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Sun god, Surya Deva and Ra

There are figures that share slightly similar stories across various cultures.  Here are some of them who comes to my mind.  There might be many more.

Sun god, Surya Deva and Ra appears in all cultures.
Africa consider the Sun to be the son of the supreme being Awondo and the Moon Awondo’s daughter.
In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan (heaven).
In Buddhist cosmology, the bodhisattva of the Sun is known as Ri Gong Ri Guang Pu Sa.
Ancient Egyptian consder him as Ra, By the Fifth Dynasty (2494 to 2345 BCE) he had become a major god in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the midday sun.
In hinduism The Adityas are one of the principal deities of the Vedic classical Hinduism belonging to Solar class. In the Vedas, numerous hymns are dedicated to Mitra, Varuna, Savitr etc. In Hinduism, Aditya is used in the singular to mean the Sun God, Surya.

Sun god, Surya Deva and Ra
Sun god, Surya Deva and Ra

Garuda and Horus:
Garuda is younger brother of Aruna.  Garuda associated with Garuda Purana, book that deals with soul after death.  Horus is associated with Egyptian book of the dead.  Horus and Seth are said to be rivals.  Aruna curses his mother Vinata.  Both Garuda’s and Horus’ parents have similar relationship.  Garuda often acts as a messenger between the gods and men.
In Buddhist mythology, the Garuda are enormous predatory birds with intelligence and social organization. Another name for the Garuda is suparna, meaning “well-winged, having good wings”.

Garuda and Horus
Garuda and Horus

Manu, Noah and flood myth:  Manu is a title accorded to a progenitor of humanity after the great flood at the end of each kalpa (aeon).

Manu, Noah and flood myth
Manu, Noah and flood myth

Murugan and Michael– commander-in-chief of the army of god and the son of Mahadev (god of gods).  Depicted as on top of a peacock.  He is similar to Michael.

Murugan and Michael
Murugan and Michael

Saptarishi and Light Beings :  They are naturally the most evolved Light Beings in the Creation and the guardians of the Divine Laws

Saptarishi and Light Beings
Saptarishi and Light Beings

Pishacha and Fallen gods: In the Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana  Pisachas are a sort of aerial beings, with subtile bodies. They sometimes assume the form of a shadow to terrify people, and at others enter into their minds in an aerial form, in order to mislead them to error and wicked purposes. They are all the progeny of the fallen gods.

Pishacha and Fallen gods
Pishacha and Fallen gods

Giants, The Titans and The Asura: 

Celestial nymphs in Svarga, Heaven and Amaravati
: ….region for the virtuous alone with celestial gardens called Nandana planted with sacred trees and sweet-scented flowers. The fragrant groves are occupied by Apsaras (celestial nymphs).
They are in Greek mythology too.

Celestial nymphs in Svarga, Heaven and Amaravati
Celestial nymphs in Svarga, Heaven and Amaravati

 

God of death, Yama and punishments in Hell, Naraka located at Patala:  Deities associated with death take many different forms, depending on the specific culture and religion being referenced. Psychopomps, deities of the underworld, and resurrection deities are commonly called death deities in comparative religions texts. The term colloquially refers to deities that either collect or rule over the dead, rather than those deities who determine the time of death. However, all these types will be included in this article. God of death is there in almost every mythology on earth.

Angel of death, Yama and punishments in Hell, Naraka located at Patala
Angel of death, Yama and punishments in Hell, Naraka located at Patala

Ahasuerus, Ashwathama, the cursed immortal:  Ashwathama was cursed by Krishna to roam earth with leprosy till his second coming as Kalki.  Ashwathama will be cured when he meets Kalki at the end of the Kali yuga along with other immortals.

Ahasuerus, Ashwathama, the cursed immortal
Ahasuerus, Ashwathama, the cursed immortal


Indra, Zeus, Thor:  King of demi-gods.  Thunder bolt is his weapon.

Indra, Zeus, Thor
Indra, Zeus, Thor

Pillar of Fire: The “Pillar of Fire” is described in the Holy Books of three major world religions, Buddhism of course in the Maha Ummaga Jataka as the “Aggi Khanda”, in Hinduism as the “Anala Stambha” in the Shiva Purana, and in the Torah (Exodus 13:21-22) of Judaism a The Lord is described as guiding the Israelites as a Pillar of fire at night.
In all three texts the fiery pillar represent the supreme most God.

