Vedic deities and their vehicles or animals.
Deities and the animals. (Part-1)
(The Sanskrit words written in italics are available in the Sanskrit English Lexicon by Sir Monier Williams. These are the itrans version. <http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/>)
The animals are named by the seers by observing the divinity in them. In this article some examples
of the animals and related divinities have been described.
I have tried here to explain the animal behaviours in relation to the divinity to the extent of my perception. The animals are named after the divinity which is prominent in them and in their behaviours. Further an animal is associated with the corresponding god or goddess whose character is particularly representing it.
The seers have seen the divinity in everything and there must be certainly many more significant reasons behind the names (than what I have stated here) .
Similarly they saw the divinities in the societies, in people, in events and described the same along with the divine parts. It is for this reason mythologies have contents which appear not realistic. But mythologies are founded on realities and have related histories.
1.Goddess lakshmI (lakShI) and her vehicle owl.
lakshmi (lakShI) means the power (I) of vision (lakSha). The goddess is the consort of viShNu who has been celebrated in the Vedas for his 'eye' and the 'leg' (motion). Vision or manifestation and motion / control / time are from the Universal consciousness and in our planetary system this center of manifestation (vision) and control (time) is perceived as the sun.
kojaagarI lakShmI is celebrated after durgaa pUjaa (worship of the goddess durgaa ). durgaa means who leads us beyond all durgati or troubles. Death or uncertainty of the existence is the root cause of all troubles. durgaa is celebrated as mukhya praaNa in Upanishad and is the One who carries everyone beyond death to eternity. On the full moon day after the worship of durgaa, the goddess kojaagarI lakshmi is worshipped.
kojaagari means ko(who) + jaagari (awake). Thus when our vision is capable of viewing during night or through darkness, i.e. when our vision is extended beyond death,what is unrevealed now starts revealing , then the goddess kojaagarI lakshmi appears to us. This is the phase or state of one who has transcended the death. To such an enlightened one, everything is available and realized in the soul or self. This is achieving the divine wealth; the things are unfolded in the background of eternity and no longer stained by the limitations, decay, boundaries, mortality. lakshmi is the goddess who bestows wealth to her devotees.
The goddess looks around for those who can remain awake during the full-moon night, to whom the darkness or death is no longer darkness, no longer death. Goddess bestows on the one who can see through.
Thus the goddess is accompanied by owl which can see in the night. The eyes of an owl are very special. They can see both during the night and the day. They have a wide field of vision and they can rotate the neck from front to the sides by 270 degrees and from down to up by almost 90 degrees.
An owl is very expressive while viewing an object, as if it expresses the vision in itself while it views. It orients its face or head while viewing an object. . The word lakShamaNa is the word for 'gesture' or expression in Sanskrit. lakShamaNa is related to the word lakShmI.
Our eyeballs are always shifting, never stationary. The goddess is also termed as cha~nchalaa meaning 'fickle'. She matches her consort viShNu who is celebrated in Vedas as having heaven like all pervading eyes (vision) and supreme legs (motion).
(During the celebration of goddess lakShmi many devotees remain awake throughout the night.)
2. Goddess sarasvatI and her vehicle swan.
sarasvatI---sara (moving. in motion) + sva (soul) +tI (characterized)
sarasvatI is the goddess of expressed words. She is white in colour as all the expressed words, varna (alphabets / colours--shining alphabets) remain in sameness in her. She is the expressive and flowing Consciousness whose expressions are the words. She is the sacred river celebrated in Vedic hymns.
sara means 'motion , displacement. sva means the immutable, ever stationary soul who is in the background of all expressions. In one end it is still and at the other end it is dynamic. This is how is Consciousness. All expressions of Consciousness happens with sva in the background. A near ( but not perfect) word for sva in English is 'assertion less self '.
So is the goddess sarasvati. She is known as the mysterious river, flowing secretly. We never feel our 'immutable, imperishable self or 'sva' during our living, though at one end we are always in that form forever. No sense can exist without the sense of 'sva' in the background. The goddess bestows this knowledge in us and so She is the 'goddess of learning' or the goddess of 'vidya'.
