Title: Hindu Calendar Art
Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Year: 2009
For this weeks readings and the next as well I will be viewing the movie the 7 Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art.
The God Shiva and his Goddess wife Parvati, Ganesha and Kartikeya are the divine family. Ganesha and Kartikeya are gods with lower case to show they are lesser gods. Shiva is a God, but not The God.
I am really liking the movie so far. It is a nice change of pace from actual stories. This is super informative and philosophical. This appeals to me.
There are stories in this movie, like the story of the mango and the better son. Ganesha is wiser than his brother. His brother Kartikeya travels around the world, and Ganesha encircles his parents because they are his world.
Ganesha removes obstacles and Kartikeya leads other gods in battles. Ganga, the river that springs from Shiva's top knot is a goddess of the river she embodies. Shiva is a destroyer, the world ceases when Shiva closes his eyes.
"Divinity is formless, but as humans we require forms to understand it."
The four headed male deity is Brahma. His existence implies the existence of his counterpart, but where is she? The Vedas are a book of hymns,timeless and universal, not of human origin and during a drought they had been forgotten. A Sage named Vyas remembers them and compiles them. Suka (means parrot) is the parrot headed Sage, the son of Vyas. There is an image of Brahma blessing Suka and the energy (of formless knowledge) is the implication of Saraswati the mother of the vedas.
Brahma did not create the vedas, no man can create without a woman. Not even God.
Four heads represent the 4 expressions of the vedas, the four goals in life.
1) dharma- right conduct
2) artha- economic activity
3) kama- pleasure pursuits
4) moksha- spiritual practice
There can be local manifestations of the cosmic god. People who can become holy men that can transcend human limitations can be worshipped. This is how they get a god and a God. They serve different functions.
Vishnu- a pan-Hindu God, a king who reclines on the coil of a serpent that floats on the ocean of milk. Unlike Shiva who is a menidcant that lives on a snowy mountaintop.
Parvati is also Shakti. There can be goddesses and Goddesses.
Two hands in an image indicated that the person is human. This is important because sometimes great people have been elevated to a status of worship.
Vishwakarma is a god that is nearly an equivalent of the Roman deity Hephastus, he is a Vulcan god for potters and metalsmithing etc. There is also a deity that is like the love god, cupid, named Kama. There is also similarities to the deity Zeus in the god Indra. This gives the appearance of relatedness of the Greek myths and Hinduism, but this is not the whole truth.
Greek subjective truth is different than the Hindu subjective truth. The Greeks have times where the gods are overthrown by titans and fear humans etc, this is missing from the Hindu myth.
Hijras are men who feel themselves to be women and are outsiders to society. They dress as women and live with others like them, begging and also prostitution to survive.
The goddess Bahuchara is tolerant of the gender challenged and has a following for some that have turned themselves into eunichs and has a myth about turning a boy into a woman, they fall into the pond and it happened because the goddess Bahuchara was there.
The goddess Annapurana is the kitchen goddess, the one who feeds,and she becomes the goddess Lakshmi.
Ganesha's elephant head- no known enemies in the animal world.
Pot belly- excess resources, nobility
Rat- an annoying pest, but is his pet
Ganesha represents a life of power and prosperity without any problems. Hid form is a container of an idea. This is an ideal that Hindu's aspire for.
Greek subjective truth is different than the Hindu subjective truth. The Greeks have times where the gods are overthrown by titans and fear humans etc, this is missing from the Hindu myth.
Hijras are men who feel themselves to be women and are outsiders to society. They dress as women and live with others like them, begging and also prostitution to survive.
The goddess Bahuchara is tolerant of the gender challenged and has a following for some that have turned themselves into eunichs and has a myth about turning a boy into a woman, they fall into the pond and it happened because the goddess Bahuchara was there.
The goddess Annapurana is the kitchen goddess, the one who feeds,and she becomes the goddess Lakshmi.
Ganesha's elephant head- no known enemies in the animal world.
Pot belly- excess resources, nobility
Rat- an annoying pest, but is his pet
Ganesha represents a life of power and prosperity without any problems. Hid form is a container of an idea. This is an ideal that Hindu's aspire for.
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