Hindu deities have particular vehicles or vahana on which they travel. These vehicles, which are either animals or birds, represent the various forces that the deity rides. These deities are seldom depicted without their corresponding creatures. While this seems peculiar at first glance, there is a deep inner significance behind choosing their vahanas. Sometimes, the deity is shown mounted on or riding his or her vehicle, while at other times, the vahana is shown by the deity”s side. Many times, this vehicle is also represented by way of symbols, as a divine attribute.
The Owl, or the Ulooka in Sanskrit, is Devi Lakshmi”s vahana. Devi Lakshmi or Mahalakshmi, the daughter of Bhrigu and Khyaati, is the consort of Sri Mahavishnu and one of the Holy Trinity of Goddesses. She emerged from the Milky Ocean during Samudra Manthan, and went on later to wed Vishnu.
Though the owl appears to be the unlikeliest vehicle for the extremely lovely Goddess, there is a deep spiritual significance as to why she selected this creature as her mount.
Owl sleeps during the day and prowls through the night. This is because it can only see in the dark, and goes blind in the day. This partial blindness in the creature is actually indicative of a sadhaka”s (seeker) tendency of going towards the pursuit of material wealth instead of spiritual wealth.
The owl, in the Gita, is compared to an enlightened sthita prajna (the one who remains unwavering to any situation, whether it is happy or sad). Goddess Lakshmi is also said to be the mistress of spiritual wisdom. By keeping the owl as her vehicle, she symbolically indicates the wisdom within and also her ability to keep ignorance under control.
Some say, Lakshmi rides the owl; others believe the owl simply accompanies her, while she rides on an elephant. Because of its round eyes that never move and stare straight ahead, the owl has been associated with wisdom in many parts of the world, especially ancient Greece, where it is closely associated with Athena, Goddess of Wisdom.
But in majority of the regions, owl is a bird of ill omen and symbolically represents darkness, disgrace, inauspiciousness and misfortune.
There are some writings to say that Lakshmi’s owl is known as Pechaka, the name mentioned in Lakshmi pujas,in eastern parts of India especially in Bengal.
Unblinking eyes, bobbing head, staring stance, a unique head that can rotate from 180 to 270 degrees without moving its body are some of the “amusing” features of an owl. Because of these strange attributes and attitudes, the owl has been associated with bad omens.
Owls fortunately provide a free service of eradicating rodents for human beings. Around 30 varieties of owls are found in India. Owls have binocular vision. They have sharp vision with eyeballs placed in a front facing head to specifically scan and “peel” open even inky nights to find rats, lizards and snakes. These erudite eyes of the owl have stereoscopic visualisation for nocturnal ambush.
The smallest owl—weighing as little as 31 grams and measuring some 13.5 centimetres (5 inches)—is the elf owl The largest owl by length is the great Grey Owl, which measures around 70 cm (28 inches) on average and can attain a length of 84 cm (33 inches). However, the heaviest and largest winged owls are two similarly sized eagle owls; the Eurasian Eagle Owl and Blakiston’s Fish Owl. These two species, which are on average about 2.53 cm (1.00 inches) shorter in length than the great Grey Owl, can both attain a wingspan of 2 m (6.6 ft) and a weight of 4.5 kg in the largest females.
There are roughly 225 species of owls in the world. Different species of owls make different sounds. Their eggs are usually white in colour and are spherical in shape, and range in number from a few to a dozen, depending on species and the particular season; for most, three or four is the more common number. Eggs are laid at intervals of 1 to 3 days and do not hatch at the same time. All owls are carnivorous birds. And are nocturnal, actively hunting their prey only in darkness. A few owls are active during the day also. The beak of the owl is short, curved and downward-facing, and typically hooked at the tip for gripping and tearing its prey. Owls exhibit specialised hearing functions and ear shapes that also aid in hunting.
They are powerful fliers because their wings are relatively large in proportion to the size of their bodies and their skeletons, like those of all birds, are light weight.
—Aniket Raja
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