IS ALL MYTHOLOGY A MYTH ?

The other day, during a discussion with my tee-aged son, I quoted an example from the ' Mahabharat ' to drive home a point. " It's all right, but that is all mythology " , he rebutted. Well, I was floored. I remembered a similar discussion that I had with my father in my younger days. I too had used the same argument and had floored him. A poetic justice.

But then, this set me to thinking. How could I explain to him ? Well, here goes an effort. It has been established now that the human brain is a complex electronic computer-cum-control room besides being a few other things. There is an electronic circuitry in the brain that helps us to see, hear, smell and so on.

A television set at helps it to catch a program from waves emitted by a television transmitter. How did the circuit in the human brain come to be formed ? We do not know as yet for certain. But we know for certain how the television circuit was evolved. Now, is it impossible to imagine that human brain can have the same circuit as the television in addition to the present circuit ? After all, by the same evolution by which the present circuit was evolved, the additional circuit could also be evolved. What would then happen is that a human being can switch on his own brain's T.V. set and witness a program being beamed.

It is this quality that Sanjay of the Mahabharat is said to have had. Perhaps, another person at the site of the battle had transmitter ability. This myth is a possible scientifically acceptable or at least understandable matter. Similarly, other myths may be explained in other ways if one gives thought to them. The probable reason why such qualities were lost is that miuse was made of them. Besides, nature has shown a better way, the present way.

Now that we have televisions, it is not necessary to have such a circuit in the brain. However when such prevalent gadgets are not available, the creatures on earth may, possibly possess the properties of such gadgets. Now-a-days only what is scientifically accepted is considered to be truth. Do we however pause to think that there is a fourth dimension - Time ? What is true today, may not be true tomorrow. When was it proved that the Earth moves round the Sun ? Long time ago. Have we been reviewing this ? may be, at a particular time in the evolution process, the reverse takes place. The Sun gives us energy today. May be, when it is exhausted some billion years hence, do the rest of the planets return the energy ?

We can check this by sending up rockets powered by solar batteries at intervals of time. So long as the rockets get burnt out, the Sun has excess energy. When it is able to land, the reverse has taken place. If so, that is the time when the dark ages descend. That perhaps explains Pralaya or the Deluge. During such ages, if a cave man tells his son that there used to be gadgets like Televisions, Aeroplanes, Space rockets and so on, he would smirk and say, " Oh ! Dad ! That is all Science ". May be such things happen at any one time in only parts of the earth but there may be a time when the entire planet is engulfed.

We should not, therefore, reject mythology as utterly outmoded and incorrect. That is not to plead for obscurantism either. All that I would say is that the present is important. Past and future, though not to be neglected, are less important. nothing is useless. What is animate today may be inanimate tomorrow and vice versa. Everything is useful. Evolution, change is the order of nature and those who aid this process, benefit in the long run. That is why it is important to create. If nature destroys it, we have rebuild. If Pralaya was to come, is it any reason not to build ? Construction is the job of the animate. It is for nature to destroy so that the inanimate get a chance to be recycled into the animate. Man can also aid in this process destroying obsolete things and building new things.

Importance given to certain persons and certain activities at a particular time is only for that time and that place, it being the need of the hour. They should not bother about the past or the future. They should enjoy whatever is available at any given time, not sparing any efforts to make themselves happy.

Call it religion, call it science, call it nature study, or even call it even Marxism. They are all the same. They all change. They all evolve. In the ultimate analysis, a philosopher is either a fool or a student or a senile. Wise men act regardless of the past or the future.