7 Secrets From Hindu Calendar Art, Narayan's Secret: Reading Notes Chapter 2 / Part B EXTRA READING

7 Secrets From Hindu Calendar Art

by Devdutt Pattanaik

Chapter 2 -- Narayan's Secret

Via Video Book on YouTube

Narayan's Secret

• Narayan is God. His deep slumber marks the dissolution of the world.
• Rebirth of the world that exists/ ceases to exist cyclically as Narayan wakes/sleeps
• No urgency in the world for Hindus like there is for Christians/Greeks. 
• He sleeps above an Ocean of Milk which creativity is drawn out of when it is churned, just like butter is drawn out of milk when it is churned. 
• Represents possibility (of creativity, of everything), the world is simply waiting to be churned
• Adi Shesha, Ananta Shesha -- static, Narayan sleeps on time
• Lakshmi and Narayan are pictured when he is ASLEEP, when he is AWAKE he is called Vishnu
• Shiva is also pictured, showing the differences in lines on their foreheads: Shiva is 3 horizontal lines, Vishnu is two vertical lines meeting together between the eyebrows.
• Garuda is Vishnu's mount -- still Shesha and flying Garuda 
• Vishnu -----> Avatars to Human (Rama)
• Creation is the result of Awareness, a subjective realization with each creation, something is destroyed (think baby on the choppy ocean waters and rebirth)

"What one considers the end is actually just a phase, a part of the process; after the end, comes the beginning." 

Hiker on a Journey

• Death is a comma, not a full stop.
• In Indian Art: 
• Right Side: Soul, Intellect
• Left Side: Movement, Matters, Emotions, Where the Heart is Located

Wengenn in Wonderland, by Queenie Liao
from boredpanda

I could create a story about Vishnu/Narayan as he grew and learned to sleep, as a child does... First they sleep a lot, which for Vishnnu, would cause the world to reset (rebirth) again and again and again, quite frequently. Then, when he would hit what would be equivalent to his Terrible Twos, and he refuses to sleep, the World does not get to reset or rebirth... and people begin to live for thousands of years, and Babylon happens, etc But, as Vishnu grows older, he learns to regulate his sleep, and has now attained quite a regular sleep pattern, that similar to that of an adult who has settled in to the pattern of life, and the World now rebirths, or resets, on quite a regular, predictable basis.