h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Krishna colours on the wall
You taught me how to love you'

Incredible String Band

You got me singing that now.

Great account, NDE plus morphine, yikes now there's a mix. I'm seeing Krishna now, and Ganesh, ah yes I love Ganesh. And Vishnu, what about Vishnu? I think Thomas de Quincey ran into him during an opium dream.

I seem to remember he got a bit paranoid, and started going on about weird crocodiles, and how Vishnu hated him.

Yay!

Conceited, much> Oh, that de Quincey.

Krishna, I believe, is an avatar of Vishnu. But my Hindu theology may be imperfect. I believe Shiva to be a related avatar. This is from when words like 'avatar' had real meanings, and not merely the ones assigned to them by internet geeks.

Krishna is not scary. I doubt he'd hate de Quizncey. Or anybody else. He was certainly fond of all those milkmaids...

Anyway, I heartily recommend that Peter Brook film. It will have you seeing colours - and hearing them, probably - for hours...

Milkmaids? That's funny, , kind of, the way you phrased it.



That's really interesting about the word avatar. Hmm. Good knowledge. I shall ponder on that.

I'll check that film indeed! Hearing colours for days sounds extremely enticing. Years in fact. I want to hear colours forever!

I love all the Hindu and Buddhist mythology and images. Some of it is a bit scary though, who's the lady with the skulls .. Kali? yes, Kali I think. A friend once told me that I reminded him of Kali, that was weird.

That DOES sound pretty weird.

Hindu mythology is so rich. I sus. I suspect the diletantish 60s tended to take a superificial view of it all.

But the Mahabharata is an epic with people you can identify with. There's even a particular place - a plain in India - where people localise the Great Battle. If a bus passes that way, they stop to pay tribute. Maybe Bengal Tiger can tell us more.

Yes! I'd love to learn more!

Really weird, I was just in town, walking down the street thinking about what you said about avatars, and right there in the window of a shop was a lovely glossy hardcover book with the title written big all over the cover ...

Avatars and Antiheroes, a Guide to Contemporary Chinese Artists ...

Hi All

The perfect synonym for Avatar is an incarnation of God.
In Hindu mythology there is actually one God. The holy Trinity refers to the 3 forms -- Vishnu the preserver, Brahma the creator and Shiva the destroyer. Durga or Kali again are female manifestations of the God because of which we see God not just as the Father but also as the Mother. Rama from The Ramyana as well as Krishna from The Mahabharata both are incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
Yes there still is a place in Haryana in north India called Kurukshetra where the great battle of Mahabharata is said to have taken place. The ancestors of the Kuru clan are said to have perfomed a huge worship there because of which it was holy, and of course now because that's where The Gita was recited by Krishna to advise Arjjuna.

BT

Thanks you for that name, BT. I knew I'd read it somewhere.

Thanks BT! That's really interesting! And from an expert, eh? I see from your Personal Space that you're from Calcutta (Kolkata).

That's a very interesting Personal Space you have, I like the way you write about your life! You open a lot of conversation topics! Great to meet you!

cc