Why Do Hindu Gods Rely on Nature Symbolism?
Posted on 11. Dec, 2021 by Paul Sochaczewski in Ganesha and Collecting
This article is one of a series, available here, that has been adapted from Searching for Ganesha: Collecting Images of the Sweet-Loving, Elephant-Headed Hindu Deity Everybody Admires. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.
ISBN: Print: 978-2-940573-37-0
E-Book: 978-2-940573-38-7
Why Do Hindu Gods Rely on Nature Symbolism?
by
Paul Spencer Sochaczewski
www.sochaczewski.com
Elephants and mice. Tigers and peacocks. Eagles, cobras, and an inordinate abundance of lotuses. Hindu gods are largely defined by their connection with nature symbols.
For instance, all major Hindu gods have animal vahanas, a term that might be interpreted as a vehicle, chariot, assistant, or complement.
- Ganesha, famously, has a mouse named Musika.
- Shiva, Ganesha’s father, is accompanied by a bull named Nandi.
- Hi mother Parvati has Dawon, a lion, and his brother Kartikeya has Parvani, a peacock.
These animals were chosen by Hindu myth-makers because they represent memorable symbols that reflect the power and personality of each god.
Ganesha’s mouse vahana, for instance, has numerous nature-related interpretations, including the concept that Ganesha, being part elephant, can help worshippers with the big challenges in life, while the seemingly insignificant mouse can reach into the tiny corners of life and remove annoying day-to-day obstacles.
Or consider the vehicle of Ganesha’s brother, Kartikeya. He is the commander of the army of the gods. A warrior. So why is his vahana a peacock?
The answer lies in clever manipulation of nature symbols. It’s more than the fact that the peacock is handsome (and vain, if you want to look at it that way). The peacock represents the joy of abundant nature when the monsoon rains arrive. And the peacock is believed to deliberately consume poisonous substances in order to become immune to them, and its resplendent plumage warns potential predators not to attack – a process called aposematism, based on Alfred Russel Wallace’s concept of warning coloration. As a result Kartikeya’s vehicle represents contradictory qualities so common in Hindu symbols – in this case, ferocity and grace, aggression and harmony, elegance and fecundity.
Now consider Ganesha’s elephant head.
The story of how Ganesha got an elephant’s head is one of the great religious myths, a tale for another article. But the elephant connection represents a Wal-Mart of concepts that explains how Ganesha meets every desire, every need.
First, there’s the obvious natural symbolism – the elephant is big, powerful, and can easily clear a path through the densest undergrowth – a perfect jungle tractor easily capable of removing the annoying obstacles that humans have to overcome. Via his elephant form, Ganesha is thought to open a gateway so that your prayers reach the appropriate god, which is why Ganesha is worshipped first, before beginning a prayer to any other Hindu god.
Elephants can only survive in rich intact ecosystems, therefore Ganesha became a symbol of fertility and abundance. And, because he is huge and gray, his presence suggests the dark clouds that bring the life-saving monsoon.
Elephants have a mammoth and unstoppable sex drive; this can relate to Ganesha’s association with kundalini and the root chakra, which is the center of the reproductive imperative.
An elephant’s trunk has the strength to uproot a tree as well as the finesse to pick up a needle. This indicates that Ganesha is a wise god with immense strength and fine discrimination. The twisted trunk also represents om, the primordial meditative sound from which the cosmos was created; the om pictograph is frequently shown with Ganesha.
His two tusks denote the two aspects of the human personality, wisdom and emotion. The broken tusk conveys the idea that one must conquer emotions with wisdom to attain perfection.
His large ears means he hears the entreaties of all creatures.
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The one thing I’ve learned by collecting Ganeshas and trying to understand why he’s so loved, is that things in Hinduism are rarely black and white. One seldom finds pure good or pure evil. Gods, like people, live complicated lives, and undertake their travails in multiple shades of gray.
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Similarly, consider the predator-prey relationship between Garuda and Naga, two important deities that have antecedents in nature.
Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, is a man-eagle, based on a soaring bird of prey that is a powerful male symbol. The eagle represents creativity, freedom, distant travel, the bright sunlight of the day-time.
In nature the eagle is the natural predator of the king cobra, which is the precursor of Naga, a sacred serpent. King cobra eggs hatch at the start of the monsoon, leading to the folk belief that it is Naga that brings the life-giving rain. Naga is therefore considered a feminine symbol of nurturing, agricultural productivity, water, weaving, the homestead, and the moon.
