The God Story In Other Traditions

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  I hope your day today is blessed and full of meaning.

Yesterday, I wrote about the God story in Hinduism in the context of war.

The God story often appears with warriors and soldiers.  Alas, it is often partisan and celebratory of battle.  Rarely do we find the gods grieving over men murdering other men, women, and children.

One of my favorite books to read is The Odyssey   It occurred to me the last time I read it, that The Odyssey is not just lore, but Greek scripture. 

There is much about gods and war within it.  The deeply spiritual motif of going home also underlies this great epic.

The ethical sensibility of Greek religion pervades Odysseus’ adventures in the narration.  For example, the violation of hospitality mores has dire consequences in the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus.

Also, the suitors who seek to steal Odysseus’ home and wife while he is away at war are fatally punished by Odysseus with Athena’s help.

There are also statements about Zeus as one who cares for the poor in the text.

Hindu lore speaks of battles too.  Thus, Arjuna grieves while standing in his chariot, watching from the plain, and he speaks to his charioteer.  Some kind of veil is lifted, and as he listens to his charioteer speak, Arjuna realizes that the god Krishna is speaking to him.

I thought about this yesterday while I was reading a Sunday School quarterly about God speaking to us through others we meet.  At some point, a veil is lifted and we realize God is talking.  

That is the experience Arjuna's story points to.

So Krishna tells Arjuna to ease his troubled mind.  It is all an illusion.  The battle, the perception of the battle, the perception of self, the killing and dying are all illusory; for all that is, exists in the mind of the God that precedes all gods.

There are 36 millions names for God in Hinduism.  Let me write that number out so we can get a sense of how many names there are:  36,000,000 names.

Now, I've heard that before.  I had heard that before I saw the movie Life of Pi.  I am not aware of an actual list of all those names being attempted. 

When I was a philosophy and religion student I had already learned that Hindu theology believed in one primary god, Brahma, who was the head of a trinity:  Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.

I was fascinated to learn this about Hinduism.  Here was a religion with three primary forces of being:  creation, preservation, and destruction wrapped up in a theology more ancient than Judaism and Christianity!

I find that simply amazing.

Blessings...