I can not begin to talk if India did not speak of religion. Rather I should say the religions, because in India more or less peacefully coexist many religions: Hinduism with all its variations, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and the Sikh religion are just the main ones. But not so much the plurality of religious denominations to surprise those who visit India, but as the religion, no matter what kind of religion it is, heavily pervades every aspect of life in rural India. In fact, probably just think that splitting the population into castes is a legacy of religion: that Hindu, to be precise.
Among many religions, the one that best characterizes certainly India is Hinduism. And not just because it is more widespread, more than eighty percent of Indians are Hindus but also because it is farthest from the way we live and think of religion.
If religion is the opium of the people, Hinduism it is undoubtedly the LSD. The Hindu pantheon is made up of a multitude of gods, all anthropomorphic but often with an improbable number of limbs and appendages, implanted with animal parts and not all colorful and shiny. These psychedelic hybrids of human figures with parts of animals remind the gods of ancient Egypt. Ganesh with the body of man and the elephant's head with the Matsya or fish tail and torso are not so dissimilar from the Egyptian Anubis and Thoth even if they do not possess the characteristic solemnity. The Hindus of the buttons are always portrayed life never posted but always immanent immersed, at least at a first superficial view.
But more than the religion of ancient Egypt, Hinduism, I was raised what could be the polytheism of ancient Greece. Although there was a diverse pantheon of gods and demigods, with some animal characteristics. We also know that the statues of contained in the Greek temples were originally colored with bright colors are gone and lost with the passing of the centuries. Seeing then the burning funeral pyres on the Ganges in Varanasi I brought to mind the description of the pyres of the Homeric heroes of the Trojan War, thus further corroborating this, my first impression.
But as I later discovered only later, my impressions were erroneous because they, unlike the one that apparently, the Hindu religion is not really a polytheistic religion which ones were the Greek and Egyptian, but enotice. Hinduism ie, the various deities are different manifestations of one supreme being transcendent.
But let's see how the Hindu religion. It's like this: at the head of it all is the sacred Trimurti, a kind of our Trinity, which is represented in the case of a body with three heads to indicate the three constituents gods: Brahma is the creator and which, in time, has 4 heads, 4 arms and 4 legs, Siva or Shiva the destroyer and Vishnu the preserver. The three represent the three fundamental aspects of the divine that is the Brahman (the supreme being) not to be confused with Brahma the creator of our universe specifically referred to above. Now if all this loot was limited to meat (6 heads, 8 arms and 8 legs, if I'm wrong not to count) would still be easy to understand but in reality, each deity has its own avatar, that is the reincarnation of which these have fallen to earth to restore Dharma (remember the Dharma Project from LOST?) which would be the cosmic order. To understand is a bit 'as if Jesus was the Avatar of our God ...
And because the Indians are so prolific in real life as in the religious Vishnu gave ten but someone speaks up to 23, avatar. Krishna, Rama, Buddha and even are the avatars of Vishnu. The other two are not talking about avatars. Siva's because being in the world (representing the destruction) did not need to incarnate, of Brahma, I confess, I do not know why.
Then to make things even more complicated than ten main avatars of Vishnu have been given several thousand names. These are just the main deity but then there are the wives of members of the Trimurti and its Avataresse and their offspring.
The best known of these relatives are: his wife Parvati is the second incarnation of Siva but the first and perhaps the sister of Vishnu, and here we are in the soap opera, and her son Ganesh with his elephant head. As for the avatars of members of the Trimurti secondary deities also have their emanations are gods in their own right. As just one example Kali, the Thugs of Salgariani with its four arms, is nothing more than the warrior aspect of Parvati. Ie they are the same deity, but with different names and appearances. But back to Ganesh and his origin. On this issue there are several legends. I'll tell you the version you told us about the Brahmin who was our guide during the visit at the time of Kahajuraho. According to him one day Parvati decided to take a bath, first rubbed with oil and body raschiandoselo way before diving into the water generated by your dirty a guy who gave them the task of guarding the front door home while she was bathing. Then Siva came home and finding a stranger to block the entrance to his home, is somewhat irritated, because I think he had the presence of probable subdorato horns. And without thinking twice decapitated the unfortunate boy. Then Parvati propina's the lie of the bath, oil, misunderstanding and then saddened by the untimely death of the young. Siva to comfort and to feel more starla not complaining, but this is my addition, he sent the heavenly host looking for the head of any creature they had found asleep with his head facing north. They found an elephant's head and they took that led to Siva with a daring operation that attacked the boy headless high surgery that raised up and called Ganesh (Ganesha or if you prefer). Moral of the story is not Fall asleep with his head to the north, especially if you're an elephant, in spite of feng shui!
So Ganesh which was "generated" by Parvati in a daring without the intervention of Siva fertilizer that being on the other hand its part, is not immortal, felt the need to perpetuate his ilk, he was an only child and showed a 'morbid attachment to the mother. Ganesh's mother indeed considered the most beautiful woman and perfect the world (classic case of unresolved Oedipus complex) and not find at other women remained unmarried all his life. Certainly his elephant head is certainly not helping him in dealings with the opposite sex, but this My conclusion is an entirely personal. Even Ganesh has four arms, which is common to many Indian gods, only one tusk and riding moves a mouse.
Now you may wonder why all this Pippone on Ganesh? But why Ganesh is by far the most revered god of all, at least from the Indian populace. This is surely because it is the lord of good omen, a charm that is, that is invoked by every good Hindu before giving principle in any daily activity. We could say that the statuette of Ganesh is an Indian as the red horn is a Neapolitan.
