Reading Notes: Part B (Week 12)

Seven Secrets

Matsya's Secret: Only humans can empathize and exploit

The avatar of Matsya (with a fish's body)

Wikimedia

Part 1: 

• Mark of Vishnu is on the forehead, which shows the human brain is different from the other animals
• We have imagination and can control it, we look beyond survival and create culture
• Brains creates Brahma and seeks Brahman, born of Vishni
• Manas: The ability to imagine
• Manu sees Vishnu in the form of the fish, the fish asks Manu to save him. "Law of the fishes" to engage with human kind. 
• Only humans can overturn 'jungle law' because there are no rules, there is no right or wrong in the animal kingdom (lion is allowed to eat other animals)
• Humans sees animals as cruel, but they do not see that because they are just seeing it as a way to survive 
• Only humans can imagine heaven: paradise for perfection, and this helps people create culture
• Humans are compassionate and interferes with nature (roots in empathy)
• Presence of Manu transforms nature, and little fish is safe (symbolizes harmony and society) where the mighty take care of the weak
• DHARMA: creates the security for the human world
• one can argue that Dharma is innate to man, that is why humans were created. Only when we rise above animals and establish dharma, we "become human"
• In nature, animals have territory and marks its territory with mates. critical to survival and this is what causes fighting
• Manu's notion of property is different from territory (no rules and laws protect territory) 
• Human property is used to provide and care for people: empathy
• Also makes greed, and it stems from fear and imagination for scarcity (this is why we exploit land and even other beings) 
• When empathy is used, Dharma is established. Humans have the ability to give up property to help those who are needy and weak
• Dharma is realizing the human's full potential to have compassion

Part 2: 

• As more of the wild is turned into farms, more nature is pushed to its limits
• A king rescues a dove in compassion from a hawk, he shows that humans have preferences to save certain animals. Why should the dove be saved and the hawk die because he is hungry
• Man creates society by imagining a place where all are safe, but some are more safe than others
• Vishnu is a worldly god, and seeking answers with material reality will never be perfect and fully satisfying
• The Pandavas burn the forest in order to built a city, but a field cannot be created unless part of the forest fires. 
• a culture cannot be created without the destroying of another ecosystem
• Material reality can be gained with force (like irrigation) and its not natural with nature
• So, empathy for one makes for a lack of empathy for the rest. Plants and animals are excluded if they do not help with society
• It will always exclude someone, and the society will never be completely perfect
• The fish story again: The fish becomes large and dependent on Manu. Then it must be placed in the pond because it gets too big. 
• Humans becomes focuses on itself that it loses touch of nature (culture must never forget the needs of nature) 
• Even though caring for the fish was a noble deed, but you have to be wise and learn that obsession with the small fish made him insensitive that the fish got big enough to take car3e of itself
• Karma: society is destroyed when compassion is exclusive 
• The fish returns to Manu with a horn on his head; it is like the Mark of Vishnu (remind him that life is about growth and spirituality)
• There was no emotional and intellectual growth in this story, so it had a bad ending
• All plants and animals live in cycles, but humans have the power to break the cycle; happens when they follow Dharma and let go of fear

Bibliography: Pattanaik, Devdutt. 2011. The Seven Secrets of Vishnu. Matsya Videos