Week 11 Reading Diary, Continued: Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art

This is the last portion of viewing from Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art. The stories from this portion were Vishnu's Secret Part 2, Brahma's Secret Part 1, and Brahma's Secret Part 2. Below are some of my favorite moments from these stories.

From Vishnu's Secret Part 2, I liked the focus on the Siddhas or Naths, who were magical sages that roamed the countryside performing miraculous feats. I also liked the explanation of the Nav Naths, or nine greatest Siddhas.

In Brahma's Secret Part 1, I liked the part where it explained how Brahma created the world, his daughter, to better understand who he was. Brahma grew four heads so he could better watch her and follow her where ever she roamed. She would constantly change her shape and Brahma would always change his shape to the male counterpart of her. He was obsessed, but he never realized she was the great delusion of life, Maya.

In Brahma's Secret Part 2, I liked the story about Vishnu rescuing the elephant, who happened to be man, from the jaws of a crocodile. This man was enchanted by the material world and had deluded himself into thinking the purpose of life was to attain wealth, fame, and power. The crocodile represents the pain and struggle which we encounter in life when we only seek wealth, fame and power. The lesson was that man could not go through life on his own, instead he needed the help of god, which manifested itself as Vishnu in this story.

Wikimedia: Vishnu Saving the Elephant from the Crocodile

Week 11 Reading Diary: Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art

This week I am continuing on with my viewing of Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art. The stories from this portion are Devi's Secret and Vishnu's Secret Part 1. Below are some of my favorite moments from these stories.

I liked the part from Devi's Secret about the merger of Shiva and Vishnu. Shiva is called Hara and Vishnu is called Hari. Together they are called Hari-Hara, the observers of life. Hari-Hara shows the merger of the absence of society, Shiva's half, and the existence of society, Vishnu's half.

Wikimedia: Hari-Hara

My favorite part from Vishnu's Secret Part 1, was the story about Vishnu's first avatar, Matsya. Matsya was a fish that was saved by Manu and was cared for in a pot. The fish continued to grow under Manu's care until he was needed to be transferred to a sea. Matsya kept growing until rains fell in order to make the sea large enough for the fish. So much rain fell that the Earth was submerged and was being destroyed. Matsya eventually saves Manu and teaches him that too much compassion leads to the destruction of society. 

Wikimedia: Matsya

Week 10 Storytelling: Shiva's Sacrifice

Long ago, there were many battles between the gods and asuras for power over the universe. These battles usually ended in stalemates, but occasionally, the gods would pull out a victory that further established their place as rulers of the cosmos. After countless battles, the asuras finally started to win some conflicts and began to truly challenge the gods for dominance. Many gods and asuras lost their lives to this eternal war, but the gods had a plan to ensure that they would never lose to the asuras again.

                Following many consecutive defeats, Vishnu approached the king of asuras, King Bali, and proposed a peace treaty on the conditions that the gods would relinquish control of the universe to the asuras. King Bali was ecstatic with this proposition and immediately signed the treaty. Vishnu then went on to suggest that they should purify the nectar of immortality from the Ocean of Milk so that both the asuras and gods would live forever. Of course King Bali agreed, seeing that if the asuras were immortal they would never have to worry about the gods rising up again.

                Now, Vishnu knew that in order to purify the nectar of immortality he would need the help of the asuras, but he had no plans of sharing the nectar with them. There were many dangers associated with churning the Ocean of Milk, such as the production of a deadly poison that accompanied the purification process and Vishnu was going to use this poison to his advantage.

                In order to churn the Ocean of Milk, Vasuki, the serpent king that resided around the neck of Shiva, was wrapped around a mountain and pulled back and forth to mix the ocean. The asuras demanded to hold the head of Vasuki, while the gods took the tail. After many hours of churning, poisonous fumes started to arise from the surface. Vishnu instructed all of the gods to hold their breath, but the asuras did not know of the dangerous fumes and they continued to breathe normally. The poison killed a vast majority of the asuras and the survivors ran for their lives.

