CHAPTER FOUR
MIDDLE EASTERN MYTHOLOGY
Man, the potential God
Potentially,
every man is a god, yet his potential does not get a fair chance of realisation.
Why? Because dominance-urge instigates the dominant to create conditions which
hinder the progress of fellow-beings towards Godhead. In fact, he himself wants
to be acknowledged as God for turning others into his worshippers. There is no
mystery in it. The working of this tendency is betrayed by the hierarchial
structure of any society; some individuals will do anything to gain superiority
over other people, regardless of what it may take to achieve this goal.
Representation of myths by
messiahs
Revelation, the biggest fraud that
man ever invented, is the most effective way of projecting oneself as God under
various devices such as Avatara, God's son, God's messenger, prophet, guru,
messiah, medhi or Imam. Such individuals know the force of mythology and its
devastating appeal to the masses. Therefore, they represent the existing myths
with a renewed vigour by giving themselves the pivotal position in their system
of fairy tales which appeal to people's instinctive mechanism of fear and favour.
Indian and Semitic traditions of
mythology
Largely, there are two mythological
traditions - Indian and Semitic, but I shall base my case on the latter for its
homogeneity. To establish that the doctrines and beliefs advocated by the
Semitic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are nothing but the
continuation of the mythological tales that existed in the pre-Jewish era, I may
mention them here briefly and should also emphasise that as mythology denotes
infant thinking, man does not seem to have grown rationally since the time of
the Deluge.
i. Egyptian mythological
traditions
The Egyptians believed that in the
beginning, there was nothing but a great expanse 1 of water called "NU",
covered by the cloak of darkness. From the power of NU arose a huge shining egg
which was Ra.
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1 Note the resemblance: Genesis
starts the story of creation with water, and mentions the Creator God.
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- They also believed that Ra the
all-powerful who could assume any form, took the shape of man as Pharaoh. He
ruled Egypt for thousands of years and eventually became very old.
This seems to be an adaptation of the
Indian doctrine called "Avatara" which
means that God appears in human
form to help mankind whenever it is enveloped
by the pernicious forces of evil.
b. In his capacity as Atum 1, he
was considered as the creator of the world.
c. Because of his longevity, Ra
became very weak. People laughed at him and flouted his laws which he had made
binding on them; nothing annoyed Ra more than disobedience to his commandments
2. He appointed his daughter Sekhmet to wreak vengeance. She carried out
destruction and carnage on either side of the Nile and the desert. Ra and the
other gods rejoiced when she tasted the blood of her victims.
d. Ra named 3 all things of the
earth.
e. It was Akhenaton the Pharaoh who
first decried the existence of many deities and decreed the worship of one
supreme God 4. He was originally known as Amenhotep IV. God Aton was not a
figment of his imagination but the renaming of the hawk-headed sun god, Ra-Harakhti.
However, Akhenaton's religion was not as monotheistic as it sounds because by
declaring himself the son of Aton, he ranked as a god in his own right, and
being Aton's high priest 5, had the most direct access to him. It gave him the
sole right of worshipping Aton on behalf of all believers. The special
relationship between Aton and Akhenaton blurred the distinction between the two.
It was especially so because Akhenaton, like Aton, also had a high priest and
thus they shared their jubilees.
f. The Egyptian mythology states
that the Ark (Chest) of Osiris was made of cedar from Lebanon, ebony from Punt
and the south end of the Red Sea; it was inlaid with ivory and rare gold and
silver and its inside was painted with the figures of goods, animals and birds.
Moses was told by Yahwe to construct an ark or chest of similar kind for storing
the second tablets. It was this ark which constituted the proof of a special
Jewish relationship with God.
g. The Egyptian mythology narrates
an interesting episode: Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris had the chest containing
his (Osiris) body placed on a ship which was headed towards Egypt. As it passed
through the Phaedrus River, its strong currents became reluctant to move the
ship. Isis was disturbed by the behaviour of the river. She laid a curse on it
and its stream dried up forever.
This episode is the forerunner of
the Jewish story that describes the parting of the Red Sea, enabling the
children of Israel to escape.
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1 Note the resemblance: Genesis
mentions the Creator God.