I realize that I dwelled too much and became too late. So for the time I finish here and I'm going to see if by chance I won the lottery but not before Ganesh ingratiate myself ....
Among many religions, the one that best characterizes certainly India is Hinduism. And not just because it is more widespread, more than eighty percent of Indians are Hindus but also because it is farthest from the way we live and think of religion.
If religion is the opium of the people, Hinduism it is undoubtedly the LSD. The Hindu pantheon is made up of a multitude of gods, all anthropomorphic but often with an improbable number of limbs and appendages, implanted with animal parts and not all colorful and shiny. These psychedelic hybrids of human figures with parts of animals remind the gods of ancient Egypt. Ganesh with the body of man and the elephant's head with the Matsya or fish tail and torso are not so dissimilar from the Egyptian Anubis and Thoth even if they do not possess the characteristic solemnity. The Hindus of the buttons are always portrayed life never posted but always immanent immersed, at least at a first superficial view.
But more than the religion of ancient Egypt, Hinduism, I was raised what could be the polytheism of ancient Greece. Although there was a diverse pantheon of gods and demigods, with some animal characteristics. We also know that the statues of contained in the Greek temples were originally colored with bright colors are gone and lost with the passing of the centuries. Seeing then the burning funeral pyres on the Ganges in Varanasi I brought to mind the description of the pyres of the Homeric heroes of the Trojan War, thus further corroborating this, my first impression.
But as I later discovered only later, my impressions were erroneous because they, unlike the one that apparently, the Hindu religion is not really a polytheistic religion which ones were the Greek and Egyptian, but enotice. Hinduism ie, the various deities are different manifestations of one supreme being transcendent.
But let's see how the Hindu religion. It's like this: at the head of it all is the sacred Trimurti, a kind of our Trinity, which is represented in the case of a body with three heads to indicate the three constituents gods: Brahma is the creator and which, in time, has 4 heads, 4 arms and 4 legs, Siva or Shiva the destroyer and Vishnu the preserver. The three represent the three fundamental aspects of the divine that is the Brahman (the supreme being) not to be confused with Brahma the creator of our universe specifically referred to above. Now if all this loot was limited to meat (6 heads, 8 arms and 8 legs, if I'm wrong not to count) would still be easy to understand but in reality, each deity has its own avatar, that is the reincarnation of which these have fallen to earth to restore Dharma (remember the Dharma Project from LOST?) which would be the cosmic order. To understand is a bit 'as if Jesus was the Avatar of our God ...
And because the Indians are so prolific in real life as in the religious Vishnu gave ten but someone speaks up to 23, avatar. Krishna, Rama, Buddha and even are the avatars of Vishnu. The other two are not talking about avatars. Siva's because being in the world (representing the destruction) did not need to incarnate, of Brahma, I confess, I do not know why.
Then to make things even more complicated than ten main avatars of Vishnu have been given several thousand names. These are just the main deity but then there are the wives of members of the Trimurti and its Avataresse and their offspring.
The best known of these relatives are: his wife Parvati is the second incarnation of Siva but the first and perhaps the sister of Vishnu, and here we are in the soap opera, and her son Ganesh with his elephant head. As for the avatars of members of the Trimurti secondary deities also have their emanations are gods in their own right. As just one example Kali, the Thugs of Salgariani with its four arms, is nothing more than the warrior aspect of Parvati. Ie they are the same deity, but with different names and appearances. But back to Ganesh and his origin. On this issue there are several legends. I'll tell you the version you told us about the Brahmin who was our guide during the visit at the time of Kahajuraho. According to him one day Parvati decided to take a bath, first rubbed with oil and body raschiandoselo way before diving into the water generated by your dirty a guy who gave them the task of guarding the front door home while she was bathing. Then Siva came home and finding a stranger to block the entrance to his home, is somewhat irritated, because I think he had the presence of probable subdorato horns. And without thinking twice decapitated the unfortunate boy. Then Parvati propina's the lie of the bath, oil, misunderstanding and then saddened by the untimely death of the young. Siva to comfort and to feel more starla not complaining, but this is my addition, he sent the heavenly host looking for the head of any creature they had found asleep with his head facing north. They found an elephant's head and they took that led to Siva with a daring operation that attacked the boy headless high surgery that raised up and called Ganesh (Ganesha or if you prefer). Moral of the story is not Fall asleep with his head to the north, especially if you're an elephant, in spite of feng shui!
So Ganesh which was "generated" by Parvati in a daring without the intervention of Siva fertilizer that being on the other hand its part, is not immortal, felt the need to perpetuate his ilk, he was an only child and showed a 'morbid attachment to the mother. Ganesh's mother indeed considered the most beautiful woman and perfect the world (classic case of unresolved Oedipus complex) and not find at other women remained unmarried all his life. Certainly his elephant head is certainly not helping him in dealings with the opposite sex, but this My conclusion is an entirely personal. Even Ganesh has four arms, which is common to many Indian gods, only one tusk and riding moves a mouse.
Now you may wonder why all this Pippone on Ganesh? But why Ganesh is by far the most revered god of all, at least from the Indian populace. This is surely because it is the lord of good omen, a charm that is, that is invoked by every good Hindu before giving principle in any daily activity. We could say that the statuette of Ganesh is an Indian as the red horn is a Neapolitan.
I realize that I dwelled too much and became too late. So for the time I finish here and I'm going to see if by chance I won the lottery but not before Ganesh ingratiate myself ....
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