MEHULENTERPRISE

Sacred animal vehicles...

My maid servant once requested me to leave her early. When I asked her the reason she informed me that she had to do the preparation for the Vat Poornima pooja to be performed the next day. She also said that as the temples are crowded on such festivals she preferred to buy branches of banyan tree from the hawkers in the market and perform the pooja at home peacefully. Further, she generously volunteered to buy branches for me. Even though I was furious I kept calm and tried to explain to her that our ancestors thought us to celebrate these festivals so that we would conserve our mother nature. So when we look upon trees and animals as gods, we would naturally take utmost care to preserve them. They had foresight but we have not understood the true meaning of these festivals. We give importance only to rituals and the real spirit is lost. Thus the very festivals which were started to conserve the nature are now causing harm to it. Explaining the importance of trees and animals in the nature and how they balance the ecosystem, I made her promise that she would not buy the branches of banyan tree from the hawker. The above incident brought back some 35 year old memories, when as per the Hindu calendar a rare combination of stars occurred on the vary day and a festival was celebrated. In a temple just be¬hind where I lived the temple priest managed to trap a koel from somewhere. During those days koels were rare in Mumbai. Probably the reason was that there was less garbage and so the population of crows was less and as a result even the koels were not spotted as fre¬quently as now. The priest then put up a notice inviting ladies to perform pooja and gather punya. Ladies thronged the temple to perform pooja of the koel. The next thing I heard was that the poor koel attained Samadhi. I am sure Mother Nature must have cursed the ladies for killing the innocent bird. In Indian mythology some animal or a bird is designated to each god as a vehicle with some favourite flower as an offering. The idea behind this was to give protection to the flora and fauna around us. Ancient Indians had recognized the animal rights to co exist with humans and therefore they were loved, nurtured, and even worshipped. They were aware that man is just one part of the food web and cannot live in isolation. In order to impress upon the commoners about the importance of wildlife, the animals and plants were associated with the gods and the goddesses. Our ancestors with their foresight designated some plant or animal as the god’s or the goddess’s vehicle. The reason being that along with the god and even the animal or plant used would be worshiped and conserved. These vehicles varied from insects, reptiles, birds to mammals. The kings and the emperors also opted for different animals in their emblems. Many festivals were observed in honour of several animals. In order to inculcate love for animals among children, animals were made heroes in stories. The rulers gave them prime position in art and architecture. Unfortunately, today we are neither adopting ancient Indians’ compassionate attitude, nor scientific approach of the westerners towards these animals and hence we are heading towards a catastrophe. Here we shall have a look at some of the animals that are used as vehicles and the myths associated with them. These vehicles actually represent the various energies that exist in the universe as well as in human beings. Each god or goddess in charge of a particular energy, which he or she rides and controls at his or her will. These energies are present in humans also, mostly as wild animal energies that need to be controlled and channelled properly in order to transform the lower sell and establish divine consciousness in him or her. Brahma's vehicle is the swan which stands for the intelligence and for the creative and discretionary energies in human. The swan is very beautiful, peaceful, and graceful bird. 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 our ability to discriminate the right from the wrong so that we can select the correct path to achieve salvation. Saraswati, the consort of Brahma is shown riding either the swan or the peacock. The peacock is a graceful and beautiful bird and is known for its dance before the rain. This denotes that Saraswati 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. Vishnu is seated on Adi Shesha, a close resemblance of the king cobra, the primal serpent god, who represents the desire consciousness in us. Vishnu can help us either to fulfil these desires or control them. When he travels, Vishnu rides on Garuda, the giant bird. The bird represents the human thoughts which can fly in all directions at incredible speed. Vishnu can help us to control our thoughts. Mahalakshmi rides on an owl. 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. 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. 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. Shiva rides the bull, which stands for the bullying, aggressive, blind, and brute power in humans. The dog is as much considered the animal vehicle of the Indian god Shiva as is the bull, Nandi. In fact, when Shiva is depicted with four dogs, they are said to represent the four Vedas, the most ancient of scriptures. Shiva in his wrathful form as Bhairava is especially portrayed with dogs. Here the association is with Shiva as yogi who meditates at battlegrounds and cemeteries, and so is connected with canines as scavengers. His consort Parvati uses the lion as her vehicle. The lion stands for cruelty, mercilessness, anger, violence, and hostility towards other beings. Parvati with her grace can help humans to control all these qualities in them. Ganesha uses as his carrier a very small mouse, which represents the fear and nervousness in humans, the feeling of doubt and weakness that overwhelm us before we start a venture. By praying to Ganesha, his devotees can overcome such feelings from their minds and go about their task confidently, with the assured feeling that the lord of obstacles alone can remove obstacles from our minds. Thus from the myths it was assured that humans would actually regard the importance of the various animals and not harm them. However with modernization the intellectual human has not only destroyed his or her surroundings but also shown disregard to the gods who pioneered conservation.

* Compiled by MEHUL SHAH (Various publications).