In the wild, the animal precursors of Garuda and Naga are enemies. In Hindu mythology they are similarly antagonists, yet they are also complementary; the universe needs both for a harmonious existence that includes male and female, day and night, sun and rain, thought and form, human and animal, and ultimately, certainty and uncertainty.
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And Ganesha is sometimes shown with Hamsa, the swan vahana of both Brahma and his consort Saraswati. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge and creative arts, so it is appropriate for Ganesha, who shares Saraswati’s intellectual and artistic influence, to borrow her celestial vehicle. As with other vahanas, Hamsa has antecedents in nature. The belief that the mythical Hamsa can separate milk and water likely derives from the reality that the swan has a sieve-like structure in its mouth that separates water from mud. Hamsa is also said to eat pearls, indicating the sought-after ability to discriminate truth from falsehood. And, just as the swan is equally at home on land and water, the true wise man or woman is equally at home in the realms of matter and spirit.
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Ganesha is often pictured with a lotus, either holding it in his hand or seated on a lotus base. The lotus is an important natural symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism that represents purity.
Water drops roll off a lotus leaf and carry away dirt particles, leaving the surface perfectly clean.
And the lotus often grows in muddy, murky water, leading to the logic that the lotus is a
beacon of purity and truth in a confused and dirty world. It represents the path to spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
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Do these (and many other) nature symbols indicate that Hinduism is a “close to nature” belief system that promotes a modern environmental agenda? Lance E. Nelson, of the University of San Diego, says “there is a good deal of material in the Hindu world that would lend itself to eco-friendly reconstructions and repurposing. There are also elements that contemporary Hindu environmentalists might wish to deemphasize . . . [therefore] one should be cautious about any attempts to pronounce Hinduism an ‘ecological’ religion. Hindu attitudes toward nature are complex. There has been considerable scholarship on this issue in recent years, particularly as it pertains to sacred rivers [and it] reveals a highly ambiguous situation. Indeed, we now see that the whole question of the value for ecology of the sacralization of nature or aspects of nature is not at all as straightforward as it might appear to be.”
Garuda, Vishnu’s vahana, is a man-eagle often featured with Naga, a sacred serpent modeled on the king cobra. In nature, the eagle and the snake are predator and prey, which is why the two are frequently seen together in Hindu iconography. They are opposites, yet they define each other, and represent the essential balance of the universe – male-female, independence-security, aggression-nurturing.
This Indonesian bronze, from the author’s collection, shows Ganesha on the front, and Garuda on the back.
The five-headed protective Naga in this early 20th century wooden Ganesha statue from Thailand, is a protective spirit, the holy Ananta Shesha, the Naga King, one of the primal beings of creation. Ananta Shesha is said to hold all the planets of the universe on his hoods and to constantly sing the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. It is said that when Ananta Shesha uncoils, time moves forward and creation takes place; when he coils back, the universe ceases to exist.
Ganesha is often shown with Naga, a sacred serpent that is a powerful symbol that combines superhuman and serpent qualities. It represents the kundalini, the yogic life force that is believed to lie coiled at the base of the spine in the first, or “root” chakra. The adept will stimulate this serpent, which, suitably aroused, will send energy to the head to trigger enlightenment. Kundalini is the most basic and most powerful energy in the body.
Ganesha holds a lotus in his left hand in this brass statue crafted by the Dhokra Damar ethnic group in West Bengal, India. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the lotus grows resplendent from muddy and murky waters, leading to the logic that the lotus is a beacon of purity and truth in a confused and dirty world. It represents the path to spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
Background
Paul near the summit of Gunung Gamalama, Ternate, Indonesia
Paul Spencer Sochaczewski first went to Southeast Asia in 1969 with the United States Peace Corps, where he was assigned to assist rural teachers in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. He remained in Asia for some 20 years, working in advertising and journalism, and those experiences have informed his writing on a wide variety of Asian-themed topics and quests.
He has lived and worked in some 85 countries and written 16 books and some 600 articles for publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC Wildlife, Travel and Leisure, and Reader’s Digest. His latest book, Searching for Ganesha, has been published to generous reviews. During the first week, the book has become an Amazon #1 bestseller in three categories – Asian Travel Photography, Private Museums and Collections, and Biographies in Hinduism. For more on Paul’s background please click here.