Pillar of Fire
Pillar of Fire

Credits: Photo credits to the original artists.

jagannath puri rath yatra - hindufaqs.com - 25 Amazing Facts about hinduism

Here are 25 Amazing facts about hinduism

1. Hinduism is the world’s 3rd largest religion closely following Christianity and Islam. However, unlike the top 2 religions, 95% of Hindus live in a single nation! Source

2. If you ask a religious Hindu, when did Krishna or Rama live – they will give an answer like 50 million years ago or some other random big number. Actually, it doesn’t matter. Because, Hindus believe in a circular time (rather than the linear time concept in the Western world).

3. Each of our time cycles has 4 main periods – the Satya yuga (golden age of innocence), Tretha Yuga, Dwapara yuga and Kali Yuga. In the last stage, people get so filthy that whole thing is cleaned up and the cycle starts all over again.

kalchakra in Hinduism | Hindu FAQs
kalchakra in Hinduism

4. Hinduism is the oldest of the major extant religions. Its fundamental book – Rig Veda was written over 3800 years ago.

5. Rig Veda was orally passed for 3500+ years in parallel. And yet, its current form has no major discrepancies. It is indeed a stupendous achievement that a major body of work can be orally passed between people in such a large nation with no loss in quality/content.

6. Unlike other major religions, Hinduism doesn’t consider the pursuit of wealth as a sin. In fact, we celebrate wealth in the form of many gods such as Lakshmi, Kubera and Vishnu. Hinduism has a 4 level hierarchy – Kama (pursuit of pleasures including sexual/sensual) – Artha (pursuit of livelihood , wealth and power), Dharma (pursuit of philosophy, religion and doing duties to society) and Moksha (liberation) and we progress from the top to bottom. This is very close to Maslow’s hierarchy and thus Hindus are natural capitalists.

GSB Seva Ganesh Ganpati near King Circle Mumbai is one of richest Mandals | Hindu FAQs
GSB Seva Ganesh Ganpati near King Circle Mumbai is one of Richest Mandals

7. Hinduism is the parent religion for 2 of the other major religions of South Asia – Buddhism and Sikhism. It is also closely associated with its sister religion – Jainism.

8. The holiest number for Hindus is 108. This is the ratio of Sun’s distance (from earth)/Sun’s diameter or Moon’s distance (from earth)/Moon’s diameter. Thus, most of our prayer beads have 108 beads.

9. Beyond India, Hinduism is the dominant religion of many exotic regions such as Nepal, Mauritius, Bali, second biggest religion of Fiji & Sri Lanka and at one point covered most of South east Asia – including Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia. Source

10. The Hindu epic of Mahabharatha – that is often used to teach the principles of Hinduism – is written in 1.8 million words long poem (10X the combined length of the Illiad and Odyssey)

11. Unlike all other major religions, we don’t have a founder or a prophet (like Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha). According to Hindus, the religion has no origin (again coming back to the circular concept).

12. Unlike the popular Western conception, Yoga in Hinduism is not merely an exercise routine. It is one of the founding blocks of the religion.

13. The 4 most holiest animals for Hindus are the cow, elephant, snake and peacock (India’s national bird and a wagon of many Hindu gods) – 4 main animals of India.

14. The largest religious structures in the world – Angkor Vat in Cambodia were built by the Hindu kings of South East Asia.

Ankor Vat in Cambodia | Hindu FAQs
Angkor Vat in Cambodia

15. Hinduism has no formal Institution – no Pope, no Bible and no central body.

16. Unlike Christians or Muslims, we go to the temple at any time, any day. There are no special Sabbath, Sunday congregations or Friday prayers.

17. Hindu scriptures are organized into Vedas (poems that written in multiple levels from abstract rural level and going deeper into cosmic universe), Upanishads (scientific discourses and arguments about the world), Brahmanas (manuals for ritual performances), Aranyakas (experiments done on human mind and nature in the forests), Puranas (mythologies about Hindu gods) and Itihasas (notebooks on “historical” events”).

18. Hindus don’t mourn for anything and believe that happiness is the highest form of religious achievement. Thus, unlike most other religions there is no sad festivals for us where we are supposed to mourn.

19. Fire & Light are among the holiest of offerings for Hindus. The concept of Yajna – offering things to fire – is considered one of the highest forms of worships in Hinduism. It symbolizes the idea that everything meets its end.

