Ella Camille R.

Dinogyao VIII-Cherry Ramayana Excerpt

One day when King Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. He friend Hanuman was nearby. Rama said, Look, my ring is lost. Dear friend, Help me find it please. Hanuman was a powerful Vanara, a monkey-god, with the power to change shape and size and enter any hole, no matter how tiny. He had the power to become the smallest of the small and larger than the largest thing. So he took on a tiny form and went down the hole. He went and went and suddenly fell into the underworld. There were women down there. Look, a tiny monkey. Its fallen from above, one woman said. Then they caught him and placed him on a platter (in India, a thali). The King of Spirits who lives in the underworld likes to eat animals. So Hanuman was sent to him as part of his dinner, along with a plate of vegetables. Hanuman sat on the platter, not sure what to do. Rama, meanwhile, was sitting on his throne above. The sage Vasistha and the god Brahma came to see him. They said they needed to talk privately, where no one else could hear. Rama agreed. He was told to lay down a rule prior to this special meeting. "If anyone comes in during the discussion the intruders head must be cut off," said Vasistha. It will be done, agreed Rama. Who would be the most trustworthy person to guard the door? Hanuman was gone fetching the ring. Rama trusted no one more than Laksmana, so he asked his half-brother to guard the door. Dont allow anyone to enter, he was told. Laksmana was standing at the door when a sage named Visvamitra approached and said he needed to see Rama at once. "Its urgent. Where is Rama? Dont go in now, said Laksmana. He is talking to some people. Its very important. What is there that Rama would hide from me, said the sage. "I will go in now. Laksmana said he would have to first ask permission. Go in and ask then. I cant until Rama comes out. You will wait. If you dont go in and announce my presence, Ill burn the entire kingdom of Ayodhya with a curse, said the sage.

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Laksmana thought, If I go in now I will die. If I dont go, this man will burn down the entire kingdom. All the subjects, all things living in it, will die. Its better that I alone should die.

So he went in. Whats the matter, asked Rama. Vsvmitra is here. Send him in then. So Visvamtra went in. The private talk had already come to an end. It seems that god Brahma and Vasistha had come to tell Rama, Your work in the world of human beings is over. Your incarnation as Rama must now be given up. Leave this body, come up, and rejoin the gods. That was what they had come to say to Rama. Laskmana said to Rama, Brother, you should cut off my head. Rama replied, Why? We had nothing more to say. Nothing was left. So why should I cut off your head? You cant let me off just because Im your brother. It will cause a blot on Ramas glorious name. You didnt spare your wife. You sent her to the jungle to preserve dharma. I must be punished. I will leave right away. Laksmana was an avatar of Sesa, the serpent on whom Vishnu sleeps. His time was up too. He went to the river and disappeared in the flowing waters. When Laksmana relinquished his body, Rama summoned all his followers and arranged for the coronation of his twin sons, Lava and Kusa. Then Rama, too, entered the river. All this time Hanuman was still in the underworld looking for the lost ring. When he was finally taken to the King of Spirits, he kept repeating the name of Rama. The King of Spirits asked, Who are you? Hanuman.

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Why have you come here? Ramas ring fell into a hole, and I came to fetch it. The king looked around and found a platter, which he held up for Hanuman to see. On it were thousands of rings. All of them were Ramas rings. The King of Spirits set it down and said, pick out your ring and take it.

They were all exactly the same. I dont know which one it is, said Hanuman. The King of Spirits said, There have been as many Ramas as there are rings on this platter. When you return to earth, you will not find Rama. This incarnation of Rama is now over. Whenever an incarnation of Rama is about to be over, his ring falls down. I collect them and keep them. Now you can go. *** Perhaps here is where the work lies. It is our human work to extend consciousness something that only we humans are capable of. Nothing else in the universe can bring clarity and differentiation as the human mind. This is our unique contribution to the unfolding of the divine plan. However, at one point in The Ramayana there is a passage in which Rama is told if he does not pursue his individuation properly God will abandon him to an intellectual search which goes nowhere and is only more illusion. It is Hanuman, the instinctive monkey-God who is key to the development of this story. This seems to promise that your salvation will come from inside, from your instinctive nature. It will come from what we are taught are the dark or unreliable places. It is a big shift for a Westerner to learn that it is the sensation and feeling world, ones instinctive world, that is the necessary intermediary on the path to wholeness.

Ella Camille R. Dinogyao VIII-Cherry The Mahabharata

This is an excerpt from The Mahabharata, told in English prose by William Buck. The Mahabharata is an ancient epic story from India. It is the story of Krishna and the Pandava brothers and their battle with the prince who stole their kingdom. It is beautiful prose, extraordinary warfare, eternal friendship, and royal intrigue.

Translated by William Buck, introduction by B.A. Van Nooten. Copyright (c) 1973 by the University of California. Reprinted with permission.

This excerpt is from the middle of the story. The Pandavas are traveling through the forest, and Krishna visits them in the evening.

It was growing dark when Yudhishthira, Arjuna, and Bhima returned to their forest home. Draupadi and the twins were sitting around a fire, and they joined them there and told them what had happened with Jayadratha. Then there was a movement at the edge of the firelight, and an old man, shaggy and dark, walked noiselessly up to them and sat down.

"Welcome, Vyasa," said Yudhishthira. "It has been many years. Will you have dinner with us? We've had nothing to eat since morning."

Vyasa smiled and Draupadi went inside her kitchen. She lit the cooking fire from the tiny flame that burned for the household gods. Then she realized that they had no food.

She frowned, and thought, "Oh, Krishna, What will I do?"

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Krishna stood smiling and leaning back against the wall. Draupadi jumped and put her hand to her breast. "Oh! You scared me."

Krishna said, "Princess, you got me out of bed and I'm hungry. Give me a little something to eat."

"That's just it. There's nothing."

"Can't your husbands catch anything?"

"Only King Jayadratha."

Krishna looked around the kitchen. "Nothing at all? I don't believe it. Just let me take a look," and he began to go through the pots and pans.

Draupadi watched him. "Why were you in bed so early?"

"Don't you know I have sixteen thousand wives?"

"You do really? I heard that but I never believed it."

"Well, why should I deny it. But look." Krishna took a rice grain and a tiny shred of vegetable from the rim of an iron pot. "Now sit down facing me, close your eyes, and be quiet. This is hard to do."

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Krishna sat on the kitchen floor, holding the bit of leaf and grain of rice in his fingers. The sounds of the forest night fell away, and the fire flickered and died. Krishna began to speak softly in the silence.

"Now listen, ... so have I heard

The moonlight is your smile. Earth and sky are your illusion.

At the end of Time, first comes the drought, then the seven suns that bring fire and leave Earth hushed in death and deep ashes, overhung by burning colored clouds.

Then the lightning breaks and the water falls. Drowned are the sun and moon, and Earth and stars. You swallow the winds and float sleeping on the dark waters, resting on Sesha the thousand-hooded serpent white as pearls.

Then you awake, and like a winking firefly at night during the rains, you dart over the water, seeking Earth. You dive and bring her back as before, and place her on Sesha as before, and create all beings as before.

And after Time has begun again, when Sesha yawns, quaking the Earth, do you not go to him and say:

"Just a little longer?"

Narayana if I have said well, take this food for all the world."

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Krishna swallowed the bit of vegetable and the grain of rice. The fires danced into life, and Draupadi heard the Pandavas talking outside with Vyasa. "Princess, open your eyes. It is done."

Draupadi looked at him. "I was hungry before, but now ..."

"Now no one in all the world is hungry," said Krishna. "Everyone is full of food right up to his throat." He shivered. "But it is very hard to do."