realmatist Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Disclaimer: I am not Hindu, so please forgive me for anything that I say that is wrong (you are welcome to correct me). I am not trying to say anything about anyone's religion, I am just pointing out some striking similarities between the Cosmere and Hinduism. On that note... I was having a conversation with one of my Hindu friends the other day. This is a friend who I have introduced to Mistborn and I am slowly inducting into the ranks of the 17th shard. The conversation moved towards Hinduism, and how Hindus view God. My friend told me that Hindus believe that God is in all things. He then moved to describe how everything has three aspects (the aspects had names that I have since forgotten). Essentially, he talked about the body, the mind, and the soul (or physical, cognitive, and spiritual). Immediately I thought about the cosmere. I explained to him how this was an intrinsic part of the Cosmere. As the discussion progressed, more and more similarities between Hinduism and the Cosmere, including splintered Shards, AonDor, and others. I was just wondering if there were any more similarities that anyone else had seen. Note: These similarities do not have to be just in relation to Hinduism. Other religions, philosophies, books, epic poems, etc., are acceptable to relate to the Cosmere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 To note, Latter Day Saints are known for subscribing to the tripartite perspective (the idea that people have three parts: body, soul, spirit). I don't believe this is required doctrine, so Sanderson might not himself believe in it, but it's almost certain that he was exposed to it at several points growing up. Nothing about the power of creation shattering, that I am aware of at least. Additionally, the glyph tree in the inside cover of Way of Kings was based on the Tree of Life/Kabbalah, an important symbol in Jewish mysticism that, to my understanding, has similarities with... something in Hinduism (sorry, not very knowledgeable about Hindu mysticism). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realmatist Posted December 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 Actually, I am LDS myself, and we have more of a bipartite perspective. We don't differentiate between the soul and the spirit. The whole Tree of Life thing is very interesting though, lots of religions have a tree of some sort (LDS included). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 Actually, I am LDS myself, and we have more of a bipartite perspective. We don't differentiate between the soul and the spirit. The whole Tree of Life thing is very interesting though, lots of religions have a tree of some sort (LDS included). I am also LDS, and I have to agree with this. Most Mormon's, in doctrine and practice, are only dualists---body and spirit. The split into three in Brandon's work isn't particularly traditional, as far as I can tell. As for the Tree of Life---yes, it's an important symbol for Latter-day Saints, but it's hardly unique. Being referenced early in Genesis spread the idea to an awful large part of the world. Those parts of the world which weren't Judeo-Christian also often picked up on the use of trees to represent life/growth/family/etc, resulting in similar symbolism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Actually, I am LDS myself, and we have more of a bipartite perspective. And that nicely illustrates the dangers of getting one's information about people from books rather than those people! Sorry about that. @Happyman, To note, while the Kabbalah is supposed to be a metaphysical Tree of Life. It's not like Yggdrasil or other such trees: it's far more abstract. Here, take a look: Compare to: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 OK, that's fair. There might be a deeper relationship. Personally, I'd wait until we knew more about the magic in Way of Kings before trying too hard, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strawberry Eggs Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Some time ago I pointed out the parallels between Gnosticism and the Cosmere. Adonalsium could perhaps be likened to the Monad/Bythos/Absolute/The One while the shards were like the Aeons. Gnostics also believed that everyone had three aspects: Body, Soul, and Spirit, though some other Gnostics believed only certain people had Spirit, which was the divine spark from the Pleroma. