What Is Mythology?

to find food in order to survive, to nourish ourselves; we have to protect ourselves from danger; we are constantly in a state of freeze, fight, or flight. We are seeking things and avoiding things. Yoga is a process by which the knots are untied, enabling us to align ourselves with the true nature of the world, not what we imagine it to be. With this insight, we can break free from hunger and fear, and eventually the cycle of rebirths. We can mystically unite with the cosmos or develop occult powers that help us solve human problems.

A fact is everybody’s truth, based on measurable evidence. Fiction is nobody’s truth, based on fantasy. Myth is somebody’s truth, and establishes a culture’s worldview.

The words myth and mythology are controversial only if one sticks to their nineteenth-century definitions, where myth is a synonym of fiction and fantasy. This simplistic binary world has long since collapsed. In the twenty-first century, our understanding of the world is far more nuanced. It must be kept in mind that the meaning of words changes with time. The word gay today refers to homosexuality and does not mean carefree, as it did a century ago; for the Greeks, justice meant the natural order of hierarchy, not equality, as it does today. Myth, therefore, has to be seen in the modern context, not the colonial one.

The Age of Enlightenment was also the Age of Colonization, a fact that is rarely pointed out. During this age, whatever the European colonizers believed in was the truth, and whatever

Introduction

11

their subjects in Asia, Africa, and America said was deemed as falsehood and myth. In the twenty-first century, following the rise of science, we have realized different people have different truths because they have different experiences of the world. European or American

Lady Justice truths are also a form of myth constructed through stories, symbols, and rituals. Therefore the word myth refers to a subjective or cultural truth of the people.

Myth is not just a religious concept; it is also a secular concept. The two most popular examples of myth are God and justice. Some people believe in God; some don’t. For believers, God is true; for nonbelievers, God is not true. What about justice? Is it fact or fiction, or just an assumption, hope, or belief? Does justice exist? Some people will say justice exists; some say that it does not. Again, for the believer it is true, while for the nonbeliever, it is not true. Neither God nor justice is a universal concept, though many want them to be, assuming that these will make the world a better place.

Myth is an idea, and the vehicles that transmit this idea over time and space are stories, symbols, and rituals. Mythology is the study of the stories, symbols, and rituals that communicate myth. When we decode them in the course of trying to understand the cultural truth of a people, we realize how mythologies change and why myths are different across history and geography.

12 Introduction

Every human being lives in myth. This is an important point to remember. A common misconception among people is that modern, civilized people don’t live in myth, while primitive people or exotic cultures do. This is not true. The difference between human beings and animals is that human beings seek meaning in life. In order to bring meaning to life, we frame the world in a particular way. We have assumptions about life, death, and purpose. Therefore, we tell each other stories, and through them, we construct a worldview; this is our myth. Thus, every tribe in the world, whether in Africa or in America, and every person living in New York, Mumbai, or Tokyo has a particular view of the world: that is the myth he or she lives in. In most cases, these myths are inherited. They are transmitted over generations. However, in the twenty-first century, the respect for inherited traditions is dwindling as our faith in technology rises.

Gradually, we are living in a world of ideologies that are transmitted through educational institutions and social media, and which in turn transmit new myths that are constructed on a day-to-day basis. A tribal society will have a tribal myth; a civilized society will have its own “civilized” myth. Communism and capitalism are as much a myth as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The nation-state is a myth, too—these are frameworks in which we live. If tribal mythology creates tribal loyalty, nation-state mythology establishes patriotism. Capitalism creates a sense of purpose based on creating value. Communism creates a myth that privileges

Introduction

13

labor. Everyone who is in a myth insists that his or her myth is true and that those who disagree live in falsehood. Money is the most powerful myth in the world today. A coin, a piece of paper, or numbers on a computer screen are deemed to have value because the buyer and the seller believe in the underlying story and respect the symbol and rituals around it. Take away this myth and modern society will collapse.

Just as science rejected myth in the nineteenth century on grounds of evidence, post-structuralists, social justice warriors, and cultural Marxists reject all myths of the twenty-first century as conspiracies to create oppression. In their discourses, capitalism was created to make the rich richer, communism to establish mediocrity and kill enterprise, Hinduism to enslave people through caste, Christianity to establish empires, and Islam to wipe out free will and diversity. All religions are considered tools to create gender, class, and cultural hierarchies—to create value for the favored few. By such analysis, post-structuralists, social justice warriors, and cultural Marxists create their own hierarchies and meanings, establishing their own myth of a world without myth.

For the purpose of yoga, it is important to understand the myth of Judgment Day. Judgment Day is a concept that is found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It was also found in ancient Egyptian, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Greek mythologies. The idea is that when you die, you are judged on your actions and

14 Introduction

sent to heaven or hell accordingly. In the case of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, God is the judge. And therefore, God creates the rules one must follow. If one follows the rules, one goes to heaven or hell. Secular nation-states also follow the framework underlying Judgment Day, though they exclude the idea of God. Instead of God, they speak of citizens as a collective, and commandments take the form of a constitution. The citizens are expected to live by the nation’s law; those who don’t are judged and penalized. Structurally, then, the notion of Judgment Day is implicit even in the secular idea of social justice and corporate social responsibility.

The concept of a judge, Judgment Day, and the binary between heaven and hell are not dominant motifs in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism. In Buddhism, the Buddha is not a judge. The idea of heaven and hell exists, but it’s not quite based on judgment or commandments. Buddhism speaks of the concept of karma and the belief in rebirth based on your actions in this life. The rules of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are restricted to religious ascetic orders and communities, more for functional than metaphysical reasons. You go to heaven not by following rules, but by restraining senses and seeking wisdom. Thus, the Buddhist concept of heaven and Judgment Day

Introduction

15

hell is not based on following or breaking rules, but on psychological transformation and accumulating karma that either raises us or casts us down in the many-tiered cosmos.

The concept of judgment comes in a society that believes in equality, and therefore strives toward homogeneity, shunning heterogeneity. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are based on diversity, which is often misread as inequality. Every human being is different, because we all carry different karmic burdens from our previous lives. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, one rule cannot apply to all. Likewise, different people need different forms of yoga and different kinds of teachers. There is no one yoga for all, no one guru for all. The yoga that works for our particular context and our body is best for us, but it might not work for others. Yoga cannot be benchmarked or indexed or standardized. Nor can gurus, yogis, or yoginis.

Contrasting Worldviews

Abrahamic mythology Indic mythology Monotheistic Monotheistic, polytheistic, agnostic Equality Diversity Time is linear and finite Time is cyclical and infinite One life Many lives Obedience Awareness Be saved or judged Be liberated or united

16 Introduction