For the Kriya yogi, the deities are best understood as living symbols of the divine qualities we seek to awaken within ourselves. Click any deity below to read an in-depth page on their lore and their role in the epics.

The Trimurti: the three great functions of the Divine

• Brahma — the Creator. The four-faced god from whom the worlds are projected, representing the creative power of the Absolute.
• Vishnu — the Preserver. The sustainer of the cosmos, who descends as an avatara whenever dharma declines. Krishna and Rama are his most beloved incarnations.
• Shiva — the Transformer. The great ascetic and lord of dissolution, who presides over yoga and meditation. He is the Adiyogi, the first yogi.

The Divine Mother: Shakti and her forms

• Durga — the warrior goddess who slays the demons the gods alone cannot defeat.
• Kali — the fierce goddess who destroys ego and illusion; beloved deity of Sri Ramakrishna.
• Parvati — the gracious consort of Shiva, the gentle face of the Mother.
• Lakshmi — goddess of abundance and prosperity, consort of Vishnu.
• Saraswati — goddess of wisdom, learning and music, consort of Brahma.

The avatars of Vishnu

• Krishna — the eighth avatar, the divine charioteer and speaker of the Bhagavad Gita.
• Rama — the seventh avatar, the ideal king and hero of the Ramayana.

The other incarnations — Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Buddha, and the future Kalki — tell the story of the Divine descending again and again to uphold dharma.

The Vedic deities of the epics

Several great Vedic gods are the divine fathers of the five Pandava brothers, binding the epic’s heroes to the cosmic order:

• Indra — king of the gods, wielder of the thunderbolt; divine father of Arjuna.
• Yama (Dharma) — god of righteousness and death; divine father of Yudhishthira.
• Vayu — god of wind and life-breath (prana); divine father of Bhima (and Hanuman).
• The Ashvins — twin celestial physicians; divine fathers of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva.
• Surya — the radiant sun-god; divine father of Karna.
• Agni — god of fire, present at every sacrifice; and Varuna and Kubera, who guard the cosmic order, the waters and the directions.

Beloved deities of devotion

• Ganesha — the elephant-headed remover of obstacles; by tradition the scribe who wrote down the Mahabharata.
• Hanuman — the monkey-god, son of Vayu, the perfect devotee of Rama.
• Kartikeya (Skanda / Murugan) — the youthful commander of the divine armies, son of Shiva and Parvati.

The inner meaning of the deities

The Kriya masters teach that the deities also point inward. Each represents a power latent in the human being: Saraswati the awakening of wisdom, Durga the strength to conquer the lower nature, Ganesha the will that removes obstacles, and Shiva the meditative consciousness that dissolves the ego. To meditate upon a deity is to call forth that divine quality within oneself. Above all these forms is the one formless Reality — Sat-Chit-Ananda — which the Kriya yogi seeks to realise directly. The many gods are, as the Vedas say, “the one Truth, which the wise call by many names.”

To explore further, see the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, and the three gunas.