Peacock – the epitome of Vanity

Ever wondered why a peacock is considered the epitome of vanity? Why is it considered to be so arrogant? Well the answer lies in a Greek myth.

 Hera, the queen of Zeus, the King of all gods was considered to be a jealous woman. Hera had her reasons to be jealous, as Zeus’ instances of infidelity were of mythical proportions, and not just with goddesses and nymphs, but with mortals too!

 Once Hera looked down from the heavens to see a cloud where there shouldn’t be any. She immediately smelled a rat and rushed down to see thru the cloud. When she saw thru the cloud, it was indeed Zeus but with a little white cow. Zeus who had sensed Hera’s arrival had converted his new bride Lo, into a little cow, to avoid trouble. Hera didn’t quite trust Zeus and requested that she have the cow for herself. Zeus, who used to dread the tempers of Hera, couldn’t deny it and so gave Lo to her.


Hera tied the cow to a tree and sent her most trusted servant Argus, to keep a watch on the cow. Now Argus had a hundred bright eyes all over his body, so that at any point of time, some of his eyes were always open and nothing missed his sight! Very soon poor Lo was beginning to get tired being on her four legs and having to eat grass and being watched by Argus.
Seeing her mournful state, Zeus sent his son Hermes, the craftiest of all gods, to bail out Lo. Hermes disguised as a shepherd went and sat next to Argus, started playing his flute. Soon after, he started telling a dull and boring story to Argus, which never had a beginning or an end. The dull story lulled Argus’s fifty eyes to sleep. Hermes went on till his other fifty eyes too went off to sleep. Hermes then touched the hundred eyes with his magic wand and sent Argus to an eternal sleep. Argus was literally ‘bored to death’.

To ensure that Hera’s faithful servant be never forgotten, she put his hundred bright eyes on her favourite bird, the peacock. Since then, the peacock has eyes all over her, which though could not see, but were bright and beautiful! The peacock which was already feeling the chosen one as she was Hera’s favourite bird, now was all the more arrogant and thus came to be known as the epitome of arrogance, thanks to the new found beauty, but not of its own doing!

The Meaning of the Myth of Ahalya

The myth of Ahalya has generated enough controversy both in the feminist world as well as against the so-called Aryan-supremacy. But can we scratch the veneer of myth and see if it has any other meaning?

According to the myth from Ramayana, Ahalya was very beautiful and also the wife of the sage Gautama. She was seduced by Indra through trickery, and was later cursed by the sage to become a stone (a woman who cannot understand the difference between her husband and another man, even in the dark, is no better than a stone!). Needless to say, Indra too was punished, but let’s leave his punishment for the time being.

The myth goes on to the period when Ram is passing by and Ahalya is redeemed by the touch of Ram’s foot, and gets united with her husband, sage Gautama.

How insulting for a woman who was not quite at fault and how chauvinistic of the man to redeem a woman by the touch of his foot! I’ll leave one paragraph for my feminist friends to fill up!!

Let us analyse this myth –

When we break-up the word Ahalyā, अहल्या, it has three components

A – hal – ya

Hal stands for ‘plough’, hal-ya stands for ‘plough-able’ and thus a-hal-ya stands for ‘un-plough able’.

A deep study of the myth can be understood as follows –

Ahalya could be a tract of land or a region which was considered to be barren. As part of Ram’s socio-economic reforms, during his passage, he could have been responsible for teaching the residents a method of cultivation, unknown to them till then. The barren (stone) land thus becomes fertile (alive woman) by stepping (touching by foot) of Rama on the land.

Again some might ask, as to why the imagery of a woman? Well the earth has always been associated with the feminine principle across all cultures, so that’s not out of place.

Needless to add here that Ram in the entire Ramayana has been seen as someone who stands for the downtrodden, like Sabari, aborigine tribes better known as the Baali’s, Sugriv’s and the Vanara’s of Ramayana, etc. The myth of Ahalya could be another such act.

Pic Courtesy - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ahalya_rama.jpg

National Shame

Have you ever wondered why so much is happening around us, which is not of our doing but definitely for our suffering? Why are we being subject to international humiliation, by none other than our own people? Why are we witnessing instances of gross inability to deliver, crass corruption and shameless comments stinking of an organised cover-up?

Why is it that we simply see, hear, read but choose to move on?

It is because, from the time we are born, we are asked to compromise and accept. We are part of a mechanism, where we are taught through generations to suffer in silence and eulogise all who do so. We love the lady who does not protest and goes on to shed copious tears in privacy for the final moments (read seconds) of fame. We love and eulogise the Satyavati of Jai Santoshi Ma fame or Radha of Mother India and are taught to take them as epitomes of virtue. The virtue of silence, the virtue to hide our inadequacies from the glance of external eyes, is so ingrained in our collective psyche, that it is anathema to protest.

Today a bunch of jokers are out to shame us, our international reputations are at stake, our abilities to deliver is at question and all this laid on a large screen for one and all to see. Rhetoric and silly comments fill in the day, last minute mopping (of floors and brows) is on, and all we do is sit back and feel bad – but then what else can be do? After all God will punish the wrong-doers – isn’t this what mommy dear always said?

But no, God will not! Because He thinks that He has granted you enough knowledge and ability to do it yourself. He has given you enough insight into international standards, that you can today judge for yourself what your own capabilities are. He has given you enough self-respect, to stand up for yourself. He has enabled you with enough strength to slap the next person who equates his own pathetic standards of hygiene with yours, leave alone that of the foreigners, which today is no different for any human beings.

