Week 12 Story: Meeting of the Pantheons
Meeting of the Pantheons
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva were chilling together out in the multiverse when the topic of the Conference of Earthly Gods popped into the conversation. It is a conference where all of the deities ever worshipped or to be worshipped in the future of Earth meet to discuss their plans for the divided subjects of the planet. Earth is a world shared by many gods.
Shiva: Say Vishnu, you remember that in our rotation of us three, it is your turn next to attend the Conference of Earthly Gods?
Vishnu: How do you mean, my dear Shiva? Why, I attended last Yuga. Remember? We agreed that during every Satya Yuga, we'd play a game and the loser attends the conference. Every Treta Yuga, Brahma here must attend while I have my turn every Dwapara Yuga. That leaves you as our representative during each Kali Yuga. It is Kali Yuga and you must take your turn now as you have done so for all of eternity.
Shiva: How could I forget any of that, my dear Vishnu? I could never forget something that happened, what is to me, a blink of an eye ago. What I'm referring to is our deal to swap out every once in a while. We've made the agreement to allow one of the other two to take our place in attending the conference during our respective Yuga. So long as we make up for it by, in turn, attending the other's Yuga in a later cycle. I forgive you for not remembering that agreement, as it is one that we decided on many upon many Maha-Kalpas ago.
Vishnu: Ah, yes! You have refreshed my memory Lord Shiva! I will happily take your place at the upcoming conference!
Shiva: I am grateful! You best get ready now. The conference is next millennium.
Vishnu: Oh, I'm not used to how fast-paced Kali-Yugas are! The other Yugas are much slower. Yes, I will get ready now.
One millennium later, Vishnu was ready to attend the Conference of Earthly Gods or C.E.G.. All of the Earthly Pantheons met in a white void outside of finite space. Much better, Vishnu thought, than the black void that the conference was held in last Yuga.
Vishnu looked around and His divine eyes beheld Zeus, representing the Olympians, Thor, the Asgardian representative, Amaterasu, the sun goddess of the Japanese-worshipped Kami, and many other representatives. Time does not flow the same for each of these beings, which is why time is measured differently amongst the different cultures who have worshipped them. For instance, while, from Vishnu's perspective, this conference was held every Yuga, it was simply a millennial thing for Zeus. Meanwhile, for the Hebrew Yahweh, only one conference would be attended... ever. What the polytheistic deities perceived as multiple attendances by the monotheistic deities, like Yahweh, were simply different infinitesimal parts within the same meeting from the vantage point of those infinite capital "G" Gods. For them, all of the conferences were simply blurred together into one.
It was Zeus' turn to run this current conference. When the time began for the meeting to ensue, all deities either took a seat or stood wherever they so pleased within the white void. The monotheistic Gods just stayed put, as they were already anywhere and everywhere.
Zeus: Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room! *Looks at Vishnu* Oh good. *Breathes a sigh of relief* Ganesha isn't here. *Laughter throughout the void* Anyways, I'm speaking about another elephant. The Earthling subjects are becoming more materialistic by the year... ehem! Excuse me, by the (insert cultural time measurement here). I apologize. I've been up all century practicing my speech to make sure I wouldn't be so biased with my Gregorian measurements of time. Hopefully no more of my Olympian conceptions about reality slip in. I want to make this meeting as smooth as possible. What do you all have to say of this global materialism!? Is it good? Is it bad? Should we not care? How do you want to deal with your share of the Earth's people?
Camazotz, the vampiric bat god who was acting as representative of the Ahau, worshipped by the Mayans, stood up to speak. "We should reinstitute human sacrifices!" The other gods immediately sent groans and bellows spreading like waves throughout the void. "You always suggest that, Camazotz," spoke the slavic Perun, "don't you ever have any ideas less horrid than yourself?!" A wave of agreement passed throughout the void.
"How about we help them discover the lost art of sun-gazing," suggested Ra the Egyptian sun god. "Think about it," he continued, "it will help them develop mystical superpowers if they practice it enough! How do you think the mighty pyramids ever got built? With those kinds of powers, the Earthlings would be set free from the material world and on there way to discovering aspects of the Universe that are infinitely more exciting! Material possessions would be like an old toy which a child has now grown to boredom with!" Silent contemplation struck the minds of the other deities.
Zeus: I'm not so sure that's a good idea. There's a reason that I wouldn't allow Prometheus to give fire to the humans too early. There's some stuff that they're not ready for yet. That thought brings something to my mind. Perhaps we should regard materialism as a "phase" that humanity must pass through at this time. What say you, monotheistic Gods? I would like to hear from any of you. Well... as much as my mind can interpret.
