12 May, 2009

Satyanarayana Katha Aka illogical Blunder


The most common mistakes while using Loops in programming is the Infinite Recursion or simply Recursion, where in a function keeps calling itself endlessly. Than there is other phenomenon called Nesting which should be wisely used.
However, when we look at any ancient hypothetical story, most of the logic issx usually wanting.
The case which substantiates the above sentence is the Satyanarayana Bhagwan's Katha. Now, I still remember when I was studying in 8th standard perhaps, women in my neighborhood would keep a fast and in the evening they would gather to recite the Katha. One year, they asked me to recite the Katha for them. Perhaps my Hindi and Sanskrit pronunciation was very good or I was the only fool around. I recited the whole story and was utterly confused by the nuisance of illogical events of the story even in that age.
Coming to the point, the Katha is divided in 3 parts, and each one of them has a single common character called "Narad".

The plot for the three stories are:
  1. A poor, old and ailing Brahman as well as an impoverished woodcutter, had all their wishes fulfilled, became prosperous, and ultimately attained salvation by the correct and devotional performance of the Sri Satyanarayna fast and puja.
  2. A childless merchant is suggested by the King to keep the Satyanarayan fast and Katha. His wife decided to perform the fast if they get a child. Fortunately she does get pregnant and delivers a child, but her husband forget to keep the Satyanarayna fast, and thus they are struck by ill fate. Off course when they realize their mistake and keep the fast, the tide turns.
  3. A king while returning after Hunting (alas! he must have been tired) and thought of taking some rest beneath a tree. He was offered some prashad by some cowherd boys who were performing a Satyanarayna puja for fun ( in the middle of jungle I believe). Now the king refused to take the prashad (dude, the boys were playing, wasn't they). And yes, the same ill fate and suffering great losses formula follows here as well.
Now after considering the three sub plots or stories can we actually know what the REAL story is? The answer is a big flat, NO. The three stories are actually talking about different sets of people who keep the Satyanarayna fast and recite the Katha. But then again it's not mentioned as to what on earth the Katha is. For consideration, a concise example following the Katha is another hypothetical story. It goes like
"there is a story called "A", the story goes that there was a guy called XYLINA who was a writer, he wrote a story called "A". In his story he wrote about a famous 19th philosopher who again wrote a masterpiece story and yes, you guessed it right, the title of the story by famous man was "A"." Doesn't make any sense does it, so doesn't the actual masterpiece.

The story is just a benchmarking example of "wrong nesting" and "recursion". It also signifies the blunders in Hindu religion which are the gift of Puja-Karm Kaand and Vedic Period in the Indian history. Some keynotes and examples form the Katha itself can summaries the deductions:


  • Narad goes to Sri Vishu asking about the Katha( so the dude obviously doesn't have a clue about the Katha himself). However the 1st story starts with him as a protagonist. Now this is BAD nesting man, ahhh! Unless Narad is suffering from Amnesia he must remember the story, and should not bother Mr. Vishu about the same.
  • Since when women starts getting pregnant after keeping a promise. Com'on man! that's a complete Bull Sh... However, as a very knowledgeable blogger Crstal says about mythological girls, any thing and everything is possible about them.
  • In first story the poor human soul got secret news about a good business for making good bucks overnight( the Katha) and it helped him nonetheless, what confuses me is the amusing fact that why this line of business is not practiced anymore, and even if it is followed than why don't we here about the same results. Recession I Guess!