It's one of the saddest things in Nature that the human mind, which, by many, is projected as this amazing, all-powerful, all-possessing entity that can scale the heights to which life is allowed; the human brain is a symposium of the finest art in Nature, they say. They put it up on flex banners in bold: "Let the diamond in you shine!" They say you need to open your mind to your real potential; they say the only thing stopping you from being great is yourself. It makes for great marketing, and it makes for better business. People start believing in themselves, and start investing in things they would never have so much as dreamed of if not for this new "thought-provokingly simple argument". Things like books on motivation, on how to be an effective speaker, on how to be a good leader, and extra-large condoms.
But the thing is, for us to be able to truly appreciate our capabilities, we need to first understand what we are, how we speak, how we interact, how our lives are dependent on one another, how we are constantly interacting with each other, how complex communication is, how intricate this web of survival is, how the centre of attraction isn't always the centre of learning, and most of all, how civilization has evolved from drawing stick figures on cave walls to wirelessly sending your beloved one in Sierra Leone the pictures from your latest trip to Alaska.
Human civilization has evolved on one basic principle: grow with whatever you can understand; grow on whatever you can't. When the humans first started settling down, their prime importance was food, shelter, and some means to keep themselves alive while being attacked by the elements of nature. They revered their life-givers by elevating them to the status of Gods. Like the Sun, for example. The earliest civilizations known to us all bear testimony to how Sun was primarily the highest God, though over years, as the civilizations grew, and people started seeing influence in many other forces of Nature, this place was gradually shifted in favour of the more lucrative ones with supernatural powers that very soon superseded the more "simplistic" ones Sun had. Case in point: Ra. Ra was the first name given to the Egyptian Sun god. He was worshipped by this primitive civilization for many, many centuries, before being merged with the other (more popular and more widely worshipped) god, Horus. As time passed, he had to be merged to more and more gods, and eventually his throne was lost. Horus, was the son of Nu, the deitification of the Great Sea. This is pretty straight-forward: the Sun is born from the Sea, and so is her son. The same thing is true of nearly every other Sun God in history.
Here it becomes necessary to mention the case of Surya, the Hindu Sun god. He is believed to be born to Aditi (the literal meaning being "The Unbound"). His brothers are (in the order of their birth):
1. Varuna (the rain god)
2. Mitra (the god of honesty, friendship, etc.)
3. Aryaman (literally means "true friend", and is, by my analysis, a reference to the Milky Way)
4. Bhaga (the god of prosperity, and the one who decides how much each one gets when he is born)
5. Amsha (the god of the infinitely small, or "The Indivisible")
6. Daksha (the god of justice)
7. Indra (the god of power)
Notice the order in which they are placed; it's an indication to the way in which ancient Hindus saw the way of Aditi. I'll explain, just in case you still didn't get it. Aditi, is the dietification of Nature ("Unbound"), and she created her "sons" to look after things that. First came the rain, to feed all the life forms, next the Sun to give them warmth, and to help them grow (as they saw was the case with plants), then she created friendship to let them live in harmony and love each other. Then she created the Milky Way galaxy to provide a vast grassland for her lambs; which she followed up with a control over how much each person gets. Here is where interpretation becomes important: we need to understand that the order of things is not only governed by which they saw as important, but also by what they observed when. Amsha is a perfect example of that. They observed how the things around them could be divided into tinier and tinier things. So, they realized there would come a point when division becomes impossible- this was also when the concept of "Anu", or the atom, evolved. Then justice came in to make sure what happened never crossed the line and caused harm to other fellow beings. Then, the power was vested in one of her own sons' hands to rule, and look after the safety and well-being of Nature's countless offspring.
In reality, these were all the first Gods were about: personification of inanimate entities, and ideas about Nature. The aim was to admire and appreciate the works and the being of the universe, and its vast complexity, and the aim was to underline the principle that the simplest of ideas lie at the base of the most radical of conceptions. As time passed, there arose a need to associate stories with these deities in order to make them more appealing, and to make people believe in the consortium of the Adityas (Aditi's sons), as that was the Truth. These stories soon began to get elaborate, leaving space for addition and for others to create their own branches in these myths, and make them more and more interesting, mysterious and appeasable. And in order to make sure the people heard it loud and clear, stories of their power were created, to show them that when it mattered, the Gods were capable of anything.
This story can be applied to nearly every other Sun God. And indeed, it was. But in different forms. The more extravagant ones, like the Egyptians, chose to give these entities their own fathers and forefathers, making the web more and more elaborate and labyrinthing. And with this, the ancient civilizations could create some order in the growing populace by placing a list of things that weren't to be done. These became the Laws: Moses' Ten Commandments is a brilliant example, as is the Gita, and the Qur'an.
Then again, the problem of cults arose. Case in point: the cult of Ra. Ra was the greatest God of the ancient Egyptians. But then, as there was given ample room for addition of random nonsense, people made up their own stories, and made their Gods, gave them their own powers, and each seemed to be on a mission to outdo the other. The end result was the corruption of simple minds with a confusion of myths and elaborate rituals that needed to be performed in order to appease these "Gods", that were no better than infectious beings with the aim to pollute tender minds. Every cult began its own approach to this. Some broke away, claiming to have been "insulted" by the non-recognition of their God, and some decided merge with the others, hoping to garner more and more followers. This phase was pretty much like a family soap opera: it had all the rises, the falls, the cheating, the lying, the treachery, the miserable downfalls, the dramatic upsurges.. And so went the Truth, and as the pen that wrote history choked, thus was created religion.
