Imagine you are living a very happy life and
fulfilling all your desires, earned enough money, family is grown to three
generations etc. suddenly one day you have to leave every comfort or
happiness even your loved ones for ever and you would see them never again
nor will they be able to see you again. How would you feel??? I am sure pretty
sad and you would never want such a thing to happen. There was a time when
every living entity lived eternally until one fine day came death. Death is the
world's greatest unsolved Mystery. Every living creature has to die and leave
his body. The story of death across all cultures is pretty universal and the
belief is also similar it's just that after death belief differs. How did Death
come into place? What is its origin ? Every culture, civilization, literature
would give its own take on creation of death. There are so many stories that
explain origin of death but I will just try to pen down a few to give an
insight across cultures as to how death became permanent.
Hindu mythology
Yama is the god of Death according to
the Hindu mythology, he is the one who segregates souls to heaven or hell
depending on the deed a particular individual has done, he is also called god
of justice as he does fair justice to departed souls. According to a story Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who
died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, thus in virtue of precedence
he became the ruler of the departed and thus death was originated. Also according to Vedic texts whatever is created has
to be destroyed and after destruction it has to be recreated. To this idea
itself revel the idea of death.
Biblical
There was no death at the
time when god created first man and first woman, but because of the fall of
Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit due to temptation of Satan in the
garden of Eden. The curse of death was put on the living entities. Thus Death became
Permanent.
Native American Mythology
The story of Cinauaua, the creator brothers
determined the conditions how Ute people would live. The younger brother wanted
food for the people to be abundant and the dead to come back to life the
morning after they died. The older brother argued that if food were readily
available, people would become lazy. He won the argument, so people had to work
hard to feed themselves. He also disagreed with his brother about death and
decreed that death would be permanent. To show that this was a mistake, the
younger brother killed his brother’s son and pointed out that the grief his
brother felt resulted from his decision about the permanence of death.
There is another account of creation story in
Native American Mythology. According to an Inuit story, the first Earth came
into being when it fell from the sky, complete with people. The world was dark,
there was only dirt to eat, and the people did not know how to die. As a
result, the Earth became so crowded that it started to collapse. Then a great
flood swept away all but a few people. These survivors realized that life could
not go on as before. In exchange for accepting death, they were given
sunlight and. The creator was forced to recreate earth releasing all the water
and making earth a habitable place.
Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, son of AEOLUS; Sisyphus
outwitted Thanatos (Death). Zeus had sent Thanatos to seize
Sisyphus. Sisyphus asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the manacles that he
carried worked. During the demonstration Sisyphus managed to lock up Thanatos.
Zeus had to send ARES from OLYMPUS to release Death upon the Earth again, for
no one was dying.
African Mythology
African Mythology has number of stories of how
death was originated. most of them are concerned with spirits and animals such
as coyote, toad, chameleon, etc. about animals involvement with death I will
include in a separate post, I will list a few which are related to gods and
goddesses of African tribes.
Abbasi Myth of Nigeria
Abbassi created the world and man and woman,
however he did not want humans to live on earth, but with Abbasi's wife Atai
convincing him he sent them to earth and humans started to hunt, till soil and
work and forgot Abbasi, so to keep humans in place Atai sent death to the
world. so that they could never be equal to Abbasi.
Naijok Myth of Sudan
A quarrel between a husband and wife led Ajok
to make death permanent. The couple’s child had died, and the mother begged
Ajok to bring the child back to life. When he did, the woman’s husband became
angry. He scolded his wife and killed the child. Ajok declared that he would
never again bring anyone back to life; making death to be permanent.
A Myth from Republic of Congo
The Supreme God had told humans that they
could eat the fruit of any tree but the Tahu. As long as humans obeyed this
rule, God took them to live in the sky with him when they grew old. One day a
pregnant woman craved Tahu fruit and had her husband pick some for her. The
Moon saw this and told the Creator. Creator was so angry with humans because of
their disobedience that he sent death as a punishment
A Myth from Banyoro of Uganda
Once only animals died permanent deaths.
Ruhanga, the Supreme God, resurrected people after death. All that he needed
was that the living express joy when someone was brought back to life. One
woman refused to dress up and go to greet the newly risen because she was
unhappy over her dog’s death. When Ruhanga, the supreme god heard this, He
decided that if people did not care what happened to the dead, they might as
well stay dead, and he never resurrected humans again.
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