ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three concrete, personal images of the ultimate reality that have dominated Hinduism: Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess Kali. Vishnu nourishes and sustains life through his own greatness and generosity. Two of the most popular forms of Vishnu are Rama and Krishna. It is in the eighteen chapters of verse known as Bhagavad Gita ("The Song of the Lord") that Krishna is most fully presented to the world. Born of the gods' anger, Kali is a force greater than that possessed by the gods themselves. Even though Kali is the embodiment of terror and anger, black with rage and covered with the blood of her victims, she is not the embodiment of evil, but rather of the power to overcome and destroy evil. Shiva is simultaneously the lord of death and of creation and the cosmic dancer and the immobile yogi. The fundamental symbol of Shiva, the lingam, is the axis of the universe.
