Sanjai Velayudhan's Blog - Posts Tagged "goddess"

The number of goddesses in India perhaps outnumber male gods (there is no way of verifying this as there is no authentic database of gods/goddesses & other celestial beings). For every ailment, every type of difficulty, there is a dedicated goddess.

Aren't the rivers like Ganga & Yamuna revered as goddesses? Yet, look at their fate. the devotees show little respect for the goddesses. Sometimes I feel that they are polluted or dirtied with a vengeance.

Rivers, like women, hold the ability to give life yet, look how we treat them. Irony, isn't it?

Sometimes, I wonder 'are men inherently afraid of women?' Is that why they try to dominate them, hurt them or 'possess' them? Strange isn't it? He grows up learning much from his mother, sister, aunt and other female members of the household as much as he does from men.

Then why this contempt? men sometimes exhibit diametrically opposite behavior-treating real women badly but venerating and worshiping mother goddesses. Irony!

Serpents have a unique place in the world. We humans have feared them and possibly this horror has turned into respect and devotion. Isn't that why many people deify and worship them? In a way this has been the reason for their survival and destruction at the same time.

In Kerala, for ages, serpent-worship has been conducted in secluded sacred groves called 'Kaavu'. These small groves are generally unmolested by people due to fear! Many myths have been associated with serpent-spirits.

Maybe due to their resemblance to the human (read male) reproductive organ, serpents or snakes have been attributed powers of fertility.

We worship the same creatures that instill great fear in us. Is fear in general or fear of death in particular the fundamental underpinning of religion? I wonder.