The summary of the discourse from Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamii's Shivaratri discourse in 2000. Jaya Guru Datta
Lord Shiva, who was residing in Kashi was invited by the god of Mandara Parvata (Parvata=Mountain) to reside on him. Lord Shiva acceded to his request and stayed in Mandara Parvata for a while. Mandara here does not refer to the one in the Himalayan range. It is situated in the Ksheera Samudra (ocean of milk), in the Shimshumara Chakra. Shiva was spending his time on the Mandara Parvata. One day, Parvati, wanting to play with him, came from behind and closed his eyes with her palms. Shiva was meditating deeply and did not move. All of a sudden, a monstrous baby appeared in front of them. He was crying loudly. Parvati immediately realised that this baby was born out of her sweat. Lord Shiva slowly opened his eyes. Parvati now realised that Lord Shiva was all the while engrossed in deep meditation. She lifted the baby from the ground and held it in her arms. The baby was blind. "Who is this?"- she asked Lord Shiva. "He is your son. He was born when you closed my eyes. Therefore he has become blind. Let us therefore name him ÔAndhakaÕ " replied Lord Shiva. "You take care of him now. I will not touch him now" said Shiva. Because the child possessed evil characters, the Shiva Ganas(troupes of Shiva) started calling him ÔAndhakasuraÕ. However, Andhakasura had immense love for his parents. As he was born blind, he had no idea what they looked like. Those were the days when the demon duo of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were tormenting the world. Although they worked in tandem while tormenting the world, they had their differences too. Hiranyakashipu, the younger brother became a father. The elder brother Hiranyaksha had no children. His wife started pestering him. Unable to bear her pressure, he began penance to please Lord Shiva. When Shiva, being pleased with his penance, appeared before him, Hiranyaksha said, "O Lord, my younger brother has children. I have none. Please bless me with a son who will not only take care of our kingdom, but will also extend it." Lord Shiva said "You do not have the qualification to get a progeny. Therefore, I will give you my son Andhakasura. Though he is blind by birth, he possesses enormous strength. Take him with you". Hiranyaksha brought Andhakasura home. Initially his wife did not show any love for the boy. However, in due course of time, on account of ShivaÕs Maya, she developed love for Andhakasura and started looking after him well. After some time, Hiranyaksha was killed by Lord Vishnu, who took the Varaha incarnation. Andhaka and his mother took refuge in Hiranyakashipu. In due course of time, he was killed by Lord Narasimha. Hiranyakashipu died even before he had nominated his successor. Narasimha Swamy made Prahlada the king and returned to Vaikuntha. The five brothers of Prahlada did not give Andhakasura his due share of the kingdom and instead, started teasing him for his blindness. Andhakasura became frustrated. He started a Homa in which he offered bits of his own flesh. Even after most of his flesh was exhausted, no one came to give him a boon. Finally he decided to jump in to the fire pit himself. The Devatas (godheads) became frightened and begged Lord Brahma to grant Andhakasura a boon to ensure that he stopped the frightful Homa. Andhakasura requested Brahma to grant him extraordinary vision. He further desired that even Indra should obey him. Finally, he asked that he should not be killed by anyone. To this, Brahma suggested that it was better for Andhakasura to seek a boon whereby he could decide when to die. Andhakasura asked that he should die when he aspires for such a woman who should never be aspired for. Brahma granted the boon and said, "may you win over the brave". By the power of BrahmaÕs boon, Andhakasura became stronger and brighter. By the time he returned to his kingdom, his cousin brothers had changed. They were friendly with him now. Accompanied by his cousin brothers, he conquered the heaven. Gradually Andhakasura became more and more engaged in materialistic pleasures. He gave up even his regular austerities. Once he went to Mount Mandara on a pleasure trip. The children of his ministers, who had accompanied him brought a message for him. "O King! A sage lives nearby. He is full of youth. But he has long hair. He is sparsely dressed. He is frightening to look at. But he sports the moon on this head. His body is smeared with ash. He has snakes around his neck and head. What is more important is that he has a very pretty wife. We do not wish to say anything more" Immediately Andhakasura ordered his servants to bring her to him at once. They went to the sage (who in fact was Shiva Himself) and asked him to hand over his wife to their king. Lord Shiva immediately remembered the boon of Brahma. He understood that Andhakasura was nearing his death. Andhakasura had never seen his parents and therefore did not know what they looked like. Lord Shiva tried to make him understand. He sent words through the same servants that the woman Andhakasura was aspiring for was his mother! However, the emissaries misconstrued it and told Andhakasura that the sage was refusing to part with his wife and was in fact inviting him for a fight. Andhakasura accepted the challenge. Veeraka, the guard at the door of Shiva fought gallantly against Andhaka. He single- handedly fought against the army of demons. Shiva was in the middle of an austerity called Pashupata Vrata (which takes 1000 years to complete). He did not wish to be disturbed by Andhaka. He therefore asked his guard Veeraka to handle the situation. Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and other gods assumed feminine form and jumped to the battlefield. Seeing this, Parvati too got ready to join them. The battle between Andhaka and Veeraka went on for 500 years.. After 1000 years, Andhaka opened his mouth widely and tried to swallow everyone. Shiva appeared on the scene and said, " My austerities are complete now. You all may now go and take rest" Accompanying Parvati in to the cave, Shiva asked Veeraka to guard the cave and told him that others would continue the fighting. The Shivaganas (troupes of Shiva) were shocked to hear this. Seeing the sage and his wife enter the cave, Andhaka thought that they were fleeing the battlefield. He called Vighanasa, one of his aides and asked him to sneak in to the cave to find out what the sage couple was doing. With much difficulty, Vighanasa entered the cave and saw that the couple was happily engaged in a conversation. He prostrated before the sage and said, "if you are really a sage, then start doing penance. If you are brave, come out and face the battle" Hearing this, Lord Shiva became furious. He entered the battlefield with a trident in his hand. All the Devatas joined him. The demon army begged Bhargavacharya, their guru to protect them. They requested him to teach them the knowledge of bringing the dead back to life (Mrita Sanjeevini Vidya). Bhargavacharya was now in a dilemma. It was Lord Shiva who had blessed him with that knowledge. How could he use it against Lord Shiva Himself? Still, because the demons had come to him for help, he could not turn them away. He thought for a while and decided to enter the battlefield. He started bringing back to life, the dead demons. The war seemed to go on and on. It showed now signs of ending. Andhaka summoned Gila, the swallower and asked him to swallow the sun, the moon and Indra. He also asked him to swallow Veeraka, who was like a thorn in their way. Gila could swallow everyone except Veeraka. In the absence of the sun and the moon, there was darkness everywhere. Veeraka sang in praise of Lord Shiva. He wondered as to how Gila could swallow Vishnu also. Shiva said "during the Narasimha incarnation of Lord Vishnu, when NarasimhaÕs could not contain his anger even after he had killed Hiranyakashipu, he set out to swallow the world. The Seven great sages had then given a curse that he would fall in to the mouth of a demon. Lord Vishnu, out of compassion for the sages had now willfully acceded to their curse. Otherwise, there is no way anyone can swallow Vishnu". Shiva was enraged and with the help of an arrow, ripped open GilaÕs belly. All the Devatas came out. Lord Vishnu started pounding Andhaka with his mace. Nandeeshwara, the consort of Lord Shiva approached his master and said that all their efforts were being nullified by Bhargavacharya, the guru of the demons. Lord Shiva told Nandi to somehow abduct and bring him from the battlefield. Nandi entered the battlefield, abducted Bhargavacharya and brought him before Shiva. Immediately Lord Shiva swallowed him. Bhargavacharya tried all tricks to come out of ShivaÕs body, but failed. Left with no choice, he started praising Shiva. Lord Shiva, out of compassion, expelled him out of his body through the genital organ. Because of this, Bhargavacharya came to be called as Shukracharya (Shukra in Sanskrit means semen). 5000 years elapsed. The war was still going on. An energy was born out of ShivaÕs ear and destroyed everyone. Even Shukracharya could not stop it. Shiva asked Vishnu to stay away and encountered Andhaka. He stabbed Andhaka with his trident and held his body high in the sky. He expanded his body. Shiva held him in that posture for a thousand years. Only after this, Andhaka could comprehend about his birth. Andhaka was surprised that Lord Shiva did not punish him although he had aspired for his own mother. Even while hanging on the trident, he praised the 108 forms of Shiva for a thousand years. All his sins were washed off. Shiva brought him down, and for the first time, touched him. Immediately he became bright and luminous. He fell at his parentsÕ feet and asked for forgiveness. Shiva and Parvati preached Andhakasura. Later he was made in charge of one of the Ganas. Even now he is engaged in the service of his parents. Those who listen to this story will be rid of their ignorance. UPADESHA (Preaching) Out of love for their son, Shiva and Parvati gave the following preaching to Andhakasura. Dear one, every being in this creation takes birth only as ordained by Shiva. You are no different. By birth, everyone is blind. Here blindness does not mean physical blindness. Being devoid of knowledge itself is blindness. A being devoid of knowledge acquires many powers. Ironically, he can not acquire control over his own sense organs. Still, he takes pride in declaring that he has scored win over everyone. Because of this ego, he becomes a slave to his Indriyas. He will then forget that everyone in this creation is feminine in nature and that the Lord alone is masculine. He will begin thinking that he is Purusha(manly) and brave. He will therefore tend to aspire for every female he sees. By doing so, he is inviting his own destruction. Because Manmatha (symbolic of lust for women) was responsible for the death of Andhaka, Manmatha is also called as Andhaka Shatru (enemy of Andhaka). If a person who has reached such a condemnable state wishes to come out of it, he must first get rid of the intoxication or ego that he got from his manliness(power of flesh and blood). To achieve this, he must perform intense penance that dries up his body and makes it lean. Out of compassion for you, your father stabbed you with the trident and held you high in the sky and made you undertake such a stringent penance. Such a Tapas should be undertaken with the thought that Shiva is omnipresent and all forms belong to Him. This is what you achieved when you meditated upon the 108 forms of Lord Shiva. He alone is said to possess ÔeyesÕ, who is able to continuously visualise the all pervading Shiva. Only when a person gets such a ÔsightÕ, he becomes eligible to be called ShivaÕs son. Lord Shiva will then include such a person in his army. O! Andhaka! Although you were born as ShivaÕs son, you too - like other beings Ñ became blind and only later acquired the wisdom eye. Now you have qualified to become the head of ShivaÕs army. Throughout the night various abhishekams and decorations were performed to the Sachchidanandeswara Shiva Lingam in the prayer hall. Devotees were kept busy on this day night vigil with various programmes in prayerhall, Nada Mantapa and the Datta Venkateswara temple. The magnificent celebrations came to a close at the dawn of 5th morning at 6 AM, with Sri Swamiji singing the popular Shiva Bhajans Ramyaka Ratri Shivaratri, Ishapatisha and Hara Hara Bhaja. In Datta Seva Jaya Guru Datta Hanuman ------------------------ Yahoo! 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