Marriages do not work out as we expect them to do because of the gap between the ideal and the strength and sacrifice needed to realise it. This is very much missing today in the fast food and utilitarian culture imported largely from the West. But the Divine is always willing to help us realise the Ideal. He is not the spoilsport to our happiness but the helper and guide and it is only rarely that he does not grant a sincere prayer, and only when He sees the harm that may accrue through it. The reason why relationships end up badly is not God but our incapacity to love. A love full of demands, expectations, wishes and desires based on the need for pleasure or happiness is not so much love but emotional and vital hunger. So too a love calculating gain and loss is a business and a marriage based on social benefits is a transaction. These are as good as failures even if it succeeds by outer standards. So grow in love and try to make it beautiful and sincere. That is all that is needed.

Achilles saved the Greeks but couldn’t save himself, whereas Odysseus had all of his companions killed and himself saved. Why is that and what contrast in their qualities is Homer trying to convey? 🤔⛵🪷
Achilles didn’t exactly save the Greeks. He is no doubt the hero of the Trojan War as portrayed in the Iliad. Though the greatest of the warriors, idea of the Trojan horse was Odysseus’ brainchild. It is primarily his wise counsel as guided by goddess Athena, his strategies that secured the victory. ..

