God & Goddesses
Sadly there is over 330 million gods in Hinduism, but I can still tell you about the main ones :) I honestly believe there are more goddesses than gods in Hinduism, cause if you think about it, most of the gods or goddesses people know are mainly women... hmm... I don't know, just read the information I put below.
Annapurna
Annapurna is the goddess of food and cooking, she has the power to supply food to an unlimited amount of people. She is the incarnation of the Hindu goddess Parvati, the wife of Shiva, temple art in India often shows Shiva with his begging bowl, or a skull, asking Annapurna to provide him with food that gives him energy to achieve knowledge and enlightenment. Also Annapurna symbolizes the divine aspect of nourishing care, when a cook makes a meal for his guests, he is providing them energy to best follow their destiny.
|
Brahma
The Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer. Brahma grew in a lotus flower out of the navel (or bellybutton) of the sleeping Vishnu. The daily change of day and night is caused by the activity of Brahma. Brahma's mind born sons are the seers Marici, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratuj, Pracetas, Vashishta, Bhrgu, and Narada. And those who were born from his body were his nine sons Daksa, Dharma, Kama, Anger, Greed, Delusion (Maya), Lust, Joy, Death, and Bharata and his one and only daughter names Angaja.
Ganesha
All Tantric and spiritual worship begins with the authority of Ganesha or Lord Ganesh, the elephant headed god. Ganesha became lord of all existing beings by winning a race around the universe, which is explained in the introduction video to Ganesha below. There are many stories on how Ganesha gained his elephant head, one tells how Parvati, the wife of Shiva, created Ganesha when Shiva was not around. When Shiva wanted to see Parvati Ganesha forbid it, so Shiva cut off his head. But later on he brought Ganesha back to life and restored him with the head of a elephant because no other head was available. The human part of Ganesha represents all that is manifested, or clear to the eye and mind, and the elephant part of him is the un-manifested. Ganesha rides a rat that represents vanity, the conch shell represents the sound that creates Akasha, which means sky. The snakes represent the control over the poisons of the passions and refer to Shiva, who is the gather of Ganesha. The hatchet (or the weird little spear thing he has) cuts away desire, the Mudra, which is the little pose he is doing, grants fearlessness, the broken tusk he wrote the Mahabharata with, the Mahabharata is one of the two major sanskrits of ancient India. And his trunk represents divine knowledge. Apparently Ganesha has much devotion to his mother Parvati that he remains abstinent from all women. When he realized that all women are the same as his mother, he decided not to get married, but some will say that he is the husband of Buddhi and Siddhi, the daughters of Brahma.