Reading Notes: Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art Part C

(Goddess Kali)

Ardhanari's Secret

"God is stillness within. Goddess is movement around." God cannot be limited to one form because any representation of God will be inherently flawed because it must by nature of being a physical form, exclude some other material forms.

Three human couples are the main forms of God in Hinduism:

1. Brahma and Sarasvati
2. Vishnu and Lakshmi
3. Shiva and Shakti

Male Trinity (verbs)

1. Brahma the creator
2. Vishnu the sustainer
3. Shiva the destroyer

Female Trinity (nouns)

1. Sarasvati - goddess of knowledge
2. Lakshmi - goddess of wealth
3. Shakti - goddess of power

The video suggests that the image of gender was simply an act of dividing ideas rather than a suggestion of what the form might entail. The male form was used as a vessel to represent the spirit within each person. The female their physical, mortal aspects.

The experience of material reality is confined within space and time. This video rationalizes the use of the gendered forms in this visualization of God by elaborating on the way that life is created using the two genders.

Therefore the Goddess is the great one who can be measured and evaluated while the God can measure and evaluate. She is ever changing as we attempt to measure and define and control her existence because she is all things of the material world.

There is a difference between the changing truth and the permanent truths. The difference between these concepts is often illustrated through a number of symbols.

I enjoyed the story of the ascetic who wished to pass between Shiva and Parvati in order to honor Shiva but not his consort. He ends up being cursed to lose all parts of his body given to him by his mother and is only allowed to stand when Shiva grants him a third leg as a sign of pity on the man. He is punished for disrespecting the Goddess.

Shiva's Secret

Withdrawal leads to destruction

Shiva is the destroyer of desire, death, and the three worlds. What the three worlds are vary from person to person, but the explanation for his titles is clear. He destroys desire and the god of death, thereby halting the karmic cycle and destroying the three worlds. Shiva destroys by making all things one.

Kali is the polar opposite to Shiva who must persuade him to open his eyes and be aware of the world around him. Tripurasundari is the form of Kali that forces Shiva to create life and forces the cycle of rebirth and death to continue. The Shakta sect may be matriarchal based on the importance of women in their lore.

STOP

Bibliography: Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art