Devlok With Devdutt Pattanaik Read online

  The symbolic meaning could be that a man’s ego prevents a devi from becoming a kumari, which is why he is cursed or has his head cut off. These are spiritual, metaphysical topics.

  Shiva was svayambhu, but who was his son Kartikeya’s mother—Parvati or Ganga?

  According to the Shiva Purana, after their marriage, Shiva tells Devi that he has no need for a child. He says, ‘I am svayambhu, anadi, anant, without beginning or end; I will never die. So why do I need children?’ Devi says, ‘But I want children; I want to be a mother.’ An interesting conflict arises here. When Shiva is about to offer his seed, all gods and goddesses say that his seed cannot be accommodated in just one womb; it should be placed in many wombs. His seed is supposed to be so hot that no one can touch it. First it is given to Vayu, wind, in the belief that he’ll be able to cool it down, but he fails. Vayu gives the seed to Agni, fire, who too cannot hold it. He passes it on to Ganga and her waters start boiling. The reed forests (Sara-van) near the river start burning. From the ash of those reeds, a child emerges. In some versions of the story, six children emerge. As the infants start crying, Kritika nakshatra, a constellation of six stars, descends from the sky as the children’s mother and feeds them milk. Finally, Gauri, Shiva’s wife, joins the six children together. That child is Kartikeya, also called Shanmukha, or one with six heads.

  The question then arises: the father of the child is Shiva, but who is the mother? Vayu, Agni, Ganga, Sharavan, Kritika, Parvati all stake a claim. So, he has many mothers. Shiva’s seed has thus gone to many yonis; it shows that the child is so powerful, he cannot be born of just one womb. Kartik means son of Kritika. In the south, he is called Sharavanan, son of Sharavan. In images, he is sometimes shown along with six or seven matrika, mothers.

  What is Ganesha’s story? Who is his mother?

  In stories, although Shakti wants to become a mother, the gods don’t want her to give birth like other women. If a child is born from her yoni, it’ll be so powerful that it will defeat even Indra, the king of the gods. So, Shiva–Shakti’s children are not born from Parvati’s yoni. Kartikeya is born of Shiva’s seed, from many yonis. Ganesha is born from the scrapings of Parvati’s body. Again, he is ayonija.

  The story is that Parvati goes to Shiva, asking him to give her a child. He says he is not interested in having children as he’s immortal. She tells him she’ll make one herself; she’s the goddess, after all. She first collects the scrapings (mull) of her skin, mixed with the already applied chandan and haldi. Then she makes a doll of it and gives it life. In the Vamana Purana, it is said the child’s name, Vinayaka, comes from binanayak (without a man); there are other stories about the word’s origin too. Shiva does not like the way Parvati has birthed her child, as he cannot recognize her image in it, so he cuts off its head. Parvati starts weeping, and insists he bring back the child to life. So Shiva gives him an elephant head and that’s how Ganesha is born. Again, it is ayonija.

  In the Mahabharata, we see many ambitious mothers who want their sons to be king.

  In the Puranas, the stories have more of a spiritual, intellectual concern, while in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the focus is on wealth and property. For this reason, the men go to war, and the women want their sons to grow up and be victorious. This is presented in a fascinating way in the Mahabharata. When Shantanu asks to marry Satyavati, she attaches a condition that her son will inherit Shantanu’s kingdom. She claims she is securing her child’s future. Is that the real reason or does she want the high position of rajmata (queen mother) for herself?

  There is also a competition between Gandhari, Kunti and Madri. When Gandhari is pregnant, she hears that Kunti has given birth to a son (she used her mantra to have Yudhishtira without the nine-month waiting period). Gandhari is so upset that she beats her belly with a stick. The mass that emerges from her belly is cold as iron. When Vyasa creates 100 children from this mass, Gandhari is happy, because now she has more children than Kunti. Kunti uses up the power of her mantra to beget two more children. She then gives the mantra to Madri who uses it once and calls Ashvin Kumar and has the twins, Nakula and Sahadeva. Pandu asks Kunti to let Madri use the mantra once more as she herself has used it thrice, but Kunti refuses. She fears that if Madri were to produce twins again, she’d have more children, and therefore more importance, than her. This rivalry has been subtly depicted in the Mahabharata.

  What about the mothers in the Ramayana?

  Kaikeyi’s story is the most well known. When she had saved Dashratha’s life during a deva–asura battle, he had promised her two boons. The day before his eldest son, Rama’s, coronation, she throws a tantrum and demands her boons. She asks that her son Bharata be made king instead of the firstborn Rama, and that Rama be sent into vanavas (life in the forest) for fourteen years. Rama’s mother, Kaushalya, is pained and asks Kaikeyi why she is being so cruel to a son who has always treated her like his own mother.

  An interesting aspect of this story is that when Dashratha marries Kaikeyi, he does not have any children. The astrologer says that Kaikeyi will definitely have a son. At that time, Dashratha promises her that her son will become king. So, in a way, Kaikeyi is only asking for what is rightfully her due. It’s like a court case, a settling of an agreement, where the lines are not clear. Whether Kaikeyi is ambitious or merely asking for her right is hard to say.

  Krishna is called Devakinandan and Yashodanandan. Who was his mother?

  There are some who believe that Krishna is not an avatar (of Vishnu) but an avatari—from whom avatars emerge—himself. But he is born from Devaki’s womb, so he is yonija and experiences death, as is described in the Mausala Parva in the Mahabharata. Now, though he is born from Devaki’s womb in Mathura, he is raised by Yashoda in Gokul. So he has two mothers—a birth mother and a milk mother.

  In folk songs, Krishna is asked who his real mother is—Devaki who has birthed him or Yashoda who has raised him? Krishna replies, ‘Do you think my heart is so small that it cannot house more than one mother? I can handle both.’ But the question is who has the maternal right over him? Who can answer that—it’s a complex world. The story suggests that relationships are not built by blood alone. Another interesting detail is that Devaki is a princess, while Yashoda is a milkmaid. Krishna’s claim that both women are his mothers shows that he has a relationship with palace dwellers as well as cowherds, with the city as well as the village. He is large-hearted and this is why Krishna is associated with love.

  In the Puranas, is there a story of single mothers?

  The Bhagavata Purana has a story of Devahuti whose husband is Rishi Kardam. The rishi tells Devahuti that he doesn’t really want to have children, but he has been told by his ancestors that he won’t achieve moksha (liberation from the cycle of life and death) until he has children. But he doesn’t want any part in raising that child. Devahuti agrees to raise the child alone, and the child grows up to be Kapila Muni who develops the Sankhya philosophy. It is also well known that Sita raises Luv and Kush on her own. Shakuntala too raises her son Bharata by herself in the forest, without the support of her husband.

  Is there a story in our Puranas where a father plays the role of a mother?

  When apsaras have children, they abandon them. Shakuntala’s mother Menaka abandons her in the jungle; she is raised by Rishi Kanva who is like a single father. When Sita goes back to her mother, and disappears inside the earth, she leaves her children behind with Rama who becomes a single father.

  20

  Women in the Mahabharata

  According to you, is the Mahabharata a story about men or women?

  It starts as a women’s story, then shifts the focus on men, and finally becomes about women again. The story begins with Shantanu and his two wives. His first wife is Ganga, queen of rivers. She marries him on the condition that no matter what she does after their marriage, he will not question her. She then proceeds to drown each of the seven children she gives birth to. When she’s about to do the same to the eighth ch