Darkness to Illumination

Hindu Mytho Meme | Gods and Goddesses - Sita

Hindu Mytho Meme: Couples (2 of 6)

Sita, Princess of Mithila | Ramayan

Hindu Mytho Meme: Gods and Goddesses (part 2 of 10)

Devi Sita

Hindu Mytho Meme | Events 2/8: The Great Indian Wedding (Ramayan)

Devon ke Dev Mahadev | Sati’s first interaction with a symbol of her eternal love, Shiva

Hindu Mythology Meme | Scriptures 1/1: Srimad Bhagavata Purana

Srimad Bhagavatam Puraanam amalam yad Vaishnavanam priyam Y’asmin paramahansyam ekam amalam gyanam param giyate tatra gyana-viraga-bhakti-sahitam naiskarmyam avisktam ta shravanam su-pathan vicharana-paro bhaktya vimukshyen narah

The Bhagavat Puran, authored by Ved Vyas immediately after the great epic Mahabharat, is one of the most illustrious scriptures in the Hindu canon. By means of stories from the lives of avatars, sages, devotees, and kings, it popularizes the truths contained in the Vedas. At present, more than two hundred million Hindus find in it their most cherished expressions of religious faith and their dearest exemplars. To study it is the best of all ways to become acquainted with the living religion of India.

The text has a ubiquitous presence in Hindu theology, performing arts, ritual recitation, and commentary. It has had a formative influence on the relationship between the sacred text and the divine image, the metaphysical and cosmological underpinnings of Ancient Indian thought, and the overall shaping of Indian culture. Its popularity stems from its unique ability to strike the difficult balance between the heart and the head, devotion and learning. 

Krishna. The Sanskrit word is primarily an adjective meaning “black” or “dark,” sometimes it is also translated as “all attractive.”

Hindu Mythology Meme | Couples 2/6: Vasudev & Devaki

The human mind and heart are only equipped to feel so much pain and sorrow. Beyond that point, it is simply more pain, more sorrow. Not bigger, greater, grander, just more. Anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one knows this to be true. The tear ducts can only produce so many tears at a time. The heart can grieve for only so long. Anything beyond that is simply more of the same. After a time, the mind grows numb. The heart hardens. The spirit withers and starts to die. This is life, says that part of us which enables us to survive holocausts and hurricanes, war and bereavement alike, live through this. And so we do live. We go on. We survive. We endure the unendurable and come out the other side, blinking, dazed, shocked and stupefied, but still alive.

- Krishna Coriolis: Slayer of Kamsa (Ashok Banker)

Ah, VasuDevaki. Where do I even begin to describe these two? Most know them as Krishna’s long-suffering parents whom he liberated from years of confinement and torment after killing the evil Kansa. Know them, but don’t think about them. I’ve always been drawn to them since long before I understood what they endured and what they stood for (in tumblr terms, they’re my OTP of OTPs). And now that I understand, I love them even more.

It started with the prophecy on their wedding day - their son was destined to kill his tyrannical uncle, and said uncle was so enraged that he was ready to behead his newlywed sister on the spot. Vasudev hardly knew her then, but she already meant enough to him that he traded away his freedom to save her life. Thereafter they were confined to a dark, solitary dungeon where year after year, Kansa murdered their newborn children before their eyes. The seventh pregnancy was marked with miracles that renewed their hope, but to them it appeared to have ended in a miscarriage and they had that added grief to bear until they learned the truth. When the long-awaited savior - the eighth son mentioned in the prophecy - was finally born, they prized his safety over the joy of watching him grow up. So they stayed in that same darkness, that same solitude, with only the assurance that Krishna was adored and protected in Vrindavan to keep them going.

Hindu Mytho Meme [3/8:Events]

Urvashi curses Arjun

Arjun, son of the Devraj Indra, came to visit his father to obtain celestial weapons that would aid him in the Mahabharat war. Indra convinced his son that he should also learn the art of music and dance from the Gandharva Chitrasen. Arjun excelled at these lessons, unaware that he had caught the eye of Heaven’s most beautiful Apsara, Urvashi.

Hindu Mythology Meme | Couples 1/6: Draupadi & Yudhishtir

Draupadi had a different relationship with each of her husbands. She and Bhim were kindred spirits, alike in their fiery spirit and intuitive, swift action. With Arjun, she had the most passion - it was he who won her hand at the swayamvar, and that initial attraction lived on forever. Of late, it’s her relationship with Yudhishtir that intrigues me most. It is arguably the most tense because they are the least similar in terms of personality. She is all about justice and payback, and he believes in forgiving and forgetting. They are the literal representation of Krishna’s “shaurya aur dhairya” (valor and patience) dialogue about husbands and wives in Starbharat, and that is what makes their relationship so special.

He errs along the way by completely losing sight of his priorities in the dice match and foolishly extending forgiveness to people who would go on to offend again. On occasion, she expresses exasperation at being the wife of someone so drastically her opposite… but what’s an interesting couple without a fair share of conflict?

As their exile progresses and they eventually win back the kingdom that’s rightfully theirs, you see that somewhere beneath all the tension, they had a profound impact on each other. If she and Arjun love each other most, and she and Bhim are most alike, she and Yudhishtir balance one another out and teach each other to look at things from a different perspective. When the time comes for war against those who had wronged his family, he plunges into battle without worrying that his revered relatives like Bhishma and teachers like Drona were on the other side. He has very little martial skill, no divine weapons, and yet no fear or hesitation either - merely the confidence in fighting for a just cause that she had instilled in him over the years.

Mythology - Gandharvas and Apsaras