God Series:Episode 4-God as Wind!

Hanuman (the shadow of a hanging pendant) Meady's Musings Production 2010.

As we continue our look of the perception of God as 'the elements' on the God series today we look at the element of Wind! In Hinduism the God of Wind is called Pavan but he isn't as popular as his son...Hanuman who is often referred to as Pavan-Putra Hanuman i.e. the son of the Wind God, Hanuman. In keeping with the twists and turns that is Hinduism the God of Wind in Hinduism has other names than Pavan...here are just a few of them:

-Vayu
-Vata from the root of the Sanskrit word for atmosphere vatavaran

So technically Hanuman could have been called Vayu-Putra Hanuman or Vata-Putra even! :) However he is most often called Pavan-Putra Hanuman!

Then there is the all famous Prana or vital breath in Vedanta! The Prana makes up one of the five organs of vitality or sensation in Vedantic philosophy. The five organs are listed as follows:

prana "breath", vac "speech", caksus "sight", shrotra "hearing", and manas "thought"

So they altogether represent the physiological organs: nose, mouth, eyes, ears and mind respectively.

So it seems what Hinduism is saying is without the wind we could not be alive...makes sense after all as us humans are aerobic beings i.e. we need to breathe in the oxygen from air to survive and also to be able to expel carbon dioxide as if it is accumulated in our body it would kill us! So there! :)

However Hinduism is also mystifying the Wind...making an ode to him...glorifying him in poetry...deifying him even...so you have the Wind God...and he even had a son who is way more famous than him...and it seems Hinduism attributed strength to the wind cause all his sons were mighty strong guys! :) You see Bheem from the Mahabharat is also said to be a son of Vayu...so you have Hanuman and Bheem...the strong guys...sons of the Wind! So it must be they got their strength from good ole 'elemental' daddy! :)

So UCP salutes you oh wind! And to do so we hail your famous son in the form of the Hanuman Chalisa and then follow it with a celebration of you in what we here at UCP like to call John Denverism....but I guess can be seen to as a form of religion that worships nature itself...well and I think that religion is called...well...Nature worship! So John play on...and sing your windsong!:)