As the Story Will Tell Itself: To Become the Mouth Which Holds the Universe

While it is sad to see the abused state that the snake ended up in, you can't say he did not deserve it. Imagine the grand place the hermits found as something too good to be true. It could all be an illusion or curse. How often does my mind wander to these tragic ideas? These Brahmins hanging around Guha sound like the mean, old, evangelical Christians seemingly everywhere. I though Hinduism was more open-minded about how one could worship the Gods. Even some of the gods themselves do not seem to care about this. I suppose in earlier times, like many things, this was partially used to control people. The image of a world tree where the three Gods make up it and all worlds are interconnected: it is like Yggdrasil. I guess the story of Guha really proves how Hinduism is more open-minded about how one worships, especially in his case to where kicking the statue of Shiva every day was considered worship. I still blame Gautama for his wife, Ahalya, choosing someone else who could...

While the gods were captured and were slaves to Ravana, I do wonder if they are abused or treated well (for slaves) under Ravana. Indra did say they were "seduced" by Ravana. I have this image of Ravana being totally ruthless as he took over Heaven but then being a really cool guy afterwards in Lanka. Maybe he even pays them a living wage. That or I can see another scenario like the United States penitentiary system: full of abuse and exploitation. One could absolutely turn this into a think piece like that. The membranous egg-thing reminds me of that flesh lump that resulted in the Kauravas from the Mahabharata . But unlike them, this egg-thing is not a source of evil. The perfect way to personify and describe the Gods: Brahma is the distracted, hopeless romantic; Wishnu is like the handsome, "popular" Marty Stu; and Shiva is like an edgelord or just some guy who thinks he's better than everyone else. So when Shiva discovers Sati committed suicide because h...

The image of ash-smeared sadhus riding motorcycles is kind of funny to me. I like it. I bet you when Shiva is not meditating or doing rituals these days, he is out riding a motorcycle. I can just imagine a scenario where Narada and Vishnu argue with each other like "I love you more" and "No, I love you more" just back and forth for longer than they should. Would it not be interesting if there was a scenario where Narada had a lot of trouble coming up with a new song for Vishnu? He lost his muse and has a bit of an existential crisis. Later, he may regain it after some exchange with Vishnu. Is the section about Vishnu set in the modern day? Did Radha originally become upset at Krishna after seeing him also dancing with the other gopikas at the same time? It is understandable that she did. With how much Narada claims to love and worship Vishnu, he certainly does not seem to understand Vishnu very well. Like in the case of Narada talking about celibacy, Narada ha...

Kama, god of love, trekked his way up Mount Kailash to find Lord Shiva. He had been tasked with making Shiva fall in love with the mountain princess, Parvati. Lord Brahma promised that the child of those two would be the one who would help the devas liberate heaven from the asuras once more. Even as the god of love, this was an overwhelming task. Shiva was a scary, powerful dude. Kama's legs shook with every step. Finally, Kama made it to the clearing where Shiva sat in meditation. He felt his stomach drop. He began to lose his nerve. The god of love paced around the outskirts of the clearing and tried to psych himself back up. "Can I do this? Should I do this? What will Shiva do to me if this does not work? Ah, but the other devas are counting on me! We may all be doomed if I don't do this... No pressure or anything..." Kama stifled a shout of frustration. Then he noticed Parvati entering the clearing out of the corner of his eye. His courage returned. He could d...

Coming from Brahma's forehead or third-eye is Saraswati. So trying to hide from his lustful gaze, Saraswati moved to four other sides of Brahma with each head sprouting to look at her, hence why every story in just words about this says he grew four heads to look at her from every direction. These comics do help visualize what is actually happening in these stories I have been reading. Sometimes some details may get glossed over either by me or the source material. I too would be upset if someone stared at me all the time with unblinking eyes. The fifth head sprouted to look above Brahma: an easy target for a chopping. I am concerned about where and how Brahma would sprout his head is Saraswati moved somewhere below him. A war rages between brahmins and kshatriyas that results in an all-consuming fire (vadavagni) that could destroy the world. The Devas ask Shiva and Saraswati for help. Shiva gave the fire to Saraswati, and she then merged with a plaksha (fig) tree from whic...

Recall that Sati killed herself during a sacrifice that Shiva was not invited to, and she was reborn as Parvati. So Narada does go everywhere chanting "Narayan!" Narada tells Himavat, her father, she is destined to marry Shiva. Himavat then takes her to wait upon Shiva. Parvati seemed to tirelessly work to h1lep Shiva with his rituals, attended to him in every manner, and she began to fall in love with him. Taraka is an asura who takes over heaven. Brahma granted him a boon that made him super powerful. Brahma, why do you keep creating problems? Oh... He says the son of Parvati and Shiva will defeat Taraka. Kama has a flowery bow with flowery arrows that manage to cast Shiva under the spell of love for a moment. What if Kama and Rati gather together a team of a few other love gods from other pantheons to actually help succeed in making Shiva fall in love with Parvati? There is strength in numbers. Rati is the goddess of lust, right? I am sure I do not understand ...