The Sphinx

The moment someone speaks of Egypt, immediately two monuments come to our mind – the Pyramids and the Sphinx. With Egypt in the news for all the wrong reasons, I thought of discussing about the famous Sphinx, even though, it is found in places beyond Egypt.

Egyptian Sphinx

The Sphinx is a mythical creature which is half human and half animal. In Egypt, it has a body of a lion and the head of a human. It was a prominent figure which was known to guard the temples, palaces and the pyramids along with the secrets of the temples. The Sphinx was supposed to be a later day manifestation of the ancient Hathor, the goddess of birth and death. It was also supposed to be the guardian of the distant horizons, and faced the East, i.e. the rising Sun. It was a prominent figure of solar worship that existed during the ancient culture.

There are no major myths associated with the Sphinx, and today it exists more of a structural marvel. However, in some depictions it is shown as crushing some objects under its feet, used to depict the crushing of Egypt’s enemies. It is worth mentioning, that there has been intense speculation over the broken nose of the Sphinx. Some say, that it was broken by cannon ball struck at the nose by Napoleon’s soldiers, when they had attacked Egypt in 1798 (uncertain date). Some Egyptian historians attribute the loss of nose to acts of vandalism by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi fanatic, who was outraged when he saw some Egyptian farmers making an offering to the Sphinx for want of a good harvest.

Greek Sphinx

The Sphinx existed in the Greek mythology too, except that it did not hold a place of veneration, like it did for the Egyptians. The Greek Sphinx had the head of a woman, the body of a lioness and the tail of a serpent. She was evil and guarded the gates of Thebes and asked a riddle to all who wanted to enter the gates of Thebes, failing which they would be devoured. This Sphinx features in the tale of Oedipus and she repeats the riddle to Oedipus too. The famous riddle was – Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be? To this Oedipus was supposed to have answered – Man - who crawled on all fours as a baby, walked on two feet as an adult, and then used a stick in old age. On hearing the answer, the sphinx is supposed to have killed itself, thus freeing Thebes of the menace of the Sphinx. However, the Greek Sphinx was a greedy and an evil creature, and does not find any mention elsewhere.

Purushamriga

In India, there exists a sphinx like creature known as Purushamriga, meaning man-beast. It is found in many South-Indian temples and is engraved at the entrances of the temples, whose main duty is to take away the sins of the people who entered the temples. Sometimes such figures are also found near the entrance to the sanctum-sanctorum of the temples. The Greek Sphinx is also quite similar to the Sharabha form of Lord Shiva (please refer to the article   dated 29/12/2010 from the Archives). It is important to mention that one should not confuse the Sphinx with the Narasimha (avatar of Vishnu), which is an exact opposite. The Narasimha has the body of a male and the face of a lion as against all the Sphinxes that we have been speaking about.

Sphinxes are also found in many of the Buddhist art forms in some of the South-Asian countries like Philippines, Thailand, Burma and even Sri Lanka. The Sphinxes are also found in the Freemasonry architecture. But it is definitely the Egyptian Sphinx that remains as such overbearing sculptures or landmarks which has captured the mind-space of each one of us.

Maat – Egyptian Goddess of Truth and Justice

Maat, in Egyptian language literally means ‘truth’. Maat is the Egyptian goddess of Truth and Justice. Besides truth and justice, she also represented law, order and a sense of balance. She was also credited by bringing a sense of stability to the universe, post creation. She was considered to be the opposite of Isfet who was credited to represent chaos, deceit and violence, all things that destroy the balance or equilibrium.

She has been depicted as a young woman with an ostrich feather as her headgear. She was considered to be the daughter of Sun-god, Ra and was the female counterpart of Thoth, who was the god of wisdom and learning. Together with Thoth, both represented divine wisdom and all aspects associated with it.