Wikimedia: The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

                With the asuras out of the picture, the gods were able to collect the nectar and separate the poison from it. All the gods knew that this was the most powerful poison ever created and even the nectar was not able to counteract its effects. If this poison was not destroyed, it would destroy the universe that the gods had just regained back from the asuras. Knowing that the cosmos were in great peril, Vishnu sought out the assistance of Shiva.

                Being told of the danger, Shiva took it upon himself to consume the poison to protect the universe. He took all of the poison and began to swallow, but his wife, Parvati, grabbed his throat in an effort to prevent him from ingesting the harmful liquid. Parvati held her hands tight on Shiva’s neck for many years until the poison had harmlessly evaporated. During this time, Shiva’s throat had turned blue and he was dubbed Neelakantha, the blue-throated one. Shiva’s blue throat now serves as a reminder of his great sacrifice for the preservation of the universe.

Bibliography:

Shiva's Secret Part 2 from Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art (2009)

Sumadra Manthan from Wikipedia

Author's Note:

I was really intrigued by a short segment from Shiva's Secret Part 2, where it touched on a story about how Shiva swallowed a poison to save the universe. I then went back to the reading guide and found a link to a Wikipedia page that explained the story a little more thoroughly. I kept the plot from the original story the same, but it is important to note that in some versions of this story, the poison is emitted from Vasuki and not formed from the churning of the ocean.  

Week 10 Reading Diary, Continued: Pattanaik's Calendar Art

For this post, I continued on with my viewing of Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art which consisted of Ardhanari's Secret, Shiva's Secret Part 1 and Shiva's Secret Part 2.

My favorite parts from this portion of the viewing were all from the videos about Shiva. I like the concept of a Destroyer God. Shiva seems to be a very complex god, with his desire to remain unmarried and many forms.

My favorite story was about how Shiva consumed the poison that arose from the churning of the Ocean of Milk. As a Destroyer God, one would expect Shiva to not care about the fate of the world, but he shows that he can also be a protector in this story. After Shiva consumes the poison, he is then saved by Parvati when she clasps her hands around Shiva's throat, preventing him from swallowing the deadly poison. This clasping of the throat turned Shiva's neck blue and earned him the name Neelakantha (the blue-throated one). I think this could make for an interesting retelling with a few modifications.

Source: The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

Week 10 Reading Diary: Pattanaik's Calendar Art

I watched the first two videos of Pattanaik's Calendar Art which were titled Ganesha's Secret and Narayan's Secret. I really liked how these videos explained the Hindu faith in an easy to follow format. The author shared the reasoning behind the Indian beliefs and the difference between Gods, Goddesses, gods and goddesses. I found both videos to be very informative and they definitely helped in my understanding of this faith.

My favorite portion of this viewing was how Ganesha came into this world. I thought it was almost absurd that Shiva beheaded his own son, Ganesha. Shiva then righted his wrong by replacing the severed head with one of the heads of Airavat, Indra's elephant. I also like that Ganesha represents the union of two opposites. He represents the union of metaphysical goals and luck when facing the troubles of life.

Source: Parvati, Ganesha, and Shiva

Week 9 Reading Diary: Sacred Tales of India

For this week I decided to read the book Sacred Tales of India by Dwijendra Nath Neogi. For this portion of the reading there were three stories titled The Divine Brothers, Snatched From Death, and By Itu's Favor.

The Divine Brothers was my least favorite story, but it still had some interesting parts. I liked how the two snake brothers decided to try and make Lahana feel like she had a family with them and their mother, Manasa. The brothers were so pleased with how well they had been treated by Lahana that they eventually find a way to give her a mortal family. The snakes bit a prince and then returned as Brahmins that promised to cure the prince if the king permitted Lahana to be adopted by him. The king agreed and Lahana finally had a family of her own.

