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Vayu

In Hinduism, Vayu (also known as Vātā,Pavan) is a primary god, father of Bhima and Hanuman. As the words for air (vayu) or wind (pavan) it is one of the Panchamahabhuta the "five great elements" in Hinduism. The Sanskrit word 'Vātā' is cognate to the Latin 'vita' meaning life. The primary referent of the word is thus the "god of Life," who is sometimes for clarity referred to as "Mukhya-Vayu" (the chief Vayu) or "Mukhya Prana" (the chief of Life). `Vayu' , 'Vātā' and `Prana' are synonyms. There is a set of five deities, each called Prana (life), with Mukhya-Prana being chief among them. (This is the reason that, for example, in Hindi and other Indian languages, someone's death is stated using the plural as "his lives departed" (uske prAN nikal gaye) rather than "his life departed.") The secondary meaning of `Vayu' to refer to wind derives from another referent. The five Vayu deities are known in the classical literature as Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, and Samana, and control life (and the vital breath), the wind, touch/sensation, digestion, and excretion.

In the Upanishads there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vayu. The Brhadaranyaka states that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a man's body, that man would continue to live, albeit as a blind man, and would regain the lost faculty once the errant deity returned to his post. One by one, the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways. Finally, when Mukhya Prana started to leave the body, all the other deities started to be inexorably pulled off their posts by force, "just as a powerful horse yanks off pegs in the ground to which he is bound." This caused the other deities to realize that they can function only when empowered by Vayu, and can be overpowered by him easily. In another episode, Vayu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack. The Chandogya states that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vayu as the udgItha.

Followers of Dvaita philosophy hold that Mukhya-Vayu incarnated as Sree Madhvacharya to teach worthy souls to worship the supreme God as SrimanMaha Vishnu and to correct the errors of Advaita philosophy. Sree Madhvacharya himself makes this claim, citing the Rig Veda as his evidence.

Pawan is also a very common hindu name. The God of winds, Pawan, had blessed Anjana - hanuman's mother to have a great son supreme in strength and wisdom. Hence hanuman is also called Pawan-Putra and Vayu-Putra.

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