The Divine Theory of Duality!

Hello, everyone!

A bit about Zentangle:

The Zentangle® Method is an easy to learn, fun and relaxing way to create beautiful patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

FIRST OFF, SPOILER ALERT:

All the humans who haven’t read the Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi, DO NOT READ THIS POST!!! IT CONTAINS THE SECRETS AND MYSTERIES OF THIS AWESOME TRILOGY, AND YOU MAY NOT APPRECIATE ME BABBLING OFF ALL THE SECRETS ONE BY ONE. You may want to minimize this window, get off that lazy-couch-potato sofa, put on your shoes and rush to the nearest bookstore and buy the whole trilogy. Right Now. And read it, of course. Or maybe you want to save the effort for later and order them online…. I leave the choice to you. And I am not preventing you from reading this post just because of the suspense-loss, but also, because you won’t understand a bit of the content that is on its way next. Sorry, but you will have to deal with it. So, getting back to the point, the awesome Shiva Trilogy has inspired my post for today. And all the non-enlightened people (come on, non-enlightened clearly means ‘the people who haven’t read the Shiva Trilogy’) who will have to endure the misfortune of turning back at this point, GO READ IT! GO NOW! BYEEE!!

Aaaannd, the people who HAVE read the trilogy, you may safely continue to read this post. It contains a drop of blissful powers, a drop of the celestial energies. It is a drop of the divine, a part of the ocean of miracles. Well, I am certainly not boasting about my tangle, I am telling you about my post! No, seriously, it is heavenly!! Don’t believe me? Take a look:

Yes, my dear friends, that drop that you saw above is a drop of the drink of the Gods!! The Somras!

But hold your horses, people. There is more to it than what meets the eye. There is always something more. There has to be! There has to be a story behind everything because this is ZenTales, where each stroke has got a story! (That was to be said in the stereotypical marketing professional’s voice.)

As I was saying, the Somras that you see on the piece of paper right above has got a deeper meaning than what it seems like. The bottom half of the drop is actually the Yin-Yang symbol! Philosophical, I know, but I loooovvveee it! The idea of opposing but related forces is sooooo captivating and inspiring, that I, a school girl with absolutely no interest or experience in Chinese mythology and Taoism and Confucianism, can go on to give a lecture about this symbol!

Anyway, the bottom half represents the Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis, the equality between them, and the contrasting nature between them. The whole of the bottom half represents a normal human being who is a bit of both: Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi, Masculine and Feminine, Mahadev and Vishnu, Right and Wrong, Good and Evil, Accepting and Rejecting, Offensive and Defensive, This and That, Black and White, Yin and Yang. After reading and rereading and rereading and analysing and reanalysing and reanalysing the trilogy, I discovered that the book is kind of about this theory! For instance, the scene in Shiva’s dream, when the Vasudev Pandit shows him the network of white lines and black lines, if it is not Yin and Yang, what is it?

Getting on with our tangle, the white, left half represents the Suryavanshis, while the dark, right half represents Chandravanshis. It makes a lot of sense, because Yang, the lighter side, is said to be the masculine side. Suryavanshis are the ultimate masculine, resisting change, following and abiding by rules always. Yin, on the other hand, is the dark feminine side, which in my tangle represents the Chandravanshis; the change embracing Chandravanshis. The light side is totally made of straight, neat lines (JUST like Meluha) while the dark side is made of curves and spiralling, complex patterns (again, JUST like Swadweep). In fact, the ingenious brick making technique of the Suryavanshis is also incorporated into the Yang half! The Chandravanshi side has much more flowy and free patterns, in high contrast with its antithesis; the rigid, stiff and defined Suryavanshi patterns. One more thing that I have kept in mind while tangling my emotions for the trilogy out on paper is the motto of the two warring kingdoms, the Suryavanshi one being, “Satya, Dharma, Maan. (Truth, Duty, Honour.)” and the Chandravanshi one being, “Shringar, Saundarya, Swatantrata. (Passion, Beauty, Freedom)”

Another explanation of the Yin Yang symbol is in Hindu mythology: the theory of Samkhya. To the unfamiliar, Samkhya is simply the theory of Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha symbolises the soul, the change resisting, masculine, conscious soul. Prakriti symbolises nature, the change inducing and change embracing, feminine, life giving nature. Purusha is conscious, Prakriti is subconscious. Purusha is living, Prakriti is giving.

For the more scientific person, the theory of duality holds true as well, in the form of the much hyped ‘Half-Brains’. The left brain is Suryavanshi, or Yang, or masculine, or Purusha: Methodical, logical and accurate. The right brain shows the Chandravanshis, or the Yin, or the feminine or Prakriti: Creative, free and beautiful.

Just as Yin has a bit of Yang in it, and Yang has a bit of Yin in it, everybody has a bit of Chandravanshi and Suryavanshi in them. Everyone is right brained and left brained. Everyone is Purusha and Prakriti. Nobody can be the ultimate of either sides, not even God. This is in high contrast with the TamBrahm theory: a theory which says that God was righteousness personified. But as the trilogy rightly says, “Lord Rama was the Maryada Purshottam, the ideal man. He was both; Chandravanshi and Suryavanshi. His full ceremonial name was Lord Rama Chandra, Suryavanshi Kshatriya of the Ikshvaku clan. Even though he was born a Suryavanshi, his name literally meant, ‘Face of the Moon’. He was both a Suryavanshi and a Chandravanshi, and THAT is what made him an ideal man!” In the same way, nobody, not a single creature, mortal or immortal, humane or divine can be the ultimate “Good” or ultimate “Bad”.

And that my friends, was my philosophy for the day! Wait!!!! The top half still remains a mystery! And I am sorry to say, it will remain a mystery till the next post! Not that it is some state secret or anything, but I guess the theory of duality is enough of philosophy for a day! Good bye, and Happy Tangling!