Anything that exists(Indra) has an individuality(Vishnu) associated with it. Even if that particular entity(Indra) is evil. Whether Good or Bad, they both have survival instincts. It depends on the entity they lie within to decide which one stays unharmed in the end. This outer entity has its own set of rules. Having rules is also an important Vedic concept defined as Varuna. Every entity follows its own set of rules that allow it to work in its environment. These rules must be flexible to change(Vayu) from the environment(Soma from environment(Dyava)) to stay alive(Agni-Vayu). The core(Vishnu) should be maintained though because it defines the uniqueness(Individuality- Vishnu). To use the rules in decision making, they should consider a lot of diverse(multiple- feminine) information that are interconnected with each other. Most importantly they should serve each other(creating abundance: multiple and abundant- Lakshmi) well and closed(Indra) for a concrete/fair(Vishnu) decision to be made. Every new information entering must be well connected with the previous information. Lack of connectivity can withhold the decision making process. So rules have to be well connected in multiple aspects to be used(i.e. to have a purpose(Vayu)- to be alive(Vayu)) and information given(Soma) should also be well-connected in the multiple aspects to be digestable(or make sense) by the receiving/deciding entity. This idea can be misused to provide well-connected wrong information that sounds correct. Such information are poisonous and can kill the intended entity. In such a case, a closely associated entity that will also suffer damage from the poisonous information(Soma) about the intended entity must take the initiative to counter that. Closely associated entities are those entities that spend a higher portion of their time with the intended entity. When I come to discussing Pusan, you will be able to understand this better. Therefore the biggest poison that can ultimately kill an entity is from the entity of the highest level of close association. This is why in military endeavours, if these type of entities change loyalty, it’s a very big gain for the interested group. Such entities belong to the core(protective- Vishnu) of the intended entity. Now you can imagine what happens when this is lost. To belong to the core of the entity requires acute intelligence(Agni-Indra: more of Agni-Vishnu since Vishnu is the good subset of Indra) directed towards protection(Vishnu). A lot of constraints(Pitrus: we will look into this later) show up when doing so due to past activities and experiences. To counter these the Vaastu Chart says implementing Eesaniyam(a form of Rudra) works, i.e. taking control of the situation works. So now we are going to understand the Rudra concept.
RUDRA:
Rudra in Sanskrit means Howler derived from the root rud- meaning to cry. It actually depicts a form of communication. A sound form of communication. Communication is all about transferring and receiving information(the Soma here). Let’s break this down to some Soma communication so that we can generalize it. So it’s not only sound but any other form of communication. Now let’s think about what happens during communication. Let’s think about two people talking to each other or a person talking to a gathering. The person takes into account the situation and controls what he/she will say or do next. This is again an Agni model if look into it further. Over here we are talking about the controllability. Most of what we do involves controlling. Even learning. Just keep thinking Agni while I discuss Rudra. When learning about something we send a test stimulus to that entity and see how it behaves. We then document this behavior so that we can pass the knowledge to others. We control the language in such a way to convey exactly what we learned. We include definitions explaining what things are and are not to explain the studied behaviours of that entity further and easily. The learners then begin to visualize the behavior of that entity through the language we used. After learning about something, the next thing we get interested to do is to control that entity in the way we want it to behave. All scientific philosophies developed so far follow this method. Whether it is for implementing or analyzing bigger things, we control those things the way we want it. In the Puranas we encounter the fact that both the Good and Evil forces worship Shiva(the most popular form of Rudra we encountered in the previous post) as Shiva in these contexts represents Scientific Knowledge.
Let’s look further into controllability. It is the part that decides what/how much to allow and what/how much to not allow. It can thought of some sort of traffic regulation where at some point only some lanes are allowed mobility while others aren’t. Rudra itself isn’t as significant as Shiva. Shiva implements Rudra mostly but Shiva is something that shows the benefits of implementing Rudra. So when you travel to India to its temples or read scriptures you will mostly visualize Rudra as Shiva. At this point I can describe Shiva in detail because I haven’t yet discussed Chandra which is a very important part of Shiva. But in my next section more about the ancient representations of Shiva. I had already explained in brief of what Shiva represents in my previous post. We will walk further in that path.