2 Jews escaped from Egypt where
people believed that Ra had given them commandments to obey. Ra dealt with them
severly
when the Egyptians disobeyed them.
Moses received similar commandments from Yahweh who wanted to be obeyed under
pain of annihilation.
3 Islamic mythology states that
Allah taught Adam the name of things.
4 Monotheism or the idea of one God
as adopted by Moses in Egypt; it is not indigenous to the Jews.
5 In many ways, Moses was a high
priest to Yahwe as Akhenaton was to Aton.
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h. Besides mythology, the Egyptians
had developed certain customs which commanded supernatural reverence: for
example, Egypt ranked as the whole world
to its people; they were born and
buried there, worshipped their own gods, practiced their indigenous laws,
developed their own architecture, engineering techniques, arts and literature.
They came to prefer everything that was Egyptian - loved isolation and thought
of themselves as a different species in their own right.
The Jews had similar attitudes
towards Israel. Even Yahwe was God of Israel. The Jews obviously brought with
them the Egyptian culture and its religious traditions.
i. The geography of Egypt was
another source of superstition. It was a country 800 kilometers long with hardly
any breadth and thus made governing difficult unless the people obeyed their
rulers as a matter of faith. Again, the faith had to be rewarding: it led to the
belief in resurrection 1 and the day of judgement when the god Osiris would
pronounce a favourable verdict on the believers who were obliged to acknowledge
the divinity of Pharaoh as the first step towards salvation. This is why the
priesthood became an integral part of kingship.
j. Just the concept of salvation
was not enough to hungry people. Amon-Re, the state-god, became entitled to wage
2 war against the foreigners; he received Pith of the plunder, and the rest went
to the participants. Yet another aspect of the ruling class was nepotism. It was
the king's relatives who possessed the most high ranking and administrative
posts.
ii.
Hittite and Mesopotamian Traditions
1. The Hittites did not believe in
mentioning or writing the names of their gods openly and expressed them by
hidden signs. Only the priests knew what they meant. This is the source of the
Jewish Tetragrammation.
2. The divinity of the King was not
acknowledged in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian monarchs were
believed to receive their authority from gods and thus their rule was not
original but vicarious. Such a ruler was a divine viceroy.
Here lies the seed of the Semitic
prophethood or viceroyalty: both Moses and Muhammad claimed to be the prophets
or viceroys of God, and did not directly declare themselves to be God.
The concept of viceroyalty led the
Sumerians to believe that they owned nothing; everything they had, belonged to
gods; they worked on gods' lands as their vassals and lived in gods' cottages as
their tenants.
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1 Here lie the seeds of the
Christian concept of ressurrection.
2 The Jewish predatory raids into
Canaan for tribute were modelled on this Egyptian practice which turned out to
be the fundamental military principle of Islam requiring the vanquished to pay
poll tax or embrace Islam.
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iii. Babylonian Traditions
a. Marduk, the Chief god, told the
assembly of deities that Babylon was the centre of the universe where he had
built a "magnificent house", for himself.
Here lie the germs of Solomon's
Temple, and the reason why Jews thought of Jerusalem as the centre of the
universe.
b. The Babylonian epic (Enuma Elish)
held that gods created mankind to serve them. It was because they (gods) were
lazy and wanted man to work hard for providing them with the choicest foods. The
Islamic idea that God created mankind simply to worship Him originated from this
epic.
c. The Babylonian Gods assembled in
the Halls of Heaven to bestow upon Marduk the creative and destructive powers as
his reward for slaying Tiamat, the monster Showing a piece of cloth to Marduk,
they said, "Bel Marduk, our lord, now you are the first among gods. You can
create 1 or destroy by just uttering a word: speak the word and this cloth will
disappear; speak again and it will reappear in its original form".
d. The Sumerian god Enlil who was
also known as Ellil 2 gained a dreadful reputation for being the mover of
hurricanes and the deluge. For his retributive nature, he was called "the
Wild Ox".
e. All Mesopotamian gods had sons
and daughters. They practiced a culture similar to that of humans but at a
higher level. Thus, they had been invested with finer human attributes by the
believers.
Yahwe the Jewish God and Allah have
attributes similar to those of humans. f. Fear was the origin of gods and
goddesses who were supposed to represent the various forces of nature. For
example, the Canaanite deity, Baal, was the god of rain, thunder and lightning.
