Forbidden Desires

Everyone has come to realize that the word coward is anything but a compliment. According to Krishna, “The coward is ignoble, shameful, foreign to the ways of heaven,” and he says so to Sanjaya who at the moment drowns in his tears. That alone makes one realize the true meaning of the word, and why we should follow whatever roads in life to not be truthfully related to it.

We learn a lot of lessons in this simple chapter. One we hear from Arjuan is that he’d rather starve and beg for food, then live in wealth and plentiful offerings tainted with someone else’s blood. In other words, it’s better to live a true, correct life, humble as it may be, than to live one full of wealth and a treasure-full of grand treats and assets, when the fortune comes from unbecoming and regretful acts.

Krishna also states, “You must learn to endure fleeting things—they come and go.” In the simple awareness that we should learn to appreciate every single thing that takes up our lives because we have yet to know when they will disappear and leave us solemn and begging for their presence.

When we learn to accept these things, such as how we exist, and for a reason, we will have courage and will be fit for immortality. Immortality having more of a figurative meaning, I am guessing. He says that our bodies, the flesh itself, is known to end, may be withered down into dust and rotten in the earth’s boundaries, but “the embodied self is enduring, indestructible, and immeasurable,” therefore meaning our souls, the only thing that makes each and every one of us who we are, lasts forever This might answer the unforgettable question everyone comes to ask throughout life, which is “Where are we going?” It might not have a concrete answer, but it hints that we are going somewhere.

Krishna uses this mind-set to convince Arjuna the reason why they should not fight in battle. What it the point of “killing” them when all they are really doing is shooting down packs of flesh? The people themselves, will live on forever, so in ‘killing’ them, they are doing them no real harm. It’s useless.

“It cannot be cut or burned
It cannot be wet or withere;
It is enduring, all-pervasive,
Fixed, inmovable, and timeless.”






We will live forever.

We also hear him speak of how Death is certain for anything that is born, and therefore, no one can escape death, as Gilgamesh, in the text read before had so tried to do.

He tells Arjuna not to grief, for whoever dies, “loses in war,” is in heaven enjoying it’s awesome confines, and whoever wins, gets to celebrate on earth. Either way, there is no use in griefing over something, womeone, whose presence is obviously, either way, in a safe place.

The explanation starts then, of how the attraction to Sensous objects leads to brooding, attachement, desire, anger, confusion, loss, and ultimately ends with total ruin. While someone who is wise, learns to view those same objects in neither attraction of hatred, they find serenity.

We all have desires, cravings, and sometimes act with possessiveness and ungodly individuality. If we learn to act with none of the former attribute, and learn to renounce them, we receive peace.

I find that these teachings relate to everyday life, choices we make, obstacles we come by, forbidden desires that tempt us. Here we find the reality in how we should mange these things we come by, in a way that instead of descending into our human-natured wants and greed, we should learn to act with correctness and find peace.

The Art of War

I started reading with the concrete idea of each chapter teaching a basic lesson, as in a deep metaphor having to do with how an act in life connects with a certain fate, etc. Either way, that is how I pictured this text to be. Safe to say I was clearly far from predicting its actual nature.

Bhagavad Gida starts with Sanjaya (I can’t help but imagine the American Idol contestant in his place: someone I was really not fond of, considering the only reason he made it so far in was because girls tend to have god-forbidding taste and voted him in…anyhow, back to the point: ) re-telling how Dhritarashta’s son, Duryodana went to see his teacher Drona to tell him to guard Bhishma from the Pandava army. I have yet to know where and in what time this takes place, unless the exotic, almost non-pronounceable names are any indication. Somewhere in India, perhaps?

I think we truly get the ‘first teaching’ when Krishna stops for a second, and voices his thoughts on how unnecessary it is to wage war.

“I see omens of chaos
Krishna; I see no good in
killing my kinsmen
In battle…
What joy is there for us, Krishna
In killing Dhritarashtra’s sons?
Evil will huant us if we kill them,
Though their bows are drawn to kill”


Here, he is plainly stating his lack of eagerness for the battle that is about to come. He states how there is no good reason to kill them, if the only rewards they will get for such an action is an unending-conscience and fear for upending chaos.

Then he goes on to say the following things, which I happen to find extremely deep and thoughtful in a sense:

“The greed that distorts their
Reason blinds them to the sin they commit in
Ruining the family, blinds them
To the crime of betraying friends”

He is talking about that men today don’t fight for justice or rights. Deep down, they are causing harm and blood-spill for only one reason: greed. These so-called acts on selfless bravery are all due to blunt, raw, selfish wants. And they believe that what they do is for justice, blinding themselves, unseeing to the blatant sin they are committing in the act of killing for kingship and pleasures. That simple act will end in the ‘ruining the family’ and the ‘betrayal of friends’ when they turn to do something they will regret for the rest of their lives.

