Disguises and Incest

This, is a story within a story. The story of Myrrha is within the story of Vertumnus and Pomona. Although Vertumnus seems a bit stalker-ish with Pomona, I think it's really cute how hard he tries to get her attention. He tells her about the story of Myrrha and her father, Cinyras. The story took Vertumnus nowhere, and Pomona is smarter than we all think because she knows it's not a sweet old lady telling her the story, but she ends up liking what she sees when Vertumnus takes off his disguise.

Meanwhile, a girl named Myrrha longs for her father, Cinyras. Don't worry folks, she knows that what she is feeling is wrong, but she can't escape it. She ends up getting what she wants, but its not much of a happy ending.

There Are Some Moments People Don't Want To Relive

In this story, we get to see what true love really is. After the reading story of Orpheus and Eurydice, I realized that true love means to always be by the persons side, to be their best friend, their shoulder to cry on, and to go down to hell if Hades takes them away from me. This is exactly what the musician, Orpeheus does. When he gets there, Hades (god of the underworld) is nice enough to give Alcyone back on one condition: she must walk behind Orpheus and he is not allowed to look at her. If your lady got sent to the fiery depths of hell and you were able to rescue her, wouldn't you actually like to see her first? I would, and Orpheus did, so he turned around. This really made me mad because they were so close to exiting through the gates of the underworld when Orpheus decides to turn around. FAIL! As punishment, Alcyone got taken away again, and Orpheus had to relive that moment over and over. Poor Guy.

Enjoy Your Meal

People can be so rude. What was Erysichthon's deal with cutting down the goddess' favorite tree? You would think that after hearing the spirit of the tree telling him he would never get away with it that he would fall on his knees and apologize, but no, he just mocks the spirit and goes to sleep.

After hearing the spirit of her favorite tree, Ceres (goddess of agriculture) sends Hunger after Erysichthon. Hunger defeats Erysichthon to point that he has to sell his own mother to buy food. Remember how I said that Poseidon seems like a mean and powerful god? Well, he's still powerful but in this story we see a softer side of him as he helps the mother after her greedy son sells her. In the end, we witness a perfect example of "karma's a *itch": Erysichthon ends up eating himself.

Why Is Poseidon So Mean?

No more Bhagavad-Gita! Now we are reading Metamorphoses, Mary Zimmerman's version, although we read some stories by Ovid too. Last semester my school did the play, which is probably the only reason why I can understand it. The first story we read is Ceyx and Alcyone. Alcyone is the daughter of Aeolus, the god of winds, and her husband Ceyx has to leave on a long voyage. This was one of the stories where we read both versions. During the voyage, Poseidon (God of Water) got mad, manipulated the waves and killed everybody. Before he killed everybody, however, Ceyx was longing for his bride and he kept repeating her name. It was really cute in kind of a weird way. Afterwards, an somebody impersonating Ceyx goes toCeyx goes tell Alcyone what happened. In the end they turned into seagulls and lived happily ever after. Now thats what I cal weird, it's still a nice love story.

Has anybody noticed how angry Poseidon always is? I mean, was it honestly necessary to go and kill everybody in this story? Another good example: The Little Mermaid. Ariel's father Neptune (not named Poseidon, but still the same person) was always so mad. All my years watching that show and I hardly ever saw him smile!

My bad, Ariel's dad was King Triton, still this is the way I see Poseidon.

The End

There are three ways that lead to the quality of nature: lucidity, passion, and dark inertia. Men of each way sacrifice to different things. Men of lucidity sacrifice to the gods; men of passion to spirits and demons; and men of dark inertia sacrifice to corpses and ghosts. Foods are also divided into these three paths; lucid men like savory, smooth, firm, and rich foods that promote long life, lucidity (obviously), health, pleasure and delight. Passionate men like food that is bitter, sour, salty, hot,and burning. The foods of passionate men cause grief, pain, and sickness. Men that are darkly inert like stale, putrid, and spoiled foods that are unfit for sacrifice. I'm very confused about all of this and I'm very deeply sorry if anybody reading this is as lost as I am.

I just noticed that I went through all this torture just to find out if Arjuna fights or not, well guess what? I still don't know! In the end Arjuna tells Krishna that his delusion is destroyed and that he will act on his words. The only problem is that Krishna says so many words, God only knows which words Arjuna is talking about!

Not Arrogance, Just Trees and Godliness

I have a Hindu aunt and she taught me that Hndu gods can have many mouths and srms and legs, and that they are very colorful and beautiful.

Krishna:
"Arjuna, see my forms
in hundreds and thousands;
diverse, divine,
of many colors and shapes."

Arjuna:
"I see your boundless form
everywhere,
the countless arms,
bellies, mouths, and eyes;
Lord of All,
I see no end,
or middle or beginning
to your totality."

