Harihara

Hey kiddo, do you want to learn about something called harihara? It's a really interesting concept in Hinduism that is used to describe the way two gods, Vishnu and Shiva, are seen as different and yet also the same.

You know how sometimes people can have different names, like how your teacher might be called Ms. Smith at school but her friends might call her Jane? Well, in Hinduism, these two gods are kind of like that. Vishnu and Shiva are seen as different gods with different personalities and abilities.

But at the same time, they are also sometimes seen as two halves of the same god. Imagine if you had two puzzles, each with a picture of a different animal. But then you realized that they were actually two halves of the same picture, and when you put them together, you could see the whole thing. That's kind of like how people see Vishnu and Shiva - they are different but also connected.

When people talk about harihara, they are often talking about artwork or statues that show both Vishnu and Shiva in the same image. It's a way of expressing the idea that these two gods are really connected, even though they might seem different on the surface.

So that's what harihara means! It's a way of talking about how different things can be connected in really interesting ways.