My favorite story of the three was Snatched From Death. I liked this story because it displayed how devoted Savitri was to her husband, Satyavan. I particularly liked how she found a way to deceive Yama into restoring her husbands life without specifically asking for it.

Image: Savitri, Satyavan, and Yama

(Calcutta, circa 1895)

The other story that I liked was By Itu's Favor. I liked this story because it showed how generous the god Itu was to his worshipers, but he also turned out to be extremely forgiving. I thought the Brahmin that deserted his daughters only because they ate some of his cakes deserved what he got in the end. The two daughters showed how kind they were to ask Itu to make their vengeful father prosperous even though he had just recently deserted them.

Future Reading Plan

I have decided that I will focus my reading on the various gods and goddesses of India for the remainder of this semester. Since my storybook topic is geared towards the exploits and plights of Indra, I think it will be interesting to introduce some of his peers. This focused reading will also work as a bit of research about what the other Devas and Devis were up too while Indra was going through his own journey. I want to mesh some of these stories together with Indra's background to further shape the slightly unstable and narcissistic character direction I am hoping to portray for him.

In order for me to avoid committing myself to only reading about the other gods for the rest of the semester, I will focus on this topic for weeks 9-10. As long as this topic remains interesting to me I will continue with this plan.

Source: Collection of Indian Gods

Week 8: Blog Ideas

I recently went back to my Introduction post and I noticed that I didn't even tell anyone what I actually do in the Army. I decided to add a little detail about my job and some background on some of the artillery pieces I have worked with. I also included pictures of the artillery pieces because I do not believe many people would recognize them just by their nomenclature.

As I was browsing through the class directory I came across a few aspects within some blogs that caught my attention. Here is a list of the things I found during my exploration:

I really liked Ashlyn's blog design/template. The background with the books on the shelves makes me feel like I am in a giant library, which I think is pretty cool. I have gotten some comments that people like my blog design/template, so I am reluctant to change it if it is already aesthetically pleasing to my visitors.

I was really impressed with Kayla's font choice in her blog. The cursive font adds a personal touch to the blog and avoids the mundanity of traditionally academic fonts (i.e. Arial and Times). I think I will update my blog to incorporate a more unique font. Hopefully this alteration will attract more readers.

The final aspect that caught my eye came from Savannah's blog. Savannah found a way to include a section of her sidebar that displayed recent posts and recent comments on her blog. I thought this was a very useful tool for not only Savannah, but also her visitors. I noticed that she was using wordpress for her blog, so I do not know if blogger will allow for this addition to come to fruition for me. I definitely want to add this same section to my blog, but I will most likely need to tinker with the layout in order to find a solution. I'm not sure if this is already a tech tip, but it would be a great addition if someone had the time to write up some instructions.

Time Strategies

Taking a look back on how this semester has gone I have noticed that I need to spend more time than I originally anticipated. At the beginning of this course I chose to start my week on Monday, where I will complete readings and continue the readings and storytelling assignments on Tuesday. I also chose to complete the remainder of the assignments over the weekend (i.e. half Saturday and half on Sunday).


I am pleased with the days that I chose to complete these tasks on, but seeing as the second half of this semester will be much more hectic in all of my courses, I will make an effort to work on this class almost every day of the week. I see the importance of working ahead so that there will be a bit of a buffer when unexpected circumstances prevent me from completing tasks on time. I recently fell a little behind due to a four day drill for National Guard where I was without an internet connection.


My commitment to the Oklahoma National Guard will continue to present a time challenge for me throughout the remainder of this semester, so I will need to work ahead in order to allow myself to better serve this great state and the soldiers under me.


My other classes require a great deal of my time as well. I will attempt to set aside time blocks for these courses, just as I have for this course. Fortunately, all of my courses are on Tuesday and Thursday, so I have more time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will try to make the most of Wednesday and Friday for my other classes since I have chosen Monday as a time slot for this course.


Below is a graphic of something that I really need to take to heart because I spend a lot of time worrying about things outside of my control.

Source: What you should focus on (Image by Paul Brown)