BAM! Proof that Krishna is a god. Krishna tells Arjuna of how he can create world destruction and everything else on earth. I knew he wasn't arrogant!


In teaching 15, Krishna is describing a sacred tree and I suddenly get an image of some sort of Tree of Life.

Godly Arrogance?

I thought that nature only had four elements: earth, fire, water, and air. Krishna's nature has eight: earth, fire, water, air, space, mind, understanding, and individuality. I'm liking Krishna's nature a lot more than mine. It is never really mentioned, but I'm pretty sure that Krishna is a god, because why else would he be the taste in water or the light in the moon and the sun? He also says that nothing is higher than him, that everything thing that exists is woven into him like a web of pearls on a thread. My conclusion to this is that he is either a god or he's extremely arrogant, but I'm leaning more toward god.

In the 8th teaching, Arjuna asks many questions and Krishna answers them. So its possible that Krishna is an arrogant smart-ass, but I still think he is a god.

If every body rely's on Krishna, even men born of evil, they will reach the highest way. So now I need to bow to Krishna, discipline myself toward him, sacrifice him, keep him in my mind and devotion and I will reach him.

Even Arjuna is Confused!

"You confuze my understanding
with a maze of words;
speak one certain truth
so I may acheive what is good"

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who is a little confuzed; not even Arjuna can make sense as to what Lord Krishna is trying to say!

Krishna is always mentioning action and inaction. Hers my understanding:
Action= detachment/sacrifice of desire
Inaction= attachment/giving in to your desires- inaction will be the death of us.

Krishna also keeps talking and repeating things, but what is he really saying? For example, he seems to be urging Arjuna to fight but it's his choice so whatever he chooses is correct.

According to Arjuna (who believes in reincarnation) when we leave our bodies we go to him. We go inside his presence and we seek refuge. We are free from anger and attraction and fear.

Im getting a little lost now. I just read the word "action" on the page 12 times. (No joke, I just counted) Arjuna is talking about keeping our actions in control and not giving in to our desire. He he reminds me of my school's guidance counselor: "Just say no! Don't give in to peer pressure!"

Now there's this big battle between discipline and renunciation. According to Krishna "The man of eternal renunciation is one who neither hates nor desires; beyond dualities, he is easily freed from bondage" while "Men of simple discipline reach the same place that philosophers attain;he really sees who sees philosophy and discipline to be one." However, Krishna goes on saying that renunciation is difficult to attain without discipline, so wouldn't it be better to have both?

Poor Arjuna

Just finished the second teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita, and I'm not sure what to make of it. There's the fact that Lord Krishna seems to be playing with Arjuna's mind, or the fact that we are embodied in our bodies but not really. Lets start with the Krishna/Arjuna issue:

It seems like Arjuna is seriously incapable of killing a person, but Lord Krishna keeps insisting, saying that if Arjuna kills somebody he won't really be killing them. The same ges with death; if the person dies, its not like thier really dead:

"He who thinks this self a killer
and he who thinks it killed,
both fail to understand;
it des not kill, nor is it killed"

I don't understand it!!! If you think you're a killer but you're bot, and if you think you just got killed but you didn't, then what are you?!?!?! It seems like there could be some sense in what Krishna is saying, but not really. It all contradicts. This kind of leads into the next topic.

There are two parts of a person: the actual self and the body. The self is the soul and the body isn't very important; it just shelters the soul, like a blanket or the shell of a turtle. When we die (or when we don't die as Krishna likes to see it) we leave our bodies only to be embodied in another one, like reincarnation. Its like growing out of clothes; after you've grown out of your old clothes, you discard them and get new ones. Apparently, it's the exact same with bodies.

Meanwhile, in a far away land away from this confusion, Arjuna still cannot find it in himself to kill a person. He' aware that if he does kill, he would be forever burdened with a guilty concience, so he would rather "beg for scraps of food than to eat meals smeared with the blood of elders".

Bagahavadagadad-Gita?

What a mouthful of a title!!! I just started reading The Bhagavad-Gita and besides learning that the title wears the pants in this relationship, I've also learned three things.

1. Sanjaya is AWESOME! Mostly because whenever I think of him, Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol pops into my head; this mental image makes reading more fun :)

2. There is some kind of war going on

3. Blood is thicker than water



So, I believe that the war is between families, because Arjuna's big seems to be that he can't bear killing one of his family members. Not even the reward of being a king will change his mind.

"They are teachers, fathers, sons,
and grandfathers, uncles, grandsons,
fathers, and brothers of wives,
and other men of our family.

I do not want to kill them
even if I am killed, Krishna;
not for kingship of all three worlds,
much less for the earth!"

I wish I had that kind of loyalty, I would probably take my brother out in a second (not really!!!!) Still, I feel a little bad for Arjuna, because he seems pretty broken to have to kill a kinsmen.