Hindus Performing Yagna | Hindu FAQs
Hindus Performing Yagna

20. Hinduism’s holiest body of works – Rig Veda – talks of 33 main gods. Although most Hindus consider the Vedas as the holiest, none of those 33 gods are in mainstream worship now.  Also READ: 330Million Hindu Gods

21. Unlike other major religions, Hindu scriptures ask a number of philosophical questions and is ok with “don’t know” answer for some of them. One of the critical body of these questions is the Prashna Upanishad. unfortunately most of us cannot understand the answer to the fundamental questions posted there.

22. Hindus strongly believe in rebirth and karma. That means my next birth will be determined by my actions of this birth.

23. Hindus hold big chariot processions to carry their gods during special occasions. Some of these chariots can be huge and marauding – sometimes killing people in their path when they lose control. The biggest one of all – Jagannath – gave the English dictionary term Juggernaut -meaning the unstoppable one.

Jagannath Rath Yatra | Hindu FAQs
Jagannath Rath Yatra

24. Hindus hold Ganga as the purest of all waters and believe that bathing in it can purify them of their sins.

Holy River Ganga or Ganges | Hindu FAQs
Holy River Ganga or Ganges

25. Kumbh Mela. It is considered to be largest peaceful gathering in the world with over 100 million people visiting during the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013. Most of the sadhus and saints are said to be in samadhi and appear only to kumbh mela.

kumbh Mela, Worlds biggest peaceful gathering | Hindu FAQs
kumbh Mela, Worlds biggest peaceful gathering

The holiest number for Hindus is 108. This is the ratio of Sun’s distance (from earth)/Sun’s diameter or Moon’s distance (from earth)/Moon’s diameter. Thus, most of our prayer beads have 108 beads.

Credits:
Post credits to the original Writter
Image credits to the original owner and Google Images

The oldest “Secret Society” on earth, The NINE UNKNOWN MEN also known as NUM, founded by King Ashoka the Greatest of all Emperors, an old Indian ruler ca. 269 BCE to 232 BCE..

The Nine Unknown Men
The Nine Unknown Men

Unknown Men of King Ashoka a secret society of India dating back to two millennium is the greatest Mystery in India which is believed to be the Indian version of Atlantis dating back to 273 BC to the regime of the King Ashoka indian emperor the grandson of Chandragupta who was the first person attempted to unify India..

Emperor Ashoka
Emperor Ashoka

King Ashoka was hindu by birth and converted to Buddhism after the battle of kalinga which claimed around one lakh (hundred thousand) men…..when war was over King Ashoka ventured out to roam the eastern city and all he could see were burnt houses and scattered corpses. This sight made him sick and he cried the famous quotation, “What have I done?” Upon his return to Pataliputra, he could get no sleep and was constantly haunted by his deeds in Kalinga. The brutality of the conquest led him to adopt Buddhism under the guidance of the Brahmin Buddhist sages Radhaswami and Manjushri and he used his position to propagate the relatively new philosophy to new heights, as far as ancient Rome and Egypt.

battle of kalinga
Battle of kalinga

According to the legend, upon his conversion to Buddhism after a massacre during one of his wars, the Emperor founded he society of the Nine to preserve and develop knowledge that would be dangerous to humanity if it fell into the wrong hands. Some versions of the story include an additional motivation for the Emperor to conceal scientific knowledge: remnants of the Rama Empire, an Indian version of Atlantis, which according to Hindu scripture was destroyed by
advanced weaponry 15,000 years ago.
King Asoka founded the most powerful secret society on earth: that of the Nine Unknown Men. It is still thought that the great men responsible for the destiny of modern India, and scientists like Bose and Ram believe in the existence of the Nine, and even receive advice and messages from them. One can imagine the extraordinary importance of secret knowledge in the hands of nine men benefiting directly from experiments, studies and documents accumulated over a period of more than 2,000 years. What can have been the aim of these men? Not to allow methods of destruction to fall into the hands of unqualified persons and to pursue knowledge which would benefit mankind. Their numbers would be renewed by co-option, so as to preserve the secrecy of techniques handed down from ancient times.

One of the palm leaf manuscripts they intend to decipher is the Amsu Bodhini, which, according to an anonymous text of 1931, contains information about the planets; the different kinds of light, heat, color, and electromagnetic fields; the methods used to construct machines capable of attracting solar rays and, in turn, of analysing and separating their energy components; the possibility of conversing with people in remote places and sending messages by cable; and the manufacture of machines to transport people to other planets!

