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The Feminine Divine
(follow the highlighted links to view images of the
deities)
The male gods each have
female counterparts known as their Shakti(power) ("behind every good
man there’s a woman"). These are imaged as their consorts or wives:
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Brahma’s consort is
Sarasvati
(wisdom - the power of Brahma)
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Vishnu’s consort is Lakshmi
(good fortune - the power of Vishnu)
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Shiva’s consorts
include Parvati and Kali/Durga) who can appear as
protectors in either motherly or ferocious guises. (Shiva’s power is the
ability to protect by destroying evil)
And these are just the most
popular of the consorts.
Visit the on-line
gallery of goddess images
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The generic term for
any goddess is "devi" or "deva"
("shining one") from which we get the term "diva" in
reference to a female star of movies and music (the term is also related to
"deity," "divine" and "dios")
Find
out more about the Devi: The Great Goddess
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With these consorts
come numerous sons (Shiva’s elephant headed son, Ganesha, the
remover of obstacles, is most popular)
Visit
the on-line gallery of Ganesh images
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and, with Vishnu’s
incarnations, come various other consorts: Rama is associated with Sita,
Krishna with Radha
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In addition, even
significant devotees of the gods are revered, e.g., Hanuman, the
monkey god, devotee of Rama
Another
image of Hanuman, showing his devotion to Lord Rama
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Such reverence reaches
down even to the symbols associated with the various gods, e.g. Nandi, the bull as
the attendant vehicle for Shiva or the Siva Linga, the ancient
abstract symbol of Shiva devoid of form (ancient symbols from the Indus
Valley civilization)
Essentially, the gods and
goddesses of the Hindu
pantheon are concrete symbolic images representing abstract concepts,
ideals and forces at work in the cosmos. It is said that there are 33 or 33
thousand or 33 million gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon - all
essentially various manifestations of the one Ultimate Reality - Brahman.
Explore the Websites below
to learn more about these and other Hindu deities: stories, symbolism, images
Activity:
The Hindu Pantheon - a Web scavenger hunt for Hindu deity images
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