He ends up slumped in grief, forever accepting that if he were to be killed by the opposing army, without putting up a fight and no weapons to protect him, it would be his reward. The reward, that would exemplify his bravery and true heart, in not giving in the to the lust and self-seeking wants, of war.

Our Place: Tablet XII

Tablet XII is kind of weird in its own way. For starters, at first I didn’t really get the Drum and Drumstick situation. Seriously, what does that have to do with anything? I still don’t understand that part. It must be some type of meaning in Gilgamesh’s religion.
Any who, so Gilgamesh tells Enkidu to “bring the drumstick…drum from the Nether World.” And he precisely gives Enkidu a list of things not to do (for some reason), and yes, Enkidu decides to be a rebel and do them. That eventually leads him to being captured by The Cry of the Dead, leading to a meaning of how and why he died.
Enkidu ends up not retrieving any actual good news from the underworld, but he does come to repeat the questions, “ How is it the man that has one son?” And it goes on from there until the wuestion becomes, “How is the man with the seven sons?”
Throughout the entire epic, Gilgamesh always repeated after everything, that he was doing It for his sons to tell his story.
It turns out, as Enkidu so put it, that everyone will remember Gilgamesh, by his sons. Which leads us to the former realization from tablet eleve, that no matter if he is to die, Gilgamesh (and anyone, for that matter) will be remembered depending on if he leaves anything as a legacy (kids, friends, books, etc). No matter how smalle or big it may be in your case, a son, creating a revolution, we all have to do atleast something to leave our place in this world.

Mission Accomplished

Gilgamesh is already in on the fact that he has to die. But he still wonders how Utnapishtim came to be a god, and that’s where the story begins. Ea, the ‘clever’ god, told Utnapishtim, once upon a time, to build a boat, in which he would put “an instance of each living thing,” so they can survive the upcoming flood. It is obviously very similar (if not the same) to the story told in the bible about Noah’s ark. So I wonder, if scholars say this book was written before the bible, is that some sort of pre-determined psychic notion? Or does this lead us to infer the bible was really written first, and Gilgamesh blends an interpretation from that religious text? In any matter, I can’t help but be puzzled by the reason the author would write about that and how it relates to the message he is trying to give.

He also says, “On the seventh day finished building the boat.” Does that in any way relate to God finishing the making of the world? He keeps on mentioning things with the number seven: like how in the seventh day he finally freed a dove, and how he set out seven vessels…Again with Genesis and God.

After the flood, the boat had landed on the mountain Nisir, as Utnaishtim says, and now we come to understand how he came to live in that island and why he is there today.
It turns out it was the god Enlil who had caused the flood in the first place and hadn’t planned on having anyone surviving, Utnapishtim included. So, suffice to say, he is really pissed off. But then, after Ea’s speech about how better animals should suffer from anything but the cruel cause of the flood, Utnapishtim decides to bless him and his wife, saying

“You were but human,
But now you are admitted into the company of the gods.”

So basically, Utnapishtim earned his right as a god by being rewarded for his wisdom.
Enlil also tells hims that his dwelling place from now on shall be the Faraway, where all the rivers roam, and I guess that is because he became a god due to matters with floods, water, etc.
Now Utnapishtim reveals to Gilgamesh a chance to get earn that same reward in return for the act of not sleeping for seven days (again, seven).

Utnapishtim, obviously noting his failure at being turned into a god, tells Gilgamesh of a plant that will give him eternal life, so that he can obtain it before he goes home. Unfortunately, when Gilgamesh goes to take the plant, a serpent ends up stealing it before he did, leaving only him and his mortality.

It all ends with Gilgamesh returning home and telling Utnapishtim to

“Study the brickwork, study the fortification;

climb the ancient staircase to the terrace;study

how it is made; from the terrace seethe

planted and fallow fields, the ponds and

orchards.One league is the inner city,

another league is orchards; still another

the fields beyond;over there is the precinct

of the temple. . . . ,Three leagues and the

temple precinct of Ishtar.

Measure Uruk,

the city of Gilgamesh"

Here we see a strange transition in Gilgamesh. Just moments bofre, he had been disappointed and gloomy due to the fact that he could not have immortal life. Now you see him get home and revel in his city, praising its glory, admiring it’s structure. Here, we see that no matter what happened and even though he did not get what he wanted, he learned to not mourn for the unobtainable, but rather appreciate what he has.

