Re: Lord Shiva -Agni Deva Narrative?
Namaste Ram11,
I don't have any references but the Agni-Rudra rivalry, where Agni is said to have lost (in some transformative way), to me seems like a parallel to Ganesha-Shiva conflict. (Recently we had even conversation on other thread regarding Agni being the son of Devi iLA who I said I always regard as Kali.)
I have many times on HDF voiced my opinion about Agni being the Vedic name of Ganesha (similar to as Rudra is the Vedic name of Shiva). As we know, Vedic and Puranic are two languages that talk about the same Hindu pantheon and spiritual legacy, but in different styles.
Another point is, Ganesha seems to have lost out miserably to Shiva in the battle. But the truth is He came out even stronger after the transformation.
As another example, Lord Indra assaulted (with vajra) Hanuman to prevent Him from running all over the realms. Hanuman fell down on earth - defeated. But only if you stop reading here. If you continue reading what happened afterwards, you come to knoe that Hanuman was not only saved but also came out stronger than ever (the mightiest God known) with granted resistance against even the brahmāshtra. Lord Indra - who takes blame always - also vindicated.
Ganesha is the favourite of His father.
Things to remember:
1. Life = yajña
2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
5. r = c. x²
where,
r = realisation
constant c = intelligence
variable x = bhakti
Bookmarks