15 – When Creativity of Skill and Ferocity of Nature Fought

Hi Friends!

Today let us look at Daksha Prajapati, the Skillful Master of Creation, and the story of a famous yagna of his.

Daksha, the Skillful One, was one of the sons of Lord Brahma. He along with his nine brothers, together the Prajapatis, was entrusted with the work of creation.

Daksha with his wife Prasuti, the Pregnant One, had many sons. Some stories count them in thousands. Let us just say they were many. Daksha wanted his sons to help him with the task of creation, by begetting many children. There was a small problem. All of these sons, the elder Hary-asvas and the younger Sabal-asvas, became disciples of his elder brother, the celibate Narada. It is said that they got lost in the contemplation of the complexities of the world, and never returned to their tasks.

So, next Daksha and his wife, gave birth to daughters. There were many of them. We already discussed that many of his daughters married Sage Kasyapa, and became mothers to Adityas (from Aditi), Daityas (from Diti), Danavas (from Danu), Nagas (from Kadru), Garuda and Aruna/i (both from Vinata), to name a few. In addition many of his daughters married the Saptarishis, the Seven Wise Sages who guide the civilisation with their knowledge.

He also married a few of his daughters with Dharma, the god of good behaviour. Additionally, and interestingly, he is the god of death, and judgement in afterlife. We may in a future post discuss how this representative of good behaviour became the god of death. Interestingly he had to die to become that. Very similar to another god of afterlife, from another mythology, right?

He married twenty seven of his daughters, together called Nakshatras, with Chandra, the god of moon, night and vegetation. This god has many stories about his romantic nature, and how that got him into trouble. Let us see one of them in brief. Now one of the Nakshatra sisters was Rohini. She was the most loved by Chandra, and consequently he spent more time with her than with the other wives. This saddened the other twenty six and they complained to their father Daksha. Daksha advised his son-in-law to stop such partiality. Chandra promised to do so.

In spite of that, Chandra, being the fickle god of moon, kept spending more time with Rohini. At this Daksha cursed Chandra to gradually wither and die. This made the moon to wane from a full circle to smaller and smaller crescents. Then he did penance to the only God who had the power to reverse death. He is the Winner Over Death. Guess who? It is the God of Destruction, i.e. Lord Shiva. So Lord Shiva accepted Chandra’s prayers, and reduced the curse of Daksha Prajapati, so that instead of withering completely and dying, he would wane for fourteen days only. After that he would get to hide in the tresses of the Mahadeva, who is hence ChandraSekhara, or the One with Moon on His Head. Thus nourished by the power of the Mrityunjaya, he would once more grow and reach his former glory. This is said to be reason that the moon has various phases, of waning to amavasya (“new moon”), and waxing to poornima (“full moon”), and every day the moon is seen with a different wife of his, or nakshatra. This made Chandra and all his twenty-seven wives happy, but made Daksha extremely angry with Lord Shiva. We will find out the unfortunate outcome of this shortly.

Some mathematics before we go further? Each nakshatra, as per Indian astronomy, covers 13 degrees 20 minutes, i.e. thirteen-and-one-third degree. If you multiply this by 27, you get 360 degrees, which completes a full circle. Interestingly the moon (the actual one) takes twenty-seven days to orbit the earth. So these numbers and the story has basis in observed (or calculated) astronomy.

Ok, so now we have all but the youngest daughter of Daksha married to a celestial being, or a learned Sage. The youngest daughter was the favourite of her father. And she was fiercely attached to truth, and correct action. She was called Dakshayani, or the One Who Comes from Daksha. She was also called Sati, or the Truthful One. At one time she had been taught the art of dance by the best dancer amongst gods and Gods. The one called the King of Dancers, i.e. Nrityaraj, or Nataraj. You guessed it right, it was none other than Lord Shiva. Be it the time of being taught dancing, or be it her love of truth, she found The Auspicious One very beautiful (handsome!), and wanted to marry him.

There is a saying in Sanskrit, that says “Truth is Auspicious and Beautiful”. Or “Satyam Shivam Sundaram”.

