3. Research and explain these gods or goddesses: Durga, Kali, Sarasvati, Ganeshe.
The goddess Durga is the protector, vanquishing the demons that threaten Dharma. (Fisher, 2003). She is represented as a beautiful woman with multiple arms that rides a lion, wielding weapons to use to defend the good. The reason she yields so many weapons is to show that one weapon cannot kill different kinds of enemies. (Goddess Durga). Since Durga is the protector of good, she is invoked by the seeker to destroy all his desires and unveil his supreme Self (Morris, 2014).
The goddess Kali is compassionate and loving, yet fierce and terrifying. Kali is the destroyer of evil. She is represented as a blue woman, dripping with blood, carrying a severed head as well as arms and a necklace of skulls (Fisher, 2003). Kali instills the fear of death in evil-doers and removes ignorance, bringing forth a transformation as she destroys evil. Her transformation is often mistaken as destruction. A legend of Kali depicts her transforming the world, riding it of evil, but getting carried away and destroying everything in sight. Lord Shiva placed himself in her path, stopping her from destroying the world. This act surprised her, causing her to stick out her tongue, which is how she is often portrayed (Das, The Dark Mother, n.d.).
Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, art, and speech (Fisher, 2003). She is associated with water, and the flow of knowledge. She is depicted with four arms, dressed in white, and playing and instrument. Her four hands represent four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego (Das, Goddess of Knowledge, n.d.). Saraswati’s instrument, the veena, symbolizes that the seeker must tune his mind and intell...
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... still to come, is Kalki (Morris, 2014).
In Hinduism, an avatar is the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of an Immortal Being, or of the Ultimate Supreme Being. It derives from the Sanskrit word 'avatara' which means "descent" and usually implies a deliberate descent into mortal realms for special purposes. The term is used primarily in Hinduism, for incarnations of Vishnu the Preserver, whom many Hindus worship as God (http://www.crystalinks.com/avatars.html). The Avatar appears in a time of great need, in order to create and maintain balance. Therefore, without the avatar the world would most likely come to an end.
8. What is Karma? What is Reincarnation?
Reincarnation is one of the ideas or answers to the question, “What happens to people/sprits after they die?” The rishis believe that the soul actually leaves the body once you are dead, and enters a new one.
Selvadurai uses an allusion to demonstrate his grandmother’s role as a negative mentor in Shivan’s life. His dream of seeing his grandmother “incarnated as the demoness Kali” running after him (in the body of his mother) is very telling of what Shivan subconsciously thinks of his grandmother. (Selvadurai 371) The demoness Kali is the Hindu goddess of destruction. Though she is seen as a god, her physical appearance is quite appalling. Her dark skin, red eyes, fangs and necklace made of human heads are all quite terrifying. When portrayed, she is often seen standing on top of the Hindu god Shiva as well. Kali’s frightful appearance, paired with her relationship with the god Shiva is very telling of Shivan’s relationship with his aachi. He fears her with every fibre of his being. In said dream, he imagines himself as his mother, carrying a child, running from his grandmother, but proving to be unfruitful when Kali, “snatches the infant from [his] arms and opens her mouth wide to consume him”. (Selvadurai 371) This baby is Shivan, and Kali eating the baby shows how as a mentor, she has taken away all the innocence from Shivan and taken him away from his mother. Shivan’s ammi shows how even negative mentors can push their mentees into
In conclusion, it is obvious that the Absolute is recognized to be within more than one god or goddess. The question that then arises is “who is truly the Absolute?” It could be Vishnu, Siva, or any of the forms of the Devi (Durga). The simple fact is that whether the Absolute be Vishnu, Siva, or the Devi, they all encompass the same qualities that the Absolute is understood to exhibit in their respected branches of Hinduism. Since certain people of the Hindu religion believe that their god or goddess is the Absolute, it is possible that the Absolute is simply all of the gods and goddesses in one body working together to be most supreme and powerful creator within the religion.
Many religions and philosophies attempt to answer the question, what happens after a person dies? Some religions such as Christianity and Islam believe there is an afterlife. They believe that good and moral people enter Heaven or paradise and that bad and immoral people go to Hell. Other religions and cultures believe that death is final, and that nothing happens after a person dies. Buddhism and Hinduism have a different idea about death. Both of these religions originated in India. Buddhists and Hindus believe that death is not final. They believe that a person comes back after he or she dies. This process is known as reincarnation, and it provides opportunities for people to enter the world multiple times in different forms. Buddhists and Hindus want to reenter the world as humans, and they want to improve their status through reincarnation. In ancient India, many members of lower casts wanted to come back as members of higher casts. While this is an important goal of reincarnation, the main goal is to reach either moksha (Hinduism) or nirvana (Buddhism). In other words, the goal is to reach a point of spiritual enlightenment that removes the person from the reincarnation process. Geoff Childs, an anthropologist examines the views of the Buddhist religion by studying the lives of the people in Tibetan villages. He looks at issues that adversely affect these people such as infant mortality. He carefully looks at the lives of people who have been left behind by deceased loved ones, and he pays careful attention to customs and traditions surrounding death. Tibetan Buddhists view death as a means of reaching spiritual perfection, and they seek to reach this level of spiritual perfection through living spiritually meaningful lives....
