Animals and birds as vehicle of gods and goddesses- A glimpse

Part- 1

Vahana is vehicle, stands for animals and birds who serve as the carriers of gods in Hindu mythology.
Accepted as a part of our cultural heritage from the ancient times, the concept of vahanas has helped to create a sympathetic understanding of the animal world and their part as inseparable from the nature,the selfless service,ideals the animals stand for,have inspired the human beings through the ages to connect a particular animal with a particular deity.
Each god represents a particular potency.The vahana is suggestive of the nature of the power that is expressed through him in order to discharge the particular function or it can indicate a wrong quality which has been controlled by riding over it or a right quality that is to be cultivated by the devotees. A close study of the gods and goddesses and their vahanas will give us the depth of meaning hidden in the seemingly simple descriptions.

Ganesha
The first son of Lord Shiva and Parvati is the god of wisdom and remover of obstacles. Hence he is invoked and worshipped at the commencement of every undertaking. He is usually represented in a sitting posture,short and fat with a protuberant belly and four hands,with the head of an elephant and riding a mouse.

Symbol of the mouse- The mouse is associated with the earth. According to the Brahmavaivarta Purana when all the gods presented different gifts to Ganesha in his name-giving ceremony( namakarana samskar), the goddess earth gave him a rat to serve as his vehicle.
According to the scriptures, rats,mice and moles must be propitiated with sacrificial offerings of boiled rice placed on a mole hill. Moles were were believed to be the very essence of the earth and the mounds thrown up by them represents this essence and brought about good fortune.
Mouse is called mushaka in Sanskrit. It is derived from the root' Mush' meaning to steal. A mouse stealthily enters the things and destroys them. Similarly egoism enters unnoticed into our minds and destroys all our undertakings. Only when it is controlled by divine wisdom which Ganesha stands for,it can be harnessed to fruitful channels.
The mouse that steals can represent love that steals the human heart. As long as human love is kept at the low level, it creates havoc. Once it is directed towards the divine, it elevates.
A mouse, a small animal with sharp tiny teeth and yet in a barn of grain, a single mouse can bring disaster by continuously gnawing and nibbling at the grains. This mouse in human beings is the power of desire. A man of wisdom alone can master this.
Mouse's nibbling can be symbolic of hair-splitting argument, perverse argumentation's. Ganesha's riding this shows wisdom putting an end to this.
The mouse can creep through small holes and see through the inside of all things. this symbolises the incisive intellect. Since Ganesha is the lord of wisdom, his vehicle appropriately represents intellect for wisdom the function of the intellect. Ganesha as the lord of wisdom is proved in the competition held by his parents for winning the fruit to go round the world. His younger brother Kartikkeya left for touring the universe on his vehicle peacock where as Ganesha simply went round his parents proving it be equivalent to his going around the world. Even in the Hitopadesha(moral stories) there are stories where a lion caught in a net was freed by a mouse, where all the pigeons caught in the net were freed by a single mouse. This points to the eternal truth that intellect along with wisdom alone can cut asunder the bonds of ignorance and lead to liberation.