Allah: Just let it all be. I have created everything within my creation as planned.
Jesus: Yes. All that is happening is done out of unconditional love and joy! No need to fear. For I am with you and them, always...
Krishna: I am in perfect bliss! If the fact that the Infinite Self is in perfect bliss isn't enough to make you trust that everything is going perfectly, then nothing will! Literally, looking at how Nothingness is fairing will suffice even more than asking us monotheistic Gods existing in a state of Anything and Everythingness! On that note, maybe we should let the Buddha speak. He's "existing" in a simultaneous state of both Nothingness and Everythingness! Buddha, what say you?
Buddha: ...
Zeus: Yeah... I didn't get any of that...
Krishna: Neither did I, but it was worth a shot!
Zeus: We should have expected nothing more. How can a "thing" beyond thingness express itself in words, which are things themselves!
Vishnu: Perhaps, in these times of darkness and materialism, we ought to simply remember our Dharma. The human will do what the human will do. The deity will do what the deity will do. The forces of nature will correspondingly do what they do. All the while, the Infinite Being will always be what It is and do what It does. Nothing can derail that... On that note, I'm kind of nervous about what the Buddha's gonna do... *Laughter throughout the void*
Buddha: That can't be understood anyways. Nor will it ever be knowable.
Zeus: Of course! The only thing we can understand from the Buddha is that WE CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND THE BUDDHA! *Looks up... wherever that is* God, why do we even hold these conferences? That was a rhetorical question, big "G" Gods! Don't answer! Ugh, let's just all go do what we do and make existence better by enjoying what we are.
Bibliography:
*Author's Note: I used Marvel Comics' names for each of the pantheons. Such as Olympians for the Greeks, Asgardians for the Norse, and Ahau for the Mayans. That is also where I got a couple of my ideas for the representatives. Specifically, Amaterasu for the Shinto pantheon and Camazotz for the Ahau. I did not base this story on any particular story from this class. I kind of just conglomerated pieces from all that I've ever learned about different mythologies and religions. Now, allow me to explain what Yugas and Maha-Kalpas are. One Maha-Kalpa equals the age of an entire Universe from beginning to end. As in Hinduism, there are multiple Universes. The average lifespan of a Universe is said to be 311.04 trillion years! That's how long one Maha-Kalpa is. Yugas are another Hindu unit of time. There are four Yugas. The Satya Yuga is the Golden Age of humanity and lasts the longest. Next best and second longest is the Treta Yuga or Silver Age. After that comes Dwapara Yuga, also known as the Bronze Age. Finally, the shortest and darkest Yuga in the cycle is Kali Yuga, which we are currently in. This is known as the Iron Age or Dark Age since it's the most evil age within the cycle of Yugas. In this way, Yugas are more flexible units of time than Western units, like millennia. So, the Hindu gods would not only experience these conferences as being less frequent than they are for the Olympians. They would also experience a variable timespan between each whereas the time intervals would be more consistent and fixed for the Olympians. Dharma is another Hindu concept. It essentially means one's duty or purpose which corresponds to their nature. The Hindus refer to this as "one's Dharma nature." Along with the variety of cosmological conceptions from each culture, I also wanted to show off the plethora of colorful personalities that each deity possesses.
Hi Ethan!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what unit this was from in class, it was a happy surprise that it wasn't from any unit. Thank you for explaining the different units of time in your author's note. I liked this story, it was refreshing and new not something that I have read before. With that being said, I vaguely know what some of the characters may look like: Zeus, Jesus, Buddah, maybe Shiva, Allah, and Ra from other stories but some of the less common gods maybe describing what they may look like. Or even look like in your story here if they are different. (I am a sucker for details to see it better in my mind)
Hey Ethan, this is an awesome story. The meta-physical comedy in here is hilarious ie: “much better than the black void the last one was held in.” Your discussions of time and perception add a rich element to this story too. I think this was a bold idea to bring in perspectives from so many different cultures and religions but I think you pulled it off really well! Great job!
ReplyDeleteHey Ethan. I have never read a story like yours before and I was really entertained with it all. I love that you put all these Gods together and basically had a conference. You added a lot of humor in it as well which made the story even more great. The fact that you added most of this without it being in our class was really amazing.
ReplyDeleteHi Ethan! I like how you include several different gods in your story from different religions and cultures. I think it's an interesting take that they all exist and get together for a conference. I thought it was really funny when Shiva tells Vishnu that he should start getting ready because the conference is the next millennium.
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