is a symbol for sacrifice for the wrong reasons. She is caught in a limbo
She likes traveling to other places, but was ordered to visit Earth. She refers to her maker as “parent teacher” and that she is “here embodied in a decaying lump of meat hanging on a frame of calcium”.(Gaiman 232). This is the physical form of our humanness. All we are is flesh and bones and our bodies are in a continual process of decay. She sees the body not the mind as the meaning of human race. "But knowledge is there, in the meat," She is wearing worry beads, which are meant to relieve stress or protect from negative energy. This is an innuendo to
She is stil worshiped to this day by the Indian people. Her story is quite different from Athena’s, she was not the goddess of war and had nothing to do with violence. Instead she was also the goddess of knowledge helping people learn things such as the Alphabet. The Indian people hold a festival every year in her honor on the fifth day of spring in which the Hindu children are given their first lesson in reading and writing (Das).
Chalchihuitlicue, the water goddess of the Aztec, was another example of a dual goddess who symbolize the two most important relationship women have with men as mothers and lovers. The qualities she has reflected the deep ambivalence men feel toward women which is profound need with profound fear. Chalchihuitlicue is depicted as a young goddess who was both beautiful and dangerous. Her dual nature comes into place which she both watered the earth and gives it life which promotes fertility and growth but can also flood the earth that can cause death and destruction, showing how changeable and unpredictable she is. The terrible and destroying aspect that she possessed along with her nurturing aspect overlap into a vision of the lover who has
also the goddess of war and the patroness of arts and crafts. Which led her to be a great leader
The concept of reincarnation is related to karma, karma deals with a system of rewards and punishment based on the actions of the individual (Oxtopy & Segal 266). Due to bad karma by the individual, it takes many lifetimes for the karma to be worked out; reincarnation also known as samsara in Hinduism is an ongoing cycle of death and rebirth. To be released from the cycle of samsara, to achieve moksha one must reach enlightenment (Oxtopy & Segal 266-267). In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, an incarnation of the ultimate deity as a personal god in the Hindu religion, explains three ways to moksha: the way of action, the way of knowledge, and the way of devotion. The Gita also made it clear that one should strive for moksha in everyday of our life as long as we act without attachment (Oxtopy & Segal 274). Reincarnation a concept widely receive by Hindu’s around the world, there are evidence to support the truth of this concept.
...ngly like a goddess of Victory (paragraph 20)." She had fought the battle of life, health, the death of her husband, and she was a peace with her self. She came out of the room and clasped to her sister's waist. This shows she was starting to weaken, but she fought the battle and won. She could now face death fearless and strong.
In Indian culture, Goddess Parvati is depicted as a beautiful and serene woman, making emphasis on the sensuality of her body. In Hindu mythology the name of Parvati means “she who dwells in the mountain” she is said to be the daughter of Mena and the Himalaya Mountain. Parvati is the consort of the God Shiva, one of the supreme deities among Hinduism. The Goddess is seen as a devoted wife and mother and represents love, fertility and beauty.
...vil goddess of all time, Gaea, and all of the evil monsters that work for her. Gaea wants to destroy the gods, and become ruler of the world once again.
Wilderness. Childbirth. Hunt. The Greek goddess, Artemis, ruled over these things, along with many other aspects on earth. Artemis is a strong, independent, and protective goddess who had a powerful desire to care for others, didn’t need a man to complete her, and wasn’t afraid to be intense when it came to defending herself or others.
As the daughter of Zeus, the mightiest Olympian, and Metis, the embodiment of knowledge, it makes sense that the goddess Athena is known as the goddess of strategy and civilization. The role played by Athena in many myths is that of a counselor in times of battle, both internal and external, as well as the protector of cities, and the importance of her level headed and protecting role continues to have an impact on modern society.
Durga is a warrior queen who slays demons in the battle to keep the cosmos at balance. Durga is universally beautiful. She rides on a lion into battle and holds many weapons with her many hands attached to her many arms. David Kinsley, author of Hindu Goddesses, describes Durga as "The great battle queen with many arms, each which wields a weapon. She rides a fierce lion and is described as irresistible in battle." This is very different from the description of Kali, as said by the above author, "The goddess Kali is almost always described as having a terrible, frightening appearance. She is always black or dark, is usually naked, and has long disheveled hair." Kali likes to accent her naturally scary beauty by wearing severed heads, arms and dead children as jewelry. Blood seems to be her favorite cosmetic.