Story of Hayagreeva
Hayagreeva is considered as one of the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Saint Vadiraj worshipped him as main deity. Hayagreeva means half portion of horse's (head and neck)and the remaining half portion(body) is of human's.
Actually there are two Hayagreevas. The first Hayagreeva is the sun of saint Kashyapa. He was mischievous. He did tapa and worshipped devas. He got the boon that he will get killed only by another Hayagreeva like him.
Till that time there were no other Hayagreevas. So,this Hayagreeva got a feeling that no one can kill him. He started torturing the devas. Then devas worshipped Vishnu so that they can get rid of this Hayagreeva. Vishnu readily agreed to help them.
But the demon Hayagreeva proved to be invincible. So.even Vishnu could not fight with him because of the effect of the boon the demon got. So,Vishnu decided to take a break and went to rejuvenate his strength. In Himalayas,Vishnu was doing yogasana and tapa.
Again ,devas came asking help from him. But seeing him doing tapa,devas could not disturb him. So.they asked a swarm of termites to help them. The sting of the termites was so strong that Vishnu's head got seperated from his body.
Now,devas got scared and they worshipped Goddess Durga. Durga said them not to panic. Then she asked the devas to attach the head of a horse to the body of Vishnu's body. Thus,God Hayagreeva birth happened.
Now,devas worshipped God Hayagreeva and prayed to him that demon Hayagreeva must be killed by him. Hearing this, God Hayagreeva went to fight with demon Hayagreeva. Because of the effect of the boon the demon got, God Hayagreeva killed the demon thus ending the woes of devas.
Hayagreeva is considered as one of the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Saint Vadiraj worshipped him as main deity. Hayagreeva means half portion of horse's (head and neck)and the remaining half portion(body) is of human's.
Actually there are two Hayagreevas. The first Hayagreeva is the sun of saint Kashyapa. He was mischievous. He did tapa and worshipped devas. He got the boon that he will get killed only by another Hayagreeva like him.
Till that time there were no other Hayagreevas. So,this Hayagreeva got a feeling that no one can kill him. He started torturing the devas. Then devas worshipped Vishnu so that they can get rid of this Hayagreeva. Vishnu readily agreed to help them.
But the demon Hayagreeva proved to be invincible. So.even Vishnu could not fight with him because of the effect of the boon the demon got. So,Vishnu decided to take a break and went to rejuvenate his strength. In Himalayas,Vishnu was doing yogasana and tapa.
Again ,devas came asking help from him. But seeing him doing tapa,devas could not disturb him. So.they asked a swarm of termites to help them. The sting of the termites was so strong that Vishnu's head got seperated from his body.
Now,devas got scared and they worshipped Goddess Durga. Durga said them not to panic. Then she asked the devas to attach the head of a horse to the body of Vishnu's body. Thus,God Hayagreeva birth happened.
Now,devas worshipped God Hayagreeva and prayed to him that demon Hayagreeva must be killed by him. Hearing this, God Hayagreeva went to fight with demon Hayagreeva. Because of the effect of the boon the demon got, God Hayagreeva killed the demon thus ending the woes of devas.
It is nice story. But every time such incidences happen I feel pity for the animal who is killed - in this case, a horse. In Ganapathi's case, an elephant head. In Daksha's case it was a goat head. All these must be taken with a inner meaning, otherwise people may mistake that we know only reverse-kind of operation - joining animals heads to human bodies!??
ReplyDeleteNice story... i was searching for the demon hygreeva and always got the incarnation... this is the only place i can see two hygreeva... thanks...
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