In my first post on this subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/IndianHistory/s/ZC7f3Lmogy) I'd explained my theory that the Jataka Tales may actually be historical records like the Book of Han of the Chinese or Herodotus' Histories of the Greeks, disguised as religious moral tales, based on the huge number of similarities between the Jatakas and actual historical events of ancient India. This post will elaborate on two such similarities.
In history we learn that Chanakya killed Parvataka, a king of a mountainous region in northwest India, through the use of a poison damsel - a woman whose body was coated with poison or filled with it and thus poisons the target upon making love to them. Parvataka apparently was in love with this woman and died either when marrying her or making love to her. He did this because he was afraid of Parvataka's strength and desire for Chandragupta's land.
We also learn that Chanakya defeated Malayaketu by spreading lies that made Malayaketu and his allies distrust each other, making them fight each other, and then sallying forth from the city to capture Malayaketu and his leaderless, disunited army.
In the Vissasabhojana Jataka, a landlord kills a lion by coating a doe's skin with poison and sending it to the lion. Since the lion was in love with the doe, it started making love to it and thus died due to the poison. The landlord did this because his cowherd had told him of the lion's strength and its desire for to consume the landlord's cattle.
In the Sandhibheda Jataka, a lion and cow are fast friends and allies, but a jackal wishes to defeat them both, so it spreads lies that make the lion and cow distrust each other, making them fight each other, and then the king sallies forth from the capital to the forest to capture the corpse of the lion.
Not only do both of these stories bear resemblance to the historical events of Chanakya defeating the father and son kingly duo of northwest India, but in both these seemingly unconnected Jataka tales, the characters who represent Parvataka and Malayaketu are lions. Not only are Parvataka and Malayaketu father and son respectively and thus both of them being represented by the same species makes sense, they also ruled over a kingdom in a mountainous region of northwest India, a region associated in ancient Sanskrit literature with lions (see Raghuvamsa).
This is further proven by the Mudrarakshasa play itself, which gives us most of the info about Malayaketu and Parvataka that we know today, which tells us that the kingdom of Malaya, a name which is included in Malayaketu's name and thus indicates his affinity to it, was ruled by "the lion king of Malaya, Simhanada". And this king and his kingdom were subordinate to Malayaketu.

It's a bloodbath all around. Limbs getting torn off, intestines hanging out, people yelling in pain, warrior steeds running with empty saddles, so here, I draw my bow. I know I'm fighting for a lost cause but I took an oath to do the maximum damage to enemy. And I did....
They say age is just a number and in my case it's literally the truth. They also say time heals everything but it doesn't, it only makes it worse,. atleast in my case it did. I've anger issues and underlying trauma but this curse was too much, even for me. This is a long and depressive rant of a person who instills both fear and pity when his name is uttered.
I come from a very poor background but thanks to my dad, I was very well versed in the knowledge of scriptures and combat. My father joined as the Principal for looking after the formal education of a royal family. The family has two factions. I was with the crown prince(there's a legal dispute here but that's for another time)from the beginning.He became my boss and also eventually became bitter about the other faction and I didn't involve in the family fights.
My Boss had a good for nothing blood friend. He's too much overrated and is a vile bastard, who hides under his benovelence. I warned my boss of this crook but he won't listen. One time when these two factions are criclejerking on a royal scale, the other faction lost. So this evil bastard, who lusted after the woman who married another guy from the opposite side, he became bitter and an incel.
He instigated my Boss to strip her nude publicly and called her a whore. And my stupid boss fell for it. I was the only person from both the sides to stop this madness, even my Father and the Grandmaster didn't utter a word. What a shame. And as usual my Boss aligned with his friend and insulted her. All hell broke loose.
The Warrior, considered as the best of his times is not going to take this easy and it was evident in two battles we had in their exile. Both the times this Warrior smoked us and charged upon my Boss. Guess what, his blood friend was the first to flew from the fight,both the times, leaving my Boss to his fate. I stood my ground and both the times, I went into a stalemate with that Warrior, saving my Boss.
Eventually, this lead to a full blown war. I am not interested in this family skimmerishes and didn't fight much in the first 15 days. These guys decapitated my dad with a web of deciet and here I lost my shit. My Boss took severe damages and the other side is practically at full strength. At this point, I unleashed Hell upon the enemy.
I killed an Akshauhini of army on the morning and then killed another Akshauhini of Rakshasa army at the night. I fired Narayanastra the next day. If it wasn't for that cow herd charioteer, the war would have ended that day!! Anyways, for the third time again, I faced that Warrior and again we went into a stalemate. I am the only warrior to go stalemate with him.
Eventually, my Boss was also killed and he regretted that if only he made me the Supreme Commander of the army on day one, the result would've been different. I single handedly did more damage to the enemy than all others combined. My lust for blood isn't quenched yet. I attacked the enemy camp at night. That cowherd took away the five brothers to a safe place, expecting my fury. So I killed their 5 sons.
Knowing this, the warrior attacked me, the 4th encounter. He fired Brahmastra. I invoked the counter Brahmastra from a blade of grass. All of the divine beings intervened and asked us to call back out weapons as the devastation will be at unfathomable levels. He called back. Guess what I did? I draw the bow and my senses got the better off me and I diverted it onto the womb of the pregnant Daughter in Law of that warrior.
Here, that cowherd lost his cool. He's always calm and composed but it took the likes of me to Invoke his wrath. He cursed me to be an immortal and roam on this planet for eternity. He later saved the foetus.
You might think how is it a curse if it's Immortality. Many Rakshasas do years of penance for that but I got it with a single wrong doing. I didn't care much about it first but after a couple of centuries, it dawned upon me.
I'm a witness to raise and fall of civilizations. I'm a witness to deluges and decadance of this planet. I saw all my loved ones getting die and I still roam on this wretched planet.
You never remember me for my heroics or my combat prowess. I was the only one to invoke Brahmastra from a blade of grass. No one gives a damn about this.I'm always remembered for trying to kill that unborn child. Maybe that cowherd was right in cursing me to eternity.
I roamed 3000 years with a wound on my forehead. The wound was healed. I asked the cowherd to remove the curse but he said he can't do it. He said to wait for his return, where I can assist him to redeem my past sins. He also mentioned that I'll be the next one to compile the Vedas.
I'm silently waiting for his return, to purge this planet once and for all!!

This is the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver. When I was scrolling down the various comments, I read a comment that indicated this story might be an explanation for the Artifact ending. Basically, the Weaver: Zhinü came down to earth from heaven. While she bathed in a river, a Cowherd: Niulang, saw her and became infatuated with her, stealing her clothes. For whatever reason, she could not return to heaven without her clothes and ended up marrying Niulang. As time went on, she realized she didn't want to go back to heaven, enjoying her job weaving while her husband worked the fields. However, her father, The Jade Emperor found out about their relationship, and dispatched The Queen Mother of the West to return Zhinü back to Heaven. She was taken, and Niulang's Ox, who saw the event take place, built a boat to allow Niulang to go to heaven and retrieve his wife. Just before he did, The Queen Mother of the West created the River of Heaven, or the Milky Way, to separate Heaven and Earth. Eventually, however, The Queen Mother relented, and allow Niulang and Zhinü to see each other once every year on the 7th month and the 7th day, when a flock of Magpies would create a bridge between them to cross.
You can tell where the correlations are in this story and whomever that commenter was on YouTube, thanks for saying something about this story.

Kings and rulers often tried to legitimate the superiority of royal houses over the people they ruled by inventing foreign origins and divine lineages. This is called 'Conundrum of the King's authority' because of the inherent contradiction of them being outsiders and at the same time rulers of the local society.
The caste of the Wodeyars of Mysore is called 'Arasu' / 'Urs' caste. It means King. According to legend Yaduraya Wodeyar, a young Chandravamshi prince of Dwarka and descendant of Lord Krishna was invited by the Vijaynagar Emperor to rule a small region around the Kaveri River in Karnataka in 1400 CE. When Yaduraya arrives at the village of Hadadana near Mysore, he learns that the local Palegar had renounced his kingship to become an ascetic and that his daughter was being harassed by the army chief Marasa Nayaka . Yaduraya kills the army chief and marries the princess to become the King of Mysore.
This legend served multiple purposes. It established a chandravamshi kshatriya lineage, it established a connection with the indigenous people through the princess and it could also explain why the descendants of Lord Krishna worshipped the local village goddess 'Chamundeshwari' as their clan god (Kula Devi). Moreover the villain of the story Marasa Nayaka was a low caste Toreya, this helped further emphasise the pure-blooded superiority of the Wodeyars.
However historians noted a lot of inconsistencies. It was extremely far-fetched that the Vijaynagar Emperor Harihara II would invite Yaduraya from Distant Dwarka. Yaduraya would have to risk his life and travel through two hostile Muslim Kingdoms, the Gujarat Sultanate and Brahmani Kingdom to reach Vijaynagar. Epigraphy mentioning the Wodeyars began only 150 years after 1400 CE. The legend of Yaduraya made its advent only in the later half of 17th century. Different versions of the legend had been fabricated by the poets commissioned by Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar.
Historians like David Leeming and Aya Ikegame instead suggest that the Wodeyars were local feudal lords and that the 'Urs' had extremely indigenous origins.
In the 17th century the 'Vokkaligas'/'Gowdas', the landed gentry and agriculturist caste of Karnataka had the most number of ruling families. Chikkadevaraja strategically united the other feudal lords under the 'Urs' caste and divided them into hierarchical groups based on their relationship with Vokkaligas and the size of their feudal domains. The Vokkaligas were systematimatically eliminated from amongst the ruling classes.
Then Chikkadevaraja violently persecuted the Lingayats (a community of shaivites of diverse caste origins, that politically dominated North Karnataka) who had risen in insurrection. An invitation was sent to all the Lingayat priests to meet the Raja at the great temples of Nunjengod, in order to discuss the conduct of their follower. Executioners who were lying in wait slaughtered 400 priests. Orders were sent to destroy over 700 Lingayat mutts on the same day.
Nobuhiri Ota says the Urs including the Wodeyars belonged to not only the peasant caste but were also from other castes. The Urs adopted vegetarianism, and Sanskrited themseleves as Kshatriyas. But the local Kannada Brahmins refused to coronate the Wodeyars and so they had to import a group of “Tamil Brahmins” from Srirangam to officiate the ceremony.
The Vokkaligas and Lingayats considered the Wodeyars of an inferior cowherd caste (possibly even potter caste). Since the Wodeyars did not have kinship with the local elites, their power penetration in local arenas was severely limited.
Royal schools were set up to train the young urs elite (anglicise them) and courses included history (British version), geography, arithmetic (Traditionally mathematical knowledge was considering unnecessary for Kshatriyas), horse riding and cricket. While this improves the status of the rich urs. The gap between the poor and rich urs grew.
The wodeyars realised that it was pointless to try to convert the Urs into a powerful landed aristocracy and instead tried unsuccessfully to educate the poorer sections of their own caste members to expand their political power beyond the palace administration. English boarding schools were also made available for poorer urs to create a gentleman class . But the poorer urs lacked the political ambition to return to the village and instead preferred jobs such as clerks and officers in the city. So mysore kingdom finally resorted to a decentralised administration, taking immense care not to ruffle the sentiments of the dominant landed gentry at the local level.
Quoting James Manor "The Lingayats and Vokkaligas enjoyed an unwritten and unspoken but very real promise of non-interference from the states princely rulers who came from a cow-herding jati-indeed, some believe that they were originally potters, an even humbler caste-and who now claimed Kshatriya status."
Part 2: I shall continue the story of how the Wodeyars through matrimonial alliances tried to buttress their mythological origin. Edit: Part 2 link: https://www.reddit.com/IndiaSpeaks/comments/m423awodeyars_of_mysore_rajput_alliances/
People often use the anonymity provided by the Internet to insult/ deride other castes. But the truth is that the difference between a higher and lower caste is just a tall tale.
References:-
Ikegame, Aya. Princely India Re-imagined : a Historical Anthropology of Mysore From 1799 to the Present. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013
Her PhD paper is accessible here https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.106.5387&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Frankel, F. R., & Rao, M. S. A. (1989). Dominance and state power in modern India: Decline of a social order. Delhi: Oxford University Press
Wilks, Mark., ‘Historical Sketches of the South of India’ (1564 - 1799AD), Vol 1’, 1817 https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch02wilkuoft

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?

Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins?
Shri Datta Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin. The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin. The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled. Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps. So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested. If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled. This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all. But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject. You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism. In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex. All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form. Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities. Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā). He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children. Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!

Who is Hamid Idris Awate to Kunama indigenous peopl......???
The ethnicity, the place and the date of birth of HAMID Idris Awate are just as entangled and mysterious as his life and death.
This piece of writing contains a collection of the detailed accounts by the people who, not only had known HAMID Idris Awate personally, but grew up and shared their shepherds' lives and other adventures with him, later persecuted by or even followed him.
HAMID Idris Awate grew up and lived, like his father Idris Awate, in Kunama land, in Ugaro in Tika region. This means that, no other Eritrean ethnic group knows or can claim to have known HAMID Idris Awate better than the Kunama people in general and the Kunama of the Tika region in particular.
There is no doubt that, the most reliable witnesses and sure sources of information on the life, deeds and mortal circumstances of any person (be it a villain, a hero or just a legendary figure) are those who personally knew and shared their lives with that person.
Such witnesses and information sources on Hamid Idris Awate's person and deeds are, therefore, only the Kunama people.
One can rightly describe the Kunama of the Tika region, as the only "depository" of the true history of Hamid Idris Awate.
For obvious reasons as well as respecting the wishes of all those Kunama who knew Hamid Idris Awate personally and shared their lives with him and provided us with this material regarding him, we keep their names in anonymity.
Their oral accounts, however, have thoroughly been scrutinised, compared, certified and compiled.

 To start with, let us point out that, for the Kunama people, it is crystal clear who Idris Awate and HAMID Idris Awate were. 

There seems to be, in fact, a lot of confusion about the names and personalities of these two people among the other Eritrean ethnic groups.
One notices that quite a number of Eritreans, often, mention these two names: "IDRIS AWATE" not clearly identifying whom they refer to.
The simplest difference is that Idris Awate was the father of HAMID Idris Awate.
The former used to be the chief of the Beni-Amer and the Nara residing in the village of Abaradda or Akkaitom, in the south-western part of the Kunama region of Aimasa.
When HAMID Idris Awate was still a little kid, his father Idris Awate, for unknown reasons, moved, with his family and livestock, from his village of Abaradda to the Kunama village of Ugaro in the heart of the Tika region.
It is ascertained that Idris Awate himself was a naturalised and not a born Beni-Amer. He is said to have originated from a family of slaves. His wife was from the Nara ethnic group. HAMID Idris Awate, therefore, was a half-breed person.
A Kunama woman who, at that same time and as a young girl, used to live in a village nearby Ugaro, reported that she and "Hamid" were both cowherds and used to water their cattle in a place called "Badda Bambata" (upper water plant).
She said that Hamid's and her father owned so many heads of cattle that they could water them only one after the other. That is to say that, whoever had reached "Badda Bambata" first with his/her cattle would water them and make room for the other leaving the reservoir filled with water for the partner's cattle.
She added that, after watering their cattle, they would both lead them to graze in a wide area nearby. That Kunama woman also pointed out that, when Hamid had come of age, he used to carry his father's rifle and shoot at trees and at tree-leaves and when he was asked, by the woman, the reason why he was doing that, he would answer that he was practising. She carried on to explain that, after cow herding for a number of years, Hamid, for reasons she could not understand, suddenly left his father's livestock, took up fire-arms and became a bandit.
He was said to have turned against the same Kunama people with whom he, as a young man, had shared his daily life and set ablaze the same Kunama villages which had sheltered him and his family. He even turned against many of his own people whom he considered unsympathetic to him.
That Kunama woman's daughter, who now lives abroad, says that it was because of Hamid Idris Awate's continuous raids and appalling atrocities that she had to abandon her village first, the Kunama land next and finally her own country Eritrea and ended up living abroad.
Her mother concluded by attesting that, the last time she saw and met Hamid Idris Awate again was in Haikota, after Hamid had moved his wife and children to a village called "Alabu", situated between Haikota and Tessenei.
She also revealed that Hamid had even proposed to marry her.
Many other Kunama who knew Hamid Idris Awate and were later persecuted by him, report that one of his most atrocious deeds against the Kunama people was that, during his banditry, whenever Hamid saw a Kunama mother carrying a child, he would immediately stop and tell her to show him that child and if it happened to be a female he would let her go but if it was a male child he would grab and toss him in the air and strike him with his sword.
Alternatively, he would just recite his Islamic prayer " Allah wa kubar" and chop that Kunama child's head off.
Hamid Idris Awate was said to have set ablaze entire Kunama villages and raided herds after herds of the Kunama cattle.
Many Kunama of the time believe that Hamid Idris Awate was not acting alone, particularly, as far as raiding of the Kunama cattle was concerned.
"To this day, the Kunama accuse the British of having been instrumental in planning the hostilities and (Hamid) Idris Awate is vividly remembered for the appalling atrocities he committed and instigated at that time". (D.Lussier, Institute of Social and Cultural anthropology , Oxford University 1997.
The Kunama themselves attest that Hamid Idris Awate raided the Kunama cattle, took and sold them in the market places of the Sudanese city of Kassala. It is well proved and documented that some British government officials residing, at that time in Kassala, were said to have shared the money accrued from the sales of the raided Kunama cattle by Hamid Idris Awate.
Some Kunama people who clandestinely, dared to travel to Kassala confirmed having detected a lot of Kunama cattle in the markets of that city.

 The Kunama people, up to these days, cannot figure out what had motivated Hamid Idris Awate to have turned against them, committed so many atrocities on them and earned himself the unpleasant title of the "MASS MURDERER OF THE KUNAMA PEOPLE"...............................,........................................... 

................................ to be continued

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?

Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins?
Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin.
​
The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin. The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled.
​
Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps. So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested.
If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled. This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all.
​
But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject.
​
You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism. In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex.
​
All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form. Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities.
​
Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā). He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children.
Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
​
https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?

Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins?
Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin.
​
The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin. The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled.
​
Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps. So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested.
If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled. This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all.
​
But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject.
​
You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism. In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex.
​
All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form. Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities.
​
Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā). He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children.
Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
​
https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?

Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins?
Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin.
​
The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin. The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled.
​
Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps. So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested.
If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled. This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all.
​
But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject.
​
You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism. In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex.
​
All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form. Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities.
​
Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā). He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children.
Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
​
https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?
Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins? Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin. The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin.
The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled. Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps.
So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested. If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled.
This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all. But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject. You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism.
In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex. All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form.
Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities. Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā).
He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children. Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
​
https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?
Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins? Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin. The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin.
The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled. Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps.
So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested. If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled.
This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all. But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject. You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism.
In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex. All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form.
Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities. Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā).
He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children. Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
​
https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

