Round and round

I am a lover of ted talks, for those not familiar with whom ted is they are a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting "ideas worth spreading". The company holds conferences where pioneers come to speak; on breakthroughs, new perspectives or their hopes for the future. These ted talks are available for free to the public and can be found on ted.com. Devdutt Pattanaik's lecture below highlights the difference between western and eastern perspectives on life, death, afterlife, and god. Devdutt describes himself as someone who "writes and lectures extensively on the relevance of mythology in matters related to leadership, entrepreneurship, branding, management and governance." He highlights the main difference in beliefs between the two: reincarnation, and that of multiple god forms.

With the belief of one birth, one life, and one death the mindset is to act now. Achieve all in this life, because after this life a person is either: judged by god or becomes nothing depending on that person's religious belief. This leads most people to lives of searching for joy and pleasure. The flip side of this is people being the "good child" by following their religion in hopes of an everlasting happiness after death. Even in there temporary states of happiness there is always the silent fear hanging over people's heads, the inevitability of death. Unacknowledged by most people this hides in the backs of their heads, only to be brought forward by the death of those close.

In contrast a belief in reincarnation means the soul is bound by the actions of its past. We are forced to repeat lessons of life until the correct action is taken. Sort of how some a person continue to attract trouble. They are not unlucky, they simply haven't learned from the trouble the correct lesson. The soul is working over lifetimes towards higher levels of consciousness. Life becomes sacred  especially in human form, which is considered a gift. Humans unlike other animals have the ability to contemplate themselves, the outside world, and conceptualize god.

In India there are thousands of gods. Some people have heard of a few; Ganesha the elephant headed man, Shiva with his trident, Vishnu who is depicted blue usually with four arms, and Brahma with his many heads. They all are aspect of one entity, the source of this entire universe. This leads to the idea of many paths to one god. Many Hindus believe all the religions of the world are all the "correct path" but only for the people on them. The idea being that god understood how people of different temperaments need different faiths.

Time is also viewed differently. This is not the first or that last universe to exist. The universe is believed to go through cycles of one night and day, being destroyed and recreated each lasting 4.32 billion years. A day and night together making up one brahma day, it is also said this will go on for 100 brahma years. These time frames where written into the Puranas in the first century BCE. (Sushama)

By contemplating these vast time spans; thinking of how many lifetimes which come and go. A person then sees why all these pursuits of excess is irrelevant. The search for peace instead of happiness becomes more important. Karma will always be acting, time will continue moving. Everything changes but nothing is destroyed only returned in a new form; from nothing to something and back to nothing.

I myself find the most peace with this idea. It is my path; it has taken me some time being used to accepting that I believe in this new religion I knew nothing of growing up. To me I always thought of religion as a concept that was inherited. I know only a fraction of this vast religion with its many facets, sects, and movements but I hope I have encapsulated a major concept in this post. To me in this elegant dance of all things large and small moving unison over the vastness of time I see the awe inspiring peace and beauty of the world.

Work cited
Londhe, Sushama. "Hindu Cosmology." Hindu Wisdom. 28 Oct. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.