This universe is the materialization of the words of Consciousness. The 'neck' from where the words are 'articulated' is also called 'jana loka' or the 'realm of generation'.
The consort of sarasvati is the god brahmaa (derived from the word brahma) who is the divine mind. The whole physical universe is held in the mind. The sensory organs are acting between the mind and the external or physical universe. Like in our mind we can contemplate and see a flower, similarly the thought of the Universal Consciousness has physicalized as the external universe. Our thought remains in us, in our inner sky. The creators thought has materialized as everything and perceived by everyone.
brahma is from the root word bRi meaning to 'expand'. Thus brahma means who is everything (who has expanded and has become everything) and brahmaa (brahma + a) is brahma personified.
Thus is the pair, goddess sarasvatI and the god brahmaa. The vehicle of both is the duck or a swan. Swan or duck is conspicuous for many reasons including its long neck (windpipe) and beaks which are the parts for articulating its voice.
Not only that, the sound a duck makes, i.e. its quack somewhat resembles ' quack, quack, wak, wak, vaak, vaak.....' or 'vaak, vaak, vaak'.
The goddess is called sarasvatI when she is streaming as spoken words or expressing the physical world. In her core, where she is splitting in Herself, splitting from Oneness, she is called 'vaak'.
The ducks or the swans are mobile in all the three planes i.e. they can walk, swim and fly. These three planes where they can move, represent all the planes -----earth or physicality, water or inner plane where all accomplishment or satisfaction of physicality exists without defined shapes or dimensions, sky or the divinity which is self revealing and from where everything is expressed. Thus these birds (ducks and swans) are called 'hansa' which means the one who is the centre of 'hanana' or annihilation and 'sa' or creation. Thus Universal consciousness is called hansa and the periodical cycle of creation and annihilation is working everywhere. It is said in (Svetasvatara) Upanishad that in this universal cycle hansa is travelling:
sarvaa jeeve (in whom everyone lives) sarva sangsthe (in whom everyone rests) bRihante (in the one who is growing and superseding -----in the infinite one)
asmin (in this) hanso (the swan) brahmyate (whirled around) brahma chakre (in the cycle of brahma):
In whom everyone lives, in whom everyone rests, who is growing and superseding all, it is the Swan;
it is moving in this all encompassing (brahma) wheel !
In Upanishad, the seers have told----this vak milks herself the milk that is inside the word (or in her) for the one who knows her! (dugdhe asmai vaak dohaM yat vaachoH dohoH!--Chandogya Upanishad).
sarasvatI also means saras + vatI, i.e. who is attached to or who is characterized by saras. saras means pond or lake. saras is the reservoir of water; it is the reservoir of elixir of word or vaak. So is the name Sarus-crane for those birds having long necks, long beaks, who do trumpeting and who inhabit in the ponds or the lakes. They are monogamous, attached to one only implying the soul or sva which we have mentioned before while explaining the meaning of the word sarasvatI.
3. varaha (boar) and the hog faced viShNu
varaaha---- vraaha is the name of a form of lord viShNu. The hogs or the wild boars are also called varaaha.
The meaning of the word varaaha is as below:
varaaha = vara / varam (boon) + aahaH (says)---who by saying or by the power of his / her words bestows the boons. This means the 'word' spoken materializes into a boon.
The seers have said in Upanishad that this earth or physicality is the body of vaak (the mother of all expressions or words) and agni (fire god or the Universal consciousness as animation or life burning in us) is her (vaak's) illuminated form.
Thus lifting the physicality from the inertness to the words or Consciousness is the mission of hog faced vishNu or varaha avataara.
Thus about varaha form of viShNu it is said:
gRitogra mahaachakre danshtrodhRita vasundhare
varaaha rupinI shive narayaNI namastute.
(You formidable, have grasped and lifted up this earth the great disc by your tusks.