Can one's love for God miraculously cancel one's sins?
Shri Anil asked: Jesus said that the sins of the devotee will be excused in proportion to the love possessed by the devotee for God. Does this mean that the love for God has such miraculous power to cancel sins? Swami replied: The love for God does not have any miraculous power. Even if it had any miraculous power, that miraculous power is not used to cancel the sins. Due to the devotee’s love for God, God comes down in human form to preach to the devotee about the path of reformation. It is only upon reformation that sins are cancelled. There are three steps in the reformation of the soul. The first is realization. It means the recognition of the sin. The person should confess that he or she has committed a sin and not try to use false and twisted arguments to defend the sin or prove that it was not a sin but a good deed. The second step is repentance for the committed sin.
The third and final step is the practical non-repetition of the sin for the rest of one’s life. This step is the most essential step. Mere confession of the sin is not sufficient to cancel the sins. Confession, repentance and non-repetition of sin together complete the process of reformation of the soul. When God finds that the soul has been fully refomed through these three steps, He cancels the sins. Without the final practical step of non-repetition of the sins, sins are never cancelled. Both realization and repentance are theoretical steps.
So, by merely realizing and repenting, the sins are not practically cancelled. If the person continues to repeat the sin practically, the person has not really reformed. In that case, the person’s apparent theoretical reformation is meaningless. So, God too, will only cancel the sin only theoretically and not practically. In other words, it will appear that the sin has been cancelled, but in reality, it will not be canelled. God’s behavior with us is just a reflection of our behavior towards Him (Pratirūpo babhūva—Veda).
When Mary Magdelena worshiped Jesus with expensive perfumes, one devotee commented that the money used to purchase the perfumes could instead have been used to feed beggars. Jesus told the devotee to let her worship Him to her satisfaction, saying that there would always be beggars in the world to feed. Actually, the devotee who passed that comment was not eligible to do so. The immediate question to him would have been “Have you stopped spending money on all pleasures and started using it only to feed beggars?” One should comment on others’ practice only after perfectly practicing it oneself.
Jesus also told the devotee that her sins will be cancelled in proportion to her love for Him. This means that even if God preaches the total concept of reformation to a soul, the soul will digest it only in proportion to his or her devotion. If the devotee’s devotion is complete, the concept of reformation will also be completely digested. If the devotion is partial, the digestion of the concept will be also partial. If the concept is only partially digested, the person’s reformation will also be partial. When the reformation is not complete, ideally, sins cannot be cancelled.
This would mean that unless one has full devotion to God, who preaches this concept of reformation, the sins would not be cancelled. In other words, unless the devotee has full devotion, has fully digested the concept of reformation and has practically been fully reformed, the devotee’s sins would not be cancelled at all. But Jesus said that partial cancellation of sins does take place when the devotee digests the concept partially, as a result of his or her partial devotion. This clearly means that partial devotion results in the partial reformation of the soul. Reformation happens in the context of some lighter sins. As a result, some sins committed by the soul earlier are cancelled by God, even though not all sins are cancelled. The more serious sins require a deeper reformation, which takes a longer time.
Some say that Jesus married this lady and even had children with her. Whether Jesus got married or not, how does it matter to us? What matters to us, is only His valuable preaching, which alone is going to benefit us. If you go to a teacher to study a subject, you are only concerned with the teacher’s teaching of the subject. You need not bother about the personal life of the teacher. Moreover, Jesus got legally married to her and then had children. There is nothing unjust or illegitimate in it and there is absolutely no cause for criticism.
In a Human Incarnation, even though God exists in the human medium, the human medium retains its own natural characteristics and needs including hunger, thirst, sleep and legitimate sex. All these are the inevitable biological needs of the human body. I do not understand why people make a big issue out of sex alone. Nobody is bothered if the Human Incarnation eats food, drinks water or sleeps to get rest! Why then, should the Human Incarnation or God-man be looked down upon, if He is involved in legitimate sex? In that case, the God-man eating food, drinking water and sleeping, must also be looked down upon for not having conquered those biological needs of the body!
The Human Incarnation could be criticized only if He has been involved in illegitimate sex. But even in that case, careful analysis is necessary before any such criticism. Krishna was misunderstood for His involvement with the Gopikās. The negative qualities of rajas (desire and activity) and tamas (ignorance and inertia) are sometimes, deliberately exhibited by God-in-human-form.
Exhibiting these negative qualities is helpful in repelling selfish souls who have positive qualities. Such selfish people come to the Incarnation to exploit His miraculous powers for their selfish benefits. In order to avoid their exploitation, He exhibits negative qualities, which repel them. Sometimes, negative qualities are also exhibited by God, to test the firmness of the faith of devotees. Deep analysis shows that the negative qualities shown by the Incarnation are only superficial and were meant to severely test certain devotees.
The Gopikās, who possessed the topmost level of devotion, were tested by God Krishna for their ability to overcome all their worldly bonds for His sake. The Gopikās, were cowherd ladies and Krishna stole their butter, which was the wealth of the cowherds. They had stored the butter for the sake of their children. By stealing their butter, He was simultaneously testing their bond with wealth (dhaneṣanā) and their bond with their children (putreṣaṇā).
He was competing with their wealth and children combined, forcing them to choose between their bond with Him and their bond with wealth and children. Similarly, Krishna danced with the Gopikās at midnight, on the banks of the Yamuna, to test the strength of their bond with their life-partners (dāreṣaṇā), forcing them to choose between Him and their life-partners. When Krishna died, the Gopikās jumped into fire and ended their lives, proving that their bond with Krishna was stronger than their bond with their own lives (prāṇeṣaṇā). Upon deep analysis, one can find that Krishna did not do these activities with any selfish motive. Once His tests were completed, Krishna never returned to Bṛndāvanam and He never repeated such tests elsewhere in His life.
Similarly, Shirdi Sai Baba appeared to be a smoker, but it was not His weakness. It was meant to test the faith of orthodox devotees in Him. Hence, we should not jump to hasty conclusions in the case of God-men. Of course, false God-men appear before us as unmarried bachelors, pretending to have conquered the desire for sex, but in reality, they are involved in illegitimate sex secretly!
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https://www.universal-spirituality.org/

In many myths, the (gods of) Sun and Moon are related, siblings or spouses. Stories about them seem to be attempts at explaining why they are separated (one during the day, the other mainly seen at night). These stories give human features and desires to aspects of nature, assuming that the movement of stars is deliberate on their part, as they go about their human-like lives and interact with their relatives (other natural objects), and done for the same reasons that humans or animals might do the same things.
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It is important not to read too much into the culture of the past from these explanatory myths. When the son of the Earth and the Sky bloodily cut them apart, he wasn’t a model of a man in a Pre-Greek culture that mutilated their parents on reaching adulthood, merely an analogy for natural phenomena. It was told to explain how the Earth and the Sky were separated in the past. In America, saying the Sun eats his children, the Stars, is not evidence for cannibalism but told to explain why the stars disappear when the sun rises.
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On reason for the Sun and Moon staying apart involves being in love, but never being allowed to meet (or marry), except at certain times of the year. This relates eclipses to similar stories about stars that are only seen in the sky at the same time for certain seasons, like Orihime ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Girl ). In America, similar stories are told, but instead of a Cowherd it is a Hunter separated from his wife (who turns into a deer and flies into the sky, or into a fire, etc.).
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This is probably connected to the common myth about the sun and moon being brother and sister, fated by natural law never to be together even if one or both were in love, explaining the day and night. Other stories speak of one deliberately rejecting the other’s love, sometimes killing, scarring, or disfiguring them to drive them away (this would be one of the explanations for the dark spots on the face of the moon, showing either scars or ashes thrown on the face to mark them).
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This is obviously similar to the Greek twins Apollo and Artemis. Not only is Artemis associated with the moon and hunting, she attempts to remain an eternal virgin (like many Greek goddesses or mythical women). These features might come in part from the Sun and Moon never meeting, but also seem to show the tendency to separate gods into several versions (each aspect of their nature or power being worshipped under a separate name) or stories about when they were young separated from when they were older (making an eternal youth who never got married from myths about a god in his youth, even though he changed over time in many ways in the original myths). Apollo seems much like a young Zeus, and their myths are often almost identical.
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There are many versions of Greek myths, sometimes with the names changed. Many stories about Apollo chasing after a woman who escapes by turning into a tree, etc., could be based on the Sun and Moon staying apart (even the Hunter’s wife who turned into a deer). This might even include the myth of Cassandra (Greek Kasándrā / Kassándrā), who refused Apollo’s love and was cursed with prophecy (not believed). The rejection and subsequent curse in Greek would have the same source as the moon being rejected and scarred (or stained with ashes). The association of the Sun and Moon with knowledge and prophecy might come from both being seen as looking down on the Earth from the sky (the words for ‘eye’ and ‘sun’ are sometimes the same in Indo-European languages).
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I also suggest an Indo-European explanation for the name Cassandra. In Greek, there are many words which appear with a prefixed a- (Atlas, asparagus). If this word originally was *askándrā and moved the k to the beginning of the word (metathesis), then optionally filled in the space left by the k by extending the s (gemination) could explain -ss- vs. -s- here. The obvious candidate for its etymology is *(s)kandrā- ‘moon’, related to Sanskrit candrá-, (ś)cand- ‘shine/glitter’, hári-ścandra- ‘glittering like gold’, from IE *(s)kend- / *(s)kand- ‘shine’. Just as variants without s- appear in other IE languages, the same is seen in Greek kándaros ‘charcoal’. If so, Kasándrā / Kassándrā would, from a simple analysis of the myth, have originally been a name for *moon > the prophetess cursed from rejecting *sun > Apollo.
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Some of these, like the story of Daphne ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne ), have been recognized as solar by Max Müller. Unfortunately, even with this obvious even 200 years ago, his tendency to theorize that this meant that all words for these figures came from words for ‘sun’ makes it difficult for other scholars to pick out the true aspects among the false. Just because some were first told of the Sun, not all stories remain the same over time. The same tale can be told of many figures, some popular incidents included in stories that originally were much shorter and about someone else entirely. He also extended his solar theory to every myth that might have been about the Sun, with no evidence, leading to contradictions.
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However, I feel his thoughts about how a “disease of language” could influence myths are often correct. After the meaning of the words in ancient myths, tales, and set phrases were lost or lessened, it led to confusion among speakers familiar only with modern forms or meanings. That this is not more often used as an explanation in linguistics come from an unfortunate tendency to extend this to ALL explanations for any myth or oddity in culture (it was very common in the 1800’s). Since this is obviously wrong, scholars later tended to downplay this for all problems in explaining myths, even when relevant, so as not to appear to be adherents of the theory in its much-too-broad form.
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The Sun and Moon are also sometimes seen as siblings, often man and woman, though this varies. The Indo-European Divine Twins were men (sometimes with one shared wife, who might be the same as the Dawn) and might represent the sun and moon. They are known to have some connection to the morning- and evening-star (both Venus), and were often described with sky-imagery (having a flying chariot, likely the one that pulled the sun and/or moon in other Indo-European myths ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon )). They were often part horse, or able to become horses; one knowing medicine and the other boxing/wrestling; one immortal, the other mortal (and dying, and/or restored to (partial or recurring) life when the other shared his immortality, born at the same time but of 2 different fathers, etc.). This assumes the one with recurring life was like the changing moon, disappearing and then reborn, with love reuniting them in the sky instead of dividing them by day and night.
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Since the Sun and Moon were often carried by birds, an eagle and raven, in myths, such correspondences to twin birds (on the world tree) in Sanskrit riddles and odd terms might be related ( https://www.academia.edu/37874254/The_Honey_Eating_Birds_and_the_Tree_of_Life ). The Divine Twins sometimes had individual characteristics or were undifferentiated (at least in Vedic songs of praise; this might vary from myth to myth). They are known by many names, the Greek > Latin Dioscuri just ‘the sons/boys of Zeus’. With this known, it is likely that *Diwós-sunos ‘son of Zeus’ > *Diwós-nusos > *Diwó(s)-nusos > Diṓnusos / Diónusos, with metathesis.
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The Sun and Moon as man and woman seems widespread. Indo-European myths often have this, but versions with the opposite might come from languages that extended the grammatical gender of the word for ‘sun’ to the innate gender of the God(dess) of the Sun (Lithuaian sáulē is feminine, for example). Other confusion might come from the triad of the Divine Twins (Sun and Moon) and their wife (Dawn) with a later version as a married pair of one man and one woman. Thus, either the Sun+Moon & Dawn changed to Sun & Dawn or to Sun & Moon. This might explain why the Indo-European Dawn and Moon Goddesses are often very similar, if really originally the same (both sometimes fighting in war, etc.).
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However, the Divine Twins might have originally been one god instead (with one wife (Moon)). The Sun was often said to move beneath the Earth at night (to reach the east), either through a tunnel or through the ocean. This could mean the god who ruled the underworld (and sea) was the same as the Sun, since he traveled through all three. Other stories have the Sun and Moon both sometimes travel beyond the dome of the Sky ( https://www.academia.edu/40499160/Yima_Yama_and_the_luminous_underworld ). These tales all serve to explain where they are when unseen by humans. The location of the Sun in either the ground or air seems similar to confusion about the location of the place he ruled (the land of the happy dead) as either beyond the Sky or beneath the Earth (in Celtic, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annwn ). It is not always clear which conception is older, but if based on stories about nature, observing which features people around the world tend to focus on can bring outside evidence about the nature of past myths in other cultures, now lost.
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More on sound changes here:
https://www.reddit.com/etymology/comments/10a9qpf/etymology_of_daphne_laura/
https://www.reddit.com/etymology/comments/10oorrf/greek_k%C3%A1st%C5%8Dr_sanskrit_k%E1%B9%9B%C5%9B%C4%81%C5%9Bva_turv%C3%A1%C5%9Ba/
https://www.reddit.com/etymology/comments/zn62o0/riddle_of_the_sphinx/
https://www.reddit.com/etymology/comments/10nannq/etymology_of_dionysus/

