Reading Notes Pattanaik's Calendar Art: Part A

For this weeks reading I did another video series. It comes from a series of videos. This first one is about Ganesh and details how Hinduism and Ganesh relate. Near the beginning their is a good story. In this one Ganesh and his brother decide to race around the world three times. Ganesh never moves and his brother quickly races around the world. Just before his brother wins he gets up and runs around their parents. Then he says he won. He said "you went around the world, but I went around my world". This was used as an example between the objective and subjective, the rational and the emotional. I thought this was really cheesy and could be used to make a funny story. This would be easy to replicate in a modern setting and the ending could be replaced with another silly cop out. This was followed by an interesting discussion of the parallel thinking that exists in Hinduism. How two opposites can be true at once. Divinity is formless but we require forms to comprehend it. I thought this video did a really good job at explaining how the gods can be gods but not The God, and the relationship between everything. However, the more I watched the more confused I became. The video also did a lot explaining the complex relationships between the different gods. I think it would be neat to make a story attempting to personify these complex relationships. I could see them working in an office together or going to school together. I think this would be a good setting to flesh out their personalities and relationships with each other.

Statue of Ganesh
Wikimedia Image

Devdutt Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art.
YouTube playlist