Mayans Belief In God In Their Daily Lives

Student Name Course Instructor Date Mayans Belief in God in Their Daily Lives The Popol Vuh is a cultural narrative of the of the Quiche Mayan people who resided in the north-central highlands of Guatemala and blends their traditions and historical accounts. It centers about the origin of the creation myth of the Quiche Maya people and the now defunct Mayan civilization. The cultural narrative has suffered many losses as a result of the Spanish colonization and most of the Quiche texts and codices were destroyed (Hughes 509). A friar called Francisco Ximenez has been credited with the translation from Quiche codex to the Spanish language. It has since been translated into the English language. In the cultural narrative, the Mayan people are portrayed as very religious people in their worship of several deities. The deities are responsible for their very existence as they needed people to worship and praise them. The paper will examine the various aspects in the book that prove the claim that the Mayans believe in God in their daily lives and their religious believes borrow a lot from the teachings of the bible. The Mayans made symbols for their worship which were interpreted as a representation of their God and in a similar process through which God created the universe in the Bible. Gugumatz and Huracan embarked on a journey to create a new world (Smith 52). They seek to be worshipped and praised hence build creatures to that effect. The two gods and their desire to be worshipped highlight from the start the religious beliefs of the Mayans and their identification with superior beings. The god’s first attempt at making creatures resulted in creation of animals and trees. The author states “and they planned the animals of the mountains, the deer, birds, jaguars, serpents, rattlesnakes, yellow bites, guardians of the bushes” (Popol Vuh 39). However, these creatures were not endowed with the power of speech and as such were useless as they could not serve the purpose of their creation which was to worship and praise their creators. The author then notes the words uttered by the gods “speak then our names and praise us, your mother and father. Invoke then Huracan, Chipi-Caculha, Raxa-Caculha, the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth, the creator, the Maker, the Forefathers; speak, invoke us, adore us” (Popol Vuh 40). The interpretation I get from this is that degrading of the animal creatures for failure to adore and worship the gods is symbolic in the fact that God punishes all those who do not conform to his ways. The symbolism further identifies with the Mayans belief in God and the punishments for all those who didn’t worship and praise Him in their daily lives. The author states words uttered by the gods “because it has not been possible for you to talk, you shall be changed. Accept your destiny. Your flesh shall be torn to pieces” (Popol Vuh 40). The beliefs of the Mayans about judgment and punishment from their gods is very similar to the story of punishment by floods in the Bible when Noah build the ark and those who did not participate in building the ark were left out to die. As the author notes the two gods then embarked on a creation that would bring forth humanity and with astonishing resemblance to the Hebrew legend of Golem (Preuss & Himelblau 79). They made a creature from mud and though they succeeded on the features and having it to talk, the creature crumbled and disintegrated when they tried to move it. The author states “It couldn’t look around. It talked at first, but senselessly. It was quickly dissolving in the water” (Popol Vuh 41). And so they tried again, this time building a creature from wood which also failed because it’s impossible to infuse consciousness in a wooden material and as a result it was also useless. They however could walk and talk like men. They multiplied and had sons and daughters but their fault was they couldn’t remember their creator and maker. The wooden creatures were then destroyed through floods by the Heart of Heaven (Christenson n.p). The judgment of creatures for their deeds and failure to adore the gods is significant in that it showed the powers of the gods. In addition, floods in the olden days were symbolic in that they were associated with the end of the world and this further signifies the Mayans belief in life and death and that God would judge all for their actions on Earth. The Mayans, just like other believers of God had their troubles and temptations from Satan and those who remained strong were rewarded by their gods just like the Bible teachings. The cultural narrative mentions the presence of three beings who claimed to be “the sun and the moon, the builder of the earth and the destroyer of the mountains”. These are false beings who challenge the real gods. They are evil and can be compared to the devil in the holy books. The presence of such ungodly creatures is another manifestation of the Mayans people belief in God who would protect them from harm. These beings were very proud and their only ambition was to exalt and dominate, “I shall now be great of all things being created and formed. I am the sun, the light and the moon. Because of me men shall walk and conquer”. It is further mention in the book of two twins, now fondly referred to as the Hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalamque who managed to triumph against the evil creatures by using their weaknesses against them. They saw the harm that the ungodly and proud beings had done and wished to do and resorted to end them. They note “It is not good that they it be so, when man does not live here on earth. Therefore, we shall try to shoot him with our blow gun when he is eating” (Popol Vuh 50). They also sourced the assistance of two gods to inflict eternal damage to the evil beings and this also proves the Mayans dependence on God during troubling times just like the teachings of the Bible. The Hero twin’s success then led to the formation of the moon, sun and stars in the sky. The two boys gained so much favor from the gods who watched over them mostly because of their devotion to the gods. The Mayans were great believers of God and worshipped Him in their daily lives. The teachings about the s...