0ffshoot of Unbending intent

[Pixie Dust]

Hahaha.

That would be nice. There's layers like a baklava.

[Le_Regard]

As a general rule, bad things happen when the public good for Civil Society is transformed into the private good of agents of The State who care more about their next promotion.

[Pixie Dust]

Naturally.

The same core issues exist and repeat at every layer. It's one thing to see things on a small scale. Totally different to see it scaled up.

[Le_Regard]

For some reason, I really must insist that the patterns and principles are the essential thing here and not the scale at which they are expressed.

[Pixie Dust]

I agree. I was just saying how surprising and unexpected the expressions can get.

[Le_Regard]

[Le_Regard]

This is Ganesha.  I've been told he Removes Obstacles.

He has the head of an elephant, the body of a man, and he rides around on a mouse.

But I digress.

So about differences of scale...

[Pixie Dust]

Right?! Who writes this sh*t?! It's like they're not even trying to be reasonable.

[Pixie Dust]

Ganesh was born of his mother, a virgin. His father came home from war, cut off Ganesh's head, not realizing it was his son. The head rolled and became lost. So Dad found an elephant, cut off the head, and put it on Ganesh.

Problem solved!

It's all just so ridiculous.

[Le_Regard]

[Le_Regard]

Probably the most relevant detail here is how unbending Shiva's intent must have been.

[Le_Regard]

I don't think she was a virgin in the story... they were married.  Maybe they explain the lack of a child with how Shiva was too busy out meditating in the wilderness going into ecstatic altered states of consciousness to pay attention to his wife.  Anyway... Parvati was home alone, and she was going to take a bath.  So she took the oil and dirt from her skin and fashioned a son for herself, and breathed life into him, and instructed him to guard the door while she bathed.  Those were the instructions.  So by coincidence Shiva comes home, and Ganesha doesn't recognize him, and Shiva is like "WTF are you doing?  Who even are you?  I LIVE HERE."  So of course they fight about it.

[Le_Regard]

Shiva wins, by the way.  The important thing here is that Shiva wins, Ganesha gets his head cut off, but it's all fucked up for everyone now because Parvati cries and cries and cries.

[Pixie Dust]

Lol.  Think though, it's considerate these icons are imaginary.  It's easier to hear the message if identity isn't so prominent.

Shiva totally won. Until Parvati made him fix his mistake.

[Pixie Dust]

As a God, how does Shiva not realize he has a son?! Why didn't he be patient and ask for clarification, instead of just ASSUMING Ganesh needed to die. It's highly irresponsible of Shiva to be so reckless and hostile for no real reason.

[Le_Regard]

Pixie Dust wrote:
As a God, how does Shiva not realize he has a son?!  Why didn't he be patient and ask for clarification, instead of just ASSUMING Ganesh needed to die.  It's highly irresponsible of Shiva to be so reckless and hostile for no real reason.

I don't know.  In fact, Ganesha predates that story.  It's all about incorporating a popular tribal deity into the larger Hindu pantheon, probably.

But even so I don't think Shiva was reckless and hostile for no real reason.  The poor thing was like a supercomputer running only one line of code: "guard this door, guard this door, guard this door, guard this door, guard this door" and Shiva set him free.

[Pixie Dust]

Le_Regard wrote:
I don't think she was a virgin in the story... they were married.  Maybe they explain the lack of a child with how Shiva was too busy out meditating in the wilderness going into ecstatic altered states of consciousness to pay attention to his wife.  Anyway... Parvati was home alone, and she was going to take a bath.  So she took the oil and dirt from her skin and fashioned a son for herself, and breathed life into him, and instructed him to guard the door while she bathed.  Those were the instructions.  So by coincidence Shiva comes home, and Ganesha doesn't recognize him, and Shiva is like "WTF are you doing?  Who even are you?  I LIVE HERE."  So of course they fight about it.

There are a few variations in the story.  But yes, not a virgin, my bad.  Shiva was away at war and she impregnated herself (with magic).  

See, I always feel crazy talking religion.  This is why lol.

[Le_Regard]

Shiva and Parvati in this case are (among many other things) stand-ins for Purusha and Prakriti, i.e., Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter...  so another piece of it as that Matter can't create life by herself, it just acts weird, and it needs Consciousness.

Shiva was not off at war in any of the versions of the story I know.  Shiva is more the kind to sit on top of a mountain blissfully staring into space for 1,000,000,000 years.

[Pixie Dust]

Le_Regard wrote:
Pixie Dust wrote:
As a God, how does Shiva not realize he has a son?!  Why didn't he be patient and ask for clarification, instead of just ASSUMING Ganesh needed to die.  It's highly irresponsible of Shiva to be so reckless and hostile for no real reason.

I don't know.  In fact, Ganesha predates that story.  It's all about incorporating a popular tribal deity into the larger Hindu pantheon, probably.

But even so I don't think Shiva was reckless and hostile for no real reason.  The poor thing was like a supercomputer running only one line of code: "guard this door, guard this door, guard this door, guard this door, guard this door" and Shiva set him free.

Hodor, hodor, hodor!

Speaking of GoT... hehehe.  

Nudge nudge wink wink.

[Le_Regard]

Shiva is ALSO useless at creating life without Parvati, it goes both ways if that wasn't obvious.

[Le_Regard]

...in case you were wondering why Shiva bothered coming home at all.

[Pixie Dust]

Le_Regard wrote:
Shiva is ALSO useless at creating life without Parvati, it goes both ways if that wasn't obvious.

Parvati totally created life without Shiva.  Whatchu talkin about?  Parvati had a magical son, like how the red woman birthed a demon.

[Pixie Dust]

John Snow comes back to life like Jesus.

It's all just a repetitive narrative.

[Le_Regard]

If this a GoT reference I don't understand those at all.  I'm sorry.

[Le_Regard]

What I like about the Ganesha version of the repetitive narrative is he at least gets to come back with a bigger head.