Before starting this post I'd like to put a disclaimer: in no way, shape or form am I allowing hate to both parties mentioned. I would simply like to clarify things that are spreading on wildfire right now.
Trigger Warning: mention of Tragedy
Also, I have been a Red Velvet fan since 2014, so I am pretty much well-versed about their music and the background behind it.
If there are any errors in my post, please help me correct them in the comments, I would be glad to countercheck.
---
Recently, IVE has been embroiled in controversy with how their VCR turned out-- there were, unfortunately, strikingly similar scenes from the VCR during their MMA performance with Red Velvet's "7월 7일 (One of These Nights)"
The uncanny comparison would be found here: https://twitter.com/05_99_02/status/1596529539114422274
What has been putting me off, as a ReVeluv since debut is how people on Twitter are associating One of These Nights, and how it was a 'tribute' to the Sewol Ferry Incident.
This is just a theory. Red Velvet, nor SM, never claimed that the song, or the Music video was in tribute to the fallen passengers of the Sewol Ferry.
Here is an article from Red Velvet's appearance on an SBS radio program, where the song is about 'Gyeonu and Jiknyeo' which is based from Chilseok (칠석), a festival in Korea.
Article from Hankyung News Team https://www.hankyung.com/entertainment/article/201603175764H
The Story of Gyeonu and Jiknyeo http://world.kbs.co.kservice/contents_view.htm?lang=e&board_seq=408694
Chilseok, where the story of Gyeonu and Jiknyeo is based off of . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilseok
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EDIT
This is an excerpt from the article.

레드벨벳 '7월 7일'은 이렇게 가슴 아픈 ‘견우와 직녀’설화가 현대적으로 재해석했다.

In rough translation,

Red Velvet's "July 7" is a modern reinterpretation of such a heartbreaking story of "Gyeon-woo and Jik-nyeo." (Translated with papago)

FURTHER EXPLANATION:
Basically, the Korean title of the song, Chil-wol-chil-il 7윌 7일, is when people celebrate Chilseok in Korea. July 7th.
I got this excerpt from Wikipedia, will also use the credits from Wikipedia:

The origin of the tale is a romantic Chinese folk tale, The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It was adopted by Koreans. According to the Korean version, a heavenly king had a daughter called Jingnyeo (Hangul: 직녀, Hanja: 織女), who was a talented weaver. One day, when she looked out of the window while weaving, she saw a young man, a herder called Gyeonu (Hangul: 견우, Hanja: 牽牛), just across the Milky Way, and fell in love with him; the father allowed the two to marry. Afterwards, Jingnyeo refused to weave clothes, and Gyeonu did not take good care of the cows and sheep. The king grew furious, and ordered the couple to live separately, allowing them to meet only once a year. On the seventh day of the seventh month of each year, they were excited to meet each other, but could not cross the Milky Way. However, crows and magpies worked together to form a bridge across the Milky Way for the couple. After a while, their sadness returned, for they were forced to wait another year before meeting again. It is believed crows and magpies have no feathers on their heads because of the couple stepping on their heads. If it rains on that night, it is believed to be the couple's tears.

Source (1): Brown, Ju; Brown, John (2006). China, Japan, Korea: Culture and customs. North Charleston: BookSurge. ISBN) 1-4196-4893-4.
Source (2): Weaver and Herdsman: Chik-Nyo and Kyun-Woo". In: Riordan, James. Korean Folk-tales. Oxford Myths and Legends. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 [1994]. pp. 14-20.
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With this I hope both Reveluvs and Non-reveluvs would enlighten other people with the original meaning of the song and not a theory. It is upsetting to see people use the tragedy very freely as a means to put out their anger for the plagiarism incident, which in fact was not the artistic intention of Shin Hee-won, the director.
Here's the Wikipedia description of the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_These_Nights_(Red_Velvet_song))
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Thank you for taking the time to read. If you can reference this post to people spreading wrong information, please do.

By now everyone should be aware that the raid on Onigasima was based on the myth of Momotaro. But skillfully woven into the Wano arc, as well as throughout the entirety of One Piece is another Myth, one that directly ties to and unlocks the identity of Imu. It can be found in Bink’s Sake and in Toki’s prophecy. And rest assured all those jaded by Naruto, it is not about Kaguya. (Stay to the end for a sad prediction.)
This myth is the one of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. And it goes as follows:
Orihime ("Weaving Princess"), daughter of Tentei ("Sky King"), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa "Milky Way", literally ("heavenly river"). Her father loved the cloth that she wove. Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi ("Cowman"/"Cowherd Star", or literally "Boy Star" (Joyboy?)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Milky Way.
When the two met, they fell in love instantly and wed. However, once married, Orihime would no longer weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Milky Way and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei allowed them to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies (birds) came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. In some iterations of the Myth, he weaves 1000 straw sandals to climb and reach her. In some versions of the Myth, he eats a forbidden fruit and is washed away. Separating them.
Three aspects of the Myth are important throughout One Piece:
Orihime the Weaving Princess
Hikoboshi the cowherd
The Magpies (Birds in general)
Often weaving, or something woven is associated with birds
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Bird dance and woven hat
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Straw hat and bird wings
What do we derive from this?
Imu is based on Orihime and Characters related to Birds throughout One Piece allude to this.
The evidence:
Orihime is sometimes known as Ito-Ori-Hime, Do Flomingo (bird) ate the Ito-Ito no Mi.
Orihime is known sometimes as Aki-Sari-Hime, Aki is autumn, but Sari can refer to a dress that is why Imu wears a dress with a long train.
Orihime is sometimes known as Asagoa-hime, meaning the morning glory princess. No, this does not mean that she is the princess of early morning erections but rather points to the flower of the same name. So-called because it blooms at dawn. The most common found in Japan is the Japanese Morning Glory or Ipomoea nil its binomial name. I theorize that is where both the names of Imu and Enil come from. That is why Imu is shown in a garden and in the manga, the Japanese Morning Glory is clearly visible when she is in the garden. Furthermore, Robin (Bird) ate the Flower-Flower fruit.
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Imu with Morning Glory Flowers
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Image of Imu inverted by Doflamingo
One of the symbols related to Imu is the left eye, interestingly Asagoa also means bell. The left eye of Jaya.
Based on the above, it is why, almost every character related to a bird also has something to do with flowers, in most instances flowers can be found printed somewhere on their clothes.
This also references two lines in Binks’s Sake, i.e. weavers’ town and the birds circling.
This is also alluded to in the Kozuki crest. With a sun in the middle of the chest of a bird. Encircled in waves with what has been described as crossbones or whale fins but looks suspiciously like a Chinese painting portraying the Weaver Myth.
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Kozuki Crest
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Weaver Myth Painting similar to Kozuki Crest
In the context of One Piece, this could mean that Amazon Lily, whose queens are known to suffer from the love disease, was moved, or the calm belt was created to separate Imu and Joyboy. Imu could have been looking for Luffy’s fruit in order to get her lover JoyBoy (toyboy?) back.
Another established fact is that Oda plays around with Chapter numbers. So since the feast day is on the 7th of the 7th month. I looked at Chapter 77 and couldn’t quite find anything. A bust. But then I looked at Chapter 717, and the cover was quite odd. The straw hats are partying on a mechanical dog with an X over its right eye. Coincidental; most likely but this points to Imu.
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717 cover
Inside the Chapter, we come across a metal dog toy with an X over its right eye and a hat with 1 on it, named Wanpoko.
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Wanpoko
We later find out that the dog's true identity is a man named Milo or Miro. Now Dressrosa, the arc in which this is found is based on Spain and contains an abstract artist in Giolla. Miro is a real-life abstract artist with famous works such as ‘Lunar Bird’ and ‘Constellation Awakening at Dawn’ amongst others. When looking into Milo, we find a famous sculpture of Venus.
This is where we get the other part of Imu’s identity. Venus the planet is known as the morning star. It shines brightest before the dawn. This points to Toki’s prophecy which states you are the night unaware of the brilliance of the dawn. At first, you assume this refers to the sun. But the sun is not quite visible at dawn.
Pell (Bird Character) has scars that mimic shining just as the Morningstar and it is present in his clothes as well. Toki also has a scar that looks like the Morningstar and her clothes consist of a moon and bird.
Venus in Mythology is born from SEA FOAM (line from Bink’s Sake) caused by the severed genitals of Uranus. (Don’t laugh!) (Ancient Weapon?)
The Symbol of the Morningstar is present throughout One Piece and is shown just below the moon as it often appears in the night sky. This can be done for example in the shining of Luffy’s eyes when he is amazed underneath a moon. But one example is Django’s Cover Story.
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Django with object like moon and morning star
The line Asa no Taiyo (Morning Sun) in Bink’s Sake can be a direct reference to this as well.
In Mythology, Venus was the mother of cupids, small children with wings (Seraphim)
When considering Imu to be the Morningstar. We can look at other Famous Morningstar deities to flesh out Imu’s character. One such is Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, which represents the Morning Star Venus in the Aztec religion. The name means ‘Dawn Lord’. He became the morning star when he died by throwing himself into a bonfire. Once he started burning, his ashes were lifted and various beautiful birds were sacrificed. Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli later becomes angry when Tonatiuh, the sun god, does not move across the sky after being created. He shoots Tonatiuh with atlatl darts but misses and is hit by Tonatiuh's darts, being transformed into the god of obsidian and coldness. Imu is often associated with ice or more specifically Ice-cream because in Japanese ice cream ends in Imu.
Venus was feared and considered dangerous by the Aztecs and believed to be able to shoot down dangerous rays from the sky capable of destroying anything. Exactly what Imu did to Lalucia. Something interesting to note is that in Aztec Mythology, the main creator god is known as God D.
So if my theory is correct Imu is based on Venus, the Morning Star, and the Myth of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. The Cowherd is also sometimes referred to as the Shepard. This could be why the mast of the first ship was a sheep and the second a sun to indicate the sun god. But when I heard the cowherd part in the tale. It immediately made me think of Usopp, because Oda loves wordplay. Cowherd and coward. It doesn’t bode well for him. Then I remember when in little garden Usopp talks about himself dying. And when he made an Ice lady. That all brought me back to Wanpoko the dog. Wan is an onomatopoeia for a dog barking and 111 is funny to Japanese people as it sounds like a dog barking. When you look at the cover for chapter 111 you see Luffy fighting a serpent, representing an Aztec God. But you also see Usopp in the distance, beneath the moon. In a stance as if he is trying to block something and right next to him is a stone eerie similar to a tombstone with the misspelling of death on it.
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111 cover with death on a rock

