Bahagvad Gita Compare and Contrast

Bhagavad Gita

• Live life selflessly
• perform action without desire for reward
• focus on the duty not the fruit
• way of life
• Krishna & Arjuna
• there is a soul
• if all requirements are met soul will go to heaven (reach moksha)
• if requirements are not met soul will be bound to repeating cycle of birth and death

Confucianism

• way of life 
• Confucius
• 5 relationships
• Father-son
• Elder brother-younger brother
• King-minester
• friend-friend
• husband-wife
• 5 virtues
• ethics and politics the key to "the way"
• ancestor worship

Zoroastrianism
there is a soul (needs to be saved)
way of life
cosmic balance between good and evil
Judgment day in 12,000 years (good souls go to heaven, bad souls burn forever
enjoy the world and its pleasures in moderation
honesty towards others, good thoughts and deeds, be a good person
Ahura Mazda (good god)
Angra Mainyu (bad god)

Conclusion: The information provided in the Bhagavad Gita is similar to that given in the teachings of Zoroastrianism since they both discuss the human soul and how it can receive salvation. Unlike these two religious teachings Confucianism stands as a non-religious teaching for how to live, focusing more on earthly bound duties.

Why are Arabic Numerals Significant?

Arabic numerals are significant because they represent the earliest version of commonly used number values/signs today. These Arabic numbers made the very basis for the invention of calculus in early Indian society that allowed advanced calculations. Thus the idea of these numbers spread quickly and proved to be the dominant system for mathematics, instead of other number systems such as the roman numerals.

How to have prevented the collapse of the Han Dynasty?

The Han Dynasty was one of the most influential Dynasties in China. Under its rule, the Chinese culture was able to expand to Korea, Vietnam, and Central Asia. Although, with great expansions came great economic and political troubles that I feel the rulers of the Han were just not ready for. To begin with, I believe the Han Dynasty did not necessarily have to collapse. Intact I am about to share, what I would have done to save the Han Dynasty from falling to its doom.

There were several problems in the structure of the Han Dynasty to begin with. I am not going to say that the only way to save the Han Dynasty is to have it begin with a different governmental structure than it did because it is clearly unlikely that a ruler from around the first century BCE would listen to a governmental offer that establishes equality between the ruler and his subjects. In this case I would also not say that to prevent the Han Dynasty from falling, a more wise and less greedy person must have stepped in. Instead I shall explain where I believe things could have been turned around for the better in the Han Dynasty's fall. If you look back closely, each ruler that succeeded the last made attempts to rectify the last rulers mistakes. For example, when Liu Bang had given too much land and power to family members, and found them to be nowhere at the time of need, other the rulers that succeeded him decided not to give family members lots of land and instead give it to officials that can regulate minor districts of citizens. Then came along Han Wudi, who emphasized the importance of education that previous rulers failed to acknowledge as useful, but he too soon fell because of investing too much in the attempts to prevent the Xiongnu's rule. The were a strong nomadic group that was able to spread their influence in a good part of Asia but were stopped my the Hans Military under Wudi's rule. Along with stopping this threat, Wudi also expanded his empire to most of central Asia, Korea, and Vietnam. Though this secured the safety of the empire it brought several problems involving stability. Too much money was spent in stopping the Xiongnus and expanding the empire, therefore leaving economic unbalance where the rich were growing too powerful and the poor were growing too week. Poor people were engraved in debt and had to sell of their land to the rich or sell themselves as slaves, who also served the rich. With such instability, rebellions and banditry made sure the Dynasty fell. So how could this have been prevented? When the ruler Wang Mang came into power he had attempted to establish as system where there was a limit to the amount of land a person could hold, but this idea filed due to poor delivery of an explanation to the people on how this would work. Therefore the rich neglected to give up their land and the poor did not gain anything; rebellions and banditry continued. I believe that if Mang had built more upon his idea and assured that there were certain limits to property ownership there wouldn't have been such a huge instability in the Hans society, since it was an agricultural based society. Meaning that if land was accessible to most people, they could harvest and form a stable structure for a working economy.