You shiva, naaraayaNI, who is in this varaha form, we bow to you! )
The following link is interesting about boars digging earth.
http://friendsoftheboar.blogspot.com/2011/09/boar-digging-or-boar-damage.html
4. God agni and his vehicle goat.
Chaaga ----goat. Chaaga is the draught animal or vaahana (vehicle) of the god agni. Lord agni rides on a goat.
agni is the god of fire (animation and manifestation) and leads all the gods. agni = ag (in front) + ni (leads); agni is the one who as leader heralds deities to the worshippers and who also carries the offerings or oblations from the worshippers to the deities. This feature of agni is called vahni.
agni or fire is the self revealing, life giving aspect of Universal Consciousness and who has materialized as the physical word. agni, also called praaNaagni, is the consort of vaak. Since the Consciousness is taking the forms of words or expressing as words, the seers have said 'mukhaat agnirjaayata' -----the fire was created from the mouth of the Universal Consciousness.
Thus Upanishads have said that the earth (physicality) is the body of vaak and agni is her illuminated or self-revealing form. Like the fire or life burning in us, agni is burning within everything, within every definitions and forms, within every entity. Like fire is there inside the earth, similarly whatever we see or know inside that agni, fire or the Consciousness who animates everyone exists. Every entity is a cover or shroud, covering agni or vaak. The dimensions or forms act like coat or cover of vaak or agni. Thus every form conveys that agni is there. This is goat or Chaag the vehicle of agni. The goat is famous for its skin and the coat made of its skin. Goat is called Chaag in Sanskrit and it also means 'shroud' or 'cover' and is from the root word 'Chad' meaning 'to cover'.
The bray of a goat sounds like 'byaaa, byaa, byaaa.....' as if they are saying 'vaak'. The root verb 'vye' that sounds similar to the bray of a goat also means 'to cover' and the root verb 'vyaada' means ' to wide open the mouth' i.e. to reveal the hollow or the sky from where the words come out.
agni is also known as leader of the group of deities named vasu. vasu are those deities who are dominating over the objective world. The objects are called vastu. vasu and vastu are from the root word vas meaning ' to stay in a state', 'to rest', 'to dwell' etc. Also, the word vasana is from the root word vas. vasana means a dress. agni or vak provides a dress, a coat, a body to everyone. From agni we get it, to agni it is returned. This is the reason behind the practice of cremating a dead body.
(The Sanskrit words written in italics are available in the Sanskrit English Lexicon by Sir Monier Williams. These are the itrans version. <http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/>)
The animals are named by the seers by observing the divinity in them. In this article some examples
of the animals and related divinities have been described.
I have tried here to explain the animal behaviours in relation to the divinity to the extent of my perception. The animals are named after the divinity which is prominent in them and in their behaviours. Further an animal is associated with the corresponding god or goddess whose character is particularly representing it.
The seers have seen the divinity in everything and there must be certainly many more significant reasons behind the names (than what I have stated here) .
Similarly they saw the divinities in the societies, in people, in events and described the same along with the divine parts. It is for this reason mythologies have contents which appear not realistic. But mythologies are founded on realities and have related histories.
1.Goddess lakshmI (lakShI) and her vehicle owl.
lakshmi (lakShI) means the power (I) of vision (lakSha). The goddess is the consort of viShNu who has been celebrated in the Vedas for his 'eye' and the 'leg' (motion). Vision or manifestation and motion / control / time are from the Universal consciousness and in our planetary system this center of manifestation (vision) and control (time) is perceived as the sun.
kojaagarI lakShmI is celebrated after durgaa pUjaa (worship of the goddess durgaa ). durgaa means who leads us beyond all durgati or troubles. Death or uncertainty of the existence is the root cause of all troubles. durgaa is celebrated as mukhya praaNa in Upanishad and is the One who carries everyone beyond death to eternity. On the full moon day after the worship of durgaa, the goddess kojaagarI lakshmi is worshipped.
kojaagari means ko(who) + jaagari (awake). Thus when our vision is capable of viewing during night or through darkness, i.e. when our vision is extended beyond death,what is unrevealed now starts revealing , then the goddess kojaagarI lakshmi appears to us. This is the phase or state of one who has transcended the death. To such an enlightened one, everything is available and realized in the soul or self. This is achieving the divine wealth; the things are unfolded in the background of eternity and no longer stained by the limitations, decay, boundaries, mortality. lakshmi is the goddess who bestows wealth to her devotees.
