Popular Hindu Deities for the Modern Pagan

The Vedas, the sacred Hindu writings, are the oldest religious scriptures known to mankind. They are, in fact, the oldest extended texts in an Indo-European language. The stories they contain are believed to date back to the Indus Valley civilization. They were transmitted orally for millennia, and finally codified in Sanskrit around 500 BCE. Hinduism as a religion has existed in various forms since that time, leading to its modern day practice in India and across the world.

It has been my experience that modern Western occult practice often works with a certain set of gods: Celtic figures, Norse gods, the Egyptian pantheon, and Greek and Roman mythology. My experiences have been with a different set of gods and goddesses; others have always seemed eager to hear what I had to say, which is why I have written this article. Of the modern world religions, Hinduism most closely resembles Paganism because of its ritual practices of worship. Family homes will have at least one shrine, much like an altar, for worship of a patron deity. A common form of worship performed in the home is puja, spiritual statue-worship, which is perhaps similar to voodoo doll prctices with a certain element of devotional work. The spiritual traditions such as mantra (intoning spellcasting), mudra (gesture spellcasting), and laya yoga (mental focus spellcasting) are very similar to practices in Hermetic magick. (Crowley in fact took a detailed look at the Vedic system before he created Thelema.)

In this, the first of a series of articles, I intend to look at the most popular deities in India today and a look at how they may be worshiped from a Pagan perspective.

Three Strands of Hindu Worship

Hinduism is often seen by patriarchal religions as 'polytheistic'. This is a false impression, based on a poor understanding of the religion (like basing one's opinion of Christianity on 16th century village life!). Hindu spirituality in fact conceives of the supreme Divine being as an unexpressed concept known as Brahman. This abstract concept is then divided into the Trimurti - the three principles of God.

Brahma, the Creator
Brahma is not worshiped by Hindus because he is not relevant to the world we live in. Brahma has only intervened at times when creation itself was at stake. (Although in myths it is often he who is tricked into conveying powerful blessings onto demons!)

Vishnu, the Sustainer
Vishnu represents the principle of continuing life, of things staying as they are. Vishnu worship is common strand of modern Hinduism; a worshiper of Vishnu, his wife Lakshmi, or his many avatars, including Krishna, are known as Vaishnavites.

Vaishnavism is one of the most popular strands of Hinduism in the modern world, with its focus on plenty, success and wishes fulfilled.

Shiva, the Destroyer
Shiva's principle is that of creative destruction. Shiva is seen as destroying the old to bring in the new. He is the most relevant God to anyone on a spiritual/magickal path; that is those who are attempting to be changed by their journey. Worshipers of Shiva or his wife Parvati and her many aspects, are known as Shaivites.

The Shaivist tradition is a further strand of modern Hindu worship.

To complete the picture of modern Hindu worship, we need to look at a third strand: Mahadevism. Mahadevism is worship of the Mahadeva, the Great Goddess, properly known as Shakti. Goddesses worshiped as part of this tradition include Durgha for example, and are almost all wives of Shiva, meaning Mahadevites and Shaivites have many goddesses in common.

Hindu Goddesses are very often seen as Mother Deities, rather than being our sisters or friends (like the Greco-Roman gods or Celtic legends). They are seen as being great providers and givers (in a very similar way to the Empress Tarot card). A Mother Goddess always extends gifts to her children if asked.

Gift-Giving Deities

Vishnu

The "All-Pervading One" (the literal meaning of his name) is often considered by his devotees to be the one true God, breaking from the pantheons of other Hindu traditions. Vishnu is worshipped with the mantra om namo narayana by Hindus; I do not have much personal experience of this mantra.

Vishnu has many times directly acted in our world by taking on the form of avatars - human vessels in which Vishnu's soul lives on Earth. Lord Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, famously said in the Gita:

"For the protection of the good, for destruction of evil, and for the establishment of righteousness, I come into being from age to age." (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, verse 8)

Vishnu's ten avatars include the great Krishna, Vamana and Rama. He is frequently worshipped through his avatars. Their exploits are too numerous to even summarise here; they provide the vast bulk of Hindu mythology. A generic mantra, popular among devotional Hindus, is hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare / hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. This mantra is also the patron mantra of the Hare Krishna movement, a religious sect founded in the United States in 1966.

Vishnu is a good deity for those on a devotional path; also many lessons can be learned by looking at Radha, the humble bride of Lord Krishna.

