Do you know how old Ravana was, when he was killed by Lord Rama?According to Valmiki, Ravana was 20,000 years old when he died. Being a scholar and a great devotee of Shiva, he is supposed to have done penance (तपश्चर्या ) for 10,000 years before being granted the boon of "near - immortality" [At the end of every 1000 years, Ravana would cut off one of his 10 heads. GOD finally relented at the end of 10,000 years, just before the last head would have been cut off. Ravana would otherwise have surely died and this would have given a wrong signal to other devotees]. Can anyone really live this long? Was Ravana then an actual person or a character in a story??
Why don't Life Insurance companies consult astrologers before selling a policy?For times immemorial, astrologers have claimed that they can predict the future of an individual from his horoscope (जन्मपत्रिका) [which incidentally is a very scientific document showing positions of various planets in different constellations, at the time of birth of that person]. A company that sells life - covers would be extremely keen to know the approximate date of death (मृत्युयोग) of the client - doesn't it ask us to go through all kinds of medical tests to assess if we are fit enough to be sold a policy and to reassure itself that we won't conk off after paying just a premium or two, putting the insurance company to a big loss? Why doesn't LIC, take the help of astrology, to save itself from potentially crippling losses?
How can a ghost (अतृप्त आत्मा ) return to haunt?It is popular folklore that if a person dies with some desires unfulfilled or some injustice un-avenged during his lifetime, his ghost comes back to haunt that location or somebody, until those desires are quenched. Now when a person dies, his brain, which is the depository of his entire life-time memory, also dies. Let us presume for the time being that his "spirit" (आत्मा ) does escape! I can never figure out how that spirit can remember details of what it was before death. The spirit cannot have a memory of its own since all memory of life before death has already been destroyed along with the brain.
Was Kansa (कंस मामा ), Lord Krishna's uncle, a fool? If you or I had known that our sisters' eighth child was going to be our nemesis, wouldn't we have killed the sister [am presuming that we possess the necessary cruelty like कंस did] instead of waiting for her to deliver eight children? To make matters worse, if कंस did not have the guts to kill his own sister, why should he have gone out of his way to house her with her husband ( देवकी and वसुदेव ) in the same prison cell? Did Kansa, who was a king, have an IQ much below average?
Why did prominent Kauravas (कौरव ) have foul names? Did their parents (धृतराष्ट्र and गांधारी ) know that these children were going to grow up into scoundrels. Which mother would name her sons दुर्योधन or दुह्शासन - words which basically have negative meanings?
How do Jain families keep their homes, free of pests? Now we all know that Jains have a fetish when it comes to killing any form of life. They go to great lengths to achieve this (by being strict vegetarians, eating dinner before 7 pm, going around with a cloth around their mouth and nose - even sweeping the street lightly before taking the next step). How do they keep their homes free of pests - do they never use 'Baygon' for cocroaches, 'Mortein' or 'All out' for mosquitoes? Do they never sweep out the cobwebs?
If GOD (परमात्मा ) is निर्गुण and निराकार ( a spirit without any desires or form) then how come HE has his favourite vehicle (वाहन ) - food - flowers - days? If all this is indeed symbolic then how come we are unwilling to deviate even an inch from the prescribed rituals (मोदक and red flowers for Shri Ganesh, for example). If GOD is the creator of the entire human race, why does HE have to marry in order to beget his own children (Shri Ganesh and Kartikeya to Shiva and Parvati, for example)? Or is it really the other way around - have human beings created GOD and ascribed to them, these "human" qualities?
There are other queries but I will stop here. I keenly await your reply.
5 comments:
Interesting questions. My answers to some of them:
1. We don't know that LIC in fact does not do this! On a more serious note, LIC would've done this if it were a personal franchise, like a home business or a cottage industry. For businesses, the actual business processes are devoid of religion or prayer, even if the people implementing them are ridiculously superstitious before and after their work. This is the main reason why seemingly illogical people are extremely successful businessmen!
2. The prophecy was that Devaki's 7th son was going to kill Kamsa. Now one way to escape this fate would be to never let her have children (by lifelong imprisonment). Another (and more definitive) cure would be to let her have children as soon as possible and kill all of them, thereby nullifying the prophecy. If you have had fewer than 7 children, there is always the possibility that sometime in your life (especially if there is a divine prophecy to be fulfilled) you will bear that coveted 7th child. Having killed 7 children however, there is no "going back".
3. I don't know the meanings of Duryodhan and Duhshasan. Didn't the negative connotations follow these characters and not the other way around?
4. The human qualities given to God are a pure figment of the human mind. In any case God, and the idea of God as perceived by humans are two totally different things. Humans being as they are, cannot help but bring God closer to them by imagining human avatars, worldly habits and temptations, and yes, the same vices and penance. What's fascinating about Hindu mythology is how strikingly human most Gods are portrayed to be. Indra is jealous, many are polygamous, someone is someone else's love child, children born out of wedlock, Ganesh is childish and hot-headed, Ram is a divine form and at the same time surprisingly chauvinistic. These ideas are created by humans to make us and our habits closer to God's (which as we can see can be perceived as extremely misleading). But that may very well be very different from the real God, and so proving the former as illogical does not necessarily render the latter as mythical or hypocritical.
There is in fact some proof of this school of thought. If you remember when we went to Jagannath Puri, all the Gods there are depicted as mere masks. The reason is to reject the idea that God is somehow humanoid in nature. While they restrict themselves to physical form, I believe the concept can go much further.
4. The question of whether Ravana is a character or a real person is completely dwarfed by the bigger concept of immortality in his story. If the latter existed, the former and all his quirkiness is but trivial detail :-)
5. The ghost memory concept is indeed intriguing and void of rational explanation. I wonder if science has completely decoded the mystery of what we call our memory...
Prakash,
It is clear that GODs have been created by human beings. If you meet on the street, anyone in the form of some of the GODs (a man with an elephant head, a woman with six hands, a person with three heads and so on)you are likely to run away in fright.
And yes about Jains,I know of many who have given annual contracts to Pest Control Of India - so I guess it is ok as long as someone else kills all those pests.
I liked that one about the ghosts - I am going to tell it to my kids and wife - lets see what they say.
Enjoyed your write up. Keep writing. Where do you get all these ideas??
मजेदार प्रश्न आहेत. तुमच्या भाषणातील जोक्स सारखे. मजा आली.
Dear Prakash
I am not good at computers but like this medium. Its the first time I read any blog, just because its from you. Anyway it was nice to be in touch.Liked your blog.
Is it possible to have your queries answered in multiple choice way?
Most of your questions are due to "Andhashraddha" in the minds of people.
Rawan- Its a good imaginary character by a poet.
LIC- liked your idea. Bhavishya and kundali is good business for few and all those with weak mind fall prey to it.
There is no Atma. Its creation of human brain.
Kansa- again Kavi kalpana.
In my opinion there is no God the way it is defined - most of the time it is Kavi Kalpana.
Shyam Mahajan
Thanks for sending clear fundas. Interesting. Helps to develop curiosity in mythology. Good for extracting unknown things out of some known things.
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