This was not a very acceptable situation for Daksha, for two reasons.

First, was his anger with Lord Shiva, due to what he saw as uncalled for meddling in his family matter, when he intervened and reversed Daksha’s curse (partially) on Chandra.

Secondly, while the other celestial beings, gods, and Gods lived in comfortable worlds, or lokas, and were generally bedecked in beautiful garments, and hobnobbed with glamorous apsaras, and such creatures, Lord Shiva was kind of different.

• He was dressed in either the skins of wild animals or sometimes just the directions. He was Lord DigAmbara, which is a nice way of saying “naked”.
• Instead of beautifully arranged hairstyle and headgear, he had dreadlocks in which sometimes he hid the moon, and sometimes trapped whole rivers. He was Lord ChandraSekhara.
• Instead of wearing precious necklaces, he wore snakes as ornaments. He was Lord Nagesh.
• Instead of comfortable palatial lokas, he lived on Kailasha, a cold and desolate mountain. He was Lord KailashPati.
• Instead of costly perfumes and powders, he rubbed the ashes of cremation grounds on his skin. He was Lord BhasmaAnga.
• Instead of glamorous courtiers and courtesans, he spent time with ghosts, and goblins. He was Lord BhootNaath.
• Instead of being a lord/king of celestial beings, he was the embodiment of undisturbed nature and animals in it. He was Lord PashupatiNaath.
• Oh, and he had also removed the fifth head of Lord Brahma, Daksha’s father. He in fact carried the skull around like a begging bowl. He was Lord Kapaalika.

In spite of all of her father’s objections Sati was adamant, and at last Lord Shiva and Sati were married. And they lived happily, in Kailasha.

But this was not the “happily ever after” of fairytales!

Daksha decided to make his anger and hatred for Lord Shiva clear to one and all. He organised a huge celebration and yagna. Every major God and minor god was invited, and so were the various learned sages. Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu were accorded positions of respect. All his daughters, and their husbands, were invited.

Did I say all? Not all. As Lord Shiva and Sati were not invited. When Sati learnt that her father had organised a yagna, she asked Shiva, “Let us go to the yagna and help my father, as dutiful daughter and son-in-law.”

Lord Shiva said, “He has knowingly not invited us, and that is a form of disrespect. I will not go where I am not wanted, and I would advise you to not go as well.”

But Sati, remembering only the love her father showered on her as the favourite and youngest daughter, decided to go uninvited. May be she thought seeing her, Daksha would forget his anger, and correct his mistake of not inviting Lord Shiva, who was not just his son-in-law, but also one of the most important Gods of the world.

May be she should not have! When she entered the venue, everyone saw but kept quiet, being embarrassed by the open act of disrespect by Daksha. One person who would have talked on her behalf was Sage Dadhichi, the one with strong bones. But he was a devotee of Lord Shiva, and had already argued with Daksha regarding the exclusion of Shiva, and left the yagna in anger.

In the meanwhile none of the invited dignitaries spoke on her behalf. Daksha in fact refused to even look at Sati, once the apple of his eye. Saddened by this, Sati asked Daksha, “Why do you ignore me? And how could you plan such a big yagna and not invite Lord Shiva, who is the Great Lord, the MahaDeva?”

At this Daksha lost his ill-concealed temper, and said cruelly, “It seems at least your worthless husband at least has better sense than you. Unlike you, he didn’t come uninvited. He is dirty with the ashes of cremation-ground. He is abhorrent with slimy snakes as ornaments, and horrid ghosts as companions. He dances scantily clothed in tiger-skin, that is if he is wearing anything. In fact he dared to remove a head of Lord Brahma, the worship-worthy God of Creation. My father, and your grand-father. He walks around with that skull of this respected elder, and uses it as a begging bowl. He does not deserve to be seated next to Lord Brahma, or the great Lord Vishnu. Be gone from here, and do not darken my doorstep again.”

