For my storybook project, I, Matthew Brooks, have chosen myths and
legends about Hindu
Gods and Goddesses. I have always had an affinity with the Hindu
faith, and this has provided me with an opportunity to explore it
further. I am in the process of designing a tattoo that will have
the four gods/goddesses on it that I am going to explore further here.
I have chosen to tell these tales through the third-person omnicient
narrator style. I will synthesize the different versions
of the four stories into what accurately represents the most widely
retold facts of the tales. I plan on retelling a myth about each
God uning only the consistently accepted facts.
Hinduism is an Eastern religion, widely practiced in India and
throughout south Asia. Hindu mythology ranks among the oldest of
all myths in
existence, dating back to around 6000BC. There are four different
Vedas. The Vedas are pillars of the Hindu faith.
They were first orally compiled about 3500 years ago, around the time
the Avatar Krishna
lived, and are divided into four parts. The first, and oldest
section of each Veda is the hymnal, or samhita. The other
sections were added later to expound on the samhita. The other
three parts are the ritualistic, theological and philosophical sections.
There are three gods in the Hindu trinity. It is referred to as
“Sat-Tat-Aum.”
Each of these three terms represents a god, and his spiritual
essence. Sat refers to Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe,
the cosmic mind. Tat is Vishnu the preserver; some refer to him
as the protector, of the universe, the cosmic lord. Aum is Shiva,
the destroyer, the transcendent Godhead.
In most sects of Hinduism, the tales place Lord Brahma at the top of
the hierarchy of all gods. He is considered the creator of the
universe and everything. His consort is the goddess Saraswati,
the goddess of learning. He is typically portrayed as having four
heads and four hands, the first three holding: a rosary, a water pot
and a book, presumably the Vedas. There are different images of
what he holds in his fourth hand. Some have him holding nothing,
but raising his hand in a symbolic grace-bestowing manner. Others
have
him holding a sacrificial tool.
There exist the Vaishnavas, an umbrella term encompassing many sects
of Hinduism that revere Vishnu as The God. They see him as The
Ultimate Reality, or head god. The Hindus that subscribe to the
trinity belief see him as second. The Goddess Lakshmi is his
consort, the goddess of love, beauty and delight. He is visually
portrayed as having dark blue skin, holding in each of his four hands:
a
conch shell to represent the spreading of the scripture, a discus, a
lotus, and a mace.
Another grouping of sects of Hinduism is the Shaivites. They see
the god Shiva as the head of their religion. Shiva is third in
the trinity to those who subscribe to that belief. While Shiva is
the destroyer, Hindus see this as a positive thing, as he is the
destroyer of evil, and destruction represents a part of a natural
birth-death cycle. There are those who believe Shiva came first,
producing Vishnu, who in turn produced Brahma. Goddess Kali is
Shiva’s consort, the goddess of power, destruction and
transformation. He is typically portrayed wearing a snake coiled
around his upper torso and neck. He always appears happy and
occasionally appears to be meditating.
Divine Intervention: The Birth of Lord Krishna
Soma: Cycles of a God
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