Times of India _Shiva and Vishnu_ (http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/faith-and-rituals/shiva-and-vishnu#) By: Arun Ganapathy on Dec 11, 2011 Indian mythology is full of gods, heroes and varied characters. Each of them has many stories and versions about them and it’s all such a tangle that you tend to get confused about who is who and who did what to whom. But in Devdutt Pattanaik’s hands, the tangles are easily untangled, the confusion, cleared; he has done just that in his two latest offerings, 7 Secrets Of Vishnu and 7 Secrets Of Shiva. 7 Secrets Of Vishnu Vishnu’s first secret is to draw humanity’s attention to ‘the spiritual reality within material reality’. Even Shiva, the world-negating ascetic, ‘ needs to open his eyes’ to this, so Vishnu appears as Mohini, the enchantress and ‘is inviting spiritual reality to enter her rangabhoomi or playground, and join the leela or game of material reality’. Pattanaik adopts the narrative within a story format of many Indian myths, and through the stories of a small fish that approaches Manu, the first man, pleading to be saved; and the tale of King Shibi, the dove and the hawk, he explains that too much empathy can actually be bad. He next delves into the stories of Vishnu’s avatars as Kurma the tortoise, Varaha the boar, Narasimha the man-lion and as Vamana the dwarf, to tell us how Vishnu appeared in these incarnations to put down the asuras — just when they were getting the upper hand on earth — and in their battles with the devas. Pattanaik’s research has you constantly running into surprises: The misconception that the asuras are villainous demons is the “result of poor English translations of Hindu mythology in the 18th century, which declared devas as good and asuras as bad”. To complement the research are beautiful handicraft and poster art images; these are on the left-hand pages with speech bubbles to explain the significance of each of their parts; so understanding the text is easy. You will particularly like the pictures of Vishnu’s 10 avatars that show the evolution from a Matsya or fish, through Kurma or amphibian to Narasimha or beast to Vamana the man and the striking resemblance they bear to the stages in the evolution of life on earth. Vishnu as Kalki is yet to come but when he does, conditions will have waned enough for the universe to begin anew. That’s the last secret in the book and Pattanaik’s reader-friendly storytelling of mythological tales makes you look forward to his next offering. 7 Secrets Of Shiva Shivalinga, writes Pattanaik, is at once, the self-stirred phallus of the Tapasvin, the reverse flow of his semen, the burning of Tapa, the endless pillar of fire and the form of the formless Divine. This is also Shiva’s first secret — the meaning of his linga beyond the conventional titillation of the phallic symbol. Pattanaik is best when sticking to mythology; when he begins to draw on concepts in nature and psychology, his arguments are not always well-founded and the generalisations are sweeping. While writing of Shiva as Kaal Bhairava and of death, he goes on to say that “it is the fear of death that makes animals migrate in search of hunting grounds”. Aren’t there other reasons too, like changing weather conditions, the taking over of a pasture by another group, and the need to find food, you wonder. That, if any, is the only flaw in a book in which Pattanaik doesn’t let you settle down; just as he did in his first book, he engages you with interesting information. For example, if you’ve wondered why a pot with dripping water hangs above the Shivalinga in many temples, here’s why: “The dripping water from the hole in the base ensures that Shiva does not slip into a trance, and that he is forever gracing his devotees with his benevolent gaze. ” Shiva’s continual indifference to worldly affairs, the attempts by Shakti to draw him into the material world and his naiveté to the point of being a fool are the stories behind Shankara’s secret and Bholenath’s secret in the third and fourth chapters. Then come the stories of Shiva’s children, Ganesha and Murugan or Kartikeya. Murugan’s falling in love with Valli, the daughter of a tribal chieftain is the stuff of romance. When you’ve read the final secret on Shiva’s Tandava or the cosmic dance, you wonder how Pattanaik makes mythology so accessible. I won’t tell you how, because that is Pattanaik’s secret; it’s worth reading these books to find it out. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