[Scheduled] Runner-Up Read: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, First Night to Second Night
Happy Labor Day weekend, if you're American and Canadian. Let's dig right in, shall we?
First Night
Balram Halwai writes a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao from an office. He lives in Bangalore (far from Dhanbad) and worked for Mr. Ashok. He recalls when his employer asked him trivia questions, and his wife laughed at them. Calls him "half-baked." He never finished school because he was poor.
The police made a wanted poster of Balram. He never had a name (just munna which means boy) until his teacher named him Balram. His mother died when he was young. He lived in "dark" India where the Ganga/Ganges flowed. His mother was cremated at the river. He recalls his childhood home.
Vikram, his father, never crouched in subservience at the teahouse or begged for labor from the landlords. The Animals were a predatory group of landlords who ran the village (The Stork, his brother the Wild Boar, the Raven, and the Buffalo). Vikram rode a bus into the city for work. He got angry when he heard Balram wasn't in school. The kids knew he was afraid of a lizard in a cupboard and tormented him. His father went to the school and killed the lizard.
(Digression: Someone gave adult Balram a red bag of cash with 700,000 rupees, ie $14,000 as of 2007, in it.)
The teacher drinks and is asleep by noon. He hadn't been paid in six months so stole their lunch money and sold their school uniforms. At a surprise inspection, Balram is the only one who can read. He is promised a scholarship. He is a once-in-a-generation "white tiger." His brother Kishan pulls him out of school to work in a tea house because his family has to pay off a loan the Stork gave them for a wedding and dowry.
At 24 he mustered the courage to climb the hill, see the Fort, and look upon the village. Eight months later, he killed Mr. Ashok.
Second Night
Balram has his own website for a start-up. He listened in on his employer's conversations in the car.
His father spit up blood from tuberculosis. There is no doctor in the hospital. The doctor has a cushy job in the city because of a bribe and only pretends to come to the hospital. At least that's a Muslim man's theory. Vikram died. Kishan got married, and Kusum Granny stole the dowry.
The brothers move to the city of Dhanbad. Coal miners told him there was money to be made in cabdriving. 1300 rupees a month ($26 in 2007 money). His brother convinced Granny to invest 300 rupees ($6) in driving lessons. The instructor said people of his caste (Halwai, sweet makers) don't drive. He learns to drive, though. The instructor took him to the red light district as a reward, and it was his first time with a woman. Then he told him there were no taxi driver jobs.
Balram goes door to door in the rich neighborhoods asking for work. A Nepali servant tries to shoo him away, but Balram sees "the Stork" and tells him they're from the same village. He lets him inside. His son Ashok just arrived from America.
A digression about caste: There was a mythical time in the past when everyone lived in peace like in a zoo. They had jobs based on their caste, like his ancestor who made candy. Now there's only two castes: the haves and the have-nots.
Balram is hired. The Stork's other son Mukesh Sir has doubts and did a family background check. If Balram does anything bad, his family will be killed. He was the second driver and drove a Maruti Suzuki. The first driver Ram Persad drives the fancier Honda City.
At first, he gives all his money except for 90 rupees ($1.80) to Granny. He has to do other jobs like soak and massage the Stork's feet. The sons sit and drink whiskey while talking about politics, coal, and China. Stork hits Balram, and he pretends to know what it's for. Both drivers have to go buy the most expensive English whiskey, Black Dog. It's the only time they do anything together. Usually they're rivals.
Ashok's wife wore pants and was a Christian. He met and married her in New York. She plays badminton with Ram Persad. Two pomeranian dogs, Cuddles and Puddles, are treated better than the servants.
Ashok feels bad for the old room the two drivers sleep in and says he'll give them a better room. Balram drives Ashok and his wife to their hometown in the Honda City. Pinky realizes Ashok lied and they're not returning to America. The couple has dinner with the Wild Boar in the family mansion. Ashok is vegetarian.
Balram's family came to see him. Kishan is glad he's away from the local conflict between Naxals (Communists) and landlords. Granny wants him to marry. Balram refuses to marry or eat the red curry chicken they made for him. Kishan looks like their father and will be worn down like him. Balram swims in a pond and climbs to the Fort. He curses God for how things are in the world.
Balram drives past the jeering women of his family and vows never to return. Ashok doesn't want to return to New York because he has servants to wait on him. Balram unconsciously touches his eye every time they pass a temple. Ashok finds it endearing. They pass a Naxal truck then a truck full of men with green headbands. It's election time, so it's time for a fight.
References:
Marginalia
Wen Jiabao
Rumi
Iqbal
Mirza Ghalib
Bangalore (1,931 km/1,200 miles from Dhanbad!)
Gaya district
Dhanbad
Ganges
Rama, Sita, and Hanuman (The origin of the festival Diwali.)
Balram (This was quoted in the entry:

When his elder brother, fatigued from playing, would lie down with his head upon the lap of a cowherd boy, Lord Kṛiṣṇa would help him relax by personally massaging his feet and offering other services. — Srimad Bhagavatam

Hmm. Sounds like the opposite of our characters.)
Rickshaws: pulled like in early 20th century China, and cycle like today
Naxals
Great Socialist: a local politician
Beak: a penis (ew)
Halwai caste
Maruti Suzuki
Honda City
Paan and betel nuts
Partition
Questions are in the comments.
See you next week, September 11th for Fourth Morning to Fourth Night (p 145).

Okay this is really late and I did a quick search and didn’t see any posts on it (though I might have just missed it.) In the English phone call, Luke says that his feelings never changed like how Sleeping Beauty waited for her prince.
I’m not sure what story the other languages used, but the Chinese voice over actually referenced the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl (牛郎织女).
It’s a pretty famous Chinese story about a forbidden romance between a fairy from the heavens and a normal human cowherd. One day a cowherd came across a group of fairies bathing in the mortal realm and he stole their clothes. The youngest fairy went to get their clothes back and ended up getting married to the cowherd because he had seen her naked (in other versions, it’s that if the fairy failed to return back to the heavens by morning, she would remain on earth so he took her clothes because he fell in love with her). They fell in love, had two kids, lived as a cowherd and a weaver, but the issue was that a relationship between a fairy and a human was forbidden so they (and her fairy sisters) tried to keep it hidden from the goddess of heaven.
But she found out anyways and when she did, ordered the weaver back to the heavens. And the cowherd had no way of chasing after her. But then, one of his cows spoke and told the cowherd to kill him and wear his hide so that he could chase her (not sure how this works but it worked.) So the cowherd takes a yoke with two buckets on each end and puts each of his children in one of them and sets off to chase her.
He gets pretty far, and he almost makes it to the weaver when the goddess of heaven takes a hair pin and slashes between them to create a river (the Milky Way). And so they’re separated forever except for once a year, on July 7th, the magpies who take pity on the couple form a bridge so that they can reunite for a short while. And so that’s what Luke references when he talked about waiting.
The day they meet up is also the Qixi festival Luke mentions as well.
It’s also the constellations Vega (the weaver) and Altair (the cowherd.) And Altair should have two smaller but still bright stars next to it to represent their two children by his side.
I understand why they changed the story, I just thought people might be interested in the original fairytale.

I come up with some theories on Yandere Simulator. I just want to post it here in the case in the future, when the truth is revealed, I can come back and see how much I correct and wrong about it.
*This content spoiler such as the dialogues shown at the end of the 1980s mode and demo. If you want to experience the game blindly, you may wish to stay away from it until you finish the game yourself.\*
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1. Info-chan is the one that leads the rivals to meet senpai.

"In order to convict this monster and send her to prison, I need firm evidence that she's a murderer. If I save this young woman's life, I won't have any evidence. I have to let her die."
- Mysterious Tape #9

This theory is based on another existing theory, which is that Info-chan is the journalist's daughter and that she wants to revenge for her father.
Is it wired that 10 women are suddenly interested in Senpai? And aside from Muja, Mida and Hanako. All of the rivals already attended Akademi since the year before Ayano meet her Senpai, why did they all suddenly discover him just at the same time that Ayano find Senpai and fall for him?
Also, is it weird that the difficulty level of the rival increase one by one? A rival that will be immune to a non-lethally method or hard to get rid of them that way, or if get rid of them it will severely impact Senpai? .... Almost like to encourage Ayano to go in a more easy but lethal way that full of consequences.
And to happen in 10 consecutively weeks, almost like... a parallel of what happened in the 1980s. Like it creates to remind people of what happened in the 1980s and invite them to use it as a comparison.
Based on the fact that everything that exists in the Yandere Simulator always has an explanation for all of them. YandereDev definitely prepares a reason for why 10 pretty/famous girls fall for Senpai of 202x. Thus it is unlikely that it will simply be a coincidence that 10 girls just happen to like Senpai after the previous girl is gone.
I think that it is Info-chan who create the exact replicate of the event in the 1980s. She learnt that Ryoba's daughter, Ayano, attends Akademi. So she blackmailed the headmaster and set her base up at the school, to watch Ayano and wait for her chance.

"...They threatened to expose what I've been doing...unless...I meet their demands. Being discovered and blackmailed has been my worst fear for over a decade now, but...this person - whoever they are - isn't asking for money. Instead, they want complete ownership...of a single room at Akademi High. They intend to occupy this room for a full semester...and they have made it very clear that they are not to be disturbed for any reason..."
- Headmaster Tape #10.

Which chance that Info-chan waits for? For Ayano to find her Senpai. She learnt about what happened from the journalist's tape, and she was confident it will eventually happen. That history will repeat itself. And it does. She didn't target Taro in the first place or prepare the meeting between Ayano and Taro because it is unknown who the Senpai will be for each generation of Aishi. This is proof through the info screen of Senpai.

"An avarage student. Avarage grades, avarage looks, avarage lifes... I'm not sure what you see in him" - Taro Yamada's Student Info.

When she knows that Ayano fell for Taro, that is when she prepared to set up his meeting with the other girls. Fortunately, Taro already has a childhood friend, Osana, by his side who also has a crush on him, all she has to do is to send the information to Ayano and encourage her to eliminate Osana fast. She uses the leading words to let Ayano know that violence is one of the possible options to eliminate Osana, so if Ayano doesn't have the idea then, she does now. And then all she has to do is wait for the Aishi's blood to work the magic.

"If you're not interested in my services. I won't take it personally. Feel free to ignore me. But DON'T ignore Osana-chan. You have one week until she confesses to your precious Senpai. Make her suffer." - Info-chan's message to Ayano in the intro.

