Transcript
Welcome to mythic and I’m see, Gabriel, I’m glad you’re here tonight.
Berakhah brah is a story from the Hindu mythology.
Hindu mythology has many, many deities, but three primary male guts stand out.
They are: Vishnu, the God of eternity , that which is never created or destroyed,
but it’s always here amongst us, the core of life; Brahma, the God of creation;
and Shiva, the God of destruction.
And in this story, they’re all going about their godly
business when Vishnu gets a call.
He’s needed to go save the earth and he does not want to do it.
He is really having a nice day.
He’s feeling productive.
He’s getting things done, but no, the earth has become heavy with
pettiness and doubt and cruelty and has sunk deep into the primordial sea
and Vishnu needs to go rescue her.
So he transforms into his avatar of a boar named Varaha.
And he dives deep into the ocean and he swims and swims and swims into the
darkness until he captures the earth.
And he takes her in his arms and he begins to swim upward through the
beauty of the blue and to the light, when he finally breaks the surface, she
looks at him and she says, my love, how many times have we done this before?
And when she says this, he hears her voice and he is in love.
He is deeply, deeply in love.
So in love that he does not return to the gods.
So in love that he transforms her and the two of them run off together to
have a family, they go and hide in the jungle where they spend day after day
bathing in the sun and rolling in the mud and having a whole breed of piglets.
And they are so happy.
But Shiva is not . Shiva thinks he needs to really take his job.
Seriously.
What is he doing?
What is he doing down there as a peg?
So Shiva appears before Varaha , and says, “Varaha you moron, you have
forgotten that you are an eternal god.
You stupid pig.
Remember who you are . Return to your position of light.”
But, Varaha, just goes about snorting and eating.
And eventually he lays down and he takes a nap and Shiva,
very frustrated, heads home.
The minute she was gone, Varaha wakes, his wife, the two of them run away.
“We have to hurry.”
He says “quick, into the forest.
Shiva will come after us.
It’s not this easy.”
And they go into hiding.
And as soon as Shiva returns back to his godly home, he
goes to his neighbor, Brahma.
“Brahma.
Did you see that?
Do you see what Vishnu as Varaha is doing?”
And Brahma looks down and he sees Vishnu down there and he
says, “well, yes, I see him.”
And Shiva says, “isn’t it disgusting ? Brahma says “yeah, well?
Yeah, kind of disgusting.
He is a pig.”
Shiva says “well, do something.
We have to do something” Brahma says.
“Okay.
I’ll handle it.
Don’t worry.”
Shiva says, “okay, really handle it.
Promises.
I hear you.
I’m handling it, and Shiva leaves , but when Shiva’s gone, Brahma looks down
and he sees Vishnu and he looks so happy.
Vishnu looks so happy.
He is such a hardworking God.
And he is so delighted to be snuggling and playing with the earth and with
his piglets and Brahma, ex-felons get a model while.’ But Shiva sees
that Brahma is not going down.
He is not intervening.
He is not solving this problem.
So Shiva goes for his Trident and Shiva’s trident hits anyone he aims
it at whether he can see them or not.
So he thinks of Varaha and he throws the Trident and it seeks him out and
finds him hidden deep in the forest.
And it goes right through and it pierces through his body.
And Varaha lay dying.
And even as he’s dying, he is overcome with the beauty, the beauty of the
green and the swaying grass, the beauty of the blue sky, even the beauty of
his red, blood running out of him.
And Shiva appears before him and says, “you moron, you are a God.
Remember that you are a God.
The stupid pig.
You have forgotten.”
And as he says it, Vishnu is dissipating Varaha is drifting apart and Vishnu
is returning to his body of light.
And he does remember, he does remember that he is a God that he has a job to do.
He also remembers that the earth is frail and that the earth is fallible
and he looks forward to the day that he can return to save her.
Once again.
So I look at that story now.
I wonder how we can remember in every moment that we are simultaneously kind
of stupid pigs, not to put too fine of a point on it, as well as eternal gods.
How can we remember that in every moment we have choices and sometimes it’s great
to choose to roll around in the mud.
And sometimes it’s good to remember that we are gods of light and we
can bless this place by removing ourselves from the pettiness and the
cruelty, knowing we can always return.
There will always be another moment: another moment of grace in the
moments of dark; and another moment of dark and the moments of grace.
I believe even when we think it’s over.
I hope that you will, in every moment, remember your own power, that you will
hold your own humanity and your own divinity, the ways that you are both
sacred and profane in every moment as we move forward, with the great challenges
we are experiencing at this time.
Thanks so much.
And I hope you have a lovely week.