According to the Egyptian mythology, after death, Maat acts as the judge of morality. She would weigh the soul of the dead against her ostrich feather in a scale, and if the soul balances against the feather, then the soul reaches paradise. If it weighed heavier than the feather, a sign that it was a soul which harboured evil deeds, then it would be given to the crocodile headed goddess Ammut (some say she was lioness-headed), who would devour it and would be relegated to the underworld. This way the Egyptians believed that there would be balance, and just as the good would get rewarded, the evil would get punished. The concept of punishment after life is akin to many other cultures, including Hinduism. She was also said to regulate the movement of stars and the seasons, again leading to a sense of continuous change with balance at the core of all her activities.

The Pharaoh’s of the later day were often shown with the symbols of Maat, as they were seen as the upholders of the principles of Maat. Judges were also referred as ‘priests of Maat’. Many feel that Maat was less of a goddess and more of a concept. The concept of balance leading to equilibrium was passed on to the Greeks during the reign of the Greeks over Egypt. Many also feel that the present day image of the blind-folded Lady of Justice, holding the balance as the image of justice is a modern derivative of the Egyptian Maat.

                                                                                           

Unfortunately, Egypt today is fighting for the same, balance and justice.  The priest of Maat, who is sitting in judgement, has been sitting for too long now, and the children of Egypt feel that balance is tilted. The lack of equilibrium in today’s Egypt shows that the much needed concept of truth and justice is being thrown to the winds. Maat is much in need, and the sense of balance and justice and the resultant equilibrium needs to be restored soon.

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami literally means the fifth day of the spring season (vasant ritu). This day is also considered as the day of Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and wisdom. In earlier days, pre-school children were inducted to schools on this day, or were made to write from this day. In a country where education is a religion, this day has its own importance. In the Eastern parts of India, every household which has children in schools or colleges perform Saraswati Puja, besides the community ones held on this day.

Saraswati is the consort of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe and the originator of all knowledge in the form of Vedas. In the eastern parts of India, Saraswati is considered to be the daughter of Shiva and Parvati. She is clad in white, symbolising purity. The vahana or the carrier of Saraswati is a white swan and this too has its own significance. The swan is supposed to have the ability to separate water from milk, signifying that learning and wisdom enables man to distinguish good from bad.

Mythologically, Saraswati is the sister of Goddess Lakshmi (goddess of wealth), but both are considered to be poles apart. Saraswati is permanent, where is Lakshmi is temporary (chanchala – fidgety, and thus does not stay anywhere forever). Worshipper of Saraswati is blessed for life, but the worshipper of Lakshmi is wealthy till the whims of the goddess.

Saraswati has her counterparts in other mythologies too.

Athena

According to Greek Mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom and learning. She is the daughter of Zeus and is credited with inventing the flute, which symbolises her association with music and other fields of arts and craft.

Thoth

Besides the goddesses, the Egyptians had Thoth as the god of learning. Thoth was also associated with wisdom, writing, speech, etc. He was the chief counsellor to Ra, the King of all gods.



Odin



Odin was the god of wisdom in the Nordic mythology. He is supposed to have hung on the tree of knowledge pierced by his own spear to gain knowledge and wisdom. He is always depicted as one-eyed, as he is supposed to have traded his other eye for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, which enabled him to gain immense knowledge.

 Though there are many other mythologies which have gods and goddesses of wisdom, learning, poetry, arts, music, etc., the above are deities who are primarily associated with aspects of knowledge and wisdom.

We surely do live in times of dichotomy. Lakshmi or Saraswati? Wealth or Wisdom? To acquire wisdom, we need wealth, and the moment we acquire wisdom or learning, our objective turns to earn wealth. Somewhere, or the other, the pursuit of Saraswati seems to be to acquire Lakshmi. Serious worshippers of Saraswati have humble dwellings, and worshippers of Lakshmi live in palaces. Teachers travel in public transport while students come in chauffeur-driven cars. In the land of gurukuls and unflinching devotion to teachers, one needs to be a strong worshipper of Lakshmi to attain the blessings of Saraswati! Once the blessings of Saraswati are acquired, it’s time to appease Lakshmi again!

