Devlok

Published on 25th November, 2018, in Mid-day. Typically, in storytelling, the main characters, the hero and the villain, are male, and the victim is female: a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by the hero, from the machinations of the villain. But, from time to time, one does see gender shifts in the nature of hero and villain. While traditionally, we find the male Indra defeating the male Vritra, or the male Shiva defeating the male Andhaka, or the male Vishnu defeating the males Madhu and Kaitabha, we do come across in medieval literature, Durga and Kali, who defeat male villains, such as ..

Published on 17th November, 2018, in Mid-day. In Buddhist and Hindu mythology, birth from the female body brought one into the circle of life and death, or samsara. So, the womb-born, or yonija, experience birth as well as death. Ram is born from the womb of Kaushalya, Krishna is born from the womb of Devaki, and, therefore, both of them experience death. In Puranic literature, we come across the concept of ayonija, someone who is not born from the womb, and consequently, is able to bypass or rise above the cycle of birth and death. The story of Ganesha is a case in point. Ganesha ..

Published on 11th November, 2018, in Mid-day. The Buddhists and the Hindus share the idea of the land becoming sacred, when it is connected with the body of a holy being. Let us first hear the Buddhist story. We are told that when Buddha died, his body was cremated, and after the cremation, his ashes were supposed to go to his birth tribe: the Shakya tribe. However, seven kings of the Gangetic plains attacked the city of Kushinagara, where the cremation took place, demanding a share of the relics. They surrounded the city and threatened a great war, until finally a sage known as Drauna ..

Published on 4th November, 2018, in Mid-day. In the Vedas, long before people knew about gods such as Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, there was a story of how the god of heaven committed incest with the goddess of dawn, his daughter. Now this is called the problem of primal incest, which is found in almost every mythology. The problem is this: if in the beginning, there was 'the one' and then then he or she created 'the second', the relationship of the second with the first can be of either sibling or of child. Either way, a sexual relationship between them is incestuous, which is ..

Published on 21st October, 2018, in Mid-day. The Brahmanas (religious texts) refer to manuals that connect Vedic hymns (mantras) to rituals (yagnas) and offer explanations for the various ritual practices by way of stories. These stories can be dated back to roughly 2,800 years ago, so before the time of the Buddha. Through these, we get a sense of the ideas that existed in India before Buddhist times. One such story is the story of the sage Bharadwaj. We are told that Bharadwaj lived the celibate and pious life of a brahmachari and that he could recollect three of his lifetimes. In each of these ..

Published on 7th October, 2018, in Mid-day. Buddha said that desire is the cause of suffering. Outgrowing desire enables one to experience freedom from suffering. The Vedic approach was very different. Suffering can be reduced when we pay attention to, and try to satisfy, each other's desires. This gave rise to the ritual of yagna. The person who conducts the yagna was called a yajaman. He lit a fire, and chanted hymns in order to invoke a deity or devata. He gave the devata something to eat, and said, "Swaha." Swaha means what was mine is now yours. Technically, it is the transfer of deeds. ..

Published on 16th September, 2018, in Mid-day. A dramatic shift happened in Buddhism roughly 500 years after the historical Buddha. This dramatic shift is the rise of what is called Mahayana Buddhism or the Great Vehicle of Buddhism. This thought perhaps emerged in Kashmir and Afghanistan and spread to China, where it was patronised by the local kings, especially the Tang dynasty in the 7th century, and eventually spread to Japan. The fundamental difference between Mahayana Buddhism and the older school of Buddhism is that it had a far more optimistic view of life. The older school, or the 'Theravada' school or the 'Abhidhamma' school, ..

Published on 5th August, 2018, in Mid-day. As a child, I was familiar with two words for God in Islam – one was Khuda and the other was Allah. I assumed that they were synonyms for each other. As I grew up, I learned that Khuda is a Persian (Iranian) word and Allah is Arabic. I noticed that my Parsi friends often referred to God as Khodai, a result of their Persian roots. Currently, I observe that many Muslims avoid using the word Khuda and prefer the word Allah. So, it is no longer Khuda-hafiz for safe journeys, but Allah-hafiz. This shift reveals a transformation ..

Published on 8th July, 2018, in Mid-day. In Hindu mythological stories narrated in the Puranas, Brahma's son Kashyapa has two wives. One called Aditi, the other called Diti. Aditi's children are called Adityas or Devas, and they reside in the celestial realms above the sky. Diti's sons are called Daityas, and they reside in the subterranean realms known as Patal, or realms under (tala) the feet (pa). Sometimes Diti is identified as Danu and her children are called 'Danavas'. Daityas and Danavas are collectively called Asuras. Aditi and Diti are always competing for Kashyapa's attention and their rivalry extends to their children. So Devas and ..