Daoism in one sentence

Daoism is the practice of being one with nature and it's changes, and not attaching yourself to worldly things by basically living life as simplistic as you can be.

Confucianism: What is it?

I have read book one and book two of "The Chinese Classics--Volume 1: Confucian Analects" by James Legge. Here is a short response on what I think about Confucianism after my reading.

Confucianism is not a religion, but rather a 'way of life'. I believe this is true because in my reading I had not encountered anything that struck me as religious, since everything mentioned sounded more like guidelines on how to live a certain way. Confucius was being referred to as the first two chapters "master" in The Chinese Classics--Volume 1: Confucian Analects and as a master and founder of Confucianism he teaches other how to lead a proper life. "The Master said, To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity" (Legge 4; Line 8; Book 1). This here is a sample of how Confucianism is proven to be more of a 'way of life' because Confucius is taking about how a ruler should rule a large country if he wishes to be successful. I also believe that the book supports the idea that people are born good because it has examples of people being good or being corrupted to be bad from originally being good.. "If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with the rites of propriety? If a man be without virtues proper to humanity, what has he to do with music?" (Legge 11; Line 9; Book 3). This quote basically shows how people were originally born to be good. According to this quote from the book, people are born with good intentions for their fellow man, and make several inventions, like music, to make the life of humanity, as a whole, better. "if the people be led by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover be good" (Legge 7; Line 4; Book 2). In this quote the book supports how people are made bad by a system full of complex rules but also suggest that if they were led to live morally good lives from the start, they will be good. "While a man's father is alive, look at the bent of his will; when his father is dead, look at his conduct. If for three years he does not alter from the way of his father, he may be called filal (Legge 5; Line 13; Book 1). Here Legge writes about how if a man's son is does not stop following his father's teachings after he has died,for three years, he can be called a son. This basically shows how the book supports the fact of people being born good because this quote represents a sort of understanding in how the world can corrupt the son of a dead father but if he can stay loyal to his fathers ways for three years he is illegible to be called a true son. So basically in order to be corrupted one must have started with being good, which is why I believe this quote also supports why this book supports the fact that people are born good.

Map of Persia

Zarathustra on Good and Evil

Zarathustra makes quite a few assumptions on the nature of humans and their ability to be able to make morally good choices of their own free will. These assumptions may hold two sides, like everything he had preached, about Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, how there is a good and evil side. He claims that those who choose evil will suffer for their wrong doings but those who do good will be rewarded. From this it can already be assumed that Zarathustra believes that people will choose the good side over the bad side because it is only natural for them (a human) to want to be rewarded rather than be punished. This dose not mean he thinks all humans will side with him on the path of good. He believes that there is a positive and negative energy in people that drive them to do good or bad. He obviously wants everybody to side with being good since he greatly emphasizes on the rewards and "joy of salvation" a person would receive if they chose to be good. Zarathustra might also believe those who refuse to acknowledge the existence of these two gods will lead bad lives because they do not choose to follow Ahura Mazda let alone Angra Mainyu. Therefore its almost like he wants people to follow and practice Zoroastrianism of their own free will but at the same time is not giving them a choice by frightening them of the bad things that will come from leading bad lives, indirectly meaning lives without the practice of Zoroastrianism.

History Head Comment Assignment

For this Assignment I have selected Hiren Patel's poster/blog and the region he has done is, India.