The goddess looks around for those who can remain awake during the full-moon night, to whom the darkness or death is no longer darkness, no longer death. Goddess bestows on the one who can see through.
Thus the goddess is accompanied by owl which can see in the night. The eyes of an owl are very special. They can see both during the night and the day. They have a wide field of vision and they can rotate the neck from front to the sides by 270 degrees and from down to up by almost 90 degrees.
An owl is very expressive while viewing an object, as if it expresses the vision in itself while it views. It orients its face or head while viewing an object. . The word lakShamaNa is the word for 'gesture' or expression in Sanskrit. lakShamaNa is related to the word lakShmI.
Our eyeballs are always shifting, never stationary. The goddess is also termed as cha~nchalaa meaning 'fickle'. She matches her consort viShNu who is celebrated in Vedas as having heaven like all pervading eyes (vision) and supreme legs (motion).
(During the celebration of goddess lakShmi many devotees remain awake throughout the night.)
2. Goddess sarasvatI and her vehicle swan.
sarasvatI---sara (moving. in motion) + sva (soul) +tI (characterized)
sarasvatI is the goddess of expressed words. She is white in colour as all the expressed words, varna (alphabets / colours--shining alphabets) remain in sameness in her. She is the expressive and flowing Consciousness whose expressions are the words. She is the sacred river celebrated in Vedic hymns.
sara means 'motion , displacement. sva means the immutable, ever stationary soul who is in the background of all expressions. In one end it is still and at the other end it is dynamic. This is how is Consciousness. All expressions of Consciousness happens with sva in the background. A near ( but not perfect) word for sva in English is 'assertion less self '.
So is the goddess sarasvati. She is known as the mysterious river, flowing secretly. We never feel our 'immutable, imperishable self or 'sva' during our living, though at one end we are always in that form forever. No sense can exist without the sense of 'sva' in the background. The goddess bestows this knowledge in us and so She is the 'goddess of learning' or the goddess of 'vidya'.
This universe is the materialization of the words of Consciousness. The 'neck' from where the words are 'articulated' is also called 'jana loka' or the 'realm of generation'.
The consort of sarasvati is the god brahmaa (derived from the word brahma) who is the divine mind. The whole physical universe is held in the mind. The sensory organs are acting between the mind and the external or physical universe. Like in our mind we can contemplate and see a flower, similarly the thought of the Universal Consciousness has physicalized as the external universe. Our thought remains in us, in our inner sky. The creators thought has materialized as everything and perceived by everyone.
brahma is from the root word bRi meaning to 'expand'. Thus brahma means who is everything (who has expanded and has become everything) and brahmaa (brahma + a) is brahma personified.
Thus is the pair, goddess sarasvatI and the god brahmaa. The vehicle of both is the duck or a swan. Swan or duck is conspicuous for many reasons including its long neck (windpipe) and beaks which are the parts for articulating its voice.
Not only that, the sound a duck makes, i.e. its quack somewhat resembles ' quack, quack, wak, wak, vaak, vaak.....' or 'vaak, vaak, vaak'.
The goddess is called sarasvatI when she is streaming as spoken words or expressing the physical world. In her core, where she is splitting in Herself, splitting from Oneness, she is called 'vaak'.
The ducks or the swans are mobile in all the three planes i.e. they can walk, swim and fly. These three planes where they can move, represent all the planes -----earth or physicality, water or inner plane where all accomplishment or satisfaction of physicality exists without defined shapes or dimensions, sky or the divinity which is self revealing and from where everything is expressed. Thus these birds (ducks and swans) are called 'hansa' which means the one who is the centre of 'hanana' or annihilation and 'sa' or creation. Thus Universal consciousness is called hansa and the periodical cycle of creation and annihilation is working everywhere. It is said in (Svetasvatara) Upanishad that in this universal cycle hansa is travelling:
sarvaa jeeve (in whom everyone lives) sarva sangsthe (in whom everyone rests) bRihante (in the one who is growing and superseding -----in the infinite one)
asmin (in this) hanso (the swan) brahmyate (whirled around) brahma chakre (in the cycle of brahma):
In whom everyone lives, in whom everyone rests, who is growing and superseding all, it is the Swan;
it is moving in this all encompassing (brahma) wheel !
