hitopadesha

In the last post, we read the story of how Bhima learns the wisdom of managing wealth from Kubera, the lord of wealth. Since Kubera is one of the lesser known of the Hindu Gods, I thought I would consolidate some of the information I already know and also from the Internet and present it here in a manner that is simple yet interesting.

Kubera is the son of sage Vishrava (I don’t have much information about Kubera’s father presently and will post details in another blog). As the son of Vishrava, Kubera is also called as Vaisravana which means one who has the ability to hear clearly. He is also the grandson of Lord Brahma and the step brother of Ravana, Kumbakarna and Vibhishana who are some of the important characters in the epic Ramayana. He was ruling Lanka (presently Sri Lanka) before he was defeated by his brother Ravana who then took over the kingdom of Lanka and ruled it till he was defeated by Lord Rama. But more details on this story on another post.

As lord of wealth it appears that he holds a position which is similar to that of Goddess Mahalakshmi. But there is indeed a distinction here. Mahalakshmi creates and bestows wealth to the deserving and Kubera is the protector of the wealth of the Gods and something called Nidhis (again I do not have much information on Nidhis as yet and hope to fill you in later in another post). Kubera is also the guardian of the Northern direction. In the Hindu mythology, each direction is guarded by a different God. More about it in a later post.

Another interesting detail about Kubera is that he owns a flying machine which is called pushpaka in Sanskrit built by the divine architect Vishwakarma. When he used to fly from one place to another he is believed to have dropped wealth in many places on purpose, to improve the lives of the people living there. All this did not happen without effort being put in. It is believed that Kubera meditated on Lord Brahma for over a thousand years and Brahma who was pleased by the devotion of Kubera made him the God of wealth and also the guardian of the Northern direction. It is also believed that Kubera was a dwarf and was deformed physically and he had difficult moving around due to his deformity. Taking pity on him, Brahma then requested Vishwakarma to build the celestial flying machine, pushpaka.

Kubera not only lent money to Yudishthira to rule his kingdom but also financed the wedding of Lord Vishnu with Padmavati (Goddess Mahalakshmi). It is believed that all the people who visit the holy shrine of Tirupathi still today in Southern India (the second richest temple in the world after Vatican) donate what is possible by them to the temple, which is supposed to be a repayment of the loan taken by Lord Vishnu from Kubera.

Yet another interesting detail about Kubera is that he is not only regarded as the wealth God in Hindu mythology but also feature prominently in Buddhism, where even today Kubera is depicted as a short stout laughing man with a big pot belly, popularly referred to as the laughing Buddha.

I hope I have given a simple yet interesting background to Kubera and as always this is not to be treated as researched information based on scriptures but stories heard during childhood from parents and grandparents. Until next time,

peace,
aditya.