God Kubera is the god of wealth and material. He is generally known as the gods’ appointed guardian of the treasures of the gods. He is the son of Sage Vishrava who is the son of Lord Brahma. He is also considered the king of Yakshas and one of the Ashta-Dikpalas, representing the north direction. As the God of wealth and material, his responsibilities are to distribute them while creating wealth is with Goddess Lakshmi. Worshiping Goddess Lakshmi and Kubera together brings prosperity to the devotees. Kubera is often depicted as a fat man, adorned with jewels and carrying a money-pot or money-bag and a club. According to Hindu mythology Kubera is the god of wealth and son of Sage Vishrava. Kubera is widely known as the gods appointed guardian of the treasures of the gods. In the Vedic period Kubera was the chief of the evil beings living in the abodes of shadow and darkness. It was not until Hindu times that he was elevated to the ranks of the gods and became one of the eight guardians of the world. There are two versions of how this hideous dwarf obtained the boon of immortality. One relates that he performed austerities for thousands of years and was elevated as a result. The other claims that in a former life Kubera was a thief. One night he was robbing the temple of Shiva, when his lighted taper was blown out. His ten successive attempts to light his taper in Shivas temple earned for him such merit that in his next life he was born as the god of wealth. Though in this elevated capacity he has his person covered in jewels and other ornaments, he retains his ugliness and deformity. Brahma had to grant this deformed creature some form of locomotion, so he had Visvakarma build him a magic chariot, Pushpaka. Pushpaka is an aerial chariot which can move of its own accord and is so large that it contains a whole city. As it moves over the earth it rains jewels. Pushpaka was stolen by Ravana, who took it to Lanka and made great use of it in attacks on the gods, as well as abduct Sita. When Rama defeated Ravana, Rama used Pushpaka to transport himself and Sita together with Lakshmana and the entire army monkeys and bears back to Ayodhaya. Ravana also stole Kuberas original palace of Lanka, which had been built for the rakshasas by Visvakarma. Though the city by rights belonged to the rakshasas they had all deserted expecting an attack by Vishnu, which they feared even though Lanka the richest and best fortified city in existence. So Kubera took session of a ghost city. But the rakshasas soon determined to reoccupy it, and sent the daughter of one their leaders to try and woo Kubera’s father. She succeeded, and from union Ravana and three other sons were born. Ravana, by performance of austerities, obtained from Shiva the boon of invincibility and so was able to defeat Kubera and to seize and retain Lanka and Pushpaka. As Lanka could not be restored to him, Visvakarma built Kubera a palace on Mount Kailasa. He has another city called Alaka, which is also in the Himalayas and the richest city in the universe, and a garden of great beauty called Chaitraratha, on Mount Mandara. Kuberas domains are all in the high Himalayas, partly because he is guardian of the north, but also because the mountains are the repository of mineral wealth. God Kubera watches over the earths storehouse of gold and silver, jewels and pearls and its other treasures, as well as the nine Nidhis. Nine Nidhis are special treasures whose significance is not clear.All paintings are courtesy of Art of Legend india.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:43:52 +0000