November 16, 2004

• Shiva is also the father of Hanuman.
• Representations of Shiva as Ardhanarishvara the Divine Androgyne
• Wonderful links.
• homunculus, No he is not. I was brought up Hindu and I should know. You are probably referring to Shiva being the father of Ganesha. Shiva is supposed to have two other sons: Karthikeya (aka Murugan or Skanda ) through Parvathi and Ayyappa through Krishna in his androgynous form of Mohini the enchantress.
• Yes, Thaths is right. Hanuman's father is the wind god - Vayu or Pavan. Although, a little googling has turned up some alternate traditions I hadn't heard before: One tradition states that he is actually an emanation of Shiva, being his Eleventh Rudra. Siva as foster father? To cool down his temperament Vayu took him to Kailash and left him to the care of Lord Siva. Siva as sperm donor? Another tradition holds that Hanuman's father was Shiva who, finding Parvati reluctant to give birth to a monkey, entrusted the child in embryo (in Parvati's womb) to Vayu, who carried it with him from place to place till it became mature.
• Poor hmonc. He's usually pretty reliable. *lifts glass, goes offline*
• Yo who be dis'n tha H-dogg? Y'all is wack - I'ma haffa whip tha lettah openeh of death on y'all weak-azz beyotches!
• Siva as sperm donor? That's the version I was thinking of, and which is described in the article on Hanuman I linked. But thanks or the correction and all the links. It's okay pete, as long as no one leaves their shit on my desk, it's all good.
• homunculus, I did click on the original link you had posted, but the site was "under maintenence" (I still get the same message). So I could not read the alternative tradition. PY, thanks for those links. I had never come across these other traditions.
• Man! I guess I'd never paid enough attention to Hinduism to see how complex it is. I'm not sure I could learn it in a lifetime. But, is there any other still existant religion which is so involved in the sensual and sexual? The ones I know downplay those as "sex should only be for reproductive proposes" or "we should get rid of all desire."
• Interesting question, path and I surely don't know enough about world religions to attempt a proper answer. A vague guess instead then - maybe mystical strains of certain faiths, with their emphasis on the experiential.
• Homunclus is quite right about Shiva fathering Hanuman or Hanumat, ]2nd paragraph] according to some Hindu traditions. Hinduism is a venerable and complex subject, and therefore difficult for anyone to encompass completely. An interesting, and apparently female manifestation, of Hanumat in Bhutan.
• path perhaps we could gain a better understanding with some . . . pictures? :D
• Do leading religious scholars err in their analysis of Hindu texts?
• A most intersting article, homunculous. Can be a huge gap between experiencing a religion from the inside as a practitioner as opposed to scrutinizing it from a western scholarly perespective. And beliefs like splinters under the skin can be inflamed once nationalism rears its hideously-multiple head.
• The Forms of Shiva in Visual Arts
• Dance: The Living Spirit of Indian Arts
• Krishna's Dance with the Female Cowherds - A Joyous, Spiritual Narrative
• Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn ...
• Parvati's Quest: Understanding the Essence of Shiva
• This article is about Jewish event. For Hindu God, see Shiva. Why is the name the same? I demand answers!
• Lovely story.
• I don't know how I missed this the first time around, but it is cool. Driven to a level of frenzy the same as their chaste women, these sages in their uncontrolled outrage tore off Shiva's organ of generation from his body. But Shiva, the first amongst yogis, remained supremely unaffected both by the women's adoration and the sages' anger. First amongst yogis? This encounter sounds like any other dissertation defense. 'First amongst Ph. D. candidates' is more like it.
• Maha Shivratri
• Ancient Hindu healing draws beauty tourists Apologies if there is a more appropriate thread
• Shiva Darsan
• If Shiva played the cello...
• Freebird!
• Yay11111!
• Hi petes!
• Kali: The Most Powerful Cosmic Female
• The Two Faces of Kali - The Hindu goddess encompasses all opposites: life and death, beauty and ugliness, motherliness and destruction.