[Advaita-l] Artistic depictions of the trinity- Brahma Vishnu MAheshwara

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

first of all is your form real?

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 8:07 PM, ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli <
shankarabharadwaj at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Correcting the subject line
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli <shankarabharadwaj at yahoo.com>
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Sent: Wed, June 15, 2011 12:37:06 AM
> Subject: Re: Buddhism, Advaita and Dvaita - 1
>
>
> Namaste,
>
> "Since we are humans, our ancestors depicted the devata-s with emotions to
> make
> them more relatable to us. Normally this is done for many purposes: "
>
> Most importantly, for the bhakta Devata is a living presence, in which one
> confides, to which one surrenders, and the one whose presence makes one
> easily
> give up the ownership and cultivate a sense of agency and get the feel of
> one's
> own insignificance.
>
>
> Shankar
>
> Satish Arigela satisharigela at yahoo.com
> Mon Jun 13 07:43:21 CDT 2011
> ________________________________
>
> >1) Are the artistic depiction of Visnu as blue bodied with four hands  >a
> true
> >representation of the god visnu when he takes form in  >Vaikunth??? Or
> does he
> >have no physical body in any world and so is the  >artistic depiction
>  purely
> >symbolic. >Same question for Lord Shiva depicted as an ascetic with snakes
> for
> >>adornment.  Are the forms of devata-s purely symbolic or are their forms
> real?
> >The answer would be yes and no. The form of the devata is imagined by the
> >mantrin usually or in some cases the devata appears in some particular
> form
> >without the upAsaka having to imagine in that particular form, when the
> mantra
> >japa is done regularly with proper training.  But for a better treatment
> of the
> >topic I suggest you read the following: I do  not subcribe to the
> following 100%
> >but most of it I agree with.
> >http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=846&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 An
> >alternate view would be to say the devata-s are real i.e. as real as this
>  world
> >and hence as unreal.    >2) IS there a physical place called Vaikunth?? or
> >Shivaloka or  >brahmaloka??  No.  >3) The puranas describe Lord Shiva and
> Visnu
> >as gods with emotions and  >involved with human beings activities. Did
> these
> >gods appear on Earth  >in those physical forms to help their devotees.
>  Since we
> >are humans, our ancestors depicted the devata-s with emotions to make
>  them more
> >relatable to us. Normally this is done for many purposes: 1) To convey  a
> moral
> >2) To illustrate the significance of a mantra or 3) To impress upon the
>  readers
> >some finer aspects of any siddhAnta and likewise a few more purposes
>  including
> >illustrating some ancient( or a recurring) astronomical phenomena. Or  in
> some
> >cases a story is narrated with devata-s displaying emotions just for
>  vinoda
> >i.e. entertainment.  Sometimes some people are seen as incarnations of a
> devata.
> >In those cases they  of-course should appropriately be shown as going
> through
> >all human emotions.  Rgds
> >
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