In almost everything we do in our lives, death is never far away. In the seasons, in our celebrations, in our relationships and in our rituals; death as an end, death as sadness, death as loss and death as a debt that we owe the ultimate creditor, Yama (in the Hindu pantheon) is omnipresent. It is the invisible thread that ties our lives together -- gives it a meaning so to say.
This is true of almost every culture in the world. As I read the myths that once defined these cultures, I was drawn by the similarities in the way death was depicted and the rituals that are associated with it. Equally interesting was the difference -- death is universal but the philosophy of mortality differs from culture to culture -- in nuance and character.
For instance in many ancient civilisations (Greeks, Mayans, Aztec), death is something man or humanity has always sought to conquer. To borrow a cliche: it is the final frontier. The heroes of these myths are therefore on a quest for immortality. They seek the ultimate elixir, the plant or the root or the drink that will keep death away from the living. Their adventures defy death but circumstance, manifest in many different forms, conspires them out of a victory.
The quest of the occidental hero, shaped by the philosophy and myths of these cultures, was born out of a need for understanding why we die. Why is it that the elixir is elusive? This has in turn given rise to literary characters and stories on what death means to us -- The Economist recently carried a brilliant report on a book on immortality (read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/21553411). But this is the story of the occident.
Indian myths tell a different tale. But since they are treated as children's literature fit for comic books and animation films or as religious doctrine, they are rarely examined for their underlying philosophy on death. But if they were, you will find that heroes in the Indian epics don’t go for immortality. They look for deliverance of humanity at large, their raison d’être is to topple evil from its pedestal and give good its rightful due. Arjun, Ram, Krishna, Indra, Yudhisthira and Karna are all heroes, all on a quest but not for everlasting life. There are some heroes that did: Garuda looks for amrita to free his mother, the Gayatri (a mantra today but a meter that could fly like a bird in the Vedas) finds it for the gods but these are older myths. Over the years, Indian myth gave up its search for immortality and looked for other causes.
What happened? Perhaps, as the philosophy of this region engaged with dying more closely, death was not seen as an end of life but as the means to begin a new one. Or the sceptic might say death became a lost cause. Whatever the truth, the cycle of life -- birth, death and rebirth -- gained currency among the gurus of the times and therefore their people.
The quest was therefore redefined. Mankind and its heroes began a search for things that would give them spiritual release and not tie them down to an illusory world. Heroes were mortal representatives of gods who were immortal but; in their earthly avatars, they were a part of the cycle of life and death and karma. The philosophy of the region freed the hero of his and her need to rescue mankind from death.
On a recent trip to Benares, I was once again shown the relevance and importance that dying has for us as a people. In that city, death lives among its people. It is not a stranger, leave alone an opponent that needs to be vanquished.
This is true of almost every culture in the world. As I read the myths that once defined these cultures, I was drawn by the similarities in the way death was depicted and the rituals that are associated with it. Equally interesting was the difference -- death is universal but the philosophy of mortality differs from culture to culture -- in nuance and character.
For instance in many ancient civilisations (Greeks, Mayans, Aztec), death is something man or humanity has always sought to conquer. To borrow a cliche: it is the final frontier. The heroes of these myths are therefore on a quest for immortality. They seek the ultimate elixir, the plant or the root or the drink that will keep death away from the living. Their adventures defy death but circumstance, manifest in many different forms, conspires them out of a victory.
The quest of the occidental hero, shaped by the philosophy and myths of these cultures, was born out of a need for understanding why we die. Why is it that the elixir is elusive? This has in turn given rise to literary characters and stories on what death means to us -- The Economist recently carried a brilliant report on a book on immortality (read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/21553411). But this is the story of the occident.
Indian myths tell a different tale. But since they are treated as children's literature fit for comic books and animation films or as religious doctrine, they are rarely examined for their underlying philosophy on death. But if they were, you will find that heroes in the Indian epics don’t go for immortality. They look for deliverance of humanity at large, their raison d’être is to topple evil from its pedestal and give good its rightful due. Arjun, Ram, Krishna, Indra, Yudhisthira and Karna are all heroes, all on a quest but not for everlasting life. There are some heroes that did: Garuda looks for amrita to free his mother, the Gayatri (a mantra today but a meter that could fly like a bird in the Vedas) finds it for the gods but these are older myths. Over the years, Indian myth gave up its search for immortality and looked for other causes.
What happened? Perhaps, as the philosophy of this region engaged with dying more closely, death was not seen as an end of life but as the means to begin a new one. Or the sceptic might say death became a lost cause. Whatever the truth, the cycle of life -- birth, death and rebirth -- gained currency among the gurus of the times and therefore their people.
The quest was therefore redefined. Mankind and its heroes began a search for things that would give them spiritual release and not tie them down to an illusory world. Heroes were mortal representatives of gods who were immortal but; in their earthly avatars, they were a part of the cycle of life and death and karma. The philosophy of the region freed the hero of his and her need to rescue mankind from death.
On a recent trip to Benares, I was once again shown the relevance and importance that dying has for us as a people. In that city, death lives among its people. It is not a stranger, leave alone an opponent that needs to be vanquished.
