Vahans (Vehicles) in Mythology

In ancient era, knowledge was imparted through verses or songs or “geet” (Gita), folktales and short plays (puranas) and epics.

The depictions in puranas of Gods and Goddesses was probably to convey some meaning for examples, the vahans or vehicles used by Gods and Goddesses symbolize tendencies, which need to be controlled.

The deity or God denotes positive behavior. According to the Advait philosophy, the deity represents ‘you’ and the vahan denotes the control. Gods and their Vahans represent the path to control the animal tendencies and live a more positive life.

Following are a few examples.

·         Lord Ganesha rides a Mouse. Mouse in mythology denotes greed and Ganesha as ‘vighnaharta’, the one who removes obstacles. This means that one should learn to control greed to tackle obstacles in life.

·         Lord Shiva rides Nandi. The bull symbolizes uncontrolled sexual desires and the duo signifies that sexual desires must be first controlled to learn meditation.

·         Saraswati (the Goddesses of knowledge) sitting on a swan symbolizes viveka, which means that one must learn to control the power of discrimination or viveka to acquire knowledge. A swan can drink milk and leave water from a mixture of milk and water.

·         Indra (the one who has a complete control over the intellect) riding on the elephant Airavat symbolizes that for its development the intellect (Indra) requires control over masti and madness (elephant).

·         Durga (the perfect woman) riding a lion symbolizes that to become a perfect woman, she must learn to control agitation or aggression (lion).

·         Lakshmi (wealth) rides an owl. In mythology, owl denotes ignorance or foolishness. This means that to earn righteously, these owl-like characteristics within us must be controlled.

·         Lord Vishnu (the doer) riding the eagle or Garuda means controlling your desires to eat an unbalanced diet. Eagles are opportunistic predators i.e. they eat almost anything they can find.

·         Krishna riding five horses indicates the need to control our five senses. The five horses are the Indriyas or senses, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

·         Peacock is the vehicle of Kartikeya; it represents conquest of one’s ego or pride (vanity).

·         The vehicle of Goddess Kali is a black goat. Agni rides Mesha, a ram. Kubera, the God of wealth, also has a ram as his vehicle. A ram is an un-castrated adult male sheep. Goat also signifies uncontrolled sexual desires but to a lesser extent than the bull.

·         Yamraj rides a buffalo, which is known for its rampant destruction. Lord Yama or Yamraja is referred to as the God of death. He is the twin brother of Dharma Raja, the God of justice. Justice can be done only if one has control over anger and aggressive behavior.

In mythology, apart from Vahans, animals are also shown to be sacrificed, which means to kill the animal tendency within ourselves. In Kali Pooja, a buffalo is sacrificed, which again means that in extreme situations, you may need to kill your ego or anger.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Immediate Past National President IMA

Lathmar Holi

Lathmar Holi is celebrated in Barsana, the birth place of Radha. This year it was celebrated on March 24, 2013.

As the name suggests, in this Holi the girls hit the boys with sticks. As per mythology, Lord Krishna visited his beloved Radha's village on this day and playfully teased her and her friends. Taking offence at this, the women of Barsana chased him away. Since then, men from Krishna's village, Nandgaon, visit Barsana to play Holi in the town which has the distinction of having the only temple dedicated to Radha in India. The Holi is unique as women chase men away with the sticks. The men also sing provocative songs in a bid to invite attention of the women and women then go offensive with Lathies to beat men who protect themselves with shields.

Only mythological answer I can think of Lathmar Holi is that this holi represents cleaning of the mind towards physical attraction to the women and lust. The five vices  are Kaama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha and Ahankar. Moh or attachment and lust need to be removed before Holi is celebrated. The burning of Holika means burning of sum total of all the five vices. During this festival, one tries to get rid of sexual lust. Other dedicated festivals where one tries to get rid of sexual lust are:

1.       Worship of Nandi which means you cannot enter a temple with sexual desires and you keep your Nandi or bull nature outside the temple before you enter. Nandi is always worshiped outside the Shiva Temple.

2.       During meditation, you need to take away your sexual desires first. In journey to  Amarnath, Nandi was left first by Lord Shiva and Parvati.

3.       Raksha Bandhan, Bhaiya Dooj and Krishna Balram Subhadra Yatra during Jagannath Puri Yatra are all festivals where sexual lust towards women are neutralized. 

Emedinews:Nag Panchami and Health

Nag Panchami is celebrated in the month of July. On this day, snakes are worshipped. People observe a fast one day before the festival and also on the day of the festival. The tradition is not to eat till evening on that day.