He announced that he would no longer acknowledge the authority of MOT
"Death".
The worst fear was the fear of
death which prompted people to search for everlasting life. Gilgamesh, the
Akkadian hero, mirrored the spirit of the Sumerian myths that had existed for
centuries. He was stricken with fear of death and looked for immortality
everywhere. He failed, and at the end wept with dreadful grief and frustration.
During his search, he came across
the magic plant called "Man Rejuvinated In Old Age". He found it
growing at the bottom of the sea. He managed to secure a branch of it and on his
return journey, he found the sun extremely hot. He took off his clothes and
plunged into a pool of cool water. A serpent appeared and carried off the magic
plant into a nearby well. The plant was true because the old skin of the serpent
fell off and the new skin appeared, having all the signs of rejuvination. The
mention of the serpent in Genesis is not a mere coincidence.
g. Gilgamesh (and Enkidu) suffered
terrible dreams and ghastly visions of The Land Of No Return. This is the
prototype of the concept of Hell.
h. According to the Sumerian
legend, the first man was Adapa who invented speech He was not immortal. He made
the mistake of denying the "food of life" and "water of
life" when offered by the god Anu and thus contracted disease and death for
his progeny. Eve made a similar mistake in misleading Adam.
i. The Babylonian myth states that
at the behest of the god Anu, the goddess Aruru shaped clay in the form of Anu
himself and told Ninurta, the son of Enlil, to breathe life into this new man.
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1 Islamic creative principle:
"Kun Fa Yakoon", i.e. Allah commands "Be and it becomes", is
surely an extension of this fable.
2 Ellil seems to be the Allah of
the Moslems. Yahweh as a retributive God also appears to have a great deal in
common with him.
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Another myth attributed to Marduk
claims that the god (Marduk) declared that he would make an animal to be called
"Man". His father, the god Ea. offered to do the shaping of man and
infused it with the spirit of gods so that a drop of divine blood should flow
into his veins. He did so to mingle a bit of god in man.
Here lies the origin of the
creation of Adam as found in Genesis!
j. El, the near image of Yahwe
"ruled the source of rivers". "One of the rivers flowed out to
water the garden" which scholars believe resembles the Biblical Eden.
k. Enki the Sumerian water god, is
associated with a myth which provides the fabric of the Hebrew story of Adam and
the Garden of Eden.
Enki lived with Ninhursaga, the
earth mother, in the paradisial Dilmum (which was situated in Bahrin). Dilmum
was the home of mirth and serenity where misery and suffering were unknown
because there was no ageing or disease, everybody lived in harmony, and even the
animals were extremely friendly with one another. The spousal love between Enki
and Ninhursaga which was the source of heavenly delights, turned into dreadful
dole when Enki swallowed the eight plants grown by Ninhursaga. She laid upon him
the curse of death and even Enlil could not help him. Eventually a fox brought
Ninhursaga back for a suitable reward. To cure her companion, she created eight
deities, one of them being Ninti, "the lady of the rib".
In Dilmum, the paradise, there was
also a sacred tree called Kiskanu which was the focal point for all ceremonial
acts.The Biblical Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is surely an imitation of
the Kiskanu. And so is the story of Eve's birth from Adam's rib!
iv.
Indian and Canaanite Influence
One is surprised to find so many
Indian-sounding names in the Syrian, Palestinian and Babylonian mythologies.
Some examples are: Ashurbanipal, Gilgamesh, Utnapishtam, Yam, Ram, Paul,
Sarpanitu, Zuisudra, Namtar, Nergal, Siduri, Ninhursaga, Kamrusepas etc.
Resemblance of the Babylonian temple with the Indian temple, the practice of the
Indian doctrines such as Trimurti and polyandry, provide further evidence of the
influence of the Indus Valley civilization on the ancient Semitic World.
a. The Canaanite or Palestinian god
El is the father of all gods except Baal. He is the creator of man and earth.
