Philosophy

Nowadays Sai Baba of Shirdi (d. Oct 15, 1918) is no doubt the most popular saint of India, mirroring the archetype of the holy man. His portraits are ubiquitous, and he has a place in almost all family altars and  pūjā  rooms. Since 1977 he has been the subject of several films and, more recently, of television serials. His temples and shrines are found throughout the country, and Shirdi in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra has become a national pilgrimage center. Venerated as a wondrous miracle worker by millions across the subcontinent, his tomb is visited year round by crowds of people from all walks of life, primarily Hindus, but also Muslims, especially at festival times and on the anniversary of his death. He is worshipped by the Hindu masses as not only a god-realized person but also the full embodiment of divinity, a  satpuruṣa . His temples are found even outside of India – in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada,...

1. ‘Immortality’ denotes an eternal duration of life, an existence without end and death. Principally, it counts as a characteristic of God or the gods, and constitutes one of the most important differences between their existence and that of human beings, 1  who are therefore called ‘mortals.’ However, there are various approaches and transitions. The gods can die—only after a very long life, granted—as they, too (e.g. in certain Eastern religions), are caught in the chain of rebirths ( samsara ). In addition, most religions celebrate extraordinary persons, who are snatched away at their death and—like Hercules—deified, in an ‘apotheosis.’ Human immortality is duration beyond death, and requires that the latter not have occurred, or have been overcome, and existence to have been transformed: rebirth or resurrection. Human immortality is usually connected with the supposition of a soul. History of Religions in General 2. In most societies, the first concern in a case of death is a ...

Concept of ‘Soul’ 1. The designation  psyché  (Gk., ‘breath’ ‘life breath’; cf. Lat.  anima ) is first found in the opening lines of the Iliad. According to Homer (eighth century BCE), the psyche appears only after a person's death: thus,  psyché  denotes the soul of someone who has died, not that of a living being. The life processes of the body are managed by the  thymós  (in Lat.,  animus ), the principle of the vitality of the body and at the same time of its consciousness. In antiquity, the  psyché  is personified as a winged female being; in Apuleius's  Metamorphoses  (c. 170 CE), she is the beloved of  Amor . The English word ‘soul’ is of unclear derivation. It is akin to the word ‘sea,’ whence souls were supposed to originate, and whither they were to return. Today, in European languages, ‘psyche’ denotes the totality of the conscious and unconscious—especially emotional—events, but mainly a person's spiritual and ...

“Essence” of Myth? 1. a) The ‘essence’ of myth resists univocal definition. Myth has a narrative structure; certain repeatable events are narrated that lie beyond space and time, and are deposited at certain nodal points of human existence. In a broader sense, myth is a recounted history (of gods and demigods) by means of which a body of knowledge is handed on that grows from generation to generation. Today, a distinction between myth and other narratives is regarded as impossible, and seen rather as a late construct. A further problem: the study of the cultures that have been researched only by way of their literature is more and more recognized as inadequate. Models obtained from Greek myths transmitted in writing are not transferable to non-writing cultures. This type of sacred narrative, myth as oral commentary on a ritual action, is simply absent from many cultures. In other cultures, myths are categorized with dreams, and expressly distinguished from reality. Furthermore, the not...