Sacred symbolism and you

Throughout the ages, in all cultures, place, time, persons and symbols were all considered sacred. Whatever our ancestors said, there are such profound mysteries behind it.

Facts have been explained by them in symbolic form. For example, Lord Shiva is sitting with a snake around his neck. This implies the state of meditation, where the eyes are closed giving the impression of sleep; but he is not asleep but alert within.

In the same way, the Earth on Shesh Naag – naag implies centripetal force. There are two kinds of earthly forces – Centripetal and Centrifugal. Their movement is not straight but snake-like. The Earth is not resting on a snake but by snake they mean a force which will not go straight; and the Earth rotates on its axis and around the sun.

Then the fact that Divinity is both male and female was acknowledged long ago and represented as Ardhnareeshwar. God is not just man, or just woman.

He is Ardhnareeshwar – the whole creation is both male and female. Everyone has both female and male genes. The ancients depicted Goddess Saraswati carrying a rosary – rosary represents meditation, a book – intellectual knowledge and she plays a musical instrument – veena.

This means that only when intellectual knowledge, music and meditation come together, then wisdom dawns. Saraswati sits on rock meaning once you have acquired wisdom, it is deeply grounded in you.

Goddess Laxmi sits on lotus which means that wealth moves – anytime anything can happen.

Our ancient Rishis have also said that each angel or Devata descends in the form of an invisible energy on a particular type of being. Scientifically, the actual meaning behind the different vehicles (vahan) is that each animal or bird brings with it specific type of cosmic rays or bio electrical energy to Earth. Creation cannot sustain even if one animal goes missing.

The peacock has the vibrations of Kartikey Swami, who is depicted as riding a peacock. That does not mean that to worship Kartikey Swami, we need to get hold of a peacock. It means that God is present in every atom of the creation, not just the outside world but within our body as well.

Even the weapons in the Gods’ hands have a deeper meaning. It is very easy to simply say that the ancient man was a coward so he placed all the weapons in Gods’ hands. Such an interpretation is the imagination of a fearful man.

Gods and Goddesses are within us, are our very own so they showed human flaws of anger, jealousy etc in them so that you don’t feel guilty when such emotions arise in you.

The purpose was to bring you closer to God. Our ancient Rishis were so deeply intelligent that they chose to express Divinity in terms of symbols rather than words, since words change over time, but symbols remain unchanged. Eventually you need to transcend and feel that the entire creation, with all its symbols, places, species, people, the whole life are sacred at all times.