Everyone of us wants to create his own heaven on earth and doing so is a choice we must make, not a place we must find. The choice we must make, is the decision about the kind of hunger that will drive us to create that heaven.
Types of Hunger
Human hunger, unlike animal hunger, can be both quantitative and qualitative. In our quest for security, we acquire and hoard wealth, enough not only for us, but at times, enough to feed ten of our future generations! More over we acquire property, again more and beyond, what would serve our needs. Though in some respects, our quantitative hunger is similar to that of animals, what distinguishes it from animal hunger, is that humans also have the capacity of making qualitative choices. These choices are the power of creativity and empathy.
How Hunger Drives the Nature of Our Heaven
The mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik in a TEDxGateway talk, speaks of three types of heavens described in the Puranas:
Indra's Heaven: Indra's heaven is replete with magical things such as The Kalpataru the tree that fulfills every wish and he rides a white four tusked elephant. But yet, Indra is always insecure - he is forever afraid that someone will snatch away his wealth and kingdom. So Indra is either always at war with someone, or he is scheming to get rid of those whom he sees as potential enemies. Indra is forever hungry for more.
Shiva's Heaven: Here there is peace. Predator and prey live together harmoniously, because they have outgrown their hunger. But the ascetic Shiva's consort, Parvati is not happy with this situation. She constantly reminds him that though he may have made his subjects outgrow their hunger, there are many outside of it who are still hungry.
Vishnu's Heaven: Vishnu is one who believes in satisfying the hunger of others.To do this, he appears on earth in various avatars, so that he can alleviate the hunger and pain of the people. In satisfying the hunger of others, Vishnu finds not only his own happiness, but in fact, wealth is drawn to to him. He is depicted with Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth at his feet.
Types of Hunger
Human hunger, unlike animal hunger, can be both quantitative and qualitative. In our quest for security, we acquire and hoard wealth, enough not only for us, but at times, enough to feed ten of our future generations! More over we acquire property, again more and beyond, what would serve our needs. Though in some respects, our quantitative hunger is similar to that of animals, what distinguishes it from animal hunger, is that humans also have the capacity of making qualitative choices. These choices are the power of creativity and empathy.
How Hunger Drives the Nature of Our Heaven
The mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik in a TEDxGateway talk, speaks of three types of heavens described in the Puranas:
Indra's Heaven: Indra's heaven is replete with magical things such as The Kalpataru the tree that fulfills every wish and he rides a white four tusked elephant. But yet, Indra is always insecure - he is forever afraid that someone will snatch away his wealth and kingdom. So Indra is either always at war with someone, or he is scheming to get rid of those whom he sees as potential enemies. Indra is forever hungry for more.
Shiva's Heaven: Here there is peace. Predator and prey live together harmoniously, because they have outgrown their hunger. But the ascetic Shiva's consort, Parvati is not happy with this situation. She constantly reminds him that though he may have made his subjects outgrow their hunger, there are many outside of it who are still hungry.
Creating your own heaven
Hindu mythology celebrates the two divinities Vishnu and Shiva as Harihara - the Gods (spelt with a capital G) whoare the two sides of the same coin. They shower benevolence on their follower and people build temples to them and pray to them. There are no temples to Indra - the selfish demigod (spelt with a lower case g)
So if you which to build your own heaven on earth and have a choice to make - which hunger would you choose?
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