helen99: A windswept tree against a starlit sky (Default)
tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam
urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt


In the translation of Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1914):

"OM. We worship and adore you, O three-eyed one, O Shiva. You are sweet gladness, the fragrance of life, who nourishes us, restores our health, and causes us to thrive. As, in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens, and the gourd is freed from the vine, so free us from attachment and death, and do not withhold immortality."

Literal rendering:

"three-eyed one / we praise / the fragrant / the beneficent
from attachment / even as the gourd from its stem / from death / liberate / not from immortality"

Edit: I find it interesting that the literal translation says nothing about worship, adoration, gladness, or cucumbers. It's short, sweet, and to the point...
helen99: A windswept tree against a starlit sky (Default)
I've noticed that an organism who is past reproductive age usually begins the process of deterioration and death. The fact that this organism may yet have something to contribute does not seem to matter. All that matters is the fact that it is consuming resources that could be used by a breeder. Said breeder is more important for the continuation of the species.

I'd like to see this work differently. A species could live on if it didn't reproduce that often, so long as it was physically long-lived. Someone has to convince nature that it doesn't have to operate on the principle of planned obsolescence. To hell with spiritual immortality. I want the choice of extreme longevity here on earth, not some ephemeral promise geared to keep people obedient to some implicate order that exists by agreement only. I think people would be a lot more careful how they walked the earth if they knew they had to walk it for the next 1000 years or so, not to mention the fact that they might actually accomplish something of value once they got tired of their infantile squabbles.

This is not to say that I would choose to stick around forever - but I would like to have that choice.

April 2010

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