Depicted here with a luxurious mustachio, Shiva is the Destroyer or Transformer among the “Trimurti”—the Hindu trinity of the primary aspects of the divine.
Shiva, the most powerful Hindu deity, is a god of profound contradiction: destroyer, benefactor, ascetic, family man, celibate, and lover, whose erotic expertise was such that after hearing Shiva in bed with his wife,...
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Shiva, the most powerful Hindu deity, is a god of profound contradiction: destroyer, benefactor, ascetic, family man, celibate, and lover, whose erotic expertise was such that after hearing Shiva in bed with his wife, Parvati, the master’s doorkeeper was “moved to a sacred utterance,” which would eventually be recorded and given to mankind in the form of the Kama Sutra. After Brahma creates it, and Vishnu preserves it, Shiva destroys the world so that it may be created again. He is the transformer, embodiment of the paradox that ties endings and beginnings ineluctably together.
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