Durga Saptashati Adhyay 1.28
As per ancient legend, once Ma Parvati left Kailash after getting the permission from Lord Shiva, and she reached the Holy Mountain Himalayas, and started performing penance on Lord Shiva, in order to increase her spiritual powers. During that time, a hungry lion visited the place of Ma Parvati, and first it thought of killing the holy goddess in order to make her as its prey. But after reaching her, the lion saw the brightness of Ma Parvati, and due to her grace, it has become very soft and polite, and it began to calmly sit in front of her, and also guarded her.
After some time, Ma Parvati opened her eyes, and she saw the lion with her merciful eyes, and she also gently rubbed the body of the lion with her lotus hands. Immediately, the lion had attained spiritual enlightenment, and it also became the divine vehicle of Ma Parvati, and due to her grace, the lion had relieved from the sufferings of hunger and thirst, and it also began to shine brightly similar to Ma Parvati.
After the completion of her penance for a few months, when Ma Parvati started her journey to the holy Kailash, she also took the lion along with her. Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati treated the holy lion as their own son, and they gave lot of preferences to the lion similar to Lord Nandikeswarar, the divine vehicle of Lord Shiva.
In Hinduism, most of the deities are having their own vehicles, and due to the sanctity of the deities, their vehicles also attain the purity similar to them. They willfully serve their masters, and they are relieved from the chain of birth cycles. Whenever devotees visit any temple in order to worship the deities, first they have pray before the vehicles of the respective deities, and then only they have to offer their prayers to the deities, since these divine vehicles, acts as a mediator between us and the deities.
“OM MA SIMHAVAHINI NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR