promises. So, they then have a child, which the woman drowns in the river, then as they conceive six more children she does the same thing. When the eighth child is born, Santanu breaks his promise and asks her what she is doing. She reveals that she is Ganga, and that their children were deities which had been cursed in their past life, which was why she was killing them. She then leaves with the child, promising Santanu she would return it to him one day.

I thought this was a very interesting way to start a story, and wanted to get into Santanu’s head and what he must have thought about the entire situation, so I decided it would be fun to write a diary from his perspective.

Bibliography:

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
• Image from Wikimedia Commons