Saturday, August 21, 2010

Japanese Myth - Sudha Balachandran

I am a Japanese fisherman from the 712 CE I have no learning , except my trade .The Kojiki chronicle, is the wisest as the learned say .I know nothing else for i depend on the gods for my daily meals and faith in them has blessed me so. I am a layman more concerned with the next meal i set for myself and my family , therefore i depend, as everybody else does . The past (the creation of the world as i see) is not of as much significance to me , and therefore i’d believe with what the collective group believes and accepts.

The only reason for my belief is fear of the evident wrath of the gods in the form of storms and typhoons and all the chaos that sets my life off balance and hence they must be pleased .

All the men who lead pleasant lives are gifted by the gods in turn for the belief , and faith they set in them , and if they all believe the Kojiki it must be true .I know not , as to what exact details as the gifted men , but i too would like to believe that the earth was nothing an unimaginable limitless form wherein after a long wait the high heaven plains formed along with Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi-no-Mikoto the deity of the centre of heaven who must have appeared in order to sort the chaotic Earth and to carry out the process of providing purpose to all .

The heavens gave birth to a deity named the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity, followed by a third the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity. These three divine deities must have actually carried out the wonders upon which we stand today. What was heavy and opaque in the nothingness gradually liquefied and became the ground. Whereupon, all the Heavenly deities summoned the two divine beings, Izanagi and Izanami, to clear chaos on the young grounds and by helping each other,they ultimately began executing the fore planned action of the gods. Together they gave birth to the elements we observe around us the sea-god, patron gods of harbors, having control of the land and the goddess Haya-akitsu-hime having control of the sea.

Although as much as i plead with the gods to not alter our lives for the worse i do believe in the divine plan and hence nothing occurs without a purpose. Faith in them has helped me acquire a peace of mind , and concentration on fulfilling my duties.

I am a woman of the 21st century , an atheist by belief . I believe in science being the process of definition and classification and hence the road to reasoning .

To me the Japanese mythology , is a produce of an imaginative mind that’d like to think in humanized terms of gods . An imaginative approach in to explaining certain facts (as the reference to the gaseous state of the Earth and its cool down ). Yet i believe it forbids the layman from diminishing reality from fiction and hence leads to the belief that there are a conscious group of gods who are planning it all . Ultimately leading to the fear of being punished by the greater powers(maintaining view of the humanized nature, and emotions of the gods in the subconscious ) . The myth provides no reason to the appearance of the various gods and seems to rise out of no where , as much as the myth may be blamed here ,as of now it may be the same scenario in case of science whereby the aim is to reveal the bigger picture bit by bit observing ,defining and segregating the naturally occurring , hence proving to be a much reliable source . Rather than personifying and hiding them amidst layers that discourage complete understanding in regard to all the knowledge groups , and blurring the layer of belief between fiction and reality.

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