The Bible has extended his image as "the maker of Heaven and Earth"
(Genesis 14:19). He was also described as "merciful" and portrayed as
a seated figure, wearing bull horns personifying his sexual power. Thus, he
represents a modified version of the Indian god, Shiva, in his capacity as
Pasupati.
b. Ball, the storm god, is yet
another prominent Syrio-Palestinian god meaning "Lord, Master". His
title, "Cloud rider, has been attributed to Yahwe (Ps 68:4) Because of his
fighting skill and persistence, he was considered a "Prince" anc
"The Conquering One".
c. In the Canaanite Ball epic, he
is described as returning from the dead, thus, confirming the concept of
resurrection adopted by the Semitic religions.
d. The Hebrew Leviathan is no
different from the Lotan, "the primeval serpent . . . the twisting
snake", that Baal defeated; the same description signifies Yahwe as the
dragon-slayer in the Old Testament (Isiah 27).
e. The art of prophecy is described
by the Mari texts dating back to the 18th centurY B.C. It is also found in the
Egyptian sources of 1100 B.C. Temples were visited by the uninvited prophets and
prophetesses who used various methods to induce frenzy for delivering messages
of gods to kings and notables. It is wellknown that prophets of the Tyrian Baal
achieved ecstacy through self-laceration, dancing and incantation. These methods
have been used right down to our age by sufis, saints, mystics and fortune
tellers.
f. The old Canaanite rituals such
as "sacrifice", "peace offerings", "burnt
offerings", "wave offerings" were adopted by the Hebrews. Even
the Biblical Psalms have been traced back to the fecundity cult of the god,
Baal.
g. Finally, the conquests of
Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. marked the start of Hellinization in the Near
East, giving dominance to the Greek traditions and institutions. Its influence
can be judged by the fact that the Talmudic corpus contains 2500-3000 words of
Greek origin which became the currency of not only the popular sermons of the
rabbis but it also gained ascendancy in the fields of government, law, religion,
science, philosophy, arts and technology.
v. Indian and Iranian influence
Now, we shall see how the Indian
Vedas shaped Judaism, Christianity and Islam through their influence on the
Middle Eastern mythology, especially Zoroasterism and Mancheism. Upanishads, the
ancient Indian texts, mention that soul is welcomed in paradise by five hundred
Cloud Maidens (Apsares). Zaroaster, the Persian prophet, who was inspired by
Vedas, the holy Indian Scriptures, described the Cloud Maidens as beautiful
damsels who meet souls in Heaven.
Again, the concepts of Nerg and
Swarg, i.e. Hell and Heaven, are part of the Indian mythology which is
undoubtedly the oldest in the world.
a. In the Upanishads and the
Yajurved, the ancient holy books of India, soul is required to cross a bridge.
Zoroaster called it the Bridge of the Requiter which leads good souls to Heaven
but the bad souls fall down into Hell. It has become an integral part of the
Islamic Day of Judgement.
b. Zoroaster, also known as
Zarathushtra and Zartosht, was a Persian sage who is said to have lived in the
6th Century B.C.
Following the Indian concept: ``Avatara",
he declared that this world would be visited by the saviours at different times.
He claimed that he received a vision from Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord who decreed
him to preach the truth.
Jewish, Christian and Islamic
faiths draw their concepts of Messiah and Messenger from this source.
c. Zoroaster propounded the idea of
one supreme God who created Heaven and Earth; both darkness and light emanate
from Him alternatively; He is the ultimate law giver, the origin of nature and
the final judge of the whole world.
The Jewish and Islamic theories of
creation and monotheism, are more influenced by these Zoroasteran thoughts than
anything else.
d. The teachings of Zoroaster bear
a clear testimony to the concepts of resurrection when judgement shall be passed
by Ahura Mazda, the highest god, who alone is worthy of worship. He also
illustrates his vision of Heaven and Hell; after judgement, the virtuous enter
the kingdom of eternal joy and light but the wicked are thrown into the cold
dark regions of horror as depicted in the Indian mythology. The Day of Judgement
would be marked by an incalculable outburst of fire which would turn the metal
of mountains into molten lava flowing like a river of fire. The righteous would
feel the effect of the scorching heat as "warm milk" but the evildoers
would taste its real torture. This process is essential to cleanse the sins of
the wicked who like the righteous would be resurrected in the original bodies
along with their souls.