In Upanishad, the seers have told----this vak milks herself the milk that is inside the word (or in her) for the one who knows her! (dugdhe asmai vaak dohaM yat vaachoH dohoH!--Chandogya Upanishad).
sarasvatI also means saras + vatI, i.e. who is attached to or who is characterized by saras. saras means pond or lake. saras is the reservoir of water; it is the reservoir of elixir of word or vaak. So is the name Sarus-crane for those birds having long necks, long beaks, who do trumpeting and who inhabit in the ponds or the lakes. They are monogamous, attached to one only implying the soul or sva which we have mentioned before while explaining the meaning of the word sarasvatI.
3. varaha (boar) and the hog faced viShNu
varaaha---- vraaha is the name of a form of lord viShNu. The hogs or the wild boars are also called varaaha.
The meaning of the word varaaha is as below:
varaaha = vara / varam (boon) + aahaH (says)---who by saying or by the power of his / her words bestows the boons. This means the 'word' spoken materializes into a boon.
The seers have said in Upanishad that this earth or physicality is the body of vaak (the mother of all expressions or words) and agni (fire god or the Universal consciousness as animation or life burning in us) is her (vaak's) illuminated form.
Thus lifting the physicality from the inertness to the words or Consciousness is the mission of hog faced vishNu or varaha avataara.
Thus about varaha form of viShNu it is said:
gRitogra mahaachakre danshtrodhRita vasundhare
varaaha rupinI shive narayaNI namastute.
(You formidable, have grasped and lifted up this earth the great disc by your tusks.
You shiva, naaraayaNI, who is in this varaha form, we bow to you! )
The hogs are special for digging the earth by their snouts. This behavior of digging or piercing the soil, disintegrating it by using the snout and that they are having special teeth or tusks represent the act of earth or physicality lifted to Consciousness.
Our thoughts and words remain within the periphery of our mind or our own space but the thoughts of the divine mind has taken the formation of the physical universe. Every physical entity is associated with a word or is felt with words or listened by us in the process of sensing and correspondingly the external entities are formed 'words'.
The retroversion of the word vara is rava. rava means 'sound'. ravi means light or the sun, or the light associated with the sound.
When the Consciousness splits from Oneness, one form is called vaak and the other praaNa--these are the first pair created before everything. The way vaak embraces praaNa determines uniqueness of a created entity. Thus this act of embracing is from the root word vRi and the word vara is originated from vRi. Thus every thing is the conjugation of vaak and praaNa.
In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, vaak has been termed as dhenu or cow, praaNa as the RiShava or the bull and mind as the vatsa or the calf. All words, shapes and dimensions are expressed in definiteness within the mind. These are called naama (name or definition) and rUpa (form or dimension).
The sharp tusks of the boars can pierce a prey or a predator. Similarly, it is vaak who can reveal herself or break open a physicality or a word, if she wishes to to do. The words become animated and this inert world becomes a conscious, living entity.
Thus, in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the seer has said:
ya kaascha savda vaagaiva saa; saishaa hi anvaayattaa saishaa hi na ------whatever may it sounds, surely it is vaak; it is by her (vaak) one recognizes (that the sound is vaak) and it is by her one fails to recognize! When we recognize a word (rava) as vaak, it becomes vara', or vaak embraces us. We find in our every expression or in our every moment that we are embraced by vaak.
Words are processed by the teeth along with the other organs who are the court members of the empress vaak. The teeth also bite the foods , crush them and extract the juice out of the solid thing and work in the process of assimilation. The foods eaten become part of our vitality or consciousness. They break into three parts belonging to the three states of our consciousness----vaak, praaNa and manas (mind).
The boars have keen sense of smell.
