SACRED MOUNTAINS

Mountains, which occupy an important place in Hindu mythology, are a symbol of strength when certain gods in their fury grow to resemble mountains, and of oppressive weight when they are torn up and used as missiles by gods or demons. The most important of these are of course the Himalayas, on the summits of which are the heavens. Mountains, specially the Himalaya re also important as it was amongst them that the holy men, the yogis and the sadhus lived ding meditation. It was re that the important ashramas of the gurus were located and many are still functioning. A person going on a trek in the Himalayas can easily find yogis doing meditation in caves amongst the high snow-capped peaks.

Some of the important mountains are:

Meru, which bears on its summit Brahma’s heaven, and acts as a pivot for the three worlds around which the heavenly bodies revolve.

Himavan, which took the form of a man when the gods wished Sad to be reborn, and became the father of first the Ganga, and then of Parvati.

Mandara, which is a revered mountain in the Himalayas and was thought to be the only one mighty enough to serve as a pole in the churning of the milk ocean. It became the home of Durga.

Mount Kailash, the home of Shiva, which became involved in a dispute between Indra and Kartikeya as to their relative powers and to settle the dispute they agreed to race around it. Kartikeya won but became angry when Kailash gave the verdict in favour of Indra and hurled his lance at the mountain splitting it open, thus creating the Krauncha pass.

Some other holy mountain tare Parijat, Malyagiri, Mahendrachal, Chitrakoot, Goverdhan (Mathura), Kamagiri (Assain), Shaktiman (Madhya Pradesh) and Raiwatgiri (Gujarat):