SHIVA:
During my Vedic research, I used to look at historical connotations given in many modern literatures that involved Deities and used my Vedic understanding to understand what those excerpts were actually talking about. I believed that these excerpts maintained the information contained in the original texts because the authors had that responsibility.
I’m a Bharathanatyam Artist and so I come across Shiva quite a number of times. In fact the male form of the art is a Thandava style. Thandava represents the style in which Shiva dances. Shiva also has a very popular epithet known as Nataraja meaning the King of Dance. If you look into the history about the origin of Bharathanatyam, this form of art began in the Treta Yuga(Age) by Sage Bharatha Muni along with the birth of Carnatic Music. When Sage Bharatha Muni was designing the art form(depicted in literature as Bramha, The Creator, creating the art form and passing it onto Bharatha Muni- Note: People of those days credited their work along the skill(Deity) they used. A sort of practice they used to avoid any form of egotism. The same is the case with Sage Vyasa with is work on Mahabharath.) he kept in mind the Shiva aspect. Now with our understanding of Shiva as a controller what could this mean? The art form does some sort of controlling or manipulation but of what? Considering the fact that the art form was also known as the fifth Veda, we can say that it controls the Natural Elements(Deities). So the Natyashashtra talks about how to control the Deities the way you want it. Sounds like some sort of revolutionary technique was developed two Yugas ago to control Nature and the worst part was that it went into the wrong hands as well(This art form was also taught to Raavan, the deadliest demon ever to have existed on Earth). I, as a Bharathanatyam Dancer, don’t even know how this works. I have to study the four Vedas in detail first to even understand a teeny weeny part of it. Now something sounds awkward. How can an art form change Nature? Or how by just dancing can you change Nature? Well we have come across the fact that music, or some sort of sound perception, can cure certain ailments. We just need to think further that visual perception can also make a difference. When both work together in harmony something does change in the viewers. It’s my theory. So you are free to disagree. But if you really think deeper you might unleash the fact that the Human Race is actually some form of Divinity. Think about it. If we are given the capability or permission(Rudra- Nature controls what it gives us) to control Nature there should be some pretty good reason for it. And the fact that we have lost this Divinity also tells us that at some point in time the transition happened.
Now this leads to a question that if Nature controls everything, why was a demon like Raavan allowed to take birth in the first place? The Indians saw the birth of demons differently and they had documented their notion in a famous Purana that narrates the demons to be the incarnation of the Divine Gatekeepers. Since Nature is designed to ensure safety(Vishnu) of all species at the same time serving each other(Lakshmi), Nature was usually represented as Vishnu in the Puranas. The Divine Gatekeepers are the ones that protect the work of this Nature. So if this Nature desires a transition, these Gatekeepers make sure it happens. This idea comes from the Vedic concept known as Pusan, The Path Protector. To make a transition they have to go against the established order(whether good or bad) and that makes them demons. Raavan was meant to make this transition a large one. If you plot the four Yugas on the Vaastu Chart based on their percentage of time lengths with respect to one whole Creation Cycle(One Brahma Day) you will understand why this was the case.
To deal with real problems(real problems have multiple constraints because of the Lakshmi aspect) you will need the courage and confidence to deal with multiple constraints. This is represented as Parvathi/Durga, the consort of Shiva. In Bharathanatyam, the feminine form of the art is her Lasya(graceful) style. It is this style that maintains the art form as a divine art. Women those days were maintainers of divinity, not men. Men were mainly doers, divine or undivine. That’s why Raavan had to attack women to destroy divinity of mankind.
My next post will be about the Maruts. Many of the concepts I have talked about so far will become clear.
