Week 14 Reading: Epified's "7 Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art" Videos, Part C

Ardhanari on Wikimedia
For this week, I chose to continue onto parts C and D of Epified’s “Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art” YouTube videos. Part C is on the gods Ardhanari, who I had never heard of before, and Shiva. I liked the videos that I watched in week 13 as they were more eye-opening and informative than I had expected. I also think that watching these videos is good for anyone who struggles with paying attention, especially in reading assignments. Furthermore, as I have watched many Epified videos throughout this course, I can say that Epified does a great job of summarizing important aspects of Indian epics and Hinduism and that they make them easily attainable for those who are new to this kind of storytelling.
Ardhanari’s secret is “God is stillness within, Goddess is movement around.” In this video, I learned that gods can be with or without form and that a god is never limited to only one form. Also, there is both a male and a female trinity in Hinduism. The male trinity made up of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu represents the spiritual world, while the female trinity of Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Shakti represents the material world. It is incorrect to view the male trinity as simply those who do things while the female trinity remains passive. Instead, the male trinity representing spirituality should be viewed as the actions that the female trinity responds to, such as the act of contemplating one’s behavior.
Shiva’s secret is “Withdrawal leads to destruction.” Shiva is the god of destruction, and he destroys Kama, the goddess of desire, and Yama, the god who watches over the death and rebirth of man. When these two are destroyed, the three worlds are destroyed. The three worlds are “our private world, our public world, and all the rest that is.” Shiva wants nothing and destroys the “desire for life, the fear of death, and the need of the world around us.” While destruction is usually thought of as accompanied by rage, vengeance, etc., Shiva’s mannerisms are calm and composed, hence “withdrawal leads to destruction.”

If you would like to watch these videos, click here: link.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introductory Post

Image
Personal image, Carlie and me Personal image, Yat Fan and me        Hello! My name is Bridget Clayton and I am a French major and Music minor at the University of Oklahoma. I am currently taking my last semester completely online, as I have already finished my French courses and gone through Capstone. I’m just finishing up some upper-division credits.        I was originally a Music major because I love playing clarinet. Throughout high school, clarinet was the most important part of my life. However, I went through a lot of personal and familial issues during my first two years at OU, and I was struggling in some key music courses, like music theory. French had been my minor, but I realized that I was doing exceptionally well in my language classes, and as I did not want to teach music, I switched my major and minor. My last semester was a big success. I was taking four French courses, including Capstone, and was in one of the bands at ...
Read more

Week 9 Storytelling: The Strength of a Woman

Image
Image on  Flickr Inez and her husband Victor did not make much money, but they were a happily married couple. The couple had two adopted children from Victor’s deceased sister who they loved as their own. They did not spend money on things that they knew they couldn’t afford, but they always had enough and lived a much more fruitful life than most people. The one thing that they thought would really make a difference to their happiness was their want for a biological child. After trying to conceive for five years, they were finally blessed with the news that Inez was pregnant. Not only that, but she was carrying triplets, two girls and one boy. The prospect of three children altogether was nice , but five was more of a financial burden than the couple expected. Still, Inez and Victor were looking forward to the additions to their family. Victor took up extra hours at work, and the couple prepared everything they needed for the delivery of the three infants. ...
Read more