         -Hello Hiren, before I say anything, I just want to say that I like how your poster exceeds the expectations. You did a phenomenal job in illustrating the different aspects of early civilizations in the region of India, especially with number five, where you so clearly showed the class distinctions between various classes in the Aryan society. In addition I also found that you typing out the key instead of hand writing it, made your poster much neater, overall. Whereas I believe writing it out might have taken up more space and made it less legible. Although you have done very well in putting together your poster, I do see a few flaws that could have been improved on. The images on your poster would have made a more appealing view if they were organized in a better way and also I thought you could have improved on how you showed which image represented which theme and which exterior images were related to which internal images. I thought navigation was harder than it had to be, with your poster. Besides these two minor issues, I overall, loved how you made your poster. Of course, I did not choose to write about your poster just because it was beautiful. I choose your poster because I found some interesting similarities and differences between the early Indian civilizations you have illustrated on your poster, and the Latin American civilizations I illustrated on my poster. One of the biggest thing I found similar was the development of agriculture and its effects. I was clearly able to relate my work and yours to see just how similarly the development of agriculture had lead to large complex societies consisting of cities with very similar social classes. I feel that the cast system in the Aryan civilization was highly similar to that of the Olmec civilization, where there was a ruler at the top, followed by priests, artisans, and commoners versus the Aryan's brahmans, kshatriya, vaishyas, and shudras. On the other hand, there was also a difference I noticed, between the Indian societies and Latin American societies. Latin American societies did no develop irrigation systems since water was always abundant in that region whereas in India the weather was not always suited for growing crops. Latin American societies also did not have any domestic animals like your Indian societies did, therefore the wheel was not invented in Latin America like how it was in India. In conclusion, Hiren, you have done a fantastic job and in my opinion, you have met and exceeded the expectations as far as informative content goes. I must ask though, why did you choose to print out pictures for the majority of your poster instead of drawing the images yourself?

History Head Project

Assigned Region: Latin America 

Group Members: Jay Patel, Hammad Sadiq, Prateek Rana

Hello, fellow Bloggers, this here is my first AP World project. It is about how the average person lived in the first person of time. My group was assigned Latin America, which as you can see is highlighted in black on the images above. Latin America consisted of several civilizations and we will be summing up the experiences of an average person in these complex societies. The poster displayed above consists of a first and second part. The first part being the most important, which is the head with the images representing five themes respectively. The second part being that of a key consisting the five themes that the images support or symbolize, accordingly. 

Image 1: I choose to draw this image to represent patterns and impacts of interaction between humans and the environment because the Olmec people have displayed such examples by developing a complex society, through agriculture power. As it can be seen in the image, once agriculture was discovered, the abundance in food permitted a larger and more organized civilization with more potential for social expansion.

Image 2: This second image is supposed to visualize development and interactions of cultures of a worker society where like it is shown in the image, commoners labored to build large monuments and palaces for their ruler/leader. Sculptures of large heads were built by commoners and servants, in respect to the ruler they live under. 

Image 3: Image three is a representation of how societies such as the Olmec came to an end through civil conflicts over politics, religion, and power. Starting by emerging in the minds of ordinary citizens, these conflicts ended with the destruction of the very cities they inhabited. In the end the cities burned as social classes became meaningless and the people who were once part of a great civilization had dispersed or disappeared.  

Image 4: In this image the expansion of economic systems in Latin America is illustrated. With the discovery of Jade and Obsidian several civilizations had developed skills in metallurgy leading to their development in Jade and Obsidian weapons, which were eventually used to trade with neighboring societies that offered them pottery or other goods as such.   

Image 5: In the final image on the poster, I have choose to display how common citizens of these societies in Latin America honored their ruler or king by sculpting figures of their head on a larger scale. These resulting large head served to be a sort of token of gratitude and respect citizens had towards their ruler/king. Therefore such actions please the ruler or king who takes his subjects into his good grace, formally establishing a social structure or class difference between the ruler and his subjects. 

My first AP World test experience!

Being my first test in the AP World course, I was not disappointed at what I saw on the test today. I had expected it to be somewhat like what it had appeared. Although, I do not think I have scored significantly well. The test was difficult for me because of its length, which oddly enough is the same issue I find with other tests as well. So that is sort of consoling to me because it means that the test was not hard because of it simply being a AP World test. This also means that if I did not do well on this test it can only mean I had not sufficiently prepared for it, and from the looks of what some other classmates are saying, about how they found it easy, I feel like I am correct. For the most part I was not surprised by any questions on the test mostly because I had prepared for the worst. That only means I was mentally prepared for the 'beating' I would receive from this test. Whatever the results may be I can only hope to learn from my mistakes and use the knowledge obtained from this to prepare for my next test. Furthermore I encourage myself to prepare several days in advance for such kinds of tests.