#vedas

MY PURPOSE IS TO ENLIGHTEN YOU WITH THE METHOD OF WORSHIP AS PRESCRIBED BY THE SCRIPTURES.

This is to protect you from the immense hardships of the future, specifically the agony of passing through the 8.4 million species of life and the torments of hell.

या कुन्देन्दुतुषारहारधवला या शुभ्रवस्त्रावृता

या वीणावरदण्डमण्डितकरा या श्वेतपद्मासना ।

या ब्रह्माच्युत शंकरप्रभृतिभिर्देवैः सदा पूजिता

सा मां पातु सरस्वति भगवती निःशेषजाड्यापहा ॥

I bow to thee Saraswati who is white like the jasmine, with the coolness of the moon, the brightness of the snow, and a sheen like the garland of pearls, who is covered with white garments, who holds the veena, and the boon-bestowing staff; And who is seated on a pure white lotus, who is always adored by Brahma, Achyuta (Vishnu), Shankara (Shiva), and the other Devatas, O goddess Saraswati, please protect me and dispel all my ignorance.

I love this drawing of Saraswati. She is the Vagdevi, giving the Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva Vedas.

Rigveda 2.41.16

अम्बि॑तमे॒ नदी॑तमे॒ देवि॑तमे॒ सर॑स्वति । अ॒प्र॒श॒स्ता इ॑व स्मसि॒ प्रश॑स्तिमम्ब नस्कृधि ॥

अम्बितमे नदीतमे देवितमे सरस्वति । अप्रशस्ता इव स्मसि प्रशस्तिमम्ब नस्कृधि ॥

Best of mothers, best of rivers, best of goddesses, O Saraswati, we are ignorant and untrained, give us wisdom and knowledge!

Saraswati is the Maa who gave us our very civilisation. She is the Vagdevi who bestowed us with voice. She is uncontrollable, wild river who nourshed our ancestors. She was the lion riding goddess who gave rise to Durga, and even today in Durga Puja the Tantrokta Devi Sukta is recited which comes from the Vagambhrini Sukta of the Rigveda, composed by the Rishika (female Rishi) Ambhrini.

In Hindu philosophy, Paravak is the highest unmanifested level of speech, representing pure, undifferentiated consciousness and the source of all creation. Paravak manifests into Pashyantivak (vision of thoughts), Madhyamavak (the thought before it is spoken), and finally Vaikharivak (audible voice, spoken word heard by the ears).

My face when Puranic Indra slander:

In Sanskrit, the word kāma is desire, a force that pulls the senses outward, seeking pleasure through contact. It is not evil, nor purely physical but the movement of consciousness toward an object it wishes to consume. Prema, by contrast, is love, not a moral opposite, but a different orientation of the same current. Where kāma seeks to absorb, prema seeks to expand. Both are born from the impulse of union, the difference lies in perception. In kāma, one sees the other as inferior, a vessel to be tasted and dissolved. In prema, one sees the other as superior, a presence that cannot be devoured because it already fills the world.

Hannibal lives within kāma. To eat, to kill, to manipulate, to orchestrate beauty through death, all are gestures of a consciousness that sees itself as sovereign and others as offerings. He indulges not because he is depraved, but because he believes himself refined. The world exists for him to experience. Yet in this conviction of superiority lies the ignorance that the Gita calls avidyā, the illusion of separateness. He consumes to feel whole, but each act confirms the gap between himself and what he devours. The palate is never satisfied by its own echo. His elegance is a disguise for emptiness, his art is an attempt to fill the silence his own omnivorous self has created.

In the language of the Vedas, kāma is a fire that cannot sustain itself. Its nature is to burn until it turns on the one who tends it. Hannibal’s refinement is a controlled blaze, a ritual of endless appetite. He confuses knowledge with mastery, the act of tasting with the act of knowing. He believes that to possess is to understand, that to consume is to become. But kāma never becomes; it only repeats. It is a circle without center.

But Will is the mirror in which Hannibal’s hunger collapses. He recognizes something he cannot reduce, a consciousness that reflects him back without dissolving. The urge to consume returns, sharper, but beneath it pulses the terror of prema: the realization that to love is to cease being superior. Prema arises from vidyā, knowledge, the unveiling that the beloved is not other, not object, but self. And to one who has lived by dominance, such recognition is annihilating.

Hannibal’s instinct is to turn love back into lust, to digest what threatens to equal him. He attempts to treat Will as he treats the world: as art, as flesh, as subject. But the deeper truth begins to corrode his method...love cannot be consumed. It is already consuming him. The bliss of prema is not in possession, but in dissolution, the surrender of the boundary that lust so desperately defends. When Bedelia tells Will that Hannibal is “nourished at the very sight of him,” she names the transformation of hunger turning to vision, appetite replaced by presence. Sight becomes sustenance because he no longer sees through kāma. He sees through prema, the recognition that nothing remains to be taken when all is already within.

In that shift, Hannibal moves from ignorance to knowledge, though not toward salvation. His enlightenment is aesthetic, not moral. He understands that to kill Will would not fulfill the hunger but destroy the only mirror that ever reflected him truthfully. To love Will is to accept the impossibility of devouring him. And so the hunger remains but not as torment, as revelation. He has tasted the distinction between desire that consumes and desire that worships.

Hannibal’s tragedy is not that he cannot love, but that he finally does and love demands that the devourer recognize himself in the devoured. To see the beloved as divine is to concede that one was never the god. In that knowledge, the predator disappears, and only the gaze remains, steady, nourished, infinite.

