Epic of Gilgamesh, Is About the King

¶ … Epic of Gilgamesh, is about the king Gilgamesh, one of the most powerful of his time, who was two-thirds of god and one-third man. It takes us on the journey of his reign and his succession, with the help of his friend Enkidu, to achieve more strength. While Bhagavad-Gita, spoken by the great Lord Krishna, talks more in terms of spiritual and conscious powers of Krsna and his friend, Arjuna. Hence showing Arjuna's constant confusion during his journey to do every bid by the orders of Krsna and gaining power to understand his own conscious.

Compare and Contrast

Between Bhagavad-Gita and Gilgamesh

The eastern and western scholars have described Bhagavad-gita to be the greatest spiritual books in the world. In the book Lord Krishna describes the science of self-realization and an exact through which human beings can establish their eternal relationship with God. "It is approachable from the sanctified realms of religions and is glorified as the essence of all spiritual teachings." (Srimad

Bhagavad-Gita: (http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/)."The core purpose of Bhagavad-Gita, is to illuminate for all of humanity, the realization of the true nature of divinity; as the highest spiritual conception and the greatest material conception is to attain the love of God." This book extracts the main characters of Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna, enlightened in the first chapter, is the war scene in the sacred land of Kuruksetra and the setting up of a battle. After naming the principle warriors of both sides, Arjuna's growing dejection is described due to the fear of losing his friends and relatives in the course of the impending war and the subsequent sins attached to such actions.

Krishna's most hidden glory does not signify the time when Arjuna saw everything that was good and bad, or all his friends and enemies, or every galaxy in the body of Krishna. The real moment of epiphany and transformation for Arjuna was, when he recognized that he was truly loved. (The mystery traditions and the language of myth: (http://www.namaste.bigstep.com/generic36.html)

It starts with the first chapter describing the compassion for the eternal soul as the self-realization, when Krishna kills the demon Madhu and Arjuna wanted him to kill the demon of misunderstanding which had taken him within the discharge of his duty. Arjuna, always thought of Krishna's consciousness as the spiritual advancement of knowledge, hence using it as an excuse to avoid fighting. A devoted student, Arjuna, places the matter in front of his Lord to let him make decision for his actions.(Bhagavad-Gita, chapter 3). By the end of chapter four,

Krishna advices Arjuna to wake up and fight, being situated in perfect knowledge.

Whereas "Arjuna understands that renunciation in knowledge involves cessation of all kinds of work performed as sense activities.(Bhagavad Gita, chapter 5).

On the other hand, Gilgamesh was known as a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq, where he lived at around 2700

BC. Many stories and myths have been written about Gilgamesh, where some of it is known to be written back in 2000 B.C in the Sumerian language on clay tablets, which still survives in the Sumerian language. The fullest surviving version have been derived from twelve tablets, in Akkadian language, which was found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633 B.C.

One can easily extract from this that Gilgamesh was known as a superhuman, with such powers that the gods had to create a counterpart to moderate his actions and desires.

Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, has been narrated, as the greatest king on earth and the strongest super-human ever existed. Since he was young, he was known to oppress his people harshly, which makes those people call out for help from the sky god, Anu (the chief god of the city). As an answer Anu creates wild man, Enkidu, out in the wild and harsh forests surrounding Gilgamesh's land. It was revealed that, Enkidu was the only match in his power and strength with Gilgamesh. They both were an unbeatable pair, who claimed to be more powerful then a demon. Gilgamesh's first journey takes place with, Enkidu, when they both travel towards the great Cedar Forest (in southern Iran) to cut down all the cedar trees and kill its guardian, the great demon, Humbaba. As they bravely fight this battle and cut down all the cedar trees, Humbaba curses Enkidu just before he's killed, that Enkidu will not live for long. After this achievement,

Gilgamesh's fame spreads further turning him wealthier then ever, which does not escape goddess Ishtar, who offers to become his lover. Gilgamesh sends her back with insults, which makes her return to heaven, only to threaten her father, Anu the sky-god, to let her have the Bull of Heaven in order to wreak vengeance from Gilgamesh and his city. Reluctantly Anu consents and sends the Bull of Heaven down to the city, where Gilgamesh and Enkidu, slay the mighty Bull together.

Tablet seven narrates Enkidu's falling badly ill, as he was singled out for vengeance by the gods. As he lays in weakness, nearing his death, he was heard talking about Hell, the House of Dust, since he could feel himself in there. His death leaves Gilgamesh torn apart, as he orders all living creation never to fall silent in mourning his friend. Realizing that his grip on life was weakening, he knows he can't live unless granted eternal life, he decides to take the most perilous journey of all. He sets out to meet Utnapishtim, the king of the world before the flood, and being the only mortal, with his wife, who were preserved by the gods during the Flood. He's constantly warned during his journey that its futile and he may encounter danger, yet it wouldn't make him relinquish to attain his goal. When he reaches Utnapishtim and reveals his desires, Utnapishtim gives him a chance at immortality. He asks him to stay awake for six days and seven nights and then Gilgamesh too would become immortal. Unable to fulfill this challenge and feeling his loss he decides to head back when Utnapishtim's wife convinces the old man to have mercy on Gilgamesh and give him another chance.

For which he sends Gilgamesh to retrieve a secret plant from the bottom of the ocean surrounding the Far-Away, which would make Gilgamesh young again.

Taking over that plant, Gilgamesh decides to try it on the old man first, since he didn't trust the contents of that plant. During this journey, when Gilgamesh falls asleep, a snake had eaten away that plant, thus ending the story and Gilgamesh.

Arjuna, on the other hand, a powerful warrior heard the Bhagavad-gita directly from Lord Kirshna. The Gita is known to be a dialogue between Anjuna and Krishna, as a reflection of the inner dialogue between spirit and soul. Being spoken by Lord Krishna, the Supreme personality of Godhead, to His intimate disciple Arjuna, the Gita's seven hundred concise verses provide a definitive guide to the science of self-realization. By practice of Krsna's consciousness yoga, one can find out about everything, such as the Absolute Truth, the living entities, the material nature and their manifestations with paraphernalia.