Too tired and sleepy for the rest of it. Rest assured, it's coming. Just chew on this till then.
COMING SOON: A star-studded post with all your favourite religious characters, and my quest for the (forgotten) Truth. Don't miss it!
Just kidding, go hump a dog for all I care!
Ciao
But the thing is, for us to be able to truly appreciate our capabilities, we need to first understand what we are, how we speak, how we interact, how our lives are dependent on one another, how we are constantly interacting with each other, how complex communication is, how intricate this web of survival is, how the centre of attraction isn't always the centre of learning, and most of all, how civilization has evolved from drawing stick figures on cave walls to wirelessly sending your beloved one in Sierra Leone the pictures from your latest trip to Alaska.
Human civilization has evolved on one basic principle: grow with whatever you can understand; grow on whatever you can't. When the humans first started settling down, their prime importance was food, shelter, and some means to keep themselves alive while being attacked by the elements of nature. They revered their life-givers by elevating them to the status of Gods. Like the Sun, for example. The earliest civilizations known to us all bear testimony to how Sun was primarily the highest God, though over years, as the civilizations grew, and people started seeing influence in many other forces of Nature, this place was gradually shifted in favour of the more lucrative ones with supernatural powers that very soon superseded the more "simplistic" ones Sun had. Case in point: Ra. Ra was the first name given to the Egyptian Sun god. He was worshipped by this primitive civilization for many, many centuries, before being merged with the other (more popular and more widely worshipped) god, Horus. As time passed, he had to be merged to more and more gods, and eventually his throne was lost. Horus, was the son of Nu, the deitification of the Great Sea. This is pretty straight-forward: the Sun is born from the Sea, and so is her son. The same thing is true of nearly every other Sun God in history.
Here it becomes necessary to mention the case of Surya, the Hindu Sun god. He is believed to be born to Aditi (the literal meaning being "The Unbound"). His brothers are (in the order of their birth):
1. Varuna (the rain god)
2. Mitra (the god of honesty, friendship, etc.)
3. Aryaman (literally means "true friend", and is, by my analysis, a reference to the Milky Way)
4. Bhaga (the god of prosperity, and the one who decides how much each one gets when he is born)
5. Amsha (the god of the infinitely small, or "The Indivisible")
6. Daksha (the god of justice)
7. Indra (the god of power)
Notice the order in which they are placed; it's an indication to the way in which ancient Hindus saw the way of Aditi. I'll explain, just in case you still didn't get it. Aditi, is the dietification of Nature ("Unbound"), and she created her "sons" to look after things that. First came the rain, to feed all the life forms, next the Sun to give them warmth, and to help them grow (as they saw was the case with plants), then she created friendship to let them live in harmony and love each other. Then she created the Milky Way galaxy to provide a vast grassland for her lambs; which she followed up with a control over how much each person gets. Here is where interpretation becomes important: we need to understand that the order of things is not only governed by which they saw as important, but also by what they observed when. Amsha is a perfect example of that. They observed how the things around them could be divided into tinier and tinier things. So, they realized there would come a point when division becomes impossible- this was also when the concept of "Anu", or the atom, evolved. Then justice came in to make sure what happened never crossed the line and caused harm to other fellow beings. Then, the power was vested in one of her own sons' hands to rule, and look after the safety and well-being of Nature's countless offspring.
In reality, these were all the first Gods were about: personification of inanimate entities, and ideas about Nature. The aim was to admire and appreciate the works and the being of the universe, and its vast complexity, and the aim was to underline the principle that the simplest of ideas lie at the base of the most radical of conceptions. As time passed, there arose a need to associate stories with these deities in order to make them more appealing, and to make people believe in the consortium of the Adityas (Aditi's sons), as that was the Truth. These stories soon began to get elaborate, leaving space for addition and for others to create their own branches in these myths, and make them more and more interesting, mysterious and appeasable. And in order to make sure the people heard it loud and clear, stories of their power were created, to show them that when it mattered, the Gods were capable of anything.
This story can be applied to nearly every other Sun God. And indeed, it was. But in different forms. The more extravagant ones, like the Egyptians, chose to give these entities their own fathers and forefathers, making the web more and more elaborate and labyrinthing. And with this, the ancient civilizations could create some order in the growing populace by placing a list of things that weren't to be done. These became the Laws: Moses' Ten Commandments is a brilliant example, as is the Gita, and the Qur'an.
Then again, the problem of cults arose. Case in point: the cult of Ra. Ra was the greatest God of the ancient Egyptians. But then, as there was given ample room for addition of random nonsense, people made up their own stories, and made their Gods, gave them their own powers, and each seemed to be on a mission to outdo the other. The end result was the corruption of simple minds with a confusion of myths and elaborate rituals that needed to be performed in order to appease these "Gods", that were no better than infectious beings with the aim to pollute tender minds. Every cult began its own approach to this. Some broke away, claiming to have been "insulted" by the non-recognition of their God, and some decided merge with the others, hoping to garner more and more followers. This phase was pretty much like a family soap opera: it had all the rises, the falls, the cheating, the lying, the treachery, the miserable downfalls, the dramatic upsurges.. And so went the Truth, and as the pen that wrote history choked, thus was created religion.
Too tired and sleepy for the rest of it. Rest assured, it's coming. Just chew on this till then.
COMING SOON: A star-studded post with all your favourite religious characters, and my quest for the (forgotten) Truth. Don't miss it!
Just kidding, go hump a dog for all I care!
Ciao
No comments:
Post a Comment