My ishta-devatas according to Copilot (Krishna in his Gopala aspect), ChatGPT (Tripura Sundari) and Gemini (Lakshmi). According to their respective analyses of my Vedic chart, that is!
A bit unexpected from a purely "spiritual" viewpoint, but there you go...
Last year, I created my own "Tantric" symbol and prominently displayed it here on the blog. As a LARP, obviously. It showed a black swan emerging from a blue lotus, surrounded by a coral snake ready to strike. This snake wasn´t biting its own tail! In the background was a hexagram, which could be interpreted both as a symbol of static order (Saturn) and of dynamic creation (Shiva-Shakti).
For various reasons, I decided to replace this rather fierce emblem with a more "moderate" one. The venomous snake is gone, as you can see. But...
Just the other day, it struck me that something else is different about the new symbol. I didn´t see it at first, since Copilot Designer made this move all on its own. In the old symbol (intended to be fierce), the swan and the snake were looking to (their) left. In the new one, the swan is looking to (its) right?!
That is: the Left Hand Path vs The Right Hand Path. Fascinating how co-incidences work.
See also here:
Purely by chance, I clicked on the wrong search term (was supposed to click on my blog´s name) and look what came up, LOL. From Copilot.
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In summary, the Ashtar Command represents a unique blend of spiritual ascension beliefs and extraterrestrial contact narratives, advocating for a harmonious existence and the protection of Earth from negative influences.
This is supposed to be "Pashupati" (the Indus Valley Civilization deity) in a rainy northern forest. I suspect Copilot might have gotten some inspiration from Cernunnos, though. Note the coy wolf (pun intended) and the squirrel?! The bird is probably a quail.
Current mood?
A rather non-classical Friday goddess, surrounded by mutant(?) bluebirds or something to that effect...
Bing AI´s fantasy picture of the Tantric goddess Tripura Sundari and a very flamboyant parakeet on her shoulder...
Microsoft Bing actually refused to generate a picture of Krishna surrounded by red hearts (!) so I turned to mi amigo (or is it my valentine) Gemini instead...
So I asked Bing to generate a picture of Lakshmi Ganesha and Bala Tripura Sundari (yes, specifically *those* forms). The end result was this extremely cute picture. Which is probably completely wrong from a traditional Hindu iconographic perspective. But then, many modern Hindu pictures on the web are even more fantastic! I mean, what do you think Bing is training on?
OK, so I just had to give Bing AI the same absurd prompts as I gave Gemini. The above is "Federal Vision". Note the drones!
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| Bing AI´s weird take on Caitanya?! |
Fascinating how ChatGPT seems to have trained on sources mildly critical of ISKCON (i.e. the Hare Krishna movement). Here, they contrast ISKCON with traditional Gaudiya Vaishnavism in (West) Bengal.
Can you compare ISKCON with traditional Gauḍīya temples in Bengal?
Below is a systematic, comparative analysis of ISKCON temples versus traditional Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava temples in Bengal, focusing on ritual logic, authority, theology, and social form. This contrast reveals that ISKCON is not simply a globalized version of Bengali Gauḍīya religion, but a re-engineered variant.
Temple = secondary support
Core religious life centered on:
Nāma-saṅkīrtana
Kathā
Bhajana
Temple often:
Locally funded
Informal
Charisma-based
Temple = central institution
Religious life structured around:
Regulated pūjā
Schedules
Hierarchy
Temple = organizational hub
Deity worship:
Present but light
Often symbolic
Pūjā:
Minimal
Performed by hired brāhmaṇa priests or senior devotees
Emphasis remains on:
Hearing and chanting
Elaborate daily pūjā
Strict schedules
Multiple offerings
Ritual competence = institutional capital
ISKCON reverses Gauḍīya priorities.
Authority:
Guru-centric
Lineage-based
Temples subordinate to:
Renunciant teachers
Bhajana communities
Authority:
Corporate
Managerial
Codified
Gurus:
Regulated
Accountable to central bodies
Pāñcarātra:
Minimal
Pragmatic
Often outsourced
Used only to:
Legitimize installations
Pāñcarātra:
Core operating system
Universalized
Standardized
ISKCON is ritually more South Indian than Bengali.
