Anthony Hui Indian Epics 996

It is currently March 13th, 10 PM. Ten hours from now, I'll be taking the MCAT, I remember thinking. I've always had trouble sleeping whenever I have something very important to do on the next day. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, I thought. I knew I needed to get at least 8 hours of sleep so I went to my roommate and got some of his extra strength sleeping pills. I took one of those pills, set 15 alarms from 6:00 to 6:15, and then instantly fell asleep. I briefly remember waking up around 4:30 AM and checking the time and then falling right back asleep. My alarm rings at 6:00 and I woke up. I was pleasantly surprised at how much energy I had even though it was 6 in the morning. I have plenty of time, let's just relax for a little bit, I thought. So I spent the next twenty minutes scrolling through Twitter. I then realized that I still haven't showered, made my lunch, or know where the testing venue is and it is 6:20. Shit. I quickly showere

Bibliography:  Tales of Ancient India  by Edmund Charles Cox Surya: This story was kind of confusing. I guess he's like the god of everlasting light and the reason is because of his wife paying attention to him? Waruna: This one is kinda cool. There's a king that desperately wanted a son because a son performing funeral rites would speed his ascension to heaven. So he prayed to a god named Waruna and said he would sacrifice his son so that he can have a son. Waruna granted him the son but as the king spent the years together with his son, he realized he didn't want to sacrifice him. His son then came up with this plan where he would go around and trade money for a son so that the king can sacrifice that guy in his stead. They finally found a Brahman with 3 sons who gave him the middle child. They brought that kid to be sacrificed but then he started singing and it touched all the gods' hearts so Waruna let them all go free. Ushas: There's this really beauti

Bibliography: Tales of Ancient India by Edmund Charles Cox Kans is a very interesting character. His father, the ruler of Mathura, was very well liked and revered by the people and Mathura was very prosperous. Kans was prophesized to be the destroyer of Mathura and lead it as a kingdom of evil. From a young age, he's already shown signs of being evil such as choking people. There was another prophecy that Dewaki's 8th son was gonna be his killer. Kans was afraid of this and locked them up in a dungeon and he was given any son they had so that he could kill them. Kans was so afraid of this to the point where he is obsessing over when the next son will be born so he could kill him. His killer would end up being Krishna, whose origin story I already read. Kans invited Krishna and his brother, Balaram, to Mathura for a tournament. This version goes a lot more in-depth into Kans than the previous thing I read about Krishna, which I liked a lot more because I like Kans's stor

Bibliography:  Twenty Jataka Tales  by Noor Inayat The Two Pigs There were two pigs that were picked up by some old lady. The lady loved these pigs like her kids. One day, the village was having a feast and they ran out of meat so they went to the old lady to buy one of the pigs. She refused so they gave her some alcohol to get her drunk. She then agreed to sell the youngest pig. The younger pig saw this and was super sad. The older pig then says some words that changed everyone's feelings. The entire city was moved to tears and they did not kill the pigs. The Patient Buffalo There was a buffalo and a monkey. The monkey wanted to make the buffalo angry but nothing he did upset the buffalo. A fairy then shows up and asks the buffalo why he doesn't just destroy the monkey and the buffalo responded with I shouldn't hurt someone just to make myself feel happier. The fairy was pleased with the answer and gave the buffalo a charm so that no one can ever bother it again. T

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat Jataka Tales Source The Monkey Bridge: There once was a tree filled with mangoes that a bunch of monkeys there loved eating. Their chief warned the monkey to make sure none of the fruit falls into the river or else the people downstream will taste it and want to steal all the fruit from this tree. One day, a fruit accidentally fell into the river and the king happened to be bathing there. He ate the fruit and was instantly smitten so he called for a troop of people to sail upstream to seize the fruits. When he went to the tree, he saw a ton of monkeys too and ordered for their execution so he can have monkey meat and fruit. The monkey chief then tried to save his followers by tying a reed to his foot and jumping to the other tree to create a bridge but the reed was too short so the chief had to act as part of the bridge too. All the monkeys crossed and this one evil monkey jumped on the chief's back before he crossed thus

Bibliography: Karna and Kunti by Rabindranath Tagore Karna and Kunti: Kunti confronts Karna and tells him of his lineage and how Arjuna and the rest of the Pandavas is actually his brothers. Karna asks why she picked now to tell him everything and she says that she feels guilty. She offers Karna a kingdom and tells him to rejoin his rightful place as an heir but he refuses and says he has to go back to his actual mother. He also says that he expects the Pandavas to win and that he will die. Karna Source Bibliography: Songs of Kabir by Kabir Songs of Kabir: It's kind of hard to summarize these since they're so short and there are so many of them so I will just list my favorite ones: 14: In this poem, Kabir essentially wonders what the difference between the river and the waves when they're all just made of water. He then connects that with the teachings of Brahma. 20: Kabir talks about the heart and it has nowhere to go so it should stay in the body becau