We also see that this quotation was what started the book, only in the first one it spoke of how he would tell the story of the adventures that happened. Which, other than being profound in the way it ends the book in just the same way, it leads us to understand the meaning of it all: Gilgamesh is the author of the story.

He couldn’t be immortal, as in never seeing death take its toll. But he found a way to overcome it: He wrote his story, Leaving his legacy behind. So, ironically, Gilgamesh found the way to be ‘immortal.’

Death: Avoidable?

Gilgamesh has dreams about lions and his fear and terror start there. It doesn’t help when he has a dream about certain frightening things as well, in which there is a battle, but the winner is unknown. That kind of leaves you hanging by a thread wondering if it’s some kind of foreshadowing or a random dream gone wrong…well.

It turns out Gilgamesh for some reason decides to get himself in even more terrifying circumstances by visiting the mountain Mashu, guarded by Twin Dragon Scorpion beings. If the names themselves don’t make you run away in pure anxiety, I don’t know what will. So Gilgamesh goes, for reasons yet to be discovered, and asks them to let him in, which they eventually do. I can’t believe they let him. I mean, from what I’ve seen so far, Gilgamesh is practically handed everything in a silver spoon.

He gets to the sea, and the page leaves you there until the next tablet starts. What is so special about the sea? That pause between pages and endings certainly gives it more of an apparent importance, which I have yet to figure out.

Gilgamesh says, “I look like one who has undergone a journey and I wander the wilderness wearing the skin of a beast because I grieve for the death of Enkidu my companion.” Here we see the true feelings and love with which Gilgamesh holds Enkidu close to his heart. Here we see that Gilgamesh “The Great” is not incapable of feeling emotion and we finally get to see him yearning for Enkidu, for his companionship, for his friendship, for him.

When Gilgamesh asks the tavern keeper if he must die too and be like that, she repeats what he said in tablet three, about only Gods living forever and, “the life of man is short.” Which brings us back to the thought of there being to point to life, and no ever-after, just long-gone souls.

There is some part in him (Gilgamesh) that really is hoping to escape the act of actually dying. So he asks the tavern keeper he wants to avoid death, so how could he find Urshanabi. He is willing to do anything.

The end is quite nice when the old man says to Gilgamesh, “How long does a building stand before it falls? How long does hatred, for that matter, last?”

He compares death to everyday things that are bound together, but it sounds so deep, in a casual type of way.

The whole point is, everyone dies, it’s no question, but the timing of its occurrence is unknown.

Carpe Diem. Enjoy life now, don’t think of the past, or the future that is unforeseeable. Enjoy as much as you can.

Nick Jonas: Appreciate

Appreciating: Tablets VI & VIII

We all do things in life we later live to regret.
In Tablet VII Enkidu comes to that point in his life. After having battled with death and fighting off the guard Huwawa, the Gods have decided to kill Enkidu for what he has done. Why they are so put on ending Enkidu’s life and not Gilgamesh, I do not know. Is it because Gilgamesh is far greater and admired part in society? This leads to a possible answer for why some people in life are happy while others are miserable…Could it be that we the way we are treated and looked upon all depends on how we were created based on the social and class ladder of the world? If someone is born poor, meager, and reduced to nothing but a two-by-two foot wooden ‘house,’ that is supposed to justify the means by which a person pays, let’s say, a criminal act, while an over-privileged, advantaged billionaire gets no incriminations for doing the same exact crime.
This is to say that the world is unjust. Enkidu and Gilgamesh did the exact same thing, together even, and yet Gilgamesh is leaving the scene unscratched…and for what good reason?
Power, richness, handsomeness?
There is also the point in which Enkidu starts facing the reality of his awaiting death and starts blaming others for his pending doom. This reflects how we, humans, behave in modern society. The second things get bad, we have fire streaming out of ours ears in burning ashes of fury, we then seem to calm down, and then have the sufficient enough time to blame someone else. Enkidu curses the prostitute for untying him from nature and leading him to society, because it is only for that why he will die in just moments pass. But then he realizes that if it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t have met Gilgamesh and made such a good friend and strong reliant figure in the meantime.
So he regrets the curse he put on the harlot and replaces it with a meaningful blessing.
In this tablet we observe true misery when Gilgamesh is too scared whenever he has a dream...Enkidu feels wretched as he feels his only true friend is not there to support him in times of misery.
In tablet VIII Gilgamesh mourns for his long-lost friend. He expresses his grief in the form of beautiful descriptions of nature, and the harlot, and he himself, the King. Plainly reminiscing over what they had and how much it all mattered to him..
That leaves us knowing the fact that Gilgamesh appreciated Enkidu every single minute of every single time they spent together. And it just goes to show, that even if you always appreciated someone, the minute they die or leave your side, you hope to have appreciated the even more. So imagine never even taking the time to understand the reality and meaning of a special-someone’s presence or existence.
We need to learn to be thankful for what we have, before it’s gone.

