Saturday, February 14, 2015

Blue People of Hinduism


                                                                          
                                 . . . .            


Vishnu is a popular Hindu divine being who is the Supreme God of Vaishnavism (one of the three principal denominations of Hinduism) and one of the three supreme deities of Hinduism.  He is the Hindu god of preservation and is said to descend to earth from time to time in the form of an Avatar to restore cosmic order.   He is also known as Narayana and Hari.

You may already know that in Hinduism, an Avatar is considered a direct descendant of a deity to Earth, or a descendant of the Supreme Being, and is generally translated into English as “incarnation”, but more accurately as “appearance” or “manifestation”.

In almost all Hindu denominations, Vishnu is either worshipped directly or in the form of his ten (10) Avatars; the two most famous and widely known are Krishna and Rama who are usually seen as his major “appearances” or “incarnations”.   Their stories are told in two major Sanskrit Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; originally composed in Sanskrit and later translated into many other Indian languages.  

Regardless, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are two of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of Itihāsa (for Hindus, Itihāsa is a religious story that tells about what happened in the past), which roughly means tradition, or (oral) history. 

Yes, Sanskrit is considered the chief sacred language of Hinduism; but did you know that the skin color of Rama and Krishna was blue?  Krishna is occasionally portrayed a very dark blue; so dark in fact, that some might say his skin color was black, however most agree he was blue; just a good bit darker than Rama.   

As the two Sanskrit Epics (Mahabharata & Ramayana) go these two fellows were major players in India, in fact they are considered          models in an individual’s “dharma”.    In case you’re wondering, there is no single word translation for the term dharma in western languages; however in Hinduism, dharma signifies behaviors that are considered to be in accord with the order that makes life and the universe possible; it includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, and virtues. Generally speaking, ‘‘the right way of living’’ or you could say the poem furnishes the ideals and wisdom for everyone’s life.

The Mahabharata is the longest known epic poem and has been described as “the longest poem ever written”.  It originally consisted of over 200,000 individual verse lines containing about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of The Iliad and The Odyssey combined, and about four times the length of the Ramayana which contains 48,000 lines. 

Krishna (8th Avatar of Vishnu) is a religious deity, worshipped across many traditions of Hinduism in a variety of different perceptions; he is viewed as: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and in some sects, as the Supreme Being.

Like Krishna, Rama (7th Avatar of Vishnu) is among the many popular figures and deities in Hinduism, specifically Vaishnavism and Vaishnava religious teachings throughout South and Southeast Asia. Along with Krishna, Rama is considered to be one of the most important Avatars of Vishnu but in a few “Rama-centric” sects, he, like Krishna, is considered the Supreme Being too, in the stead of an Avatar.
           
Rama and Krishna were born as human beings of Earth, not some planet far, far away as has been reported on The History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” program. Both were referred to as blue gods because they had a blue aura; a field of energy that is around every substance, not because they had blue skin. In other words the blue color is merely a symbol, neither man was born blue.        

It is generally believed that Lord Rama was born in 5114 BC.  During his rule (some say for a staggering 11,000 years) there was no war, famine or disease. Many Hindu denominations say that Lord Rama died 200 Years before the time of Lord Krishna’s rein, based upon this supposition; he must have died around 3427 BC; totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,687 years; a long life indeed but a good bit “shy” of 11,000 years.         

Assuming Lord Rama’s 11,000 year “term in office” is correct, common sense suggests that he is more likely to have appeared several million years ago as is often argued by various academics. Long before written history; after all, for an untold number of years the Sanskrit Epics were all oral history, passed from generation to generation.    Alternatively, perhaps the historians are a couple naughts (0’s) off. 

Rama’s rule was apparently rather like the Greek Mythology’s “Golden Age” when peace and harmony prevailed; during both “period’s” humans did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. Everyone lived to a ripe old age yet maintained a youthful appearance and when they eventually dropped dead, it was always peacefully.

Lord Krishna on the other hand was born in 3427 BC and lived to be only 125 years old; but then Lord Krishna participated in war and meet his end by an ordinary deer hunter’s arrow to the foot.   

As to how Lord Rama died, the question still remains unanswered but during most of his long life there was no war, famine or disease!



Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama                   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar                                          
http://www.boldsky.com/yoga-spirituality/faith-mysticism/2014/how-did-lord-rama-die-041144.html                                                                   
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itihasa                       
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna                    



No comments:

Post a Comment