Amar

Amar (Sanskrit) - the one without death - immortal

I am reading a book "My name is red" currently, having exhausted all serials from OTT platforms. 

The narrator - the current narrator (yes, the book has too many narrators. Each chapter has different narrator - starting with a corpse, then having all kinds of characters telling their own sad stories - a young man, then his love interest, then her father,  and even a dog. Guess what, there is even a narration by an object - a fake gold coin.) says "the ills we are slave to in this city- the scandals, the immorality, the poverty, are all due to our moving away from the almighty God and his teachings". 

Again, I have not quoted the name of the God in order not to offend my fellow countrymen. 

Funnily,  I misread immorality as immortality. We are seniors - and hence prone to mistakes. (You may say that it is the brain rot caused by all the short videos I watch day in and day out.) 

And as a result, was very confused. Is the narrator saying that moving away from God and his teachings makes one immortal? 

Very interesting! So I was right all these days. Religion and morality are not related to each other. It is quite the contrary. 

Then I reread the sentence, removing the extra letter t. Oh, immorality! That makes sense. As humankind moves away from God, it becomes more and more corrupt and highly immoral and some how poor too.  

And the corollary is as the the society becomes more and more religious, it becomes more and more moral and just and kind and good. 

As is evident in the current society all over the world.  

Sorry, I can't help myself. I HAVE to say something about the 'pseudo' religiosity and moral bankruptcy we see everywhere today. 

Coming back to difference of one letter -one letter, and the words are so different. Immoral - not moral. Immortal - never dying. 

Ajagajantara ( ಅಜಗಜಾಂತರ) as we say in Kannada - aja - goat, gaja - elephant.  

But the word immortal brought back more questions in my mind. Why does one strive for immortality? Do other religions believe in immortality too? Does one becomes immortal if one gets 'moksha' - the relief from cycle of birth and death? And if we keep dying and being born again and again in an endless loop, are we not in some kind of way immortal? 

But, why would any one want to live forever and ever? In this 'beautiful' world? Not me, certainly. I am trying to push each day with all my might and each night with all my might. Waiting for yama - praying to him silently -" he bhagawan, utha le re!".

One letter makes all the difference. Now instead of reading the title of this post as अमर, if you read it as 'आमर" the meaning is so different (आ-come मर-die). 

Do you want to know who really is immortal? The Gods. And how did they become immortal. With a little bit of trick - trick the kind used by politicians. 

This is how the story goes. 

In the good old days - the asuras and Gods decided to get the nectar - the amratha. This is a liquid by drinking which one becomes immortal. They were told that the nectar becomes available by churning the ocean. 

That is a famous story called Samudra Manthana. Ask AI, it will tell you. 

From this churning, finally came the pot of nectar. Ha, now all the Gods and Asuras drank it and became immortal, right? 

No, they did not. See, the bad asuras should not become immortal. Remember, we all believe that it is the duty of all good folk to destroy bad folk. If asuras become immortal, they can't be destroyed. 

They have to remain mortal so that humans and Gods can live in peace. So a plan was devised to make the nectar available only to 'good' Gods. 

Vishnu took the form of a pretty young woman 'Mohini' and appeared there with all the charms of a pretty maiden. He offered to distribute the nectar to both these people. She made them stand in two lines - one for Gods and one for Asuras. And started pouring the nectar to Gods first and then emptied it before she came to the second line.

Smart move!  But one Asura (AI told me his name is Svarabhanu) knew the plan and changed his form and stood along with Gods. Sun and Moon recognized him and told Mohini - aka Vishnu. By now, this Asura had already drank the nectar. 

But Vishnu cut off is head with 'Sudarshana Chakra' ( a kind of floating be-heading device used by God Vishnu) cut this asura into two pieces. 

Head became Rahu and torso became Ketu. 

Rahu and Ketu became immortal but never came together. Because sun and moon told on them,  they swallow Sun and Moon again and again. That is how eclipses happen. 

Now you know, the path of immortality has many many hurdles, many devious plans and needs divine intervention on multiple occasions.