Reading Notes: Pattanaik's Calendar Art, Part B (Narayan)

 

Narayan

Picture by Benjamín Preciado

Source: Wikipedia

Wow, I think this video had so much knowledge to share. I think my favorite part about this video was the very beginning when the concept of reincarnation is introduced. The video starts off by saying how there is only a single life in the Greek, Muslim, and Christian religion. However, rebirth is an aspect of life for Hinduism. I think the most interesting difference in all these religions was how Greeks desire to be heroes, Christians desire to be saved by God, and Muslims surrender to God because the belief is there is only one life. However, Hindus believe there are many lives and worlds.

Sesha was a deep concept for me to understand. However, I took away that Sesha is basically the remains after everything else is gone, and Narayan sleeps on Sesha. Narayan is like the ultimate observer. He observes pretty much everything, but only when he is awake. If I were to write a story on Narayan, I would create a world the Narayan does observe in his sleep unlike the original story. I could make it interesting by him not knowing what reality is.

There are a lot of things I could twist from the original story, and knowledge. Another element I would like to include in my story is Lakshmi. She will be the answer to all the questions in my story. I want her to symbolism the lesson in my own story. I want the lesson to be about observing what you are blessed with. I think it will tie in really well with Narayan since he symbolizes observation. I think this will be a very fun story to create because it will have bits and pieces of symbolism that relate to the original background story of Narayan and Lakshmi.

Bibliography: Devdutt's Pattanaik's Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art