Week 12 Reading Diary B: Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos

For this week, I watched the videos that were emailed to us as the options for this week, Pattanaik. Week 1 Videos .

Ardhanari's Secret: God is Stillness Within, Goddess is Movement Around:

"The Upanishads, ancient Hindu scriptures dating to 500 BCE, constantly refer to these two truths: a truth which changes and a truth which does not change."

This quote caught my attention. It uses the examples of in movement, we seek stillness and in sound we seek silence. I think this is so true. We have the truth and then we have the truth that we wish to seek. I think this is so cool.

Ash represents permanence and snow represents is water that is still. These represent the unchanging truth. These are what are used in many of the paintings to represents this.

Shiva's Secret: Withdrawal Leads to Destruction:

Part 1
Shiva is the destroyer and our understanding would have us believe that all of this happens out of anger. Shiva is represented in the images as calm. The problem lies in our understanding. I have noticed that our understanding has a lot to do with the misinterpretation in the epics. We think of something as one thing when it can also represent something else.

Screenshot of Shiva from the video

Shiva destroys things by closing his eyes. He doesn't become an observer. I think this is so interesting. I love the contract

 

Part 2

 

Screenshot of Shiva carrying Sati's dead body.

 

 

Sati's death lead Shiva to destroy out of anger. This photo above shows how Shiva reacts to Sati's death which is unusual for him because he normally doesn't react to external stimulus.

The goddess causes Shiva to open his eyes. This just made me think of the fact that the gods can't exist with out the goddesses. They are the two sides that have to be present in order for things to happen. This reiterates what was said in the earlier videos.