SanathanaDharma.com
EACH GOD IN HINDUISM HAS A
VEHICLE OF HIS OWN.
SOME OF THE VEHICLES OF
VARIOUS GODS AND GODDESSES ARE DESCRIBED BELOW:
Ganapathi - Mouse
Adityas - Seven
horses / Agni
Indra -
Elephant Airavata
Varuna - Seven Swans
Vayu -
Thousands of horses
Vishnu - Garuda, the eagle and Adi Shesha,
the Serpent
Yama - He-buffalo
Brahma - Hamsa when
sitting or Seven swans
Shiva - Nandi, the
Bull
Saraswathi - Hamsa or swan or sometimes
peacock.
Lakshmi - Lotus flower and the owl
Maheswari -
Bull
Durga - Lion
These vehicles actually represent the
various energies that exists in the universe as well as in human beings. Each
god or goddess is in-charge of a particular energy which he or she rides and
controls at his or her will.
These energies are present in man also,
mostly as wild animal energies and they need to be controlled and channeled
properly in order to transform the lower self and establish divine consciousness
in him.
For this he has to propitiate different gods who if satisfied
with his supplication arise or descend into his consciousness and help him
master them. We present below a few example in support of this
belief.
Brahma's vehicle is Hamsa which stands for the buddhi and for the
creative and discretionary energies in man. The word " Hamsa" is a combination
of two words, "aham"+ "sa" , which mean "I am He". This awareness that one is
God exists only in enlightened persons. Rightly Brahma is the friend and
philosopher of all the enlightened beings in the world and he has the power to
give us this knowledge about our true nature.
The bird hamsa is also very
beautiful, peaceful and graceful. It is suggestive of the fact that Brahma is
the master of all the beauty and grace in the world, and He can help us in our
effort to acquire these qualities.
It is also believed that the bird has
the capacity to separate milk from water. This symbolically means that Brahma
can help us to transform our intelligence, or the buddhi, or our ability to
discriminate the right from the wrong so that we can select the correct path to
achieve salvation.
The bird moves in waters, especially lake waters that
are placid. The water symbolically stands for our consciousness and the lake
itself for a limited consciousness such as ours. Brahma moves in our
consciousness on his vehicle hamsa and purifies it with his touch and
grace.
Shri Saraswathi, the consort of Brahma is shown riding either
hamsa or the peacock. The peacock is a graceful and beautiful bird and is known
for its dance before the rain. This denotes that Shri Saraswathi can immensely
help those who want to pursue art and dance. The peacock also eats snakes, which
symbolically means that she can help those who are accustomed to eating desires
or for a better expression pursuing desires, by providing them with the divine
knowledge and learning for which she is famous.
Lord Vishnu is seated on
Adi Shesha, the primal serpent god, who represents the desire consciousness in
us. Lord Vishnu can help us either to fulfill these desires or control them.
When He travels, Lord Vishnu rides on Garuda, the giant bird. The bird
represents the human thoughts which can fly in all directions at incredible
speed. Lord Vishnu can help us to control our thoughts.
Shri MahaLakshmi
rides on an owl called Uluka. The owl is a solitary creature, that remains awake
in darkness and asleep during the day time. It rarely trust human beings and
seldom seen in the company of any other bird. It in fact stays away from people
as if it has no interest in the humanity.
Those who pursue riches should
be aware of these negative qualities and pray to Shri Mahalakshmi so that she
would inculcate in them the qualities of trust, generosity and social
responsibility and would make them popular among people.
She would
also help them come out of the darkness of ignorance, avarice and selfishness,
which are generally associated with the pursuit of materialism. The owl is also
regarded as an inauspicious image by the Hindus, who believe that if an owl
visits a house in which people live, it is an ill omen.
Shri
Mahalakshmi with her grace can remove all negative, inauspicious and adverse
influences from our lives. If some one is suffering from adversity, they should
pray to her because she, who controls all ill-omens and adversities can ward
them off and bring them prosperity. Thus She has rightly been shown as using a
rare bird like an owl as her vehicle.
Lord Siva rides the Bull, Nandi,
which stands for the bullying, aggressive, blind and brute power in man. It also
stands for unbridled sexual energy, kama. Only Lord Siva can help us control
these and transform them.
His consort Shri Parvathi, variously called
Uma, Chandi, Durga or Kali uses lion as her vehicle. Lion stands for cruelty,
mercilessness, anger, violence and hostility towards other beings. Pravathi with
her grace can help man to control all these qualities in him and become an
enlightened being like Lord Siva.
Ganapathi uses as his carrier a very
small mouse, which represents the fear and nervousness in man, the feeling of
doubt and weakness that overwhelm us before we start a venture. By praying to
Ganapathi, his devotees can overcome such feelings from their minds and go about
their task confidently, with the assured feeling that Vignaraja (Lord of
obstacles) alone can remove obstacles from our minds.
Thus we can see
that the vehicles of the gods are actually the energies on which they have
absolute control. By praying to them we can also learn to control these energies
in ourselves.