Makes ya go Om.....

In my never ending quest to find out why I am here I came across the following Hindu myth, which was so stunning to me, I have to share it.

Markandeya was not born in our world. He was actually born in the last world cycle, Hindu's believe that the world has begun and ended many times.

One day Markandeya noticed his parents were extremely upset. When he asked what was wrong, his father tearfully admitted that when Markandeya was born, the village astrologer predicted the boy would die on this sixteenth birthday.

Well that very day was his sixteenth birthday. Rather upset, Markandeya ran to the temple and threw his arms around the image of the god Shiva, begging him for protection.

At that very moment the god of death entered the temple, ready to slip the noose around Markandeya's neck and drag him out of his body. But just as Death reached for the young boy, Shiva materialized in front of them, furious that Death would dare approach a devotee while he was worshipping him. Death was so terrified he ran away and never dared approach Markandeya again.

That was fine for the time being, but after a few billion years, it go to be a problem. The sun eventually flickered out of existence, the Earth passed away, and Markandeya floated around in empty space for eons. Finally the Earth reshaped itself back into existence, and Markandea was able to walk on terra firma once more. He reported what he'd experienced between worlds to anyone who asked.

What happens when the solar system dies, he explained, is that the Sun slowly turns red and expands to many times its present size. The surface of the earth eventually becomes so hot, no living thing can survive, and the planet becomes as bare as a turtle's back. The Sun explodes, emitting a burning wind that blasts the planets to ashes.

This extremely old Hindu myth describes the end of the world exactly as astrophysicists predict it will in fact occur. Carl Sagan once noted that the parallels between Hindu teachings and new scientific findings about the evolution of the universe are "astonishing coincidences". I agree.

Maybe Oblivious would be a good thing.

For some reason I've been either blessed or cursed, depending on the situation, with the ability to pick up on people's moods. I can tell as soon as someone walks into my house or office if they are happy, sad, mad, angry, you name it I can tell. The problem is sometimes it gets on me. I can be in a happy, bluebird singing, not a care in the world mood and someone can bring in the angry, put upon, dirge chanting mood and it crawls across the floor, drags itself up my leg and gets right in my head. I've tried telling myself that its not my mood so they can keep it. I've tried telling myself that I have the invisible forcefield and the cone of silence and it can't get in. I've tried telling myself that some people like to miserable and so I should be happy that they are miserable. It's a lot harder to go about your happy mood than you think.

Some people are oblivious to other peoples moods and it makes the angry people mad at them. Of course, that doesn't matter either because they are oblivious to the fact that the angry people are mad at them for not picking up on their mood and begging them to give the bad mood to them. I'm jealous of those people! Of course it does get them in trouble from time to time. The passive-aggressives think you are ignoring them or don't understand them. Others think you have no sympathy for their pain as the oblivious go through their life singing and smiling. I wish I was oblivious too. I wish when someone came around me in a bad mood, my good mood would bounce across the floor and jump on their head. That rarely happens, but I'm going to work on making it happen more. Who ever said that someone's anger was more important than my happiness? If someone did say it I'm sure it was an angry person and I hope someone's happiness bounced upside their head until they shut up.