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	Different religions profess different paths to achieve immortality and ways to find the realm of eternal happiness

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	Email: anup.rej@c2i.net

BETWEEN THE ISLANDS OF THE SUN AND THE MOON

What are the themes of religions, epics and mythologies, which are of importance to human beings today? Who are we, who are caught in the perpetual cycles of birth, death and rebirth? What relations do we bear with the happenings occurring in the cosmos? What are the universal characteristics of human nature? Which philosophical paths may help us to overcome life’s tumults and sufferings? The book does not try to give answers but provide knowledge and perspective based on the religions, epics, mythologies and philosophies of the world, which may help the individuals to find their respective answers.

The greatest suffering is death. From time immemorial human beings have sought a way to overcome the power of death. In the ancient world, the dragon or the serpent power was believed to be causing death. The starry constellation of Dragon coils around a fixed point in the sky (North pole). This point was associated with the gate of the Heaven or the axis of the life’s tree. The movement of the Dragon/Serpent around it brought seasonal changes causing cycles of life, death and regeneration years after years. The hero of the oldest epic of the world, Gilgamesh went in search of immortality to overcome the Dragon power. He crossed the Ocean of Death and found the plant of immortality. But before he could eat the plant and become immortal, the Serpent ate it and became immortal instead.

Different religions have professed different paths to achieve immortality and escape suffering. In the Christian view the source of human suffering lies in the sin of Adam and Eve, who ate from the Tree of Knowledge, around which the Serpent coiled. This led to their banishment from Paradise. Since then their progenies had to suffer. Christianity professes the path of abandoning knowledge and relying on faith in Christ, who, like Prometheus, took upon himself the suffering to redeem the sufferings of the mortals. Only through him the mortals can gain eternal life. After the Final Day of Judgment the dead will resurrect and no one will die anymore. The Buddhists consider the realms of the senses as the source of suffering. They profess the path of meditation by which one may detach the mind from the sense-bound world, which causes illusions. By following the Eight-fold Way one may improve one’s quality of existence in each birth. If one thus goes on improving one’s quality of existence in every rebirth, one will at the end reach Nirvana, where there exists no birth or death any longer. The Hindus give karma (actions and deeds) of the previous life the blame for suffering in the present life. It professes the path of knowledge, path of engagement in the battle, and path of sensual life. The Hindu way is to submit to the Will of God. All, which happens in life, is predestined by Him. One is asked to practice detachment while acting and doing as predestined. Ignorance about this wisdom is considered as the source of suffering. The souls never die, and so the question of immortality does not arise.

	The wanderer is searching immortality and looking for an island where he will find eternal happiness without death and sorrow


	Caught in the wheel of life and death the journeyman, like Homer’s Odysseus, is sailing between the islands of the sun and the moon