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Posts from the ‘Mythology’ Category

Sep 21

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Indra’s Lesson

There is a wonderful story in one of the Upanishads about the god Indra. Now, it happened at this time that a great monster had enclosed all the waters of the earth, so there was a terrible drought, and the world was in a very bad condition. It took Indra quite a while to realize that he had a box of thunderbolts and that all he had to do was drop a thunderbolt on the monster and blow him up. When he did that, the waters flowed, and the world was refreshed, and Indra said, “What a great boy am I.”
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Aug 3

Mohenjo

The Ancient City of Dvārakā

In the Mahabharata, the city of Dvārakā was created by Vishwa Karma (the architect of the gods) with instructions from Lord Krishna. In the Mahabharata, Dvārakā (also known as Dvāravatī, both names meaning “the many-gated city” in Sanskrit) is the capital of the Yādava who ruled the Anarta Kingdom. Volume 16 of the Mahabharata describes this important city, situated on the western point of Gujarat, submerged in the sea.
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Mar 27

Sita Sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues is a musical, animated personal interpretation of the Indian epic the Ramayana. The aspect of the story that I focus on is the relationship between Sita and Rama, who are gods incarnated as human beings, and even they can’t make their marriage work.

And then there’s my story. I’m just an ordinary human, who also can’t make her marriage work. And the way that it fails is uncannily similar to the way Rama and Sita’s [relationship fails]. Inexplicable yet so familiar. And the question that I asked and the question people still ask is, “Why”? Why did Rama reject Sita? Why did my husband reject me? We don’t know why, and we didn’t know 3,000 years ago. I like that there’s really no way to answer the question, that you have to accept that this is something that happens to a lot of humans.

Mar 27

Tourists Flock to Jesus’s Tomb in Kashmir

There is talk of the missing years of Jesus, unmentioned in the gospels, when he was between the ages of 12 and 30. Some say he was in India, picking up Buddhist ideas. These aren’t notions that have entirely died out. The US-based Christian sect, known as the Church Universal and Triumphant, is the best-known modern supporter of the belief that Jesus lived in Kashmir, though they don’t believe he died there.

And in Islam, in which Jesus is the penultimate prophet, there is also a minority tradition adopted by the controversial Ahmeddiya sect, that Rozabal does contain the grave of Jesus. Professional historians tend to laugh out loud when you mention the notion that Jesus might have lived in Kashmir – but his tomb is now firmly on the tourist trail – and a growing number of credulous visitors believe that he was buried in the Rozabal shrine.

BBC News – Tourists flock to ‘Jesus’s tomb’ in Kashmir.

Dec 21

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India Itenerary Maybe

I’ve been given great advice from several friends that know India very well. Most question my sanity of even wanting to go. One friend said, “Why not a nice vacation in Australia instead?” I’m still waiting on my visa stamp before leaving and may have to make a last minute change to my itinerary if it does not arrive in time for my flight. I need to get a malaria shot and also some other preventative medication for my trip. There is a whole universe of parasites, bacteria, and viruses that my immune system has never encountered that it’s going to be a blitzkrieg on the system. I could spend the whole time with a fever and sick in bed but I really hope not. I wonder if they sell Purell in Delhi?

Anyway, here is my itinerary so far. From the friends I’ve talked to, I will be lucky to make it to even half of these destination but I’ll give it a shot. My main destination will be Varanasi – if I can get there. I may have to take a bus or fly since the trains fill up early and I have no idea when I will be leaving right now. I don’t think I will take my laptop but I will have my iPhone so I can tweet. I’m also thinking of buying a video camera if I can find a decent HD.

Oct 19

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One Have Been Made Two

From Book One of The Mahābhārata and for fathers everywhere.

“A son, the wise say, is the man himself born from himself; therefore a man will look upon the mother of his son as his own mother. The son born from his wife is as a man’s face in a mirror; and looking at him brings as much joy to a father as finding heaven brings to a saint. Men, burned by the sorrows of their hearts and sickly with disease, rejoice in their wives, as overheated people do in water. No matter how aggravated, a man should say no unkind things to his loving women, for in them he sees contingent his love, his joy, and his merit. Women are forever one’s sacred field of birth – are even the seers able to have children without one? A son stumbles and covered with dirt embraces his father – is there joy beyond that?

“And you, why do reject frowningly a son who of his own accord has come to you and fondly looks at you? Ants carry their own eggs and never break them – you, so wise in the Law, won’t keep your son? Neither clothes nor loving women nor water are so good to touch as the infant son you embrace. Of two-footed men the Brahmin is best; of four-footed beasts the cow is worthiest; of respected men the guru is first; and of all things to touch a son is the choicest. Embrace and touch your handsome son! There is no feeling on earth lovelier than to feel a son. For three full years I have borne this son, lord of kinds, for him to kill your grief. When I was giving birth to him a voice came from the sky saying, Oh Paurava ‘He shall be the offerer of a hundred Horse Sacrifices.’