Smell is intrinsic to 'earth', like 'vision' is intrinsic to the 'sun' and touch to the 'air'. The earth is called dharitrI or the goddess who is holding everything physicalized. Similarly, smell called gandha means who is holding (dha) the motion (gam). The air or praaNa is making round or circulation through the nose, i.e. the process of inbreathing and out-breathing and that has made us stable. Similarly in the macro , the flow or air of Consciousness has given stability to the earth's diurnal motion. This is gandha, smell which is the air circulation through the nose and in the external is the the earth and our physical stability or the body.
Thus, in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the seer has said:
ya kaascha savda vaagaiva saa; saishaa hi anvaayattaa saishaa hi na ------whatever may it sounds, surely it is vaak; it is by her (vaak) one recognizes (that the sound is vaak) and it is by her one fails to recognize! When we recognize a word (rava) as vaak, it becomes vara', or vaak embraces us. We find in our every expression or in our every moment that we are embraced by vaak.
Words are processed by the teeth along with the other organs who are the court members of the empress vaak. The teeth also bite the foods , crush them and extract the juice out of the solid thing and work in the process of assimilation. The foods eaten become part of our vitality or consciousness. They break into three parts belonging to the three states of our consciousness----vaak, praaNa and manas (mind).
The boars have keen sense of smell.
Smell is intrinsic to 'earth', like 'vision' is intrinsic to the 'sun' and touch to the 'air'. The earth is called dharitrI or the goddess who is holding everything physicalized. Similarly, smell called gandha means who is holding (dha) the motion (gam). The air or praaNa is making round or circulation through the nose, i.e. the process of inbreathing and out-breathing and that has made us stable. Similarly in the macro , the flow or air of Consciousness has given stability to the earth's diurnal motion. This is gandha, smell which is the air circulation through the nose and in the external is the the earth and our physical stability or the body.
The following link is interesting about boars digging earth.
http://friendsoftheboar.blogspot.com/2011/09/boar-digging-or-boar-damage.html
4. God agni and his vehicle goat.
Chaaga ----goat. Chaaga is the draught animal or vaahana (vehicle) of the god agni. Lord agni rides on a goat.
agni is the god of fire (animation and manifestation) and leads all the gods. agni = ag (in front) + ni (leads); agni is the one who as leader heralds deities to the worshippers and who also carries the offerings or oblations from the worshippers to the deities. This feature of agni is called vahni.
agni or fire is the self revealing, life giving aspect of Universal Consciousness and who has materialized as the physical word. agni, also called praaNaagni, is the consort of vaak. Since the Consciousness is taking the forms of words or expressing as words, the seers have said 'mukhaat agnirjaayata' -----the fire was created from the mouth of the Universal Consciousness.
Thus Upanishads have said that the earth (physicality) is the body of vaak and agni is her illuminated or self-revealing form. Like the fire or life burning in us, agni is burning within everything, within every definitions and forms, within every entity. Like fire is there inside the earth, similarly whatever we see or know inside that agni, fire or the Consciousness who animates everyone exists. Every entity is a cover or shroud, covering agni or vaak. The dimensions or forms act like coat or cover of vaak or agni. Thus every form conveys that agni is there. This is goat or Chaag the vehicle of agni. The goat is famous for its skin and the coat made of its skin. Goat is called Chaag in Sanskrit and it also means 'shroud' or 'cover' and is from the root word 'Chad' meaning 'to cover'.
The bray of a goat sounds like 'byaaa, byaa, byaaa.....' as if they are saying 'vaak'. The root verb 'vye' that sounds similar to the bray of a goat also means 'to cover' and the root verb 'vyaada' means ' to wide open the mouth' i.e. to reveal the hollow or the sky from where the words come out.
agni is also known as leader of the group of deities named vasu. vasu are those deities who are dominating over the objective world. The objects are called vastu. vasu and vastu are from the root word vas meaning ' to stay in a state', 'to rest', 'to dwell' etc. Also, the word vasana is from the root word vas. vasana means a dress. agni or vak provides a dress, a coat, a body to everyone. From agni we get it, to agni it is returned. This is the reason behind the practice of cremating a dead body.
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(Written following the teaching of the great sage Shri.BijoyKrishna Chattopadhyaya (1875-1945) and his principal disciple Shri.Tridibnath Bandyopadhyaya.)-----debkumar.lahiri@gmail.com
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