Rudra-Śiva and tamas are intimately linked within Indian metaphysics, particularly in Shaiva and Samkhya traditions. Rudra is the fierce, stormy, and dissolving aspect of Śiva—often associated with destruction, untamed energy, and withdrawal. He is not simply a wrathful deity but a necessary force in the cosmic cycle, embodying the dissolution that precedes regeneration. Śiva as Rudra expresses the essence of tamas, not as ignorance or sloth, but as the force of stillness, withdrawal, and rest—a divine pause that follows activity and enables renewal.

While in classical Samkhya philosophy tamas is one of the three gunas (qualities of nature) often characterized by heaviness, obscuration, and inertia, in Shaivism this guna has a commonly elevated meaning. It is not merely a lower quality to be transcended, but a veiling power (āvaraṇa śakti) employed by Śiva himself. Through tamas, Śiva conceals his own infinite nature to allow for the experience of limitation, individuality, and the play of forms. Thus, tamas becomes a sacred mechanism that makes manifestation and the drama of creation possible.

Rudra’s tamas is not dullness or ignorance but the sacred void—the terrifying, still depth of unmanifest reality. It is the eye of the storm, the quiet at the heart of chaos. As Mahākāla, Śiva is the devourer of time and the dissolver of all forms, embodying the ultimate return to the silence from which everything emerges. In this way, the tamasic aspect of Śiva is not an obstacle to liberation but its very gateway. When purified, tamas becomes the ground of stillness, absorption, and transcendence—the darkness before dawn and the womb from which illumination is born.

This deeper understanding of Rudra and tamas is richly encoded in five nakshatras associated with Rudra and Rudra-like deities: Ardra, Shatabhisha, Mula, Purva Bhadrapada, and Uttara Bhadrapada. Among them, Ardra alone is ruled directly by Rudra, while the others are ruled by forms or emanations of Rudra—such as Nirriti, Varuna, Aja Ekapad, and Ahirbudhnya—who reflect specialized aspects of the same dissolving, transformative principle.

Ardra (06°40'–20°00' Gemini) is ruled directly by Rudra, the fierce form of Śiva who represents thunder, storm, and the tearing down of illusion. Ardra is characterized by yatna shakti, the power of effort, especially for making gains. Its basis above is hunting or searching, and its basis below is reaching the goal, leading to achievement. This is tamas as catharsis and purification, where inner storms clear karmic debris, resulting in the breakthrough of awareness. Ardra represents the direct force of divine destruction and transformation through emotional intensity and upheaval.

Mula (00°00'–13°20' Sagittarius) is ruled by Nirriti, the goddess of destruction, often associated with a fierce, dissolving form of Rudra's Shakti. Though not ruled by Rudra proper, Nirriti expresses a tamasic power allied to him, embodying death, root destruction, and the undoing of karma. Mula possesses barhana shakti, the power to destroy or ruin. Its basis above is breaking things apart, and its basis below is crushing things. Through this, one gains the power to destroy destruction itself. Mula’s tamas is the spiritual fire of root-clearing—radical deconstruction for the sake of clarity, a direct confrontation with illusion at its base.

Shatabhisha (06°40'–20°00' Aquarius) is ruled by Varuna, the god of the cosmic waters, often considered a guardian and regulator with Rudra-like austerity. Varuna is associated with Rudra in certain Vedic texts. Specifically, in Rigveda 5.70, the pair of Mitra and Varuna are explicitly called Rudra. This indicates a connection between Varuna's role and the fearsome, terror-inspiring aspect associated with Rudra.

He governs divine law and the mystical, healing dimensions of the cosmos. Shatabhisha has bheshaja shakti, the power of healing or medicine, and is known as "the hundred healers." Its basis above is extension and pervasiveness, and its basis below is support of all, granting a world free of calamity. Though not Rudra himself, Varuna holds a secondary Rudra-like rulership, veiled and sober. This nakshatra expresses tamas as concealed medicine and mystical isolation—a stilling of the mind to allow divine order and restoration.

Purva Bhadrapada (20°00' Aquarius–03°20' Pisces) is ruled by Aja Ekapad, a form of the cosmic fire and a celestial Rudra-Agni hybrid, often seen as the one-footed goat or serpent. Purva Bhadrapada’s power is yajamana udyamana shakti, the spiritual fire that raises the aspirant toward transcendence. Its basis above is the good of all, and its basis below is what is good for the gods, bringing about universal support. Purva Bhadrapada brings internal purification and tapas, leading to creative fire and spiritual brilliance. Here, tamas is ritualized effort—a burning away of ego and selfishness for the upliftment of spirit. This nakshatra is especially potent for mystical ascent through discipline, embodying Rudra as the inner flame of transformation.

Uttara Bhadrapada (03°20'–16°40' Pisces) is ruled by Ahirbudhnya, the serpent of the deep and a powerful form of underworld Rudra associated with the unconscious depths of creation. It has varshodyamana shakti, the power to bring rain. Its basis above is the raining clouds, and its basis below is the growing of plants, allowing the three worlds to gain stability. This is tamas as cosmic latency and nourishment—deep, slow, hidden growth born of rest and moisture. Ahirbudhnya governs the subterranean foundations of life and supports mystical grounding. Uttara Bhadrapada represents the sacred darkness that nourishes all—spiritual sleep, patience, and eventual blossoming from the deep.