In Hindu mythology a snake represents ‘ego’. A realized man is the one who has concurred or mastered ego unlike hostile people who are constantly victimized by the demands of the ego. Practicing humility is the way to concur one’s ego. On this day, therefore, everybody practices humility so that it becomes a part and parcel of his or her consciousness. Ahankar, vanity or egoism is one of the five obstacles to internal realization.

Ahankar or ego is normally a part and parcel of subtle mental layer. The subtle body consists of mind, intellect and ego.

Without ego also, there is no life but the abnormal exaggeration of the ego faculty is what is called vanity or egotism. Ego is therefore nothing but a mistake of the intellect and behaves like a cancer.

The Chief action of ego is to block the path of truthfulness. It works like the bosom friend of an error. It prevents people from accepting new things. Ego works on the assumption that; “I am the only one who is right and anybody who opposes me, I have the right to destroy him”.

Egoistic persons only want to defend their own rights. Ego works hand in hand with anger. Classically a man under the influence of ego can be described as a person who is advertising his virtues by pointing the faults of others. He basically advertises his own shortcoming. In meetings, such type of persons can be seen to attract the attention of others by making a noise or imposing their opinion on the others.

He frequently interprets others while they are talking. He likes to make speeches. He wants his name to appear in the print. He makes it a point to be known to everybody for every bit of charity done.

Humility is the virtue to be practiced to control the ego. Humility can be acquired by spreading the message of love, and practicing “giving”. Calling everybody with respect, wishing everybody early in the morning, respecting the seniors, bowing and taking blessings from the teachers and the elderly, asking for forgiveness, showing appreciation and concern and having the same thought in the mind, speech and action etc are a few of the examples of acquiring humility.

Matthew once said “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute you”.

Nag Panchami is also celebrated in monsoon season as snakes come out in rain and most of them are non poisonous and one should not unnecessarily kill them.

Also Nag Panchami comes in Chaturmas, a period of negative state of the mind. As getting egoistic is common in these months one must learn to practice humility in this part of the season.

Snake in mythology is also depicted by Sheshnag protecting Krishna at birth, lord Shiva wearing a snake in the neck and Lord Vishnu sleeping with the snake with inward mouth protecting him. All these festivals also occur in the Chaturmas month and means learning to control the duality of mind and taming the ego.

Taming kalia in Krishna Leela as described in Srimad Bhagwad also indicated taming the duality of mind and not killing it.

Ask Dr KK: Why does the groom rides on a mare in the marriage?

Dr KK Answers:  In marriage riding on mare means controlling one’s senses. Horse represents senses and mare the uncontrolled senses. The first thing a groom has to learn  is to tighten his senses and that what reining the mare means . 

Dr KK Answers: What does Holy Ash on Shiva means in mythology?

Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh mean ideation, doing and winding up of any job. When winding up we must make sure that we end up with inner happiness.  Ash is a reminder that when we wind up any project, the fruits earned are to be consumed in the same life. We are not going to carry any monetary earnings in the next birth. We should not forget that each one of us has to die one day and we came without any thing and will go leaving every ting behind.

 

Dr K K Aggarwal is Padmashri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee, President Heart Care Foundation of India, Dean Board of Medical Education Moolchand Medcity, Sr Physician & Cardiologist, Visiting professor Clinical Research DIPSAR, Past President Delhi Medical Association, Past Academic and Research Wing Head IMA, Chairman Ethics Committee Delhi Medical Council.  

Dr KK Answers: What does Lord Shiva Moon with Ganges coming out means in mythology?

Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh mean ideation, doing and winding up of any job. When winding up we must make sure that we end up with inner happiness.

Shiva is depicted as Neelkanth means the one who has kept the slow poison (anger and alike) in the neck. One should neither drink the poison (suppress the emotions) nor spit it (expressive anger). One should keep it in the neck or try to neutralize it over time.

Moon symbolizes coldness and thoughts or in other word positive cooling thoughts.  Ganga is the flow of river or in other words the continuous flow of positive thoughts. This helps in neutralizing the Neelkanth or the poisonous thoughts kept in the neck  

Dr K K Aggarwal is Padmashri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee, President Heart Care Foundation of India, Dean Board of Medical Education Moolchand Medcity, Sr Physician & Cardiologist, Visiting professor Clinical Research DIPSAR, Past President Delhi Medical Association, Past Academic and Research Wing Head IMA, Chairman Ethics Committee Delhi Medical Council.