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Myths - Mythology

Myth translates as a veiled or fabricated truth, a product of the fanciful imagination waiting to be debunked by science and replaced with the real truth.

Myths have some percentage of truth and can be more powerful than Truth. A Myth may be bypassing reason/logic/thinking and tapping straight into the more dominant emotional and irrational aspects of a person. Myths reflect strong fears and desires that are usually hidden in society.

The myth does a better job of communicating the central idea of the story than the facts can.

Mythology

Mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people. Mythology refers to a set of legends, stories, or beliefs, especially ones that illustrate a religious or cultural tradition. Myths are very powerful. It binds culture, community, religion, nation together.

Magic

Magic exists till you know the trick behind it. Ellusionist, give you the power to perform magic beyond belief. Every one likes to be connected to childhood, when the world seems very magical." Similarly can something be considered divine till it can be explained or understood?

Why Myths?

  1. People like stories, especially super natural
  2. Movies and entertainment industry can create business out of it
  3. Political/community leaders can use it to form interest groups, which can become their support groups.
  4. Convey scientific facts and ideas. People have associated objects in the sky, the Earth, and aspects of their physical world with the gods and goddesses.

Hindu Myths

Many of the myths, beliefs, and mythologies surrounding the religion are very old (few thousand years old). So, many of these mythologies may have gone through a number of retellings over the years. There are also cyclical periods of time that repeat themselves after a certain interval. In studying myths and religions around the world, Joseph Campbell recognized four functions of myth: mystical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological.
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