The Islamic principle of reward and
punishment is firmly established here in terms of Heaven and Hell, seeking to
eliminate fear of death by guaranteeing favour of immortality.
The idea of resurrection is also
found in the Babylonian myth of Tammuz and Ishtar where the dead lover (Tammuz)
is returned to life for half of every year. Egyptians also believed in the
resurrection of Osiris and his followers.
e. After the Babylonian exile, the
Jews developed the Persian concept of Ahriman into that of Devil. The Book of
Enoch describes Satan as the son of God, who as a matter of envy, refused to pay
homage to Adam. Yahwe banished him from heaven along with his followers.
This episode gave birth to
Christian demonology with the idea that every soul was attended by a good and an
evil angel. In Islam, these angels assumed the role of two witnesses who record
everything that a person does.
f. The Persian Sraosha, literally
meaning "to harken", is said to have assumed the status of Allah's
messenger as the Archangel Gabriel in the Islamic religion.
g. To purify the dead body,
Zoroaster's followers prescribed that a "four eyed" dog should be
brought before the corpse five times a day.
h. The Old Indian principle of
Rta-Druh, i.e. vice and virtue, was boldly stated by Zoroaster as a battle
between Asha and Druj (truth and falsehood). The first human couple were led
astray by Ahriman, the prince of darkness. The fight between Ormazd, the prince
of light and Ahriman, will last until the Day of Judgement when virtue will
defeat vice.
All Semitic religions have borrowed
their philosophies of vice and virtue from this principle of duality.
vi.
Further Iranian Influence
Mani, another Persian sage, preached
in the 3rd Century A.D. that:
a. prophets come from time to time
to teach true religion; he held that Adam, Enoch, Buddha, Zoroaster and Jesus
were prophets and they formed links of the same chain. In fact, it was a
modification of the belief that the disciples of Zoroaster had developed: they
held that until their Prophet (Zoroaster) appeared on the Day of Judgement, this
planet would be visited by three saviours on his behalf, at intervals of a
thousand years.
b. Each religion is distorted in
time and the purpose of a prophet is to restore its original precepts.
c. He treated himself as the
last-comer in the family of prophets. He emphasised that as he was the
"seal of the prophets", there would be no other prophet after him.
Further, as he had committed his teachings to writing, they would be
incorruptable.
d. He prescribed seven daily
prayers of the elect, and four for the hearer which he should say at midday, mid
afternoon, just after nightfall and three hours after sunset.
e. Fasting was yet another of his
basic prescriptions which occurred frequently. The longest period of fasting
consisted of twenty-six days. All these principles have been incorporated by
Islam in one form or another, yet it claims to be a revealed religion!
To recapitulate what I have said in
this Chapter, I must add that mythology grew from fear of death and natural
forces such as the sun, wind, rain etc. People believed that there was a god or
goddess behind every natural force which could be appeased through submission
and worship for securing favours by way of immunity from hunger, disease and
death.
Those who wanted to make a
lucrative business and gain spiritual prestige out of man's fear, concocted
fabulous tales to enhance the glory of gods and goddesses, commanding the forces
of nature. On the one hand, they made these gods and goddesses divine and
sublime, and on the other, they projected themselves as vicars and viceroys of
these deities who could not be approached without them. This is how the vicar
became part of divinity!
In the beginning these were local
cults. As time went by, there appeared men with a greater urge of dominance,
accompanied by a higher vision and a stronger will To substitute themselves for
the current gods, each of them used various methods of launching himself as a
vicar of God (prophet, messiah, messenger etc.), Son of God or God himself but
they all retained the myths associated with the previous deities they intended
to replace. Why? It is because these myths had a strong psychological appeal to
their followers and thus they were readily susceptible to the new contenders of
divinity.
These new messengers (message
bearers of God) and messiahs perfected the technique of revelation: it means
that the preacher is preaching the Will of God and not of his own, and has no
personal axe to grind. Though this device has degraded mankind through division
and absolutely appalling mutual hatred, it has worked well for these messengers
and messiahs whose stature has grown higher as the standing of mankind has sunk
lower through religious odium, malevolence and murder.
Every friend of mankind ought to
look into the technique of revelation which is likely to annihilate the
human race through sectarian hatred, intolerance and regression.
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