Lakshmi

In Sanskrit Lakshmi means 'bounty'. (The names of Vedic gods almost always literally mean the quality that the God/Goddess represented originally.) In middle Hinduism onwards Lakshmi is the wife of Vishnu. In previous stories she appears as the daughter of a great sage. Modern myth begins when she appeared from the churning ocean (part of the Hindu creation myth) resplendent with her beauty on a lotus flower. From this point onwards she is the divine wife of Vishnu and takes an avatar each time he does. Thus she is also known as Padma (lotus), when Vishnu becomes Vamana. She was Sita when Vishnu became Rama, and she was Rukmini when Vishnu became Krishna.

Lakshmi is portrayed as a beautiful Goddess with long hair, crowned and rising from a lotus flower. She has four hands, two of them holding lotus flowers, whilst a third hand gives gifts of coins and the fourth is set in a palms-out position that represents her blessings on the worshiper.

It is easy to see how her worship has become popular in modern India: she is a the generous goddess of bounty and beauty. Her devotees would often be praying for material boons, such as health and wealth for their family, a good career, or success from a commercial venture. She is very much the giving Goddess.

One of the most effective ways to worship Lakshmi is performing puja on her statue. A potent Lakshmi mantra is om shrim maha lakshmiyei, an invocation for financial and material wealth.

Ganesha

Ganesha is another very popular god in modern India. Another giving god, you can pray to him for material things and material happiness. I have also seen this pudgy deity cited as the patron God of anal sex - but no-one has ever explained quite why...

In Ganesha's four hands he holds an axe, a snare, and hands out sweetmeats to his devotees. With the fourth hand, he performs the same blessing as Lakshmi, blessing and protecting his followers.

You can see him even in our country on bumper stickers, etc. You can probably buy a Ganesha in your local Pagan shop!

Ganesha is always portrayed as being fat and seated - quite different from the majority of other Hindu Gods, who are generally slim or muscled and standing. His most distinctive feature though is his elephant head, explained in the story of his birth:

The Goddess Parvati made the figure of a boy out of clay when she felt lonely, as her husband Shiva was away for along time for work. Depending on the story, the figure was then given life by the river Ganges, or Parvati's skin and nail clippings. She grew to love her creation as her son - he was fiercely loyal to her, and used to guard her in her private times such as when she was bathing.

While Parvati was bathing one day, her husband Shiva came home, met by a strange boy he had never seen before who refused to let him go near his wife. He drew his sword in anger and cut off the boy's head. When Parvati saw what had been done, she demanded he be brought back to life. Shiva sent his attendants, the Ganas, out to cut the head from the first sleeping body they found. The first head found was that of a baby elephant, and so Ganesha was brought back to life with the head of an elephant.

Shiva made Ganesha leader of the Ganas, and this is where we get his name from, Gana - isha, leader of the Ganas.

Ganesha is popularly worshipped with puja. Ganesha in his aspect as Ganapati, the remover of obstacles, has the mantra om gum ganaptiyei namaha, a powerful obstacle-removing mantra that can be used when lost in a strange place, or when you want results and feel there is a blockage.

Shiva

In Hinduism the male deities are often seen as the inactive form of the principle, that is, they are more abstract. The feminine, or shakti energy is considered to be the active. Shakti is the agent of change, differentiated from Shiva, the principle of change. The principle of spiritual Shiva worship is that of self-sacrifice, of sacrificing un-necessary parts of yourself to become a better person, more able to fulfil your dharma or duty (similar to the Thelemic concept of True Will).

Maha-Yogi

Shiva's ascetic aspect is Maha-Yogi ("Great Yogi"). This is the Shiva of graveyard scenes; a man naked, save for a garland of skulls, meditating in a graveyard at night. This image is to show us that the Shiva principle is fearless and cannot be disturbed by the world around, or even by the machinations of a fearful mind. It is this aspect of Shiva which is called upon with the great 'panchakshara' (five-syllable) mantra om namah shivaya, often said to be the mantra for our age, (see Muz Murray) it is a protective chant to imbue the aspirant with a spirit of fearlessness on his or her path. It is closely related to Durgha's mantra, given below.

Nataraja

Nataraja is the 'Lord of the Dance'. (Quite possibly the "Lord of the Dance" you sang hymns to in primary school!) He is a depiction of Shiva dancing his destructive dance of change, the dance of Tandava (my parents' house name!). This is the most common image of Shiva you can buy in the shops. As Nataraja, Shiva holds the drum which beats the rhythm of creation, and the fire which destroys it. He is often seen dancing in a ring of flame. With his lower hands he gives the gesture of protection and the gesture of action. He may also have a snake as a necklace and matted hair.

Nataraja Shiva on your altar means you are involving yourself in the process of change for the better.

