I
Love Epics and Myths
As
a professed rationalist, I really should not, but I do. Why? Because I can cock a snook at those who
believe these myths are elements of true events in the past.
When
I was a pre-teen my parents took me to a movie probably Tamil dubbing of a Kannada
movie, in which Lord Krishna obscures the sun by releasing the sharp-edged discus
from his finger. Brahmins ran off scurrying to the nearby water body to offer
obeisance to their forefathers, as is mandated of them on New Moon days.
Seeing
this, the Moon god, accompanied by the Sun god, came down to earth to ask Lord
Krishna why are the Brahmins doing the New Moon prayer ceremonies when it was a
few more days in the future. Lord Krishna, never at a loss for an answer,
pointed out that they, the sun and the moon, are together right there in His
presence. Hence, by definition, it is a New Moon day/night.
Before
Columbus deceived the natives in the Caribbean, Lord Krishna had done the
cheating; gives the normal event a thing to be remembered, a myth, embedded in
an epic. Reason enough for me to love the epics and myths.
Christianity
is chock full of myths that people want to believe as truth. The boulder
covering the mouth of the sepulchre moved / was moved; either way, not very reassuring.
Jesus fed multitudes (5,000 as in one of the Gospels) from five loaves of bread
and two fish. You can so fish for myths in what Jesus did and leave
flabbergasted.
Recently
I watched on YouTube some Biblical scholar saying that there was zero evidence of
Moses ever having been a historic personality–a nice way of saying he was only a
mythical personality–and even the name Moses is derived from Hebrew, and was not
a word in the language of the then Egyptians. Then, in The Ten Commandments, Bithia, the then Pharaoh’s daughter says ever
so dramatically, “Because I drew you from the water, you shall be called Moses.”
This is a simple myth, in an epic.
In
Buddhism, the Buddha at the time of his dying is said to have asked Ananda to
lay his head on the northern side. An empiricist picking a direction in which his
head should rest at the moment of his death? There is more to come … the Buddha
giving directions as to how the ashes after his body was burnt should be
disposed off and a number of such details. Tut, tut …
Mohammed
too brought about some so-called miracles, like splitting the moon, healing the
sick and the blind (normal item).
Even
the very human, the previous century (the current century is perhaps too young
to have had matured) Gurus carry this
miraclitis disease. Their devotees have readily taken to miaclizing their Gurus’ existence (more than one Guru per person). There are just so many
of them, a compilation about them would challenge the length of the Mahabharata!
I
do not venture to name them but just watch any of the so-called spiritual
networks on TV and you would find more than sufficient proof (that is a post in
the making, without names, of course).
The
more these Gurus (both of the past
and the present), I am so much happier, as it adds to my blog-post count!
Hence,
my love for epics and myths.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
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