Potential Ideas for My Storybook Project
I have heard the story of Mahabharata a few times growing up, and the one character that always really fascinates me is Karna. From what I remember, Karna is a very skilled warrior and the long-lost brother of the main heroes of the Mahabharata, the Pandava brothers. However, Karna was cast away at birth and had pretty bad luck throughout his life, getting cursed by many people and ultimately meeting his demise in the final battle. What I thought was interesting about Karna is that he never seemed to do wrong. He joined the wrong side of the battle, but only because he is fiercely loyal to those who are generous to him. He did not have good relations with the Pandavas, but Duryodhana, the leader of the "evil" Kauravas, welcomed him. In this way, I found it difficult to blame Karna. Even when Karna was cursed several times, he always meant well but was misunderstood or caused some other misfortune that was not his intention. I think it would be really interesting to explore Karna's character in a Storybook project; I could retell the story of Karna, but this time improve his luck to try to imagine how Karna, the "Brave, Generous, Ill-Fated Prince" (link below) would act in situations in which he wasn't so ill-fated.
Many Gods, one logic: Understanding Hindu faith
As a Hindu myself, I am always seeking to better understand my faith and what it means to worship so many different Gods. I really liked the message of this video (link below): the reason why Hinduism has so many gods is to accommodate the many different kinds of people. No person will have the exact same values as another person, and the existence of many (maybe tens of thousands) of different gods allows people to worship the gods that represent their values. Rather than dividing people in terms of faith, Hinduism seeks to bring diverse people together to form a strong and welcoming community. Often times, I have heard from spiritual teachers of Hinduism is actually a monotheistic religion disguised as a polytheistic religion. While we have different Gods, they are actually all just different forms of one God. I think this represents in a way the connectedness of people; regardless of our differences, we are still united as we make up the human race. If I were to form my Storybook project over these ideas, I would likely tell different stories of people praying to various Gods, and how these people are still connected to each other, despite having differing values.
Reincarnation: Understanding Hindu faith
I have also been interested in the concept of reincarnation, the idea that people are reborn after they die. I love this storybook project (link below) that one student did - they explored the incarnates of goddess Lakshmi - Sita and Vedavati - and how they were all related to one another. Reincarnation is a fascinating concept, and one that has many implications in stories of Hindu mythology. I recently read this mindblowing short story called "The Egg" (link below). The story suggests that when you die, your soul is reincarnated, but it takes it a step further. It suggests that time is irrelevant, so you could be born anytime, as anyone. In fact, every single living thing on Earth is actually a variation of you. Every good deed or bad deed towards someone is actually yourself, and the meaning of life, per se, is to live all lives and mature from it. Only after you have experienced everything and know everything will you become a god. Until then, the universe and everything you know is only an egg. I think this story resonates with me a lot because it explains a lot of philosophies that are central to Hinduism; why we say "Namaste", which means "I bow to you / I see the god in you." Also, a fundamental principle of Hinduism is that everything is God, and God is everything. If we see and experience all, only then we will attain the truth and be one with God; until then, we will keep being reincarnated. I would love to explore these ideas further in a Storybook project, by retelling stories to show how one lives through many lives; and when they are on the last life, I can show the soul reflecting on all of its lives as it attains the ultimate truth. So many possibilities for this one!
Ghatotkacha: The Good-Hearted Demon
I recognize this character from a popular Indian movie called Mayabazaar, which illustrates the tale of Ghatotkacha the demon son of one of the Pandava brother Bhima and a Rakshasi, Hidimbi. Unlike demons that we commonly hear about in Hindu mythology, Ghatotkacha is a demon of high morals, and in the Mahabharata, he is fiercely loyal to the Pandavas, ultimately sacrificing his own life for the cause. I think Ghatotkacha is a really cool character because he contradicts common conceptions about demons. Often times, demons represent evil, while humans represent good. I have read that over time, these divisions became more muddled, and humans and demons began to exhibit both good and bad qualities, just like people today. In the Mahabharata, it is evident that these distinctions no longer stand as clearly, as we see humans like Duryodhana and other Kauravas display evil qualities. I think it would be interesting to tell more stories about Ghatotkacha, displaying his good qualities despite having the body of a Rakshasa. I think I could also explore more modern versions of Ghatotkacha, as we see commonly today that we do not always judge people's characters correctly just from their appearances.
Here is an image connecting two of my Storybook project ideas together. Ghatotkacha and Karna fought each other during the battle in the Mahabharata. I had forgotten this detail: what a coincidence that I took interest in these two characters independently! This is definitely a very memorable fight within the Mahabharata.
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