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morsk Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 (edited) OK, that's fair. There might be a deeper relationship. Personally, I'd wait until we knew more about the magic in Way of Kings before trying too hard, though! I agree that we don't know enough yet. Brandon did say "You’ll probably see a bunch of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism too if you look for it." here. But the idea of the 10 essences doesn't feel Kabbalistic at all to me. So I think Brandon was mostly using the imagery of the Tree of Life to inspire the diagram, rather than the spiritual meaning of it. A big difference is that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is supposed to represent a path between God and the world, and it has some asymmetrical elements. The little we know about the WoK diagram is that it has 2 central elements, not a path with a beginning and an end. (I think once it's called the Double Eye of the Almighty, and it's associated with his creation of animals and plants?) And it has more symmetry than the Tree of Life. Edited December 6, 2012 by Morsk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sadisticnerd Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 I was having a conversation with one of my Hindu friends the other day. This is a friend who I have introduced to Mistborn and I am slowly inducting into the ranks of the 17th shard. And here's that Hindu friend... *Disclaimer, this is to the best of my knowledge and when I say things about our dieties, I mean not to insult or imply that I'm right and someone else is wrong. Also, Hinduism is actually monotheistic, believing in Brahman, 'God', and He incarnates into other, or has aspects... That being said... In Hinduism, we, as far as I know, believe in 3 'parts': body, mind, and soul. I'm no expert on the cosmere, however the way the shards work also reflects strongly on the incarnations of our Gods, as in the case of Vishnu's avatars, as he came to Earth multiple times in the form of humans. Preservation and Ruin were both powers taken by humans, or mortals, atleast. Also, a few Aon's are significant to me, as my last name is 'Rao', and Aon Rao is 'spirit'. This is interesting... Rao is also Italian, I think, but I'm not sure... *Off topic: Scorpio, I'd rather be a Surgebinder than Elantrian, as I wouldn't be able to draw Aons well and I think my ability to judge gravity would be better than my artistic ability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROSHtafARian Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 Ruin and Preservation always reminded me actually of Hinduism's 'Trimurti', or a trio of three linked Hindu gods, Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). For a time, before the Word of Brandon confirmed Ruin and Preservation were meant as a pair of polar opposites, I wondered if there was a Creation shard to complement them and make a similar trio, rather than all the Shards being aspects of Creation like a lot of people theorize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted December 19, 2012 Report Share Posted December 19, 2012 I think there's only a limited number of miths that can be made before they start resembling each other. That's the reason conspiracy guys see massonic/satanistic symbols everywhere; there are enough of them that with a bit of fancy there is nothing that do not resemble one such symbols. So it is normal that many religions have things in common - whether is comes from an acutal influence of god or from some quirk of the human mind, it's up to you to decide. and when creating a fictional mythology for a fictional universe, the mind, consciously or unconsciously, takes bit from here and there. P.S. rao is not italian, and while it an sound a bit italian, I can't think of a single italian word with that sound in it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animalia Posted October 9, 2018 Report Share Posted October 9, 2018 On 12/19/2012 at 2:30 AM, ROSHtafARian said: Ruin and Preservation always reminded me actually of Hinduism's 'Trimurti', or a trio of three linked Hindu gods, Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). For a time, before the Word of Brandon confirmed Ruin and Preservation were meant as a pair of polar opposites, I wondered if there was a Creation shard to complement them and make a similar trio, rather than all the Shards being aspects of Creation like a lot of people theorize. Actually the two of them reminded me of Yin and Yang. And The followers of Harmony reminded me of Toaists. With the way they are called Pathians. And the fact that Tao mean Way. I think your problem is that you are thinking to small and limiting yourself to ONE religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted October 9, 2018 Report Share Posted October 9, 2018 Mmm this thread is from 6 years ago. Perhaps a new one would be better, for sharing your views? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripheus23 Posted October 9, 2018 Report Share Posted October 9, 2018 No @RShara, the thread is reincarnating, so it fits its title perfectly 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted October 9, 2018 Report Share Posted October 9, 2018 Where's the Szeth facepalm emoji when I need it? