Monday,
13th November 2017
The Hindu Gods are not historical
characters. They are symbols.
No one can ever believe that Lord Shiva
is sitting on Mount Kailas with
Parvati, Ganesh and Subrahmanian. They are symbols of ideas.
How can one imagine that there is truly an
ocean, full of milk and Lord Vishnu is lying on the serpent bed which is on the
waves of Milky Ocean? Is He so powerless to get a more comfortable
bed?
Goddess Saraswati is holding a Veena always in her had! Goddess Parvati
has bow with sugar cane, five flower arrows etc. to hold in her hands!
Some Gods/Goddesses have four hands; three
eyes; four, five, eight, sixteen or sixty four heads; and some have animal heads
etc. How weird..!
But it is important to understand that
these Gods are not historical personalities. They never existed anywhere, at
anytime. They can never appear in front of human beings, except in stories.
They are symbols. They represent ideas.
They communicate with the on-looker in a special poetic way.
They remind the Saadhaka, the
experiences he/she had during the period of Saadhana / spiritual practice.
Believe in Naranarayana.. Naran (good people) as Narayana (god).
ReplyDeleteCould you please clarify the last sentence more “ they remind the sadhaka......”
ReplyDeleteI think the article has more contents to be added..this is just a curtain raiser..
ReplyDeleteThe forms of Hindu Gods are symbols. They are the representation of the knowledge a spiritual seeker is gaining during his journey of spiritual practices. What I meant in the article by the experiences of Sadhaka (spiritual seeker) is knowledge. The spiritual seeker gets deeper knowledge regarding the mind and its activities. The forms of the Gods and the Goddesses represent those revelations.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in Lalitha Sahasranama Sthothra, the four objects in the hands of Lalitha Devi are described as,
"Raagaswarupa paasaadhyaa krodhaakaara ankushojwalaa
Mano rupekshu kodandaa pancha thanmathra saayakaa"
Lalitha Devi is holding "a rope" in her back-left-hand and "an iron hook controlling elephants" in her back-right-hand. "A bow of sugar-cane" in the front-left-hand and "five flower arrows" in her front-right-hand. It is strange that a Goddess holding all these irrelevant items in her hands! But the lines in the Lalitha Sahasranama Sthothra gives explanation to the picture. The rope in Her hand represents the attachment aspect of the mind. The spiritual seeker has observed his own attachment. When he is looking at the rope in the hand of Goddess, he must remind him of this aspect in his own mind. This is the process. Like-wise, The hook to control elephant represents anger, sugar cane bow denotes the manas and the five flower arrows remind of the five qualities of indriya-s (Senses - Sabda/sound, Sparsa/touch, Rupa/colour, Rasa/taste & Gandha/smell).
This explanation is too short. I only wanted to show that each aspect in the form of deities in Hinduism has clear representation which, if one can read them properly, lead the spiritual seeker to the ultimate wisdom.
One more important point to stress here is that, even in this aspect, not just "the Bhakthi without knowledge" what is expected with these forms of Deities. Gaining knowledge is the aim of "reading" these deities in the right manner.
Thanks for explaining..
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