Relevance of Mythology in shaping the societies of today or in future
In the modern era, when lives of people are completely engulfed by the digital proficiency, understandings of right and wrong, ethics and the considerations of humanity as a whole has altogether a lot to play which can be gained from our mythological scripts. The Indian Hindu scriptures essentially provide a deep lesson about ‘BRAMHA’, the creator of the world, ‘VISHNU’, the nurturer of the world, and ‘SHIVA’, the destroyer of the world. All of them have something tremendous to offer as knowledge.
Mythology tells people how they should see the world. There is no single mythology for the world today or for the future. Different people have different opinions. Understanding mythology has nothing to do with age, but is essential for just being human because unlike plants, humans seek meaning, purpose and value in life. Since mythology is all about stories from which we understand and inculcate deep secrets of life and death and these things could not come from science and logic.
Eventhough there are a lot of scriptures but, the basic teachings of a mortal life can be very well learnt by ‘THE SHIVA’, who has proposed three principles of a successful and happy life and they are- KARMA (duty), BHAV (emotion) and RAM RAJYA (nature of relationships).
According to the first principle of karma, it is the utmost responsibility of a person to perform his duty in any state or situation. The only thing that a human can control is his karma and also the only thing for which he could be held responsible. One of the greatest examples of performing karma can be learnt from lord Rama in the past who fulfilled his father’s promise of him going to exile.
The second principle, bhav teaches us to feel the emotion in each and every act. The path to success comes with every act of ours done with deep emotions. Being humans, when we feel something then is a better scope of us understanding it.
And, the third principle, the ram rajya which explains the nature of relationships in our vicinity, meaning, our character should be such that everyone gets bound to praise us with love and compassion. We should never stop loving regardless of the situations we face in our vicinity, a day will surely come when the tables will turn.
To make a better understanding of these principles and mythology as a whole, firstly
we need to decide whether we want to see the world or not. There are two types of
people in the world, ones who see the world and the others who observe the world.
Around 2000 years back when Mahabharata was being fought, Yaksha asked
Yudhisthira, “what is the greatest wonder of the world?” and he replied that the
greatest wonder is that, ‘Everyday people die and the rest live as if they are
immortal’.
So, knowledge comes from wisdom and wise is the one who does not see from
his sight but from his insight.
When we can predict the future, it is better to use the insights and take decisions
rather than believing in what we want to see.
‘The society should see these stories as reflections of their own emotions, ideas and
conflicts. There is no god and demon outside us, no hero or villain in the past. It is
all here and now, in our heart and mind, and in the hearts and minds of the people
around us.’
Mythology inbuilts deep values in the lives of people. It is not a science to see or
practice but an emotion to feel and understand ourselves and people better.
By: POOJA SHARMA
JEMTEC SCHOOL OF LAW