Women= Psychos: Gilgamesh Tablet VI

All I can think about when I hear the name, ‘Ishtar,’ in today’s terms is: lying, conniving, scheming, manipulative, devious, deceitful _______(insert not so nice name here…or another name for ‘female dog’ with its connotative meaning.).
Yes. Ishtar, the goddess, is the behind-the-times version of a modern not-so-likable woman.
First, she randomly goes to Gilgamesh and expresses her desires for him with no sense of pride. Its like, she might as well say, “You killed that evil beast, and so even thought I barely know you and the reasoning behind me doing all of this Is because you shone like a man and killed this bad guy, will you sleep with me?” Now, if that’s not self-deprecating enough, she has to go all ninja/ psycho-ex-girlfriend on his ass and hire Bull of Heaven to go beat him up, a bare hint from killing him, all because he had enough sense to say NO.
Seriously, the girl is crazy enough to want to kill a guy for turning her down, but not enough to go kill him herself? So she has to hire the Bull of Heaven to do her own dirty work for her? Unbelievable.
So not only have we learned why there are some psycho and maniac women out there (they inherited the ‘quality’ trait from their long-lost Greek ancestor, Ishtar), but we also found out that most of the existing crazy humans in this world don’t have enough guts to fry, slay, slaughter, and exterminate other people themselves…Leading us to the fact that people these days…are Cowards.

Gilgamesh: Tablets IV & V

Tablet IV was mostly a type of demonstration of Enkindu and Gilgamesh forming a true bond and developing a real connection in which they can see each other as allies and friends.
On the way to kill Huwawa, Gilgamesh showed his vulnerable side and exhibited the fact that he is anything but perfect (what everyone has set him out to be). It turns out, Gilgamesh is anything but the close, perfect-fit of the ideal, faultless, and altogether perfectly-chemically-programmed human being.
During the entire trip to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh reveals his insecurities by acting very paranoid with every single dream he had. Every morning, he woke up, saying they might as well leave because he had a bad dream and ‘what could that mean?’
Enkidu becomes his friend by helping him and constantly reassuring him that the meaning of those dreams was a good one.
So the friendship starts there, and keeps reinforcing itself when they both manage to achieve to successfully get rid off 5the awful and horrendous Huwawa when it tries to trick them.
So, as sad as it may be to come to know this, The all-mighty, undestructable, gorgeous, Greek God/ Abrecrombie model look-a-like, Gilgamesh, is actually not all what he is seen to be… Oh, well.
We still love him.

An Epic World: Tablet II & III (Gilgamesh)

Tablet II of Gilgamesh might as well be a comparison to modern society: What would you call a renowned indigenous tribe being introduced and absorbed into the superficial and external eminence of our modern, blemished society? ... Unwanted assault?

Same goes for Tablet II, except, in this case the indigenous group is a wild, Godly-made man with hair growing out of his every pore, and society can be interpreted as the beloved Sumerian city-stated of Uruk around 2700 B.C. These two compare to each other in the way that a natural, native and imitable person (or group of people) are being carved up from their roots and nature-based, admirable cultures, and being seemingly transformed into another part of our faceless civilization.

Another thing that caught my attention was the idea of the prostitute, or harlot as you see it to be put. This part of the epic takes place when the prostitute sets out to domesticate Enkidu by ‘laying with him’, (In other words, make ‘love’), and creating a sort of friendly atmosphere. For starters, the fact that prostitutes in that time were not viewed in a negative fashion, but praised and held in very high and noble standards, stands to show the evolution of certain notions in this world in time. But, the fact of her coming over to acculturate him also stands for proof that today’s ways of the press and current events manipulating people’s thoughts and views on how society should be and how they should be, is not only a thing of the present.

Also, Gilgamesh says,

“Who is the moral able to enter heaven?
Only the Gods can live forever.
What he accomplishes is but the wind”

Here, this leads to Gilgamesh’s true beliefs about life and where they are going, such as the QUESTions.
He is basically saying that men’s purpose in life is basically a bug on windshield; it’s there, but when you look at the whole picture, you barely notice it. He thinks the struggles we go through, the success, the hardships…they are all for nothing.
When he questions the ability of a moral to enter heaven, he is stating the fact that when we die, we are not going to heaven. So whoever had that in mind can go justify out with Gilgamesh himself.
There’s also the fact that he says only Gods live forever. So not only are we not going to heaven, we’re not going anywhere. We are born, we live, we die.