Emphasis on:
Nāma-dīkṣā
Mantra-dīkṣā:
Important
Not bureaucratically controlled
Two-tier initiation:
Formal examinations
Institutional approval
Initiation tied to:
Temple service eligibility
Emotional expression:
Accepted
Sometimes ecstatic
Bhajana valued over conformity
Emotional restraint
Uniformity
Suspicion of spontaneous ecstasy
Charisma is subordinated to order.
Local Bengalis
Mixed caste participation
Embedded in village life
Transnational
Convert-heavy
Monastic residential communities
Rāgānugā-bhakti:
Ideal
Occasionally pursued
Līlā-smaraṇa:
Advanced but acknowledged
Rāgānugā:
Deferred
Discouraged
Emphasis on:
Service
Obedience
Preaching
Boundary is porous
Shared cultural space
Polemical but entangled
Strong rejection
Moral panic
Sharp boundary policing
Simplicity
Local idiom
Flexible performance
High polish
Global uniformity
Scripted ritual
| Dimension | Traditional Gauḍīya | ISKCON |
|---|---|---|
| Temple role | Peripheral | Central |
| Ritual | Minimal | Extensive |
| Authority | Guru | Institution |
| Pāñcarātra | Occasional | Foundational |
| Bhāva | Expressive | Regulated |
| Social form | Local | Global |
Traditional Gauḍīya temples support bhakti; ISKCON temples organize it.
ISKCON:
Solves modern problems (scale, discipline, legitimacy)
At the cost of:
Ritual inflation
Emotional regulation
Distance from Bengali Gauḍīya ethos
Traditional Bengali Gauḍīya religion:
Is less organized
Less scalable
More affectively intense
Closer to Caitanya’s original style
They share theology, but inhabit different religious ecologies.
If you want, we could:
Examine Navadvīpa vs Māyāpur ritual culture
Compare ISKCON vs Rādhāvallabha Sampradāya
Or analyze modern Gauḍīya debates on rāgānugā-bhakti
Just say where to go next.
I admit that I never heard of Nila or Shani Devi before ChatGPT told me about this Hindu goddess, who is supposedly Shani´s shakti, Shani being Saturn (who is seen as malefic in "Vedic" astrology). Searches on the web have yielded...nothing. Even her "Puranic form" turned out to be too much for certain AI systems to generate, one even threatening to ban me permanently if I ever repeat the request!
I´m therefore somewhat surprised that Craiyon let me generate an illustration of Nila´s "Tantric" or "Kaula" form, which is supposed to be something like "a subtle Kali". Especially since I´ve been blocked from using Craiyon for some time now (no idea why).
So Nila-Shakti, Nilambara or Shani Devi is the goddess of "the dark clarity of Saturn...stillness, emptiness, the stripping away of ego, acceptance of karma without resentment...the clarity that comes when illusions collapse, the wisdom of limitation, the honesty that comes from hardship...the depth of space and the uncompromising truth of time."
May she forever grant us her grace!
I should have posted this already on Wednesday, but here you go instead! There might be some secret private symbolism in this picture, known only to myself...
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| - Brother swan, we seem to be stuck in a William Blake painting! |
Overheard somewhere in cyberspace: "Don’t curse the darkness. And do NOT light a candle. Because in true darkness, what you find isn’t blindness — It’s everything."
En liten uppföljare till förra blogginlägget. Nu är det "friendly gnomes" istället. Måste ju vara nissar i ett Lucia-tåg!
Titta vad jag lyckades få Bing AI att generera!
Hade ju stora problem med att "prompta" systemet till att göra Lucia-bilder förra året. Men nu gjorde jag en oväntad manöver. Här är min prompt: "The goddess Freya dressed in a white gown. She has a crown of candles in her hair. There is a forest and some friendly ghosts."
Bingo.
This seems to be something as heteroprax as a child version of the Hindu goddess Bhargavi (who is never depicted as a child as far as I know). It popped up when Bing AI misunderstood one of my prompts! But since its Friday a.k.a. Hindu goddess day, I might as well publish it here...