If this is not a serious dichotomy, then what is?

Why was Narada Muni a Bachelor?

According to a myth, once Narada Muni’s meditation could not be disturbed even by Kamdev, the god of love. Narada Muni overheard someone say that this made him bigger than even Lord Shiva, since Kamdev had managed to disturb Shiva and his meditation was disturbed by him. This comment went to Narada’s head and he started believing that he was superior to Lord Shiva.

Since Lord Vishnu was concerned of his favourite disciple’s pride and arrogance, he decided to teach Narada a lesson in humility. Vishnu requested his consort, Goddess Lakshmi to take the human form of Srimati, the beautiful daughter, of King Ambarish. During one such visit to the King Ambarish’s palace, Narada saw Srimati and instantly fell in love with her and expressed his desire to marry Srimati. King Ambarish though did not prefer the match, could not say anything to Narada. So he agreed to host a swayamwara and let Srimati choose her husband.

Narada immediately went to Lord Shiva and asked him as to what should he do, so that Srimati selected him. Shiva said that if he could look as handsome as Vishnu, then, Srimati might notice him and for this he should meet Vishnu himself. Narada went to Vishnu and requested that he look as good as Vishnu to enable Srimati select him. Vishnu smiled and decided to play a trick on Narada.

On the day of the swayamvara, Narada got a monkey-face, without his realising this. When Srimati came with a garland in her hand, she saw no Narada Muni but a monkey-faced man. However, next to him was a handsome man calling her out. Srimati immediately garlanded him and before anybody could realise, both Srimati and the handsome man (who was none other than Lord Vishnu) had vanished in thin air.

When Narada saw his reflection in water, he was angry and felt cheated. He then cursed Vishnu that a time would come, when he too would have to be separated from his love, and at that time, it would be a monkey, whose help he would have to take to get his love back! I will spare you all the story of Ramayana!

However, Narada had also learnt his lesson and since then he shed all his pride and arrogance and decided to remain unmarried. Because of this episode, Narada Muni is also referred to as Kapi-Vaktra or monkey-faced.

Narada Muni – Valmiki

As the story goes, Ratnakar was a robber who had taken to robbing and would loot people passing from one village to another. During one such incident he came across Narada Muni and threatened him with dire consequences if he did not part with all he had. Narada got him chatting and asked him the reason of this profession, to which Ratnakara said that he was doing this for his family. Did he know that the means were wrong, to which Ratnakara said that he did, but he had no option as he had to take care of his family too.

Then Narada asked him, if his family would be party to his sin, to which Ratnakara felt, that they obviously would. On Narada’s insistence, Ratnakara went home to check with his family. To his horror and surprise, both his wife and children felt that it was his responsibility to take care of them, but they could not be hold responsible for the sin he was committing. Heart-broken, Ratnakara came back to the waiting Narada and broke down. It was then that Narada taught Ratnakara how to meditate and chant ‘Rama’.

Ratnakar got so engrossed in his meditation that he did not even realise that ant-hills had formed all over him. Later Narada, came and removed the ant-hills from his body and named him Valmiki, (Valmika meaning ‘from the ant-hill’) and gave him the title of Brahmarishi and in due course of time, motivated him to pen down the entire Ramayana, after narrating the story to him.

Here too, we find that Narada was instrumental in seeing the potential of Ratnakara and through the correct means transforms him into Brahmarishi Valmiki. This is thanks to his being aware of the fact that Ratnakar was the long lost son of Rishi Prachetasa, who was lost at childhood and brought up by a hunter, and in due course took to looting. This internal information was put to good use and channelized into making him a rishi and a great author. Narada’s being aware of critical information, making good use of it and influencing in the most positive manner enabled Valmiki to write the epic, Ramayana.