Bhagavad-Gita Lesson 3-5

These teachings have a new topic from Krishna to convince Arjuna about how action is better than inaction. According to Krishna, action makes the world go 'round and not doing action, inaction, breaks this cycle we call life. I like how Krishna does something that is ignored a lot in arguments. Doing this is bad is the typical argument but Krishna brings up if you don't do this, the concequences will be whorse. However, Arjuna is still hard as a rock and is not giving in to Krishna's arguments. I am still waiting for Arjuna to have some weird enlightment about how in a strange way, killing is good.

Bhagavad-Gita Teaching 2

In the last teaching I forgot to mention a character that is really important who is Krishna, Arjuna's charioteer. He is the one trying to convince Arjuna to fight. In this teaching, Krishna brings up a really important point that is that when one dies, his body is destroyed but his soul is not damaged at all bringing up the idea of eternal life. This idea is actually, in my opinion, one that is bound to create conflict. This is because it in part is dependent in faith but apparently this is taken in mind of in the story as it being real. This is a good attempt to convince Arjuna but the fact that it is family that is going to fought keeps Arjuna in doubt. I am actually interested in seeing until what point will Arjuna hold back.

Bhagavad-Gita Lesson 1

This lesson was a little overwhelming with names but out of all that confusion, I understood this. There are these two people, Arjuna and Dhritarashtra, that are about to begin a fight for who is going to have control of the kingdom. Arjuna, the main character, is hesitating about fighting because he wants the best of his people and is in conflict of wether to back out or fight.

Like half of this whole lesson was explaining where the armies and generals were positioned or something like that which was really misleading. From about twenty names mentioned, only two were actually important. The conflict appears to be between fighting or backing out and this might get pretty deep.

Gilagmesh Tablet 12

This tablet takes on a different approach of the death of Enkidu. Gilgamesh drops his drumsick in a hole to the underworld and asks Enkidu to bring it back. Gilgamesh warns Enkidu to not wear nice clothes, wear shoes, or do what he wants in the underworld because the Cry of the Dead would take him. Enkidu disobeys these warnings and is caught by the Cry of the Dead. Gilgamesh, weeping, looks for the help of the gods and only Ea helps him. Enkidu is able to rise from the underworld and describes it to Gilgamesh.

I think this tablet is really out of place because of many things. First, it is more like a poem than the rest of the story making it feel very different. Second, Enkidu is the thoughtless and foolish one in this tablet when he is supposed to be the thinking careful one. Third, Enkidu's death in this tablet seems very bland to me compared to the actual one. He just gets caught by the Cry of the Dead and his reaction is really ignored. He just dies. However, this tablet also makes Gilgamesh's fear of death make more sense since he now knows how terrible it is because Enkidu lives it.

Gilgamesh Tablet 11

This tablet tell of how Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim who was disguised as a normal old man telling him that eternal life is impossible. However, he reveals his true identity and tells Gilgamesh his story. Once the gods were going to punish the land and its people by creating an enormous flood. Ea, one of the gods, tells Utnapishtim about this and tells him how to survive and to take every animal with him. He did so and when the flood came, he and the animals survived. The gods at first were going to punish him but due to Ea's persuation, they made Utnapishtim a god instead granting him eternal life. Utnapishtim then made a test for Gilgamesh. He had to stay awake for seven days, a test he quickly failed. Utnapishtim then gave Gilgamesh a plant to become young but it was later stolen from him by a snake leaving him empty handed.

The relation between Utnapishtim's story and the story of the ark is obvious but these books were apparently written around the same time. They are so similar that maybe they are two versions of an event that actually happened. Gilgamesh then quickly fails Utnapishtim's test showing that a mere mortal is no match for a god and eternal life is only a fantasy for mortals. He got a herb to lengthen his life but it was stolen by snake maybe signifying the fight for longer life is not only on humans.

Gilgamesh Tablets 9 and 10

In these tablets, Gilgamesh continues to weep for Enkidu and when his body finally decays, Gilgamesh sets out to the wilderness wearing animal skin and acting like Enkidu. Gilgamesh, afraid that his friend's fate might be like his, sets out to look for Utnapishtim, the only mortal to achieve eternal life. He went in a long quest through the wild killing beasts and passing through a dark tunnel, and he eventually found a woman called Siduri. She helped him reach Urshanabi, who took him through the waters of death in search of Utnapishtim. I found this interesting because in the last post, I said that civilization will desire its lost wild side and in these tablets, Gilgamesh becomes like Enkidu representing how civilization at times tries to emulate wilderness. Also I find it interesting how before, Gilgamesh wasn't afraid of death when it came to Huwawa, but when his companion who was like him dies, he is scared poopless.

Gilgamesh Tablets 7 and 8

In these tablets, the gods look for someone to kill who has the blame of killing the bull of heaven. They decide on Enkidu and he becomes very ill. He starts to curse those who brought them to civilization but then realized that because of them he met Gilgamesh and blesses them. Enkidu eventually dies and Gilgamesh is left weeping for him like a woman. This is a big part of the story because it marks this part in human history where the wild part of humanity disappears and essentially "dies" leaving civilization desiring the return of its wild half. And without the wild part, civilization is lost.

For some reason I thought of this scene when I read this. Enjoy the terrible voice acting.