Hinduism is a vast and complex religion with immense literature and enourmous range of gods and devotional practices. 

Ganesh:

Ganesh is the son of the god Shiva and goddess Parvati who is alse known as Ganapati, Vinayaka or Pillaiyar. He is widely revered as the one who destroys the obstacles and is distinctly identified by his elephant head. He is the lord of beginning due to which he is honored at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as the initials in the letters and cards. Goddess Parvati created a baby boy out of the dirt of her body while taking a bath and gave him the life. She then assigned him to guard the entrance. When Shiva tried to enter he got outrageous to be hindered to enter by a small stranger boy. In an extreme fury he cut off the boy’s head. Parvati collapsed in deep grief and to mitigate her, Shiva sent out his army or gana to search for the head of any sleeping being that was facing north. The gana brought back a sleeping elephant’s head, which then was attached to the body of the boy and was restored back its life. He was then made the leader (pati) of his troops which is why he is also known as ‘Ganapati’. Shiva also granted a blessing on him that people would worship him and take his name before undertaking any venture. The mount or vahana of Ganesha is mouse whereas his favourite food is Laddu.

Rama:

Rama is a human incarnation or avatar of Vishnu who had three mortal brothers, Laksmana, Satrughana and Bharata. Rama had descended on earth to kill Ravana, grandson of a god whose disguising feature was that he had 10 heads. He meditated for a thousand years standing on one foot. Therefore, Bhramha, the king of gods offered him a gift as he was pleased by Ravana’s asceticism. Ravana wished that he could not be killed by gods, demons and animals. After getting the powers he began to oppress everything that came across. Bhramha had to ask god Vishnu to descend to earth as an avatar to sort out Ravana.

Rama’s stepmother, Kaikeyi had asked for a wish to his husband, Dashrath to make her son Bharata the crown prince in place of Rama. Therefore, Rama is sent into exile in the forest for 14 years. Rama has a quarrel with Ravana’s sister. In rage, Ravana kidnaps Ram’s wife Sita. The monkey god, Hanuman searched for Sita and found her in Sri Lanka. Rama and an army of monkies and gods head to south and cross the sea by making bridge of stones. After a long battle with Ravana, Rama kills him with a powerful and dread arrow. Rama then wins back his wife Sita but sets her free as he thought that his wife is no longer pure. Sita tries to prove that she is still pure and other Gods also defend her. Then Bhramha reveals to Rama that he is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu who had taken that avatar to kill Ravana. Consequently Rama and Sita get back together and return to their home where Rama’s brother Bharata transfers his kingdom to Rama. Hindu people worship God Rama as the avatar of God Vishnu.

Krishna:

God Krishna is a human incarnation or avatar of god Vishnu who is so powerful that he is beyond the nature. He was born to Devaki, cousin of the wicked king Kansha. There was a prophecy that the eighth born child of Devaki would kill Kansha , so he decides to kill Devaki but her husband persuades him to take all her children instead. He agrees to it as he thinks that he could refrain what the prophecy had declared.

God Vishnu takes the avatar as the eight embryo of Devaki. While Devaki gives birth to Krishna, her husband swaps the new born baby with the daughter of King Kansha’s cowherd who is smashed on the floor by King Kansha. But the little baby girl also turn out to be a goddess and her spirit appeared to King Kansha in a vision and tells him that he would also be smashed like he smashed her.

Krishna grew up as the son of a cowherd. He was very naughty and was caught up in many adventures. Some are discussed below.

There was an ogress called Putana who used her magic to disguise herself as a beautiful woman. She was a murderer of babies and children whom she used to kill by feeding them her poisonous breasts. When she tried this to Krishna, instead of Krishna, she had to lose her life as Krishna sucked out her life force with her milk.

Once Eshodha, mother of Krishna heard that Krishna had eaten dirt. So she checked his mouth and saw the whole universe, stars, galaxies, quasars, blackholes and so on. She was extremely astonished and frightened. Therefore, Krishna restored her mind by using his godly power to enable her to forget the incident.

Krishna has also revealed his religious philosophies in the form of excellent poem in the Bhagavad Gita which is the sixth book of the Mahabharata. It is a question and answer session between the warrior Arjuna and Krishna who is his charioteer and advisor. Krishna encourages Arjuna as he is totally dejected to know that he is going into a battle against his brothers and teachers.

Vishnu:

Vishnu is the one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within. Vishnu is four armed holding a lotus, mace, conch and chakra who is of a divine color of clouds (dark-blue). Puranas describe that Vishnu has ten incarnations called Dasavatara where nine of them are:

In Satya Yuga:      Matsya, the fish

                          Kurma, the tortoise

                          Varaha, the boar

                          Narasimha, the half-man/half-lion

In Treta Yuga:       Parashurama, Rama with the axe

                           Vamana, the dwarf

                           Rama, the prince and king of Ayodhya

In Dwapara Yuga:  Krishna

In Kalyuga:           Gautam Buddha, the enlightened one or Siddhartha Gautam     

And lastly, Kalki which means ‘eternity’ or ‘time’ or ‘the destroyer of foulness’ who is expected to appear at the end of Kalyuga that is the time period in which we are currently living which is expected to end in the year 428899 CE.

SHIVA:

Shiva, meaning “auspicious” also known as Maheswor is the god of destruction who is worshipped in the form of Shiva Linga. Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswor represent the three primary aspects of the divine in Hinduism and are referred as the Trimurti where Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the maintainer or preserver and Shiva is the destroyer. Parvati is the wife of Shiva. Shiva is resembled as the one with three eyes, a crescent moon on his head, the Ganga flowing through his hair, wears ornaments of serpents and a skull necklace. He holds Trisula and a Damaru on each of his hands.