Somras: Good or Evil?

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!!

So, here I am, back again after exploring the Divine Theory of Duality! If you haven't read it, go read it NOW! Off you go! Goodbye! 

And for the lucky few who have had the good fortune of reading it, you probably remember, (Of course, you do! I don't think anyone can forget my 'drooping with philosophy, introspection inducing' post!)that I had not explained the top part of the drop in the divine ocean of eternal bliss. Well, you need to wait no longer, because that is exactly what I am going to do today! So here we go, off to Meluha!

The top part of the Somras, above the Yin-Yang symbol, is a tribute to the very origin of the Somras, Mount Mandar! (Drumroll, please!)

Yes, my dear friends, it is the same Mount Mandar that bore in its womb the very core of the greatest good, that gradually turned into the greatest evil, like a cancer that slowly eats up the mortal body from the inside, bit by bit, little by little, a slow but steady killer, silently bringing in the worst. "Good and evil are sides of the same coin," so said Lord Manu, a most revered and respectable gentleman, no doubt. The Somras, which was the secret key to the theoretical success of Meluha, turned into the very cause of the destruction of not only Meluha, but Ayodhya and Branga as well. It led to the formation of highly mutated and agonisingly deformed beings who were considered a blotch on the supposedly "pure" lineage of the Meluhans, the Nagas. Not only were they ruthlessly banished from the dream-like society of Meluha, but they also had to bear the torturous excruciating pain (pain would probably be an understatement for it) of cancerous deformities and in Brahaspati's polite words, "outgrowths" while they were but mere toddlers. Not to mention the Branga plague, which bereaved helpless parents of the apple of their eyes, their very flesh, blood and bones, a part of their heart and soul, their joy and hope, forcing them to live empty, meaningless lives.

The upper part of the tangle is my impression of Mount Mandar. It is shaped like a mountain peak, signifying the mountain where the Somras powder was manufactured. The bottom left corner has gears and cogwheels of all shapes, sizes, and designs, depicting the complex machinery that was used to manufacture the drink of the Gods, to analyze the cause of the biological rotting of cells, to form the theory of oxidants and antioxidants. To its opposite side, there are free-flowing, rapidly escalating and dropping waves of the mother of all rivers, the holy Saraswati. [Allow me some philosophy, my friends! So here goes: Don't you think that this again goes back to the Yin-Yang? On one side, we have the immaculately perfect technology (Purusha), while on the other, we have the flowy waves of a river (Prakriti). A classic example of the theory of duality! :-)]

Above the gears and cogwheels and machinery, there are bubbles of the gas, oxygen. This gas is reputed to be the gas that is essential for life, but the dark reality is that it is essential for death as well. The very same life-giving gas that fills our lungs with revitalising, fresh energy and our blood with nutrients is responsible for the gradual decay of the only sign of our mortality: our bodies,

To its other side, there is a grove of the legendary Sanjeevani trees, essential for the production of Somras. You see, the Sanjeevani trees are an integral part of the story in the Shiva Trilogy. They help save the unborn Kartik's life, they awaken Parvateshwar from his deep coma. They lead the Neelkanth towards the Brangas and finally the Nagas. They cause the battle of Dandak, and liberate Parshuram from the unspeakable horror he had committed. So, quite obviously, they have earnt their place in the tangle!

And last, but not the least, there are the auras separating each of the elements of the Mount Mandar tangle from each other. They give the effect of each of these elements being in clouds, clouds that combine to create a sky full of Somras! A place where Somras exists, but is not accessible to mankind. We can see, it, but we can't reach it. People long for it, strive for it, try to touch the sky and get it, steal it, earn it, even be willing to die for it. But nobody ever gets it! Nobody is ever satisfied with it, nobody understands that success is not a destination, but a journey!

And with that, my friends, I complete my quota of ranting about how awesome the Shiva Trilogy is! Goodbye, and Happy Tangling!

P. S. Stay tuned for a super-duper collage of all the different tangles related to the Shiva Trilogy I have been working on lately!