Mayil-peacock is lord Murugan -kartikayan vahana .
Lord Murugan is more popular in South India. Kartikaya-Son of lord siva. He is the second son of Siva, and the younger brother of Ganesha, is also known as Kumara, Karttikeya, Shanmukha, Subrahmanya, and many other names.
His vehicle or Vahana is the peacock. This is by way of representation that he has entirely conquered pride, egoism, vanity. There is a cobra under His Feet. This is to indicate that He is absolutely fearless, immortal and wise.
Shanmukha’s Vahana, the peacock, shows the shape of the Pranava or !. It is of the shape of the Bindu. When the peacock spreads out its tail, it has the round shape of the Pranava. Within it is the Para Brahma Jyoti, which is the form of Murugan or Subrahmanya. The subordinated serpent kept in check by the peacock’s feet shows that Maya or impurity is completely overpowered by the power of Pranava.
Subrahmanya came out of Siva’s third eye is symbolic of His being the incarnation of Pure Intelligence, for Siva’s third eye is known to be the eye of Wisdom or Jnana.
The peacock (on which Subrahmanya rides) is the most beautiful of all the birds. It is the one bird which can reveal its inner joy by dancing and displaying its gorgeous plumage. When it does so, it evidences its perfect balance—for it is a very heavy bird and it has to keep its balance on its two very slender feet. All these points relating to the peacock are utilised for illustrating the ideas concerning the inner significance of the Subrahmanya mythology. We can interpret the peacock as symbolising mental equipoise—the predominance of Sattva over Rajas and Tamas. That tranquillity or mental balance, when once attained, produces contentment and happiness. Such a mental condition reveals itself in a superior sort of self-satisfaction—a state similar to that of the peacock which spreads out its beautiful plumage. It is this predominating Sattva that is the prerequisite for the acquisition of True Knowledge—the knowledge symbolised by Lord Subrahmanya Himself.
Subrahmanya’s cock-banner symbolises the approach or the dawn of Knowledge—it is the cock that proclaims the coming of the sun in the eastern horizon. The sun is the heavenly body that dispels darkness. Likewise the cock on Subrahmanya’s banner announces the approach of Knowledge which will destroy all ignorance.
When Lord Skanda and Lord Ganesha were at Kailasa with their Father and Mother, Narada brought a fruit and offered it to Lord Siva. Now, Lord Siva made an offer to His sons to give the fruit to the one who would go round the whole world and return first. At this, Lord Skanda, riding on his Peacock-Vahana, flew round the world and came back to Kailasa anxious to win the prize offered by his Father. But to his great disappointment, when he approached his Father after his round-the-globe flight, he saw the much coveted fruit in the hands of Lord Ganesha, who was calmly eating it, with a mischievous extra relish.
To add injury to insult, Lord Ganesha laughed at the grand flight of his brother. Skanda enquired of his Father and Mother how Ganesha, who was unable to move about due to his pot-belly, could go round the world as he had done and win the race from him. The parents replied that Ganesha, taking his parents (Lord Siva and Parvati) as the world, had come around them and won the prize. Ganesha explained how the whole world was nothing but their dear Father and Mother in whom everything existed,Thrown into a rage by all this, Lord Skanda threw away all his decorations and, clad only in a Kaupeena and with a stick in his hand, left Kailasa in a huff.
- Sri Eswaran
