some snippets from indian mythology from Parashurama to krouncha pakshi (bird)

The value system inculcated in indian mythology which is a 10000 year old culture is relevant to even this day . Though i can write pages about it just a few random snippets to stimulate your reading unless you already know .. Do you know the tale of karna and Parashurama . Of course as everything its a beautiful tale but one particular scene lingers in nmy memory . Once the guru of karna , parasurama was peacefully sleeping in his lap (indian mythology considers Guru almost equivalent to God ) . A blood sucking bug bit karna on his thigh but he beared the pain and the bleeding because his guru was sleeping in his lap . But soon the guru woke up when the wetness of blood touched the gurus face . Instead of appreciating karna the guru got so angry because only a kshatriya could bear this much pain and bleeding and remain unflinched . Karna had not revealed that he was a kshatriya as that guru only accepted brahmins as his pupils .

Its a complex issue but one thing stands out in this tale . The gotra virtue or family virtue is demonstrated in actions of a person not words . In modern times we give focus to " person from good family " . But time and again we see only few people who live upto the " good family tag " in their actions . But observation shows people from many old families do indeed show their good family virtues even when they become poor or gets exposed to temptations . As in parasuramas and karnas story the true gotra or family spirit and values is in the blood . Of course karna got cursed by his guru that is another story .

Work or worship is more important ? Is it ok to give more importance to worship when God has told man to work hard ? One tale comes to mind . The sage who had lots of thapassakthi (penance giving power) . Once he got disturbed by the chatter of birds and he got angry and one look the birds got fried and died . Another day the sage went to a family womans house to collect alms . The woman was busy serving her husband food and she saw the sage but made him wait . She served her husband food and then only came to give alms to the sage . The sage was so angry and stared at the woman hard to burn her . But nothing happened . The woman smiled and even told the puzzled sage that she was not the poor bird to get burnt . She was doing her duty to her husband and for her that was her worship or power . Poor sage he got so confused and was even amazed at how she could even guess the bird episode . This also has current day relevance as even in the great religions its told that work is indeed worship. Not the workaholism but doing ur duty is equally or more important than doing rituals . Of course rituals can be done without compromising work but work is never second place ..

The story of King Bimbasara and ajathashatru where the son orders the execution of his father to get his kingdom but was deeply remorseful when next moment he heard his queen delivered a baby boy is more thought provoking . These days especially have seen innumerable nuclear family concentrating more on their children . But as indian mythology shows the cycle never ends when these same parents become old when they get neglected by their children who concentrate only on their offspring ..

Heavy stuff ? These are all from childrens tales of amar chitra katha and our generation read these and their relevance became known as we grew older . Would love to hear from my generation for whom amar chitra katha entertained as well as inculcated a value system . Do children still read these stories ? I donno ...