Vayu Vāyu (Sanskrit: वायु, IAST: Vāyu, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ʋɑːyu]; Malay: Bayu, Thai: พระพาย (Phra Phai)) is a primary Hindu deity, the Lord of the winds, the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Lord Hanuman. He is also known as Vāta (वात), Pavana (पवन, the Purifier),[2] and sometimes Prāṇa (प्राण, the breath). As the word for air, (Vāyu) or wind (Pavana) is one of the Panchamahābhuta or five great elements. The Sanskrit word Vāta literally means blown, Vāyu blower, and Prāna breathing (viz. the breath of life, cf. the *an- in animate). Hence, the primary referent of the word is the deity of Life, who is sometimes for clarity referred to as Mukhya-Vāyu (the chief Vāyu) or Mukhya Prāna (the chief of Life). Sometimes the word vayu, which is more generally used in the sense of the physical air or wind, is used as a synonym for prāna.[3] There is however a separate set of five deities of Prāna (vital breath), Mukhya-Prāna being chief among them, so that, in Hindi,தமிழ்(Tamil) and other Indian languages, someones death is stated as his lives departed (uske prān nikal gaye) rather than his life departed. These five Vāyu deities, Prāna, Apāna, Vyāna, Udāna, and Samāna, control life (and the vital breath, circulatory system), the wind (respiratory system), touch/sensation (nervous system), digestion, and excretion. Vāta, an additional name for Vāyu, is the root of the Sanskrit and Hindi term for atmosphere, vātāvaran (वातावरण).[4] Pavan is also a fairly common Hindu name. Pavan had played an important role in Anjanas begetting Hanuman as her child. Hence Hanuman is also called Pavan-Putra (son of Pavana) and Vāyu-Putra. In the Mahabharata, Bheema was the son of Vāyu and played a major role in the Kurukshetra war. He utilised his huge power and skill with the mace for supporting Dharma. In the hymns, Vayu is described as having exceptional beauty and moving noisily in his shining coach, driven by two or forty-nine or one-thousand white and purple horses. A white banner is his main attribute.[2] Like the other atmospheric deities, he is a fighter and destroyer, powerful and heroic.[5] In the Upanishads there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vāyu. The Brhadaranyaka states that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a mans body, that man would continue to live, albeit as a blind man and having regained the lost faculty once the errant deity returned to his post. One by one the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways. Finally, when Mukhya Prāna started to leave the body, all the other deities started to be inexorably pulled off their posts by force, just as a powerful horse yanks off pegs in the ground to which he is bound. This caused the other deities to realize that they can function only when empowered by Vayu, and can be overpowered by him easily. In another episode, Vāyu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack. The Chandogya states that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vāyu as the udgitha (the mantric syllable om). Mukhya-Vāyu also incarnated as Madhvacharya to teach worthy souls to worship the Supreme God Vishnu. Vayu is the Hindu god of wind. In Vedic times he was much revered as one of the Hindu Triad. After that age, in the Brahmanic era, he was reduced in status but he still continues to occupy a certain eminent position in the Hindu pantheon. Vayu roams all over the earth and the heavens though his home is in the north-west, a quarter which he rules exclusively. He is featured as a destructive god who has an intemperate character and is often subject to violent desires which he never strives to repress. He is also said to be the king of the Gandharvas, spirits of the mountains who dwell in the foothills of Mount Meru, a mythical summit often mentioned in Hindu religious texts. Notwithstanding Vayus amicable association with Mount Meru, he nevertheless once mounted an attack on it and broke its summit. The story goes that, for some unknown reason, Vayu was incited by the sage Narad, a person who can be taken as akin to Mercury of Greek myth, to break off the top of Mount Meru. Vayu, being vindictive and violent, strived to do this for a full year, blowing hard continuously at the Mount but it was nobly defended by Garuda who spread his great wings and took the brunt of Vayus force, thus shielding the mythical peak. After a full year had passed in this struggle, Garuda became tired and left his guard-post for a while. Narad, who was more mischievous than vindictive, saw the opportunity in this and immediately exhorted Vayu to double his efforts. This time Vayu was successful and Mount Meru lost its respectable top, which Vayu then hurled into the sea where it became the island of Lanka (present-day Sri Lanka). Vayus lusts were indiscriminate and the number of illegitimate children he engendered is legion. Though he was married to a daughter of Vishwakarma, the divine architect, he had offspring by many notable female characters of Hindu myths. One of his most famous illegitimate offspring is Hanuman, the monkey god. Hanumans ability to fly is credited to his covert parentage. Another offspring Vayu engendered is Bhim, the third son of Kunti, one of the two principal mother figures of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Bhims antecedents are more respectable as his mother conceived him as a result of a prayer to Vayu asking him for a son. There is also a tale told of Vayu trying to seduce all the hundred daughters of King Kusanabha. When they resisted all his amorous efforts Vayu gave all of them crooked backs. Vayu is nevertheless important for certain Hindu ceremonies and is then perceived of in more temperate terms. He is called the bearer of perfumes and is credited with being a benign force who is a constant companion of Vishnu, one of the incumbent Hindu triad, and his wife Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and beauty.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:26:00 +0000
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