Shiva

Okay.

see the ultimate Bhagawan Tattva, even if they give a form like Shiva, Vishnu, even if they give a form, they see that as a nirgun, nirakar Brahma.

which they know that manifestation is for us to behold that Tattva.

And that Brahma Tattva is not a vengeful God.

From that comes the idea of personal gods.

So you very nicely, not to say that it was a shift, immediate shift, not to say that it was chronological, but some of these things might be happening in parallel.

So, lot of those devatas whose role started making sense like Vishnu, Shiva.

Vishnu, Rudra, they are there in the Vedas as well.

The Sumo one.

It was the Sumo versus Shiva.

I don't know enough about Shiva to say what was right or wrong.

I don't think it was right from what little I do know, but I could absolutely be wrong.

I don't think it

You're using the most famous gods of each pantheon.

You can't be like, oh, it's a minor god from the Hindu religion.

No, you chose fucking Shiva the Destroyer.

Since I have separated myself from all my former associates and have lived a life of penance and meditation in this forest, endeavouring to atone for my past sins and especially seeking to propitiate the mighty deity who has the half-moon for his crest, And now, having been told you my history, I have something to communicate which concerns you alone, and beg you to withdraw with me to hear it in private.

The two then went aside from the rest of the party, and the stranger said, O Prince, last night during sleep, Shiva appeared to me and addressed me thus, Matanga, I am pleased with your devotions.

They shall now have their reward.

north of this place on the bank of the river which flows through the dandaka forest there is a remarkable rock glittering with crystal and marked with the footsteps of gauri go thither and on the side of the rock you will see a yawning chasm enter it and search till you find a copper plate with letters engraved on it.

When I awoke, I found myself on the bed of leaves once more, alone in the gloomy forest, and the day was beginning to appear.

When I was quite awake, I had some difficulty in collecting my thoughts, and I said to myself, Can all this of which I have such a vivid impression be other than a reality? for it was only a dream a magical delusion whatever it may be i will not quit this place till i find out the truth and i will place myself under the protection of the deity who sent the vision having formed this resolution i was waiting where i had slept when i saw approaching me a female form faded like a flower scorched by the sun with eyes red from weeping lips parched by the hot breath of sighs wearing a scanty black dress without ornaments and with her hair in a single braid like an affectionate wife mourning for the absence of her husband and with all this having an air of divine dignity which made me regard her with reverence and think that she might be the tutelary goddess of the place to whom i had commended myself and i prostrated myself before her but she raised me up with her arms and after kissing me again and again said with a voice broken by tears and sobs o my darling surely you have heard from the queen vasumati how one night a fairy appeared to her placing the child artapala in her arms told her husband's name and her own and how the child was brought up by the order of guvera and then disappeared i am that fairy your mother bewildered by unreasonable jealousy and anger i abandoned my husband your father kamapala and for that sin i was cursed by durga who condemned me to be possessed by an evil spirit for a year that year which seemed to me like a thousand years is ended and i am now come from the great festival of shiva where i have met my relations who had assembled there and have received full pardon from the goddess in my way thither i passed by this place saw you about to lie down and heard your prayer to the local deity being still partly under the influence of the curse i did not recognize you as my son yet even as a stranger i felt an interest in you and could not bear the thought of leaving you exposed to danger in such a wild place i therefore waited till you were fast asleep and then having considered where i could deposit you while i was gone to meet the goddess since i could not take you with me it occurred to me to carry you to the palace of the king of sravasti and leave you to sleep there till my return i therefore carried you through the air and placed you in the sleeping apartment of the princess feeling sure that no one would disturb you there.

I then went to the temple, and after paying due worship to Shiva and receiving the congratulations of my assembled friends, I was dismissed by the goddess, who said, You are forgiven, the curse is ended.

Go and be happy with your husband.

But, you know, you'll find there are other gods that are worshipped out there today, right? Sure, you, a Western Christian, not you, you, but like you generically, the Western Christian who believes in God, God, right? You probably recognize that there are polytheistic religions out there, you know, maybe not in the Christian West, but in the non-Christian East, if we still use those kinds of cardinal directions to do this sort of thing.

But, you know, what about Buddha? To give like a super easy, or Shiva, or, you know, any of the many Hindu gods, for example.

We recognize that there are a billion people who worship those gods.

But part of the package deal of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the monotheistic faiths, is the denial of the existence of those other deities.

He was not some divine person.

He was not Shiva or Krishna or anybody divine.

He was simply a man who was interested initially or whenever he needed, he was interested and that is it.

That's who he was.

don't need seafood all right let's go okay we're here at our first champa tower it's called which means the twin towers or not in lord of the rings let me give you a quick tldr it is that built by the hindu champa kingdom it is 800 years old which is quite old like adrian mentioned there's not much old stuff in vietnam like so much natural stuff here i feel like there's not much kind of thai cambodian style thing so 800 years old religious temples not watchtowers or tombs approximately 20 and 18 meters high the design is unusual for cham architecture they sit extremely close together strong Khmer influence probably reflects Champa's complicated relation relationship with the Khmer empire they originally stood outside the settlement modern Quy Nhon expanded around them which is why an 800 year old temple complex now looks like it has been dropped beside a busy city road Tap Doi was designated a national significant architectural monument in 1980 we are at the next Cham temple this one is called Ban It And this one is even older than the last one, so this one is about a thousand years old, which is really cool.

And just reading, so they worship Shiva, it's Brahmanism, and Yeah, there's four towers here, so we're going to go check out the four of them.

The architecture is a little bit different, and it's especially different to the Michon one that we've been to a long time ago in Da Nang as well.

And then if you look out here, you can see the view of the valley as well.

Kailash is identified with Meru, and thus with the very architecture of existence.

It is the abode of Lord Shiva, who sits in eternal meditation on the summit with his consort Parvati.

Shiva is the destroyer and transformer, the god who dissolves the universe at the end of each cosmic cycle.

so that it can be reborn.

His presence on the summit of Kailash means that the mountain is not merely sacred ground.

It is occupied by a God who is in the act of holding the universe together through the focused power of his meditation.

To climb to the summit would be to interrupt that meditation.

To stand where Shiva sits would be an act of cosmic trespass.

The Vishnu is the protector.

Shiva is the destroyer and the transformer.

And then Brahma is the creator.

But I feel like a protector.