Lord Muruga represents the four Vedas, (father, mother, Guru and God) and the six vedangams or auxiliary disciplines. These include nirukta (etymology), vyakarna (grammar), siksha (phonetics), chandas (metre), jyotisha (astrology) and kalpa (ritual and sacrifice). It is said that it was Lord Muruga who taught the sacred pranava mantra to His own father, Lord Shiva, by insisting that Lord Shiva first become his disciple as a necessary precondition to revealing the sacred mantra.
The beautiful temple dedicated to Lord Murugan in Palani is deeply revered by devotees all over South India. It is next only to the famous Tirupathi temple, in wealth, devotion and splendor. The peacock is Lord Muruga’s vahana (mount), and
His weapon is the vel (spear). Along with the cock, they form the emblem of the Lord. He is represented by six faces and twelve hands that symbolically represent the five elements (air, water, fire, earth and ether); the sixth represents the spirit that gives life to beings created by the five elements.
The six heads can also be said to represent the five senses along with the mind. Alternately, they are also said to represent the six yogic chakras (psychic centres) present in the spinal column of every human being. The legend goes that Lord Muruga has two wives: Deivayani and Valli.
The spear symbolizes jnana shakti (power of wisdom), while Deivayani represents kriya shakti (power of action), and Valli represents icchha shakti (power of desire). This means that a seeker aspiring for Godliness needs to vigilantly bring his or her will-power under control and strive ceaselessly until the goal is reached.
The Lord’s marriage to Deivayani and Valli symbolize the two types of devotees among those who strive for mukti (liberation) through union with the Supreme. The first kind consists of those who rigidly and sincerely observe injunctions and follow the teachings of the Vedic scriptures. This type of devotee is represented by Deivayani, whom Lord Subramanya married in the regular orthodox way. The other kind consists of devout seekers who attach more importance to mental equipoise and emotion than to rules and regulations. This kind of devotee is symbolized by Valli, who grows up as the foster-daughter of Nambi, the hunter king. As Swami Sivananda beautifully expresses it: Subrahmanya legends can be interpreted correctly if we bear in mind the underlying truth that Subrahmanya is Supreme Consciousness in an embodied form.
This is amply borne out by the story about Subramanya having been the Guru of even his own Father. The story goes that He questioned Brahma about the meaning of Om, and that, when Brahma revealed his ignorance of it, Suhrahmanya put Him into prison. When the matter reached Siva, he was naturally amused and playfully challenged.