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aryanath Posted November 25, 2018 Report Share Posted November 25, 2018 (edited) I'm culturally Hindu. There are definitely several points of similarity between the Stormlight Archive and Hinduism, or aspects of Indian culture. A quick list that comes to mind: Cycles of time and forgotten history: similar to the Hindu notion of cyclical ages, after which history and technology are forgotten, and humanity has to start over so to say Castes, eye colors, and differences between them: caste is a Western term for a really complex phenomenon not well-understood by those who haven't experienced the Indian context directly, but I would describe the dahns/nahns are subdivision of classes as more similar to the Western class system, and is more similar to the Hindu notion of varna (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_(Hinduism)) because there are ways to go up and down based on one's socioeconomic status, but the lighteye/darkeye division is an almost insurmountable barrier derived from endogamy (only marriages within the group) and reinforced by particular customs, habits, clothing, food, weapons used, and so on. It is similar to the Indian notion of jati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jāti), and is somewhat like the current notion of subcultures. Everyone lives together within a society, but there are differences in norms between the various social groups Evolution of script : The script changed over time in Alethkar, so that it took some deciphering to figure out ancient inscriptions. In India, likewise, the ancient Brahmi script used during the Mauryan Empire evolved into the modern Devanagari and other scripts, but in order to read ancient Brahmi writing, one does have to get into some deciphering first to read the pillar inscriptions of the Emperor Ashoka (268-232 BCE). See image below. Vedas…the power of the word calling things into being : There is a WOB out there stating how the Parshendi rhythms resembled the Vedas, ancient Hindu hymns that are chanted in a particular manner. Dawnchant as well. Vedas Narak : this is from a Sanskrit word, naraka, meaning hell Heralds, Pantheism: The notion of the heralds being thought of as gods, but not ultimately God, is similar to the Hindu notion of devas. In ancient times, devas, who resemble gods in the ancient Greek or Egyptian religions, were worshiped for worldly success, but gradually Hindus came to understand that the devas were themselves just incomplete elements of ultimate reality, or all aspects of a pervasive godhead that permeates the universe, Brahman, personalized as Bhagavan or Ishwar (God). This has some resemblance to the notions of gods/God in the Cosmere, Adonalsium, and so on. The idea of the Stormfather being a sort of cognitive shadow of Honor is also somewhat similar to the Hindu notion of an avatar, when a major deity, usually Vishnu, puts forth some of himself in a finite form for a period of time. Trinity: The Rosharian trinity of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium seems vaguely like the Hindu Trimurti, the supreme trinity of Hinduism, in which God (not devas/gods, but God personified) takes three forms, a creator, preserver, and destroyer, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Like the Christian trinity, God is of one essence, but manifests as different personas. Mind/body/soul: as someone else pointed out, the mind, body, and soul are all separate in Hinduism. Both the mind and body come from natural phenomenon in Hinduism, prakriti (nature, or the principle of matter). All things in the material universe are of prakriti, which is primal matter and energy that combines in many ways both to create the body and the mind, which is derived from various mental phenomenon. On the other hand, the soul (purusha, also atman) is the underlying life force behind all beings, and upon death it separates from the mind-body complex either to reincarnate or merge into cosmic oneness (Brahman). There may be some commonality between Hinduism and the fate of the soul in the spiritual realm in Sanderson's works, but that's just speculation. In particular, I think he would maintain the specificity and distinction of souls, which is important in Abrahamic religions. Parshendi reincarnation: some ancient Hindus believed that the souls of their forefathers reincarnated into newly born babies, and that upon dying, the dead souls of their people swapped places with the souls of their ancestors waiting in one of the various swargas (heavens) of one of the deities, or an intermediate zone (pitr-loka) between the heavens and earth. Edited November 25, 2018 by Aryanath 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted November 25, 2018 Report Share Posted November 25, 2018 @Aryanath Very cool, thanks for sharing that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aryanath Posted November 26, 2018 Report Share Posted November 26, 2018 1 hour ago, Weltall said: @Aryanath Very cool, thanks for sharing that! Thank you for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ark1002 Posted November 26, 2018 Report Share Posted November 26, 2018 That's interesting. Cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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