IF one rival was gone, she just has to prepare the meeting with another one. Set up the scene where Senpai and the Rivals will/can meet. This is why she is conveniently at the place where Amai meet Senpai. And if my assumption is correct, in all the following weeks in the game, Ayano will be made aware of all the rivals by Info-chan as well. Either she tells her directly or makes it possible for Ayano to realise it herself.
How does she know that the Rival will fall for Senpai? Well, she doesn't. But she does not need them to fall for him, she just needs to give them enough reason for trying to be close to Senpai, at least for a certain period. So she can provoke Ayano to feel the dangers and the need to make them out of the picture. If they happen to fall for Senpai, that's good. But if not there is still no problem because she know Ayano cannot resist the thought of them still being a potential threat until there is clear evidence that they and senpai will never be together like they got rejected or they are gone.

"Remember - you have until Friday to deal with your new rival. Eliminate her, or Senpai will never belong to you." - Info-chan message to Ayano after eliminate Osana.

Info-chan makes sure that the rival need to be more difficult than the previous one, either they are more suited and charming to Senpai or they are hard to eliminate. This is to force Ayano to convert to the killing method or force her to snap as the elimination is failed. As eliminating them non-lethally will be harder for each of them.
If Ayano is successful in eliminating the rival without being caught for murder, she can use the evidence of Ayano's falling for Senpai and her motive to eliminate the rival, that she gathered during the past 10 weeks against her. She already hacks Ayano's phone, it won't be too hard to delete the message where she provokes Ayano. By Replicating the crime that happen 30 years ago, everyone will be reminded of the incident of the 1980s and thus they will bring back the case. AND this will clean out her father's name.
Because the police will suspect the potential of Ryoba doing the same thing as they are family. Because in forensic psychology, there is a hypothesis of violence and murder have the potential to be passed down through genes. The police also usually study the killer by using the existing profile of other killers that have similar patterns in crime.
IF Ayano is caught killing the rival, then it is still good for info-chan, as it means that Ayano will be put in jail. She can still use Ayano's message to show that she has a motive to kill this girl, and this can lead to reinvestigating the event of the 1980s. She also knows that as the Aishi, Ayano cannot handle and move on from the rejection, and she will snap and go on a killing spree which can still lead to reinvestigating nonetheless. That's already successful revenge.
​
Then why she doesn't want the picture of the corpse when Ayano send them to her? It is clear evidence that Ayano is the murderer.

"Good work, but don't send me this stuff. I have no use for it." — What Info-chan says when she is sent a picture of a corpse.

The answer is simple, it will make the police know that she is a partner in crime. If she knows about the crime but decided to keep this obvious evidence until then, even though by bring them up can potentially save much life, it is a clear warning that something doesn't seem right.
She doesn't just simply want Ayano to be put in jail for murder, she wants to make the police recognise the fact that the (all) victims fall for Senpai, so the reinvestigating can happen. So the corpse of other unrelated students will not do. It will only ruin the common that the victim share with other and distract the police from the real pattern of the crime. Also, Ayano will never betray Senpai, if she is caught, she will never admit that she killed others because of him. So Info-chan needs to create enough incidents that will show the clear pattern that the girl who likes senpai will be killed or out of the scene somehow, if not, all of them be killed.
This is why if Ayano goes on the lethal method even with one rival, there is a high potential that the event will lead up to info-chan using that evidence against Ayano. This is also why the different ending will play out if Ayano never got rid of the rivals lethally and took panty shots for info-chan, in other words, provide Info-chan with an opportunity to destroy Ayano at the end.
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2. Saisho Saikou's interested in the Aishi condition.
According to YandereDev's reply to this question and this question, they are 2 facts:

1. Ryoba and Jokichi work at the same company, in different positions.
2. Technology is a huge part of Ryoba's job.

Thus both Ryoba and Jokichi are working at the technology firm. The only technology firms mention in Yandere Simulator so far is Saikou Corp.
Both the ending of the 1980s mode and the headmaster's tape, reveal that Ryoba Aishi and Saisho Saikou are in contact.
The ending of the 1980s mode:

"...Dear Ryoba Aishi.
We have taken your Senpai out for some fresh air. We have... no intention of harming him? We will return him to you, but first... you must pass a test. Come to the row of abandoned warehouses outside of town. We will be in Warehouse AD79. Bring whatever you want with you... but come alone. You have... one hour.
Signed...
...Saisho Saikou, CEO and Founder of Saikou Corp?!"
- Ryoba's reading the letter from Saisho Saikou at the end of 1980s mode.

The headmaster's tape:

"I saw her! That, that woman! I saw her again! The one who's responsible for everything! I, I...
...Perhaps...I'll start...at the beginning. Every week, I travel to Saikou Corporation Headquarters to have a meeting with Mr. Saikou about Akademi. This time, I arrived a few minutes earlier than expected. I asked the secretary if it would be alright to begin the meeting early, but... she refused...
...She told me that Mr. Saikou had another appointment right before mine, and that I'd have to wait my turn before I could see him. I took a seat and began to wait. That's when...she...walked into the room. It's been ten years...but not a single day has gone by that I haven't thought about her. The one who ruined everything for me.
I recognized her immediately - she had aged, but I could still tell it was her. She glanced in my direction for a moment, and...our eyes met. She smirked, but...said nothing to me. She walked straight through the waiting room and directly into Mr. Saikou's office, without even speaking a single word to the secretary.
At first, I was speechless. Then, I jumped out of my seat and asked the secretary to identify that woman. The secretary was silent for a few moments, and then gave me some generic platitude about how "the details of Mr. Saikou's appointments must be kept strictly confidential." That didn't stop me from asking everything that came to mind: How long had that woman been coming here? How often? What business did she have here?
But the secretary was like a stone wall that refused to budge."
- Headmaster's Tape #6.

​
However, what is the reason that makes Saisho decide to get in contact with Ryoba? I suspect that the answer lies in this dialogue.

'When Mr. Saikou finally did speak, he suddenly started rambling about...Okinawa.
He spoke of...his experience as a soldier during World War 2. How he volunteered to fight at the age of 17. How a bomb hit his dormitory. How he spent hours buried underneath rubble...staring at the corpses of his dead friends. He said...he still sees them...on the back of his eyelids...every time he closes his eyes.
He told me that, buried underneath that rubble, over 70 years ago...he swore an oath. To punish the world for killing his friends. He swore to revive Japanese nationalism and expand the Japanese empire until it covered the entire globe.
That's why he started his company. That's why he spent his life building the greatest conglomerate the world had ever known. That's why he toiled for over half a century until he had become the richest man on Earth. It was all for the sake of building up enough power...and influence...to instigate a war.
A war that he would throw all of his money and resources into until he had achieved the complete annihilation of every country that fought against Japan in World War 2.
...but something happened that he didn't expect. Globalization spread Japanese culture across the face of the planet. Japan's former enemies now enjoy friendly relations with Japan; they eat Japanese food, watch Japanese animations, play Japanese video games. The process was sped up by his own inventions and innovations; there's a Saikou product in every home. He can't find the motivation to go to war anymore...knowing that he'd be blowing up his own...loyal customers.
He dedicated his entire life to setting a stage for a blood-soaked military victory...but in the process, he inadvertently achieved a slow, pacifistic cultural victory. By now, almost everyone who pulled a trigger of launched a bomb during World War 2 was dead or elderly, so revenge had lost all meaning. Instead of feeling pride for accomplishing more than any other man in history...he just felt like he had failed his dead friends.
After his long, rambling speech came to an end...he returned to staring blankly at the wall...
... The world's most famous man...secretly a nationalist with plans for world domination, harboring a half-century-long grudge*...huh. I would tell the media, but...it wouldn't matter one bit. Saikou Corp controls everything that the media says or does. Even if I told the world what he confided in me, the media would never run the story...and it would quickly be dismissed as a baseless rumor or...crackpot conspiracy theory. Heh. I guess...in that sense...he really did take over the world.'
- Headmaster's Tape #9.

Why would YandereDev feel the need to put this clarification into the tape? Why it is so important that everyone should know about this bit of information as part of the lore? I very much doubt that it is just for the sake of giving a history of Saikou Corp. It is more of a ... way to lets the audience know what kind of person Saisho Saikou is and what is his ambition.
When I listen to headmaster's tape 9, regarding Saisho Saikou, one thing quickly comes to my mind... this conversation for some reason weirdly reminds me of 'the Aishi condition'. He is almost like a reflection of the Aishi family if what fuels them is not 'Senpai' but 'the grudge and love for the nation'.
​
Thus why there is a very high possibility that Saisho is interested in the Aishi condition after he learnt about Ryoba's case in the 1980s, although it is still hard to determine why and what plan he has in mind. His son, Ichirou Saikou, however, must know the reason and understands that very well, and decides to continue what his father plans. Thus why he makes a deal with the headmaster to tolerate Ayano's presence at school and also orders Megami to do so.

"...I know who you are. I know WHAT you are. My father won't allow me to attend school while you are..."active". He has a reason for tolerating your presence at this school. I don't. You are a vulgar creature that is only allowed to exist because you serve a purpose. If it was my decision, then every last one of you would be exterminated..."
- Megami's monologue to Ayano when Ayano is seen by Megami in the Student Council Room.

However, whatever Saisho know and plans about the Aishi condition that Ichirou decides to continue with, has to be somewhat dangerous and might even sacrifice the health and safety of people in school to let it develop.

"Good evening, sir. Thank you very much for setting aside the time to take this call. I know that you're a busy man. No - no, there haven't been any complications. I just wanted to confirm that I've been following your instructions properly.
I'm glad to hear it. Are you satisfied with how events are unfolding? Ah, that's good to hear, sir. I must confess, I'm still worried about the students...
...acceptable casualties? ...necessary sacrifices? ...the price... of progress...
...I...see...sir.
I wish I could view it from your perspective, but...the thought of bloodshed in my school still makes me quite...uncomfatable. No-no, of course not, sir. I'll continue doing precisely as you've asked.
Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I'll keep you informed of any noteworthy developments. Thank you very much for your time...
...Mr. Saikou."
- The headmaster's conversation with Ichirou Saikou at the end of week 1.

This is why Megami Saikou is strongly against her father and grandfather's plan.