This was more untruth than Sati, the epitome of truth could hear. She said, “This is not you but your ego that is talking. Each of the things you mentioned are aspects of his greatness, if you could understand. The disrespect you have shown towards the Mahadeva is such that I am ashamed to have come from you, and be called Dakshayani. I will now renounce this body cursed to be your daughter. I will take another birth to come back to my beloved Lord Shiva, without any association with you. From the Daughter of Daksha, or Dakshayani, I now become the destroyer of Daksha’s yagna, or Daksha-Yagna-Vinaashini.”

Saying this she jumped into the fire, and gave up her life-force. Everyone was aghast at the turn of events, and tried to stop her. But it was too late, as all they could take out of the fire was the half-burnt dead body of Sati.

When news of this reached Shiva, he was not just saddened by the death of his beloved, but angered by the disrespect she had to face. He pulled out two locks of his matted hair, and threw them on ground. From these emerged two manifestations of his destructive power. Veerbhadra and Bhadrakali. And they emerged angry. Along with the dreaded band of ghosts, or bhootaganas, they attacked the Daksha-Yagna.

Then it was a macabre dance of destruction. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma realising the faults of Daksha withdrew. Sage Bhrigu tried to save the yagna, as a las ditch attempt to save the sacredness of the act. He was defeated, and his beard pulled off.

This was before the extraction of the nectar of immortality, or amruta, from the churning of the sea, so the gods were not yet immortal. Some gods were killed, some were mutilated. Some lost their tooth, and some got bones broken. Even goddesses were not spared, and were punished by Bhadrakali. Worst was saved for Daksha. Veerbhadra pulled him out from where he was hiding, and strangled him to death. Then he pulled off Daksha’s head, and threw it into the fire, as the final offering in the yagna.

Seeing the level of destruction Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu went to Shiva and asked for his forgiveness, and requested him to stop, as the punishment seemed enough, and quite excessive now.

Lord Shiva now more sad than angry asked the army of his followers to stop. He then used his powers as the Mrityunjaya, and rejuvenated the dead, and cured the injured. Lastly he asked Veerbhadra to bring the body of Daksha. Seeing it headless he enquired, and was answered by Veerbhadra of how the head was now burnt. So Shiva asked for the head of the sacrificial goat to be brought, and attached the same before rejuvenating Daksha in a new form. In some stories after this Daksha was reborn as the son of the foster daughter of Chandra called Marisha, who is the embodiment of trees of the forest.

Such beautiful imagery.

• The ego of skillful creation by man (denoted by Daksha), while they disrespect nature in its pure form (denoted by Shiva) which is destructive, yet gives boons and protection to those who need it and ask for it. Like an Innocent Lord, the BholeNaath.
• The self-immolation of truth and understanding (denoted by Sati), and destruction of nature or Prakriti (again the Shakti in Sati) in face of this environmental crisis.
• Even the most benevolent of powers of creation and preservation (Brahma and Vishnu) who stood silent while this happened cannot stop the destruction once it starts.
• Then the fearsome dance of destruction is not just inevitable but necessary, which destroys all that was skilfully created.
• Once the destruction stops, the creativity of civilisation, with the blessings of the once-disrespected force of nature is reborn, and subsists on nature, the trees and animals.
• Then the beauty and love of nature is lost, but may be not forever. May be it is still found, and re-found, on the pristine mountains. From the Parvatas, as Parvati.

We shall tackle the happy ending of this tragic story in some later post. Right now let’s marvel at one of the few instances where the destruction of yagna is celebrated in Indian mythological tales. That too by a Hero who is born from a God, or is a partial manifestation of one.

May be this is a cautionary tale about the imminent destruction if human ego exceeds the boundaries, and disrespects power of nature and truth.

Or may be this is a story of a defeat of a more organised and “civilised” people, by an army which was more animistic (or nature worshipping). When both the sides of that battle later became part of the same civilisation, all that remained of their enmity was this story.

Or more importantly, may be it is a story which teaches us that even the mighty can and will be punished if they cross the boundaries of proper behaviour. Even if they are the Most Skillful.