Goat can mean a he or a she. Ram is an uncastrated adult male sheep. While the ram is Agni’s vahana, its three colours,
fell from Prajapati transformed as goat. In all, goats are described both as vahana and objects of sacrifice in Tantric texts also.
Gods that have goats as their vahana also symbolize that they have a hold and suppress ‘goat characteristics.’ Goats have a habit of not staying put in one place. They are quite fickle minded, as in eating grass, they are never in one place, forever hopping around. Even in excreting they use their little tail to wag and spread their droppings. That is a sign of indiscipline. Rams also symbolize kama and give a horny image. It can represent a lustful person. Then again goats, in general, are symbols of simplicity, frugality and perserverance.
Spiritual practice calls for single pointedness. “Annam, aave,mannodhu kliye, illikudam, aadu, neyyari” in Tamil is the classification of spiritual aspirants. The second last “aadu” means goat. The goat category of spiritual students are those needing improvement as they have a tendency to move from one school of thought to another quite indiscriminately.
- red,
- black or
- white represents
- sattva,
- rajas and
- tamas.
fell from Prajapati transformed as goat. In all, goats are described both as vahana and objects of sacrifice in Tantric texts also.
Gods that have goats as their vahana also symbolize that they have a hold and suppress ‘goat characteristics.’ Goats have a habit of not staying put in one place. They are quite fickle minded, as in eating grass, they are never in one place, forever hopping around. Even in excreting they use their little tail to wag and spread their droppings. That is a sign of indiscipline. Rams also symbolize kama and give a horny image. It can represent a lustful person. Then again goats, in general, are symbols of simplicity, frugality and perserverance.
Spiritual practice calls for single pointedness. “Annam, aave,mannodhu kliye, illikudam, aadu, neyyari” in Tamil is the classification of spiritual aspirants. The second last “aadu” means goat. The goat category of spiritual students are those needing improvement as they have a tendency to move from one school of thought to another quite indiscriminately.