The flaming lion with the subtle, almost imperceivable, calm, mountainous bull - what we see as incompatible, cohabitate. Here, the wrenching of a conflict – masculine and feminine come to rest as a union. Of Purusha (the mind) depicted by Nandi the bull and Prakriti (Nature), the Devi’s own lion - of fire and ice, of wind and soil, of the mind and body, and ultimately of male and female. This is the beauty of opposites, made possible by the lion that moved to the mountains. Bringing the fire that melts the ice, as rivers to the plains.
