Gods and their mounts

 

Know your Dharma

Content Courtesy Mr.GaneshKalyan #ganeshamarkalam

Gods and their sacred Mounts

Have you wondered why Hindu Gods have animals or birds as “vahana’s” on which they travel? We need our vehicles to go here and there. There are so many vahanas or rides that the Gods leaving together with families on a picnic would be like watching "Avatar" movie's climax.

Why Gods need vahanas if they stay inside Temples? My grandfather said when a devotee is in trouble they need to move swiftly to his side for help. Fine, I am stuck with a question in exam, how will Saraswati reach on time in a Swan? Imagine the giant Swan being parked in a school premises.

Even temple cars are huge, unwieldy, and slow, needs several to pull, and can’t enter the narrow gates of school. The mystery of the mounts is intriguing indeed!

How can a mouse carry Elephant God or Crow fly with Lord Shani on its shoulders? How comfortable will it be to drive a fierce Yali (a mythical creature), would any bakht dare to come in front with folded hands?

Lord Balaji, the richest surely can afford a Tesla or Audi A8. Instead, he has a fleet of animals and birds and many of them silver or gold plated.

From childhood days I am fascinated by Yama and his Buffalo. The pictures I had showed his moustache large and shapely like horns of his vahana. This imagery can scare you to death which is the general intent. The flip side is he can’t move that fast in this arrangement so I guess he started to come to us as soon as we are born. We wouldn’t have him fly an F16 aircraft. Snail would have been my choice.

Indira has a white elephant and I bet he can afford it. Ganesha’s mouse is as famous as Durga’s Lion or Vayu’s 1000 Horses. 

The vahanas can be docile or fearsome and there is perhaps logic in pairing a God with a specific bird, animal or other life-forms. We can’t imagine Lord Aiyappan riding anything else other than a female tiger.

Hindu temples give same prominence to vahanas as it does to main deity. Garuda for Vishnu has a prime place in Temples. You can’t reach Maheshwara without crossing the bull. Hanuman we revere as a God willingly became a Vahana for another God - Lord Rama. Like Anjaneya, some Vahanas are inseparable from the Gods. Sometimes the more the merrier.

Durga’s Lion, Yama’s Buffallo or Karthik’s peacock represent symbolically various energies that exist in the universe - God (or Goddess) is in charge of the energy which he or she rides and thus controls at will. These energies are also present in human beings. But these are present as animal energies to be controlled - we know not how.

Shiva rides a bull (Nandi). Bull represents brute power, the unbridled sexual energy in men; qualities which only Shiva can help control, channelize.When you are in a Shiva shrine, you first worship the “Bull” on way to the sanctum and glance at it when you return. A mouse represents timidity and nervousness which overwhelms us when we start a new venture and Lord Ganesha helps us overcome these if we worship Him. Ganesh is thus a great start-up God.

Mercilessness, anger and pride are represented by Lion that Goddess Kali (Durga) helps overcome. Lord Vishnu is seated in Adi Sesha, the primal serpent which represents desire and consciousness in us. Vishnu thus helps fulfil our desires as well as control and eventually discard desire to attain moksha.

Lord Hanuman has no need for vahana, he can jump-across seven seas in one broad stride – but he served as vahana for Ram and Lakshman during the Lanka war. Proving, however great you could be eventually you are subservient to a bigger force.

Our Mythology also is full of compassion. Bhairava (the fiercest form of Lord Shiva – who was born of a small piece of nail from Shiva to cut-off the head of Lord Brahma to teach him humility) is often depicted with a dog.

That is because the Bhairava in many temples is the caretaker to whom the safety of the shrine is entrusted during the night (symbolically) and naturally the night watchman needs a Dog.

Vahanas signify no life created in God’s world is insignificant, everything has a purpose. By adopting birds and animals, our Gods guide us to live one with nature.  Many of us go to temple to worship – that is what our parents told us to do – but to do our prayers with full knowledge of these symbolic depictions to add form and substance to our worship. One can write a full post on each of our God’s sacred mounts.

We are told to slap our cheeks with reverence if we see a Garuda in the sky. That indeed has a far deeper significance than we imagine!