Shiva's Wives, and Mahadevism

Shiva's wives are the many representations of Shakti energy (making it sometimes hard to draw a line between Shaivism and Mahadevism). Kali, Parvati, and Durgha are all aspects of the indistinct shakti energy - it is the aspects that can be worshiped. Each is the wife of Shiva. It's not that Shiva's got a different wife in every town; all are a way of looking at shakti. Each Goddess represents a different aspect of the 'Wife of Shiva'.

Parvati

Parvati is the Goddess that is given primary mention out of the three of Shiva's wives.

Born human (although an avatar), she won Shiva's favour through incredible piety and became the Great Goddess, Mahadevi, as well as being mother of Ganesha.

Parvati has also taken on the guise of Durgha and Kali - warrior goddesses. She is said to have done this to protect the world.

Parvati is said to have brought the 'panchakshara' Shiva manta to Earth. I have not seen her worshipped separately.

Durgha

Durgha's name means 'fortress'. She is the warrior aspect of Parvati. Durgha was created when a demon named Mahisha defeated all Gods in battle because he had magically protected himself against all males. All the Gods poured out their anger and the collective anger formed together into a beautiful woman - Durgha. She was given the weapons of the Gods and was able to defeat Mahisha. Since then Durgha has always been on guard to fight against demons and evil. Durgha stands for independence, as she fights Mahisha without direct help from the male Gods. Durgha is also a mother Goddess, who's blessing on Earth is said to take the form of food-crops. Representations of Durgha vary greatly but she is often shown holding many weapons, such as Shiva's trident and Vishnu's discus, sometimes trampling the body of Mahisha and holding up a severed head. She is also given abundant breasts to show her aspect as a potent fertility goddess.

Durgha's mantra is om dhum dhurghayei namaha. It is a protective mantra, said to guard the inner self from external forces. From my personal experience, the above Shiva mantra focuses on not being afraid, whereas Durgha's mantra is a real protection spell. I would use the Shiva mantra if I felt that fear was only in my mind, and Durgha's mantra if I felt the danger was in the external world.

Kali

Out of the three of Shiva's Wives, Kali has undeniably been through the greatest change over the millennia. Her first appearance was as one of the seven tongues of Agni, the God of Fire. Each tongue represented a different aspect of flame, and Kali was the black and horrible tongue which consumes all. In later texts, she is seen as the wife of Shiva. In later texts, her name Kali is a corruption of Kala or Time. Thus in her later incarnation she also wields the power of time which consumes all. However much of her earlier significance and darkness continues: she is still the Black Goddess (Kali means Black in Sanskrit).

In Kali's myth a powerful demon named Raktabija waged war on the Gods. He protected himself with a powerful spell such that each from each drop of his blood that hit the ground grew a new demon. The Gods could not destroy him and in their despair turned to Shiva and Parvati. Shiva was lost in meditation, so Parvati took on the form of Kali and with the Gods waged war on Raktaibija. As the Gods attacked, Kali rolled out her tongue and swallowed every drop of Raktabija's blood, thus preventing any further demons from being created. Drunk on demon blood, Kali became unstoppable, and her killing spree knew no bounds. She would have destroyed the entire universe were it not for her husband, Shiva, who, seeing the destruction she had caused, threw himself down in front of her. Still drunk and enraged Kali trampled on her husband to the brink of his death, until the horror of what she was doing shocked her out of her battle rage.

In recent decades Kali has become a symbol of feminism and female power, and in Wicca she has come to embody an aspect of the Crone Goddess - destroyer and creator all in one. The choice of Kali as a feminist symbol may not be wise, however, since in her anger aspect she is indiscriminate in her anger, whereas Durgha can be seen as taking a much more positive role of independence.

Kali, in her benign aspect (yes, there is one!) Kali Dakshina, or 'benign Kali' (Gift-Giving Kali from the Sanskrit), is an aspect very similar to Parvati and it is this form of Kali that receives most worship, particularly in Calcutta or as it is correctly called, "Kali Ghata", the city named after her. It is possible to determine the aspect of a statue of Kali from her feet: Kali Dakshina steps out with her right foot for peace, holding her sword in her left hand; while Kali Smashan steps out to war with her left foot and uses her right as sword hand. [Web Editor: Haha, I nearly got this wrong first time round!]

Next time...

So there you see a number of modern Hindu deities and their aspects. If you have any questions about the articles, email me at andy@cardiffpagan.co.uk.

The Vedic tradition teaches reincarnation, and this article's next incarnation will be all about Hindu methods of worship such as puja, mantra and pranayama and how they can be performed. See you next time!