And that’s all....right.


While Enkidu and Ilgamesh may be very distinct in their backgrounds and beings in general, they are similar in very ways, that which is shown when they form a bond to go after the horrifying fire-breather, Huwawa. What stands to question is the mentionable incident that occurred when they joined forces. After attacking each other for what one could say a definitive amount of time, and they suddenly realized they were made for each other—‘made for each other’ in the way that they exist for the lone purpose of linking up together and defeating evil creatures and malevolence itself since they both have the build of a track star—, they kissed.…

......um….what?

Yes. After beating each other to the point of liquefied pulp (Maybe I’m just exaggerating, but it gives it a little ‘UMPH!’ don’t you think?....) and they have the sudden realization that they have just found their own, personalized, ready-for-battle, soldier soulmate, they kiss. Does the written text say anything about on the cheek or on the lips? Negative. So this only leads me to infer they either live in a city-state with an affectionate and tender background, or they are undoubtedly gay.

The thing is, I never really understood if it was even possible to be attracted to the same sex so long ago. Weren’t they all recently aware of Adam and Eve and therefore brought to the conclusion that men should be with women, and that’s just the way it is? I, personally, don’t have anything against that type of sexuality, but seriously? The visualized concept we all have of ancient Greece being a clean, standard, uptight modern society is gone down the drain, because it turns out homosexuality existed even when we, humans, walked around in our birthday suits.

This goes to show how much we have seriously turned into homophobic, cold, judgmental beings that at the sight of two gays kissing, we make a random disgusted comment, and judge with no fears.

How I would love to go back to an era where two grown men could kiss each other and not get beaten down to face the rusty concrete just for showing signs of affection.

Now THAT would be an epic world.

Blog: Mystery?

A) The word blog actually came first from the owner of a website called Robot Wisdom. He created the word "Weblog" and then the author of a 'weblog' called Peterme divided it until said word was "We Blog." That made Blog, a word in itself.

B) Books and blogs are different, not only in their substance but also how they are in general. Books are actual bindings of paper, novels that take serious time to read, and keep you limited within their back-to-back covers, as the author so puts it. Blogs, on the other hand, are random, simply put. They are wild in the way that they consist of whatever comes to mind to the writer, in no consequential order. Books are copyrighted and in the case of libel, and showing the piece off as your own work, it's cause for a case suit. Blogs are freedom, liberty to do write as you please, however you choose to do it. With pictures, videos, gossip, quotes, etc.
The author thought, "How can a book be made out 'of bloggy material.'" He thought it would kill it.

C) Blogs have changed today in their content. Some people are actually writing about global causes, recent world news, scientific discoveries, some of which are acceeding the spread of new from the actual media. Today, you can read about a lot of serious issues on blogs, and not have to expect that all of them are false.

D) A blog has direct links to absolutely everything. Pictures, videos, other websites. When the reader fails to understand something in the blog entry, usually there is some form of linkage to something that will leave your doubts behind, making it that much easier and that much clearer, to read a blog, rather than a book or a newspaper.

D) There is a reason to question the objectivity of a blog in certain circumstances. Obviously, most blogs are written by regular people just like you that probably don't know what they are talking about exactly and the only thing they have to offer is their personal prized opinion. There are some blogs, that pertain to certain newspapers and certified sources, in which case you can mostly find cold hard facts on issues, unless we're talking about editorials. So you can question the objectivity of a blog when it leans towards a side or starts showing negative or positive sides to one face of the story.

E) My blog would most likely be just about me and random things and notions that seem to take up my mind. So the title of my blog would be: "A New Side To Random"

F) billtotten.blogspot.com
peopleandresourcesfire.blogspot.com
globalizarte.blogspot.co,


. Making a book out of bloggy material, if it could be done at all, would kill it, wouldn't it?[1]

Newfound Discovery

Ever heard of the term thinking?

That's right: the act of actually using half of your brain (or whatever of it is left and actually functioning at the moment) in the God-awful notion of taking your own personal and unique ideas to form what we call thoughts.

That is what i am doing at the high risk of sounding like a complete blubbering, air-headed idiot (although hopefully it won't come to that).

Yes. Im, in fact, thinking. (Please hold your applause)

So you are welcomed to my own personal, private (or not so private?), and sometimes- weird conclusions on published written texts (in other words, books) and the the odd and sometimes rational reasoning behind them.

Yes. These are my opinions, assesments, conclusions and thoughts...

Because it turns out, in the rare occurences, im actually thoughtful...


Who would've thought?