"My top priority is to put a stop to anyone that poses a threat to this school!"
- Megami in "Yandere Simulator Rival Introduction Video"

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3. The confession tree is originally meant to represent the never-ending agony and tragedy of love that Ayano facing.
This is more of a stretch one.
Do you ever hear the word 'Chinese whispers'? It refers to a situation in which a piece of information is passed from one person to the next and is changed slightly each time it is told (Merriam-Webster dictionary). I think that is how the myth of the confession tree come to be. It transforms from its origin myth and becomes 'the tree where people who confess under them will love each other forever.'
According to YandereDev's answer, regarding the confession tree, he stated that the cherry tree existed before the first Aishi (which the First Aishi is born in 1780), it only becomes mythical around 1797 (which was around 220 years ago) and the myth itself only exist around 100 years ago. This means that the origin of the myth actually might have nothing to do with the confession at all, but there is a chance that the origin of the myth is about the tragedy of love and departing with the loved one.
Under the tree, there are Lycoris Radiata flowers blooming. These flowers aren't implemented until March 2017 which means that it is there to serve the purpose of the story. This is also supported by the fact that YandereDev attempted to bring them back in 2020, after he needed to take it down because of the frame rate issue in May 2017, indicating the need for it to be there and thus a chance that it plays an important role in the story.
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What are the Lycoris Radiata flowers anyway?
Lycoris Radiata is the scientific name of the Red spider lily flower, also known as Higanbana (彼岸花) in Japan. It is a wildflower that grows on both sides of the hill, on hillsides, on both sides of the road, on the banks of the field and is especially found in graveyards. Unlike the seductive beauty of the flowers, Red spider lily bulbs are very toxic because they contain lycorin (a type of neurotoxin). Legend has it that a man died by eating the bulb of this flower in the process of starvation. Perhaps, for this reason, the Japanese believe that defamation is the flower of bad omens and death.
According to legend, the Red spider lily is the only flower growing on the way down the golden stream, a soul before crossing the Nai Ha bridge will send all its memories to the Red spider lily. Whether it is memories of happiness or suffering, Red spider lily receives those memories.
In China, the Red spider lily means “pure beauty”. In Korea, it symbolizes “Remembering each other”. In Japan, the Red spider lily is associated with “painful memories”.
​
During the research I come across some particular legends and folklore that relate to the red spider lily, that sound really familiar:
The First Source:

'Beyond symbolism, in Japan, flowers took on secret messages which the deliverer wished to pass on. The red spider lily was said to have been planted around gravesites to prevent animals from devouring the dead before they were cremated, thus associating this flower, like its other lily sisters, with death. It is said that if you were to meet a person and never see them again, these flowers will grow along the path they walked as they departed... ...In both China and Japan it is rumored these flowers grow in hell, and guide a person to their path of reincarnation.'
- From 'Yin Yang Myths Part One: Lycoris Radiata'

The Second Source:

'It’s also referred to as manjusaka, based on an old Chinese legend about two elves: Manju guarded the flowers and Saka the leaves, but they could never meet, because the plant never bears flowers and leaves at the same time. They were curious about each other, so they defied the gods’ instructions and arranged a meeting. The gods promptly punished them, as gods are wont to do, and separated them for all eternity. To this day, the red lily is associated with loss, longing, abandonment and lost memories in hanakotoba (花言葉), the language of flowers.'
- From 'Higanbana: Red spider lily or Red magic lily'

The Third Source:

'When the soul passes by, he forgets everything in life, everything stays in the Red spider lily, following the instructions of this flower to the hell of the ghost...
...Red spider lily is a flower in the legends that volunteered to go to hell, captured by the demons but hesitated on the royal road, they could not help but so agreed to let her bloom on this road, for souls who have left the human world to have a guidance and comfort. The red spider lily blooming on the other side of the world, was just a mass of red like fire; flowers bloom without leaves, leaves grow without flowers; Remember the same love but not to meet again, can only one body alone on the road of ecstasy.
Flowers and leaves never meet, forever unfinished. That’s why there are ways to say: “the silly flower blooms in the silly place, only see the flowers, no leaves”. Remembering each other loving each other but permanently losing each other, just like that the reincarnation of flowers and leaves never seeing each other, also means that the painful love affair is forever unable to meet. Because of this, people use it as an example of unsuccessful love affairs.'
- From 'Red spider lily (彼岸花)—Painful memories'

The Fourth Sources:

'This lily blooms well before the leaves come out. A cluster of bright red, spidery flowers with long stamens blaze atop a slender green stalk, creating a red wash over the landscape. The red glow quickly fades as the petals shrivel up, leaving the plant bare. The leaves then emerge, bringing life back to the plant once more before they too turn brown and the plant returns to the soil, dying a second time.
This curious growth habit was explained in a Chinese myth. The sun goddess Amaterasu assigned two elves (or fairies) to guard the flowers and leaves independently. Mañju guarded the petals while Saka guarded the leaves, always knowing about the existence of one another, but forbidden to meet. Curiosity drove them to defy Amaterasu and once they finally met they fell in love. Amaterasu punished them with a curse to never meet again and so now Saka’s leaves only come out once Mañju’s petals have died. They live in eternal separation. Another name for the flower is ‘Mañjusaka’ in Chinese and ‘Manju-syage’ in Japanese.'
- From 'Folklore & Nature: The Death Flower'

The Fifth Sources:

'I have heard many stories about the red spider lily from movies, books, and the internet. The most impressive story, however, was one I heard from my mother.
In my mother’s story, a devil fell in love with a human girl. The devil’s love was unrequited because the girl did not like the devil at all because he had a fearful look. Therefore, the devil imprisoned the girl and expected one day she would feel touched by the devil’s love and change her mind. One day, a soldier passed by the devil’s place. The soldier rescued the girl from the prison and killed the devil.
When the devil died he returned to hell, but his blood spattered on the Earth. Unrequited love hurt the most, and after the devil’s death, this scarlet red spider lily grew from the spot where he died. This spot became the bridge to hell, connecting the hell and the Earth.'
- From 'Bridge to Hell: Red Spider Lily'

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Does all of them sound oddly familiar - a devil, a reincarnation, an unsuccessful, painful love, a one-sided unrequited love, a curse, a loss, a longing, an abandonment and... lost memories?
Especially, the last source comes very close to the canon story of Ryoba and Jokichi. If my assumption is correct, the Aishi condition is cursed that relates to this legend. The Aishis and their Senpais... aren't supposed to meet each other. Yet the Aishi also fate to always feel uncomplete and longing to meet that person and punished to forever go in the cycle of one-sided unrequited and painful love. Always losing, always missing each other. Because it is their torture, their punishment. As you can see in the 1980s mode, even if Ryoba met Jokichi before all girls can steal him away for a year, she was unable to approach him and eventually have her relationship bloom from bloodshed.
This will also explain why the Aishis will feel immediately connected to their Senpais, their vivid memories remember that he is their past lover that has been separated. But fate forces them to unable to meet and fall in love normally, resulting in the Aishis having to do everything and anything to keep any other girls from him.
For people who wish to confess, the confession tree might be a symbol of successful, eternal love. But for Ayano and Ryoba, throughout 10 weeks, it is a tree that is meant to symbolise their never-ending pain of losing a loved one to other girls. It never is the tree of confession, it is the tree ...of departure.
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But were those the legends of the Chinese people? What does it have to do with the game that uses a Japanese setting? It doesn't sound right. Well... I will not be so quick to confirm that.
First of all, Japan and China do share many cultures and folklores with only a little difference in their story. Tanabata, which is known as the Star Festival (and supposedly the inspiration for Yandere Simulator's Star-Crossed Lovers song), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, which this legend behind the star festival first crossed over to Japan from China during the Nara period (710–94).
Second of all, YandereDev used a Chinese-infused Japanese reference to create something that is significant in Yandere Simulator before. According to this video, YandereDev uses the mythological creature that is well known in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan as an inspiration for the student council members. In other words, using a Chinese-infused Japanese reference is one of the possible options for YandereDev if he wishes to create anything for Yandere Simulator.
Finally, even the Red spider lily or Higanbana is well-known as one of the Japanese flowers. Its origin is actually from China. According to these sources (1 2), it is native to China, Nepal and Korea before it was introduced in Japan and in North America.
This is why I think it is worth looking into those legends. The same also goes for the legend of Qixi, the original legend of the star-crossed lover:

'As the legend goes, in the beginning, there was no Milky Way in the sky and the stars could easily meet each other whenever they pleased. Vega is said to be the 7th daughter of Celestial Mother Wang according to Chinese mythology and falls in love with Altair. The two began dating regularly. When Celestial Mother noticed the love between the two stars, she was very upset because the cool immortals are not supposed to be romantically involved with each other like irrational mortals. The couple was disciplined for breaching celestial rules of non-emotional attachment. Yet the Altair refused to abandon his love for the 7th Fairy. Consequently, he was sentenced to life in the mortal world. Since then, the 7th Fairy left alone in heaven missed her lover on earth day and night.
Altair found himself incarnated as a cowherd in the land called China. However his memory about his past life in heaven was still vivid, so was his love for Vega. One day, the cow started talking to him. “You know cowherd boy, the fairies will go to a public bathroom in Yaochi tomorrow and if you can take 7th Fairy’s clothes away, she will remain on earth. Apparently, that heaven is still not a perfect paradise. For one thing, the sanitary facilities there do not seem to meet the demand, so from time to time, the fairies had to go to a pond on earth for a bath.
When the next day 7th Fairy washed in Yaochi, Cowherd successfully stole her clothes which resulted in her being unable to fly back to the sky. 7th Fairy didn’t want to leave cowherd either and readily agreed to stay in the mortal world. In Chinese mythology, bad matchmakers are usually old women while good matchmakers are normally old men (such as Moon the Elderly 月老). So the couple invited the spirit of an ageing tree to conduct a wedding for them. After the wedding in the wilderness, Cowderd led 7th Fairy to his humble house and introduced her to meet the cow. The fairy quickly settled into a new life as the wife of a Chinese peasant. While Cowherd laboured in the farmland with the cow, 7th Fairy worked on the weaving loom at home. They had each other and had love. Life was good. Soon they had two kids, one girl one boy. And life couldn’t be better.
7th Fairy had spent seven years on earth, which is equivalent to seven days in the heaven she belongs, and that was a time long enough for her absence to be noticed by the celestial authority. So after seven years, their marriage faced a big challenge. The cosmic police had tracked down the illegal space traveller and escorted her back to her own world. Cowherd carried two kids on his shoulder with a bamboo pole and chased after his wife to the sky. Evidently, the cowherd possessed the quality of a marathon champion and quickly narrowed the gap between himself and 7th Fairy.
Celestial Mother Wang had been waiting for her daughter at Gate of Southern Sky. Seeing Cowherd was about to catch up with his wife, she pulled a silver pin from her hair and drew a dividing line between the pair, immediately a Silver River, also known as Milky Way, materialised, that effectively separated 7th Fairy and her family. Since then, the family has been torn apart by the giant Milky Way, Vega and Altair can only view each other from a far distance.
The tragic love between a mortal and an immortal has moved heavens and earth and many beings in between. A public petition pleading to pardon the couple accused of violating the cosmic migration law and anti-interspecies-marriage regulation was submitted to celestial authority. Under the public pressure, a family visit once a year on the 7th night of the 7th month was granted.
Since then Chinese magpies have formed an army of volunteers annually, using their body to bridge the Milky Way and allow the family to meet. Some people even claimed they eavesdropped on the love exchanges between the couple, and the ear-witnesses include famous figures like Emperor Tang Ming Huang (唐明皇) and Lady Yang (杨贵妃). Later Chinese poet Bai Juyi (白居易) wrote a poem “Song of Lasting Sorrow” (长恨歌), in which he described how on the 7th night in lunar July the royal couple followed the touching example of the pair on the magpie bridge above and made their very own love-vow.
Since the legend spread in the land of the Middle Kingdom 2,000 years ago, magpies have been regarded in Chinese tradition as the messengers for the coming romance and marriage.
- From 'Qixi, A Forbidden Love between Two Stars'