Examples of the Nine Unknown Men making contact with the outer world are rare. There was, however, the extraordinary case of one of the most mysterious figures in Western history: the Pope Sylvester II, known also by the name of Gerbert d’Aurillac. Born in the Auvergne in 920 (d. 1003) Gerbert was a Benedictine monk, professor at the University of Rheims, Archbishop of Ravenna and Pope by the grace of Ortho III. He is supposed to have spent some time in Spain, after which a mysterious voyage brought him to India where he is reputed to have acquired various kinds of skills which stupefied his entourage. For example, he possessed in his palace a bronze head which answered YES or NO to questions put to it on politics or the general position of Christianity. According to Sylvester II this was a perfectly simple operation corresponding to a two-figure calculation, and was performed by an automaton similar to our modern binary machines. This “magic” head was destroyed when Sylvester died, and all the information it imparted carefully concealed. No doubt an authorized research worker would come across some interesting things in the Vatican Library. In the cybernetics journal, _Computers and Automation_ of October 1954, the following comment appeared: “We must suppose that he (Sylvester) was possessed of extraordinary knowledge and the most remarkable mechanical skill and inventiveness. This speaking head must have been fashioned ‘under a certain conjunction of stars occurring at the exact moment when all the planets were starting on their courses.’ Neither the past, nor the present nor the future entered into it, since this invention apparently far exceeded in its scope its rival, the perverse ‘mirror on the wall’ of the Queen, the precursor of our modern electronic brain. Naturally it was widely asserted that Gerbert was only able to produce such a machine head because he was in league with the Devil and had sworn eternal allegiance to him.” Had other Europeans any contact with the society of the Nine Unknown Men? It was not until the nineteenth century that this mystery was referred to again in the works of the French writer Jacolliot. Jacolliot was French Consul at Calcutta under the Second Empire. He wrote some quite important prophetic works, comparable, if not superior to those of Jules Verne. He also left several books dealing with the great secrets of the human race. A great many occult writers, prophets and miracle-workers have borrowed from his writings which, completely neglected in France, are well known in Russia.

Jacolliot states categorically that the Society of Nine did actually exist. And, to make it all the more intriguing, he refers in this connection to certain techniques, unimaginable in 1860, such as, for example, the liberation of energy, sterilization by radiation and psychological warfare. Yersin, one of Pasteur and de Roux’s closest collaborators, was entrusted, it seems, with certain biological secrets when he visited Madras in 1890, and following the instructions he received was able to prepare a serum against cholera and the plague. The story of the Nine Unknown Men was popularized for the first time in 1927 in a book by Talbot Mundy who for twenty-five years was a member of the British police force in India. His book is half-fiction, half scientific inquiry. The Nine apparently employed a synthetic language, and each of them was in possession of a book that was constantly being rewritten and containing a detailed account of some science.

Each of the Nine is supposedly responsible for guarding and improving a single book. These books each deal with a different branch of potentially hazardous knowledge. Traditionally, the books are said to cover the following subjects:

Propaganda and Psychological warfare: is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviour of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. It is the most dangerous of all sciences, as it is capable of moulding mass opinion. It would enable anyone to govern the whole world.
Physiology: Including study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Also included instructions on how to perform the “touch of death (death being caused by a reversal of the nerve-impulse).” One account has Judo being a product of material leaked from this book.
Microbiology: According to more recent speculation, Biotechnology. In some versions of the myth, the waters of the Ganges are purified with special microbes designed by the Nine and released into the river at a secret base in the Himalayas.
Alchemy: Including the transmutation of metals. In India, there is a persistent rumour that during times of drought or other natural disasters temples and religious organizations receive large quantities of gold from an unknown source. The mystery is further deepened with the fact that the sheer quantity of gold throughout the country in temples and with kings cannot be properly accounted for, seeing that India has few gold mines.
Communication: Including communication with extraterrestrials.
Gravitation: Contain the instructions necessary to build a Vimana, sometimes referred to as the “ancient UFOs of India.”
Cosmology: The capacity to travel at enormous speeds through spacetime fabric, and time-travel; including intra- and inter-universal trips.
Light: The capacity to increase and decrease the speed of light, to use it as a weapon by concentrating it in a certain direction etc.
Sociology: Including rules concerning the evolution of societies and how to predict their downfall.

Well I would like to add a quote here.

A perfect myth is one which has just enough historical context to make it credible but takes care to be vague enough to become unfalsifiable. Most of it is filled with grandiose ideas to make it awe-inspiring. Many myths are but exaggeration of facts, lost in labyrinths of ancient times. (e.g.Opus Dei, Templars, Atlantis)

So its upto you to decide whether this is just a myth or reality.

Credits:
Post Credits: AIUFO
Photo Credits: To the Owners

Buddhism