If the powers-that-be have decided to do a Dhritarashtra act and execute their responsibility by just issuing deadlines, we don’t have to follow suit by being Gandhari’s of the yester-world. Take up the cudgels and act.

Punish the menials who have been seated on the altars, who are doing only harm, and no good. Their coffers are full and they have no need to do anything else for generations to come, but you and I – the commoners still have to toil and we still have the burden of our raped self-respect to carry. We still have our spinal cords erect and can see any man on earth in his eyes without shame.

So wake up! Speak up! If not now, then when? If not at all, why?

Pitru Paksha – Shraadh

From today starts a fortnight of one of the most inauspicious period of the year as per the Hindu calendar. This period is known as Pitru Paksha and all good deeds, like asset purchase, investments, marriages, inaugurations of new ventures, etc. are put on the back-burner for a later and a better day. But this is the superstition part of it. Let us understand the concept first.

Pitru stands for ‘forefathers’. Paksha here means a ‘fortnight’. Paksha in Sanskrit refers to a wing of the bird. A lunar month with two fortnights is imagined as the two wings of a bird. Pitru Paksha – thus implying the fortnight of the forefathers is observed during the waning phase of the moon, ending with the darkest night (no-moon night) of the month, which is known as the Mahalaya Shradh Pitru Paksha, considered to be the most important day of the inauspicious fortnight.

As per the scriptures, after a person’s death his dead body (sthula sharira) is burnt and funeral rites (antyeshti) are performed. This is performed to liberate the soul (jeevatma) from the body, but the same needs a vehicle to do so, i.e. thru a linga-sharira (subtle body). Departed souls hover around the crematorium, and they are known as Pretatma (ghosts). These Pretatma’s have no physical existence and thus are in a continuous state of restlessness. The funeral rites are carried out to provide peace and rest to the restless souls. It is these rituals which help the Pretatma get an intermediate body, between linga-sharira and sthula sharira (dead body). This intermediate body helps the body to proceed to the journey to the Pitri-loka (land of the forefathers).

What is done after the death is antyesti and what is done during this period is shraadh (better defined as a commemoration for the departed souls). This period is strictly dedicated to ones ancestors, three generations of them.

According to mythology, it was Yama, the god of death, who is supposed to have explained the importance of shraadh performed during Pitru Paksha. Different Puranas, like the Agni Purana, Garuda Purana and Matsya Purana, have details given about the rituals of shraadh. It is also said that this is the period when the gods go to sleep, thus the souls get nothing from the gods. In hunger and thirst the restless souls come down to earth looking for their family members to provide them their food and drink. Ignoring their wants would not be quite becoming of their present generations.

The most auspicious place to perform such shraadh is on the banks of the river Shipra in the city of Ujjain. According to mythical references, Lord Rama is supposed to have performed the last rites of his father there and since then the place is known as “Ram Ghat”. If one is not able to go the Ujjain, then Gaya in Bihar is the next most auspicious place for this, besides many other places of regional significance.

Finally, shorn of all the rituals and myths, this is a fortnight of remembrances. It reminds all of us to be grateful to our forefathers for this day and it is not asking for too much to pray for the departed souls, who have left this world, either through natural or abnormal deaths. Even if our rational mind, seething with scientific virtues, does not justify the superstitions of the fortnight, it might still be a good idea to just remember our forefathers and silently pay obeisance to them.

Ganesha outside India

(With Anant Chaturdashi, we come to the end of the 10-day Ganapati festival. The following is my last article on Ganapati, for the time being, as the subject is so vast that one never knows when once again, I might want to write on Ganesha!)


Ganesha, though is a young god in the Hindu pantheon, his popularity rivals that of Shiva, Vishnu and other gods and goddesses. The Ganapati cult has also its followers in other parts of the world, especially in countries that were influenced by Buddhism. In many of the Asian countries, inscriptions, idols, etc. were found which bear testimony to the worship.

The worship of Ganesh was introduced in Japan around 9th century, by one Koloho Daishi. Ganesh here was worshipped as Kangi-ten of Daisho Kangi-ten (god of joy and harmony). Kangi-ten is not very famous today, but is secretly practiced by the Shingon sect. Representation of Kangi-ten is similar to the elephant-head god as we know, except that there is a difference. Kangi-ten is represented by two elephant-headed characters, one male and the other female, both facing each other and in an intimate embrace. This lends credence to the tantric roots of some branches of Buddhism. However, few representations show Kangi-ten without the female counterpart.

Mongolia too has seen some Ganesha worship. Temples have been found where four-handed Ganesh images have been found. Here too Ganesha has been seen in a similar form as above (Ganesha and Ganeshani) and is known to be fighting demons. In such images, he has always been shown with a radish in one of his hands, and in some, his vahana, the rat too has been depicted with a radish in its mouth.

Ganesha worship was also quite common in Burma, especially by the merchants. In Burmese language he is referred to as Mahapienne (great god), and merchants were known to carry small idols of the god whenever they travelled on work.

Similar worships were known to have taken place in all those areas which came under the spell of Mahayana Buddhism. There were difference myths woven to make stories where the Buddha and Ganesha were supposed to have interacted. The mythological intermingling is quite common as cultures started losing their borders.

Finally, the Roman god Janus. Janus was not an elephant headed god, but was a two headed god, one looking at the past and one towards the future, and thus the month of January is named after him. However, Janus like Ganesha, was worshipped at the beginning of all things, prior to planting and harvest, besides a host of auspicious moments, like birth, marriages, etc. This is the common aspect that Janus shares with Ganesha. Another similarity that can be inferred is that Janus was known to be a good of the gates, and Ganesha was created to guard the gates of Parvati.