Hindu Deity

I have been looking at Hindu Gods & Goddesses today, some of the artwork for them is beautiful. I have listed in brief only but a few that I found today:

Ganesha
All Tantric and spiritual worship in the Hindu tradition begins with the invocation of Lord Ganesha (or Lord Ganesh) the elephant headed god.

Ganesha became the Lord of all existing beings after winning a contest from his brother Kartikay. When given the task to race around the universe, Ganesha did not start the race like Kartikay did, but simply walked around Shiva and Parvati, both is father and mother as the source of all existence.

Acceptance of Ganesha as the divine force stills the rational mind and its doubts, forcing one to look beyond outer appearances. Thus Ganesha creates the faith to remove all obstacles, forcing one to look beyond form, removing doubts and pointing out the spiritual side of everything. Ganesha is thus often worshipped to remove obstacles.

Shakti
Shakti is the divine force, manifesting to destroy demonic forces and restore balance. Every God in Hinduisim has his Shakti and without that energy they have no power.

So Shakti is the mother goddess, the source of all, the universal principle of energy, power or creativity. The worship of Shakti as this energy is the main objective of Tantra Yoga. Shakti is inseperable from the one who beholds her, the Shakti-man, the masculine principle or universal father. Shakti-man is called Brahma or Shiva.

The play of female energy has no beginning and no end. Although it is restless, the energy moves through alternating periods of motion and rest, during which order is re-established. Tantra believes that as long as the phenomenal world exists, it is the Universal mother who is the creator, preserver.

Shiva
Shiva is the god of the yogis, self controlled and celibate, while at the same time a lover of Shakti his spouse. Lord Shiva is the destroyer of the world, following Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver, after which Brahma again creates the world and so on. Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the ego. This also includes the shedding of old habits and attachments.

The power of destruction associated with Lord Shiva has great purifying power, both on a personal level and a universal level. Destruction opens the path for a new creation of the universe, a new opportunity for the beauty and drama of universal illusion to unfold.

Kali
Kali is a ferocious form of the Divine Mother, who sent her Shakti, the Mother Gauri to free the gods from the dominion of the demonic forces Shumbh and Nishumbh who had conquered the three worlds of earth, the astral plane and the celestial plane.

Kali is the goddess of time and the transformation that is death. Lord Shiva and Mother Gauri in their destructive form are known as Mahakala and Mahakali or Kali.

Kali is the kundalini energy that paralyses the attachments produced by the solar and lunar currents. This attachment causes fear of death. In the ignorant one she creates fear, while for others Kali removes the ignorance that makes us fear death, the basic insecurity of the first chakra, a fear rooted in the brain.

Vishnu
In the basic Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the Hindu god Vishnu is the preserver and protector of creation. Vishnu is the embodiment of mercy and goodness, the self existent, all pervading power that preserves the universe and maintains the cosmic order.

Vishnu never sleeps and is the deity of Shanti, the peaceful mood. Vishnu does not however tolerate ego.

Brahma
Within the hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Brahma is the creator. Nevertheless, Brahma grew ina lotus out of the navel of the sleeping Vishnu. The daily alternation of light and dark is attributed to the activity of Brahma.

Lakshmi
Shiva claimed Lakshmi as his wife, but since he had already taken the Moon, her hand was given to Vishnu, whom Lakshmi preferred.

Lakshmi is the goddess of light, beauty, good fortune and wealth. Being the consort of Vishnu, the preserving principle, Lakshmi also signifies love and grace.

Krishna
Krishna is usually regarded as the eight incarnation of Lord Vishnu and was born in the Dvarpara Yuga as ‘the dark one’. Lord Krishna is the embodiment of love and divine joy, that destroys all pain and sin. He is the protector of sacred utterances and cows. Krishna is an instigator of all forms of knowledge and born to establish the religion of love.

Maya
The literal meaning of the word Maya is illusion. Anything which is added to the reality is illusion or Maya, and this veiling power of illusion is able to create the difference between ‘me’ and ‘mine’ or ‘thee’ and ‘thine’. Maya creates the ignorance of the individual self.
So Maya Shakti is the divine power which brings out the evolution of this present world.

Tansy
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