The Ganas: Hooligans of Heaven

The Ganas are the host of spooks, hobgoblins and spirits who accompany Shiva. Some are said to dwell with him on Mount Kailasa, whilst the more fearsome and terrifying Ganas are confined to the cremation grounds.

It is told that Uma once asked Lord Shiva why he liked to reside in cremation grounds, which were the abode of demons, jackals, corpses and vultures, when he had so many more beautiful places. Mahesvara replied that he had roamed the world, looking for a pure place to meditate in. Unable to find one, he, out of anger and frustration, he created the terrible pishachas, flesh-eating ghouls and terrible rakshasas, intent on killing people. Out of compassion however, he kept this terrible horde in the cremation ground. As he did not want to live without the bhutas and ganas, he chose to live in a cemetery. When the ghosts stayed with him, they caused no harm.

The presence of the terrible Ganas also acted as an honour guard to Shiva and a bar to the impure. Those who feared the awful ghosts and goblins were destined to remain outsiders. Only heroes could be near him in the cremation ground, heroes who had defied death and liberated themselves from passions and fear. These were the true devotees - those who had nothing to fear, who had mastered the onslaught of the multiple categories of threatening powers that were fatal to those who were less than heroes and could not control the frightening phantoms because they had not controlled themselves.

In one sense, the Ganas can be thought of as emanations of Shiva. They are described by Stella Kramrisch in her book The Presence of Shiva as "prognostications or caricatures of possibilities of the human condition." Whilst some of them were created by Shiva, others attained the status of Ganas after being defeated in battle by Shiva.

Ganas - Ganna Chakra

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Kartikeya, Kailasam And Ganga

Bakalanda37

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha!

Vishvamitra said to Rama, 'I told you the story of Kartikeya. I will now tell you how Ganga comes in this story. After Paramasiva released his retas and went into meditation, a Rakshasa called 'Tarakasura' was tormenting Devathas who needed an able army chief to fight with Tarakasura. All Devathas along with Indra and Agni went to Chaturmulkha Brahma and said to him 'We are in need of a commander-in-chief. Now that Siva is in meditation with Parvati, we can't approach him. Please advise us.'

Chaturmulkha Brahma said to Devathas in gentle words - 'Don't worry. Since None of you can have a child who is capable of being an army chief due to Parvathi’scurse, go pray to Akasa Ganga and request her to bear the potency of Paramasiva and bring forth the child. Agni can transfer the seed to Ganga and make her bear the child. Parvati will also accept this because Ganga is her own sister. When Agni took Rudra's seed, part of it was burnt and became Kailasam. The remaining part can be transferred by Agni to Ganga.' Devathas were thus consoled and went to Kailasam where they met Agni and said to him, 'Oh radiant one! Please unite the power of Rudra with Ganga." And Agni agreed to it. They went to Ganga and requested her to bear the seeds preserved by Agni to help the world who then took the form of a beautiful lady. Agni released Rudra's seeds into Ganga and whole form became filled with it. Ganga then said to Agni, 'Oh fire god! I cannot bear this power; this is getting very intense and is disturbing mylife-force.

Then Agni said to Ganga, 'O Ganga, the white mountain you see near the Himalaya mountains is Rudra Tejam that was burnt when I took it onto myself. There is a forest of reeds called 'Saravanam' near that Kailash mountain. You may leave the Tejam (potency) that's inside you there.' Ganga agreed and released the embryo through her flows in the region of Kailasam. The embryo released by her shone like molten gold. Gold, silver, copper and lead emerged from that radiant embryo. The impurities in it have taken the form of iron, tin and lead. The embryo thus involved into different metals and elements on reaching earth. The trees, plants and bushes around Kailash mountain started shining like gold. Gold was there on earth before this event but was never this brilliant. Since gold got its fire-like shine from this embryo, it is called 'jata rupam'.

The embryo released by Ganga then took the form of a boy. Devathas requested Krithikas (the stars) to take care of the boy. Krithikas agreed to feed the boy under the condition that the baby be called their son in the world. Devathas agreed to it. Thus the boy was known as 'Kartikeya' in the world. Devathas blessed the boy to become famous in all three worlds. krithikas then gave theboy a bath and the baby shone radiantly like fire. He got the name 'Skanda' because he was born from the aborted embryo. This boy became the army chief of Devathas and defeated all the Rakshasas at a very tender age. Oh Rama, so far, I told you the story of the river Ganga, and the story of Kumara Sambhavam (the birth of Kartikeya). This story is divine and pious.

Jai Srimannarayana - JETUSA Volunteers

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