“Do not men who had gone to another village take their sons lovingly on the laps and kiss their heads and feel happy? From the Vedas themselves, as you too know, the twiceborn recite these verses at the birth ceremony of their sons, ‘From each limb hast thou come forth, thou art born from my heart, thou art myself with the name of son, live thou a hundred autumns! For my nourishment lies with thee, and my eternal lineage – therefore live thou, my son, in all happiness for a hundred autumns!’ He has been born from your limbs, one man from another: look on my son as your other self, as your reflection seen in a clear pond. Just as the ahavaniya fire is carried away from the garhapatya hearth, so he is born from you, and you, being one, have been made two.

Jul 7

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Codex Sinaiticus Goes Online

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book.

From the press release: Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important witnesses to the Greek text of the Septuagint (the Old Testament in the version that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians) and the Christian New Testament. No other early manuscript of the Christian Bible has been so extensively corrected. A glance at the transcription will show just how common these corrections are. They are especially frequent in the Septuagint portion. They range in date from those made by the original scribes in the fourth century to ones made in the twelfth century. They range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

One important goal of the Codex Sinaiticus Project is to provide a better understanding of the text of the Codex and of the subsequent corrections to it. This will not only help us to understand this manuscript better, but will also give us insights into the way the texts of the Bible were copied, read and used. By the middle of the fourth century there was wide but not complete agreement on which books should be considered authoritative for Christian communities. Codex Sinaiticus, one of the two earliest collections of such books, is essential for an understanding of the content and the arrangement of the Bible, as well as the uses made of it.

The Greek Septuagint in the Codex includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach. Appended to the New Testament are the Epistle of Barnabas and ‘The Shepherd’ of Hermas. The idiosyncratic sequence of books is also remarkable: within the New Testament the Letter to the Hebrews is placed after Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, and the Acts of the Apostles between the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles. The content and arrangement of the books in Codex Sinaiticus shed light on the history of the construction of the Christian Bible.

The ability to place these ‘canonical books’ in a single codex itself influenced the way Christians thought about their books, and this is directly dependent upon the technological advances seen in Codex Sinaiticus. The quality of its parchment and the advanced binding structure that would have been needed to support over 730 large-format leaves, which make Codex Sinaiticus such an outstanding example of book manufacture, also made possible the concept of a ‘Bible’. The careful planning, skillful writing and editorial control needed for such an ambitious project gives us an invaluable insight into early Christian book production.

Codex Sinaiticus Online

May 3

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Religious Misunderstandings

Religions are predicated on some profound or miraculous event that requires blind faith to believe in. From an objective point of view, these events are usually quite incredible and sometimes sound plain silly. Did you know that…

  • Christians believe that Jesus was born to a virgin mother and that the universe was created in 6 days
  • Mormons believe that God lives on a planet near the star Kolob and that the Garden of Eden is in Missouri
  • The Kaaba – that Muslims walk around – contains a black stone that they believe is a special divine meteorite that fell at the foot of Adam and Eve
  • Hindus believe that every 40 billion years all things dissolve and nothing exists for an equivalent time – then it all begins again
  • Hindus also once believed that the Earth rested on four elephants and those elephants stood on a giant tortoise floating on the universal ocean
  • Buddhists believe that all life is suffering and that the only way to escape suffering is to eliminate all desire and attachments by becoming a monk and meditate
  • Xenu, according to Scientology, is the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft
  • Wiccans believe in magic that can be manipulated through the form of witchcraft or sorcery

A religion is more than just a belief in the incredible though. I haven’t found a single case where there isn’t a strong sense of community. Most people are just looking for a place to belong and a way to give their life some meaning. Most of our lives have very little meaning so it’s no wonder we are attracted to the fantastic with promises of another life, after death, that will be much better than this one. Though each religion may be based on a myth that requires a stretch of the imagination, what you get in return is not so bad, is it?

Mormons believe that God was once like humans and that humans can become like God. How empowering is that? Christians believe that we all have the power to be saved and go to Heaven after we die. Muslims believe in a rich afterlife and are required to give a portion of their income to the poor. Scientology has rallied against the power of pharmaceutical companies and also setup some of the best drug rehabilitation centers in the world. Hindus have developed a religion and cosmology that is remarkably close to modern science and cosmology.

Of course, depending on where you were born and what language you speak, someone else’s religion always seems a little silly. But remember that your religion also seems a little silly to them, too. Instead of condemning one another for not believing as we do, it seems better to embrace these differences in the marketplace of ideas. In the end, they are all trying to accomplish the same thing – to give your life and your eventual death meaning in a universe that often feels completely meaningless.

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