The recent film The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan, is a huge hit. People are even heading to the bookstores to purchase a copy of Homer’s book. I’m surprised to see, in this post-literate, soundbite generation of grunts and memes and curses, that people are still interested in classical literature. In an era when colleges are cutting humanities, language, and classics programs, there still seems to be a deep interest in The Odyssey and themessage it holds for us today. And indeed, a story with such a visceral theme as the longing to return home.
There are numerous popular stories in this regard. E.T. wants to go home. Dorothy declares, “There’s no place like home.” And Bob Dylan laments that he has “no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.”
Few themes resonate more deeply than the longing to return home. It appears in movies, popular songs, in ancient classics, and in our own lives as well. We all know that a house is not necessarily a home. Home should be a place of love, family, acceptance, a place that is safe, where we have genuine relationships. It’s where we started and where we want to return. This is our real goal and purpose.
In the material world, however, our efforts and goals often leave us unfulfilled. Srila Prabhupada encourages us all to “go home, back to Godhead.” It’s the place where we truly belong. We are spiritual beings, and our eternal home is the spiritual world known as Vaikuntha – a place free from anxiety.
This is explained in the great Sanskrit texts — the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Srimad Bhagavatam. These literatures point to a higher understanding of who we really are and what “home” really means. They are living literatures. People are inspired by them and base their lives upon the teachings of these sacred texts. But apart from this literature, no ancient text explores this longing for home more powerfully than Homer’s Odyssey.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/the-odyssey-a-universal-longing-for-home/
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