'The couple was disciplined for breaching celestial rules of non-emotional attachment.'? If my assumption is correct, this could be where the Aishi Condition comes from in the story. All that aside, the myth of the red spider lily and the myth of the star-crossed lover also have two 2 things in common: Love that is torn apart by the goddess and the fate to always be separated from each other.
... perhaps, when YandereDev refers to Yandere-chan as a monster, he doesn't just use it as a metaphor, he also means it 'literally'. And maybe the final rival, Megami whose name means 'goddess', is not just purely the inspiration from the popular type of anime girls either.
After all, if it is the goddess that separates you from your loved one, the only way to put a permanent stop to it... is to deal with the goddess herself.
​

七夕抬头望碧宵，喜鹊双双拱鹊桥。
"Looking into the night sky on the seventh of July, Where lovers unite on the bridge made of magpies."
迢迢牵牛星，皎皎河汉女。纤纤擢素手，扎扎弄机杼。终日不成章，泣涕零如雨。河汉清且浅，相去复几许。盈盈一水间，脉脉不得语。
"Wish all who love each other can tie the marriage knot, wish all married couple can keep their promise to each other, and wish all those who want to become immortal don’t tragically fall in love with a mortal."
- a Chinese verse and poem on the love tragedy of two stars

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SPOILERS FOR BRAVELY SECOND AND BRAVELY DEFAULT. LIKE, LOTS.>!
Edit below!
So! For starters I've been working on a bravely fan story for a while now but had dropped it sort of due to needing more experience and getting overwhelmed by how massive and complicated it was getting. But I'm still stuck in the same area I was years ago, and that's simply figuring out all the holes in Altair, Vega and Deneb's story. I've got ideas but I want to check with you guys and get your opinions before I make anything definite since, even though it's just a fan project, I still want it to line up. Plus I like theorizing. That having been said... Here we go!
Some questions I've been trying to answer have been obvious things like Who is Deneb? What is Deneb (Celestial, luxendarcian, moon folk, fairy, etc)? Where did she come from? Others are things like Why and how did Altair leave Vega behind? Who truly is the second person in the ship they fled on? Why did they flee, and how did Vega die? Still even more relating to the firstborn ba'al, the moon's ancestry, and the question of whether or not there was an Altair in every world or if it was just that one which the events of Second took place in.
Very disorganized but I'll just take things one at a time.(it'll help me get my own thoughts straight at least, even if it's illegible to everyone.)
First off: Deneb. 1.) Deneb represents the third star in the summer triangle and in the Chinese fairytale of the cowherd and the weaver girl is the star over which Altair and Vega meet on a bridge of magpies. Connecting this information to Providences first form which resembles that of a magpie, we can guess that Deneb had a direct hand in leading the party to Providence, so that he could be defeated and both Altair and Vega reunited. 2.) She claims that the two are friends of hers, implying that she must have met both of them at one point of time, and pointing to the idea that she is a Celestial like them. It would make sense being that they are all stars. But how does she figure into their lives and what importance does she have to them? She must be a loyal friend indeed to cross space and time to reunite her friends... Not just save them, but get them back together again. 3.) Next regarding her time travelling abilities. One could propose that she got them through the Compass of Space and Time, and indeed this theory is supported by the fact that defeating her as a bonus boss actually awards you with the spacetime blade and spacetime compass. But then what was it doing in geyser grotto... And how does she still have it if Denys took it away with him? One more thing that ties her time travel to the spacetime compass is the fact that when Denys comes back in the end credits, the portal he goes through is exactly like the one Deneb goes through when saving Tiz at the end. 4.) Her ties to Yoko seem pretty strong, and although they never technically are seen together she always has Comrade by her side. The fox is very much connected to Yoko either as her animal form or as a type of familiar gifted to Deneb by the yokai. Who knows? 5.) I believe it is worth noting a few very odd things about the Adventurer in battle which I've noticed throughout the past years. First of all, when you fight her the animation she uses at the start is exactly like Edea's animation. Did they just reuse it to save time? Probably. Next thing is her attacks. Bird of Prey is just falcon claw with a different name, and which ties to Yew. Coincidence? Probably. Add in the fact that most of her other attacks are from the Kaiser's abilities and that Denys and Deneb sound remarkably similar I'm not as convinced. Last thing is, and you probably won't know this, but when she introduced herself she calls herself a 'travelling adventurer of sorts...' Same as Sandra does in the mobile game Bravely Default Brilliant Lights. Probably not important. But it might be.
Alright, now regarding Altair and the moon. 1.) First of all we know most everything about Altair. But there are still some things we don't know. Is he one of the people who came in on the 'glimmering ship' like Yoko told of? It's highly likely and strongly implied. When you fight Diamante the background shows Vega reaching out for a small object in the sky streaming smoke and moving away. Likewise Yoko claims that the two travellers we're trying to get back home, also likely if they needed to get back to Vega. Also in Vampire castle Yoko claims that the party coming there allowed her to catch up with an old friend, so it's basically pretty certain the he was one of the folks who came in on the ship. 2.) When he refers to the moon folk he calls them 'our people' implying that he has a tie to them too, and probably by blood. Since the moon is so technologically advanced it's likely and connecting that to Sagitta pretty much confirms it. But HOW is he connected? Altair never said anything about children, and certainly the second person on the ship couldn't be his since he had only just gotten married to Vega before he crashed into Luxendarc, and on top of that Yoko claimed that the two people were BOTH trying to get back home which makes it sound like two adults, not a guy and a six month old. So what is his tie to the moon? I'm afraid I don't know and I'm kind of stuck there. If the moon folk are luxendarcian who embraced his technology then that ties things up fine. If they're descendants in part from Celestials then they would have to be descended from whoever the second person was. 3.) Which brings me around to the idea that Deneb came with him. But once again, how does she tie into this theory? I think it's more likely that she didn't settle down but rather continued to try and get Altair and Vega back together even after Altair had passed away. And that means that the moon folk are completely luxendarcian without any Celestial blood. I mean I've no idea, help me out here please. 4.) Now what about Altair in relation to the different versions of Luxendarc? We know that there are tons of Luxendarcs that all resemble one another. We also know from the guidance stones in Old Sagitta that Altair pretty much invented everything from airships to sailing instruments to... Everything technologically advanced like our world. This being said, how do those things exits in all the other worlds if there's only one Altair? He has to have existed in some way in every version of Luxendarc, not just the one we see in Second. So! There are two possibilities that I can see. Either by entering the Luxendarc universe Altair and the other person were split into different versions of themselves like all the other characters and divided among the different worlds. OR, in this story there are multiple versions of our world, the Celestial realm, too. I'm more inclined to believe the second personally. But more on that later.
Now... Vega and the celestial realm. 1.) Just.... What happened to her? What did she do after she was left behind? When you talk to her before you fight Providence she says 'after you left they killed me' who is 'they'? Were they fleeing from something? Was it more than just a desire to explore that caused them to leave? Or was she under Providence's control in that moment and this is incorrect? 2.) It might be worth it to say that the celestial realm which Altair and Vega seem to come from appears a bit more technologically advanced than ours. Between the automatons that Altair claims to have built as butler robots, to the spacetime compass and even the acid rain appears to show that this is very different from the world we know. Or is it? Let me know. I had a few other points to make on that but I forgot so... Hehe.
Now for the theories... I do not think Deneb is their daughter. Although it ties the three together, and the summer triangle could also look like a family tree, her ties with Yoko, and the implication that she came in on the glimmering ship are too strong. How to explain ba'al firstborn then? Well, that's pretty simple. You could agree with the developers and say that it was the embodiment of her child wish. However firstBORN sounds a bit more like a child had already come. Altair makes no comment on the firstborn ba'al, some theorized that he could have just preferred not to talk about it and that makes sense ,but I would propose that he simply didn't know about it.
If we say that Vega as she was before she was freed from Providence is completely unreliable, being tortured and brainwashed and controlled all these years, then her claim that 'they' killed her could be Providence trying to torture Altair and her at the same time. So... If she was still alive for a time before she passed away, she could have possibly had a child. That's right. I'm proposing a new character we haven't met yet. Not going to go farther than that but that's my idea.
Now for Deneb. My current theory is this: Love triangle. Boom. Here's sort of how this crazy take goes. Vega and Deneb are sisters. Vega was always more into science and figuring things out than Deneb was, who had other passions which probably involved exploring. They both happened to fall for the same man, perhaps Altair was Deneb's childhood crush. I would like to say that the two knew each other for a long time before he ever met Vega, and that him being kind and intelligent he probably helped her through the difficult parts of school. But eventually their paths divide, perhaps because he went to study at a university somewhere. Later on Altair meets Vega, and falls for her. Deneb discovers that her childhood crush has returned only to realize that her sister has his affections. Bitter at first, she eventually forgives the two and upon the discovery of Luxendarc she begins to help them in a quest to get there. Perhaps she was even the one who discovered it, who knows? Something bad happens around this time and the quest go to this new world becomes urgent. Perhaps someone in a high position is trying to stop them. They build the ship, get on board, but the minute they are about to leave Vega realizes she forgot the ring which Altair had given to her. She runs back inside, but suddenly Altair and Deneb find they are under attack. Before Vega can make it outside again, Deneb panics and hits the button to close the door and save the two of them. Something goes wrong. Either there are other people in the ship and they choose to take off, or else the takeoff is initiated automatically. They leave and Deneb realizes that she shouldn't have been jealous of her sister. She spends the rest of her life striving to get them back together, even after Altair gives up because the spacetime compass can't get past whatever barrier it is that blocks them from entering the celestial realm. She even goes as far as to steal the compass, and begins her journey to alter the timelines and allow the two to be together again somehow.
Wild take I know. Also pretty much anime so works in that point. I don't know. Forgive the amount of text and prove or dispro e this theory of offer your own! I'm all ears. Seriously, I'm super stuck and I'm still not satisfied with this explanation since it doesn't explain the connection to Denys: which I am CERTAIN is real. Also I almost feel like Deneb is more like Altair than Vega so... Back to the daughter idea? I dunno, you decide please. Either way I feel like I've got my ducks in a row and thanks for reading this far.!
Edit: so apparently in the Japanese version when dneb introduced herself she says this. " The name's Deneb. Altair and Vega's best friend, and an adventurer." So....best friends sort of confirms things then.