Sashti
Shashthi also referred to as Chhath is the sixth day or tithi of a Paksha
or fourteen-day phase of the moon. The word comes from the Sanskrit
cardinal sasti (six), whence the ordinal number (linguistics) sastha, fem.
sasthī (days of the paksha are feminine gender). The sixth tithi,
especially in the waxing period (shuklapaksha), is important in several
rituals including:
Durga Puja (September–October, east India, Bengal)
Sitalsasthi (May–June, Orissa, neighbouring regions)
Skanda Shashti or Subramanya Shashti (November–December, south India, Tamil
Nadu) ***
Chhath, a major sun-worshiping day of Hindus is celebrated on sixth day
Shukla Paksha of Kartika.
*** KR: The biggest volume of Skanda puranam does not contain any traces
of skanda sashti; and major impact is seen in south tamil nadu only.
Skanda Shasti Vratham
The Skanda Shasti or Kanda Shasthi Vratham is an important observance. It
is especially for Lord Muruga. The festival is observed in Aippasi.
Devotees fast during these six days. Although the festival is dedicated to
Lord Murugan, Shukla Paksha Sashti in the lunar month of Kartika is the
more significant one of the two. Devotees fast for six days. This lasts on
the Soorasamharam day. The day after Soorasamharam is Tiru Kalyanam. The
day after Soorasamharam is known as Subramanya Shashti, or Kukke Subramanya
Sashti. It falls during lunar month Margashirsha.
Rituals during Shasti
Fasting is the most important ritual of the day. On Shasti, devotees keep a
partial or full fasting to appease Lord Murugan. The Shasti vrat begins at
the time of sunrise and comes to an end on the following day after offering
prayers to the Sun God.
Those who keep strict vrat do not eat food for complete 24 hours of
fasting. Partial fasting can be done by eating fruits. People who have
health problems can even keep Shasti fasting by eating s single meal during
the day.
The observer of the Shasti vrat is restricted from eating certain spices on
the day. Eating non-vegetarian food and consumption of alcohol is strictly
prohibited.
On Shasti, Murugan devotees also read ‘Skanda Purana’ and recite the
‘Skanda Shasti Kavacham’. On this day it is considered very auspicious to
visit the temples of Lord Murugan in the evening.
On this day, Abhishekam is performed for Lord Muruga (Karthikeya /
Subhramanya)
PROSTRATIONS and humble salutations to Lord Subramanya, the Supreme Being,
who is theruler of this universe, who is the indweller of our hearts, who
is the second son of LordSiva, who is the beloved of Valli and Deivayanai,
who bestows boons easily on Hisdevotees, who is the embodiment of power,
wisdom, love and bliss.
The great demon, Tarakasura, was oppressing the celestials. He drove them
out fromheaven. All the gods then went to Brahma to appeal for help.
Brahma said to the gods, "O Devas, I cannot destroy Taraka, as he has
obtained MyGrace through severe penance. But let Me give you a suggestion.
Get the help of Cupid, theGod of Love. Induce him to tempt Lord Siva, who
remains absorbed in His Yoga Samadhi. LetLord Siva unite with Parvati. A
powerful son, Lord Subramanya, will be born to them. Thisson will destroy
the demon that harasses you."
Indra, the chief of the gods, thereupon requested Cupid to go with his
wife, Rati, andhis companion Vasanta (the season of spring), to Mount
Kailas, the abode of Siva. Cupidcarried out the instruction at once, for it
was already springtime. Standing behind atree, Cupid shot his arrow of
passion towards Siva, whilst Parvati was placing someflowers in His hands.
The moment their hands met, Siva experienced a distracting feeling. He
wondered what it was that disturbed His Yoga. He looked around and saw
Cupid crouchingbehind the tree.
The Lord opened His "third eye", the inner eye of intuition, and Cupidwas
burnt to ashes by the fire that emanated from it. That is why the God of
Love is alsocalled Ananga, which means "bodiless".
After burning Cupid, the Lord ascertained by His Yogic vision that the
birth of LordSubramanya was absolutely necessary to destroy the powerful
Taraka. Siva's seed was throwninto the fire which, unable to retain it,
threw it into the Ganges, which in turn threw itinto a reed forest. This is
where Lord Subramanya was born; hence, He is calledSaravanabhava--"born in
a reed-forest". He became the leader of the celestialhosts and the
destroyer of Taraka as Brahma had ordained.
Lord Subramanya is an incarnation of Lord Siva. All incarnations are
manifestations ofthe one Supreme Lord. Lord Subramanya and Lord Krishna are
one.
Lord Krishna says in the Gita: "Among the army generals, I am Skanda".
The Lord manifests Himself from time to time in various names and forms,
for the sakeof establishing righteousness and subduing wickedness.
Lord Subramanya is a ray born of the Divine Consciousness of Lord Siva.
Valli andDeivayanai are His two wives. They represent the power of action
and the power ofknowledge respectively. He is a Godhead easily accessible
in this dark age of ignoranceand lack of faith. In this He is no different
from Hanuman. He gives material andspiritual prosperity and success in
every undertaking of His devotees, even if they show alittle devotion to
Him. He is worshipped with great devotion in South India. LordSubramanya's
other names are Kumaresa, Kartikeya, Shanmukha, Guha, Muruga and Velayudhan.
In His picture, Lord Subramanya holds a spear in His hand, just as Lord
Siva holds thetrident. This is an emblem of power. It indicates that He is
the ruler of the universe. His vehicle is the peacock. He rides on it. This
signifies that He has conquered ride, egoism and vanity. There is a cobra
under His feet, which indicates that He is absolutelyfearless, immortal and
wise. Valli is on His one side, Deivayanai on the other. SometimesHe stands
alone with His spear. In this pose He is known as Velayudhan; this is
Hisirguna aspect, which is free from the illusory power of Maya.
The six heads represent the six rays or attributes, namely, wisdom,
dispassion, strength, fame, wealth and divine powers. They indicate that He
is the source of the four Vedas, the Vedangas and the six schools of
philosophy. They also indicate His controlover the five organs of knowledge
as well as the mind. They denote that He is the SupremeBeing with thousands
of heads and hands. His head turned in all directions signifies thatHe is
all-pervading. It indicates that He can multiply and assume forms at will.
Lord Subramanya's temples can be seen in Udipi, in Tiruchendur, in the
Palani Hills, inCeylon, and in Tiruparankundrum. Lord Subramanya spent His
days of childhood inTiruchendur and attained Mahasamadhi at Kathirgamam. If
you go to Kathirgamam with faith, devotion and piety, and stay in the
temple there for two or three days, the Lord willgrant you His vision. You
will get rich spiritual experiences. A huge festival is held inthe temple
every year on Skanda Sashti. Thousands of people visit the place.
Massiveamounts of camphor are burnt on this occasion.
Skanda Sashti falls in November. It is the day on which Lord Subramanya
defeated thedemon Taraka. On this day elaborate festivals are held with
great pomp and grandeur. Devotees organise Bhajan and Kirtan programs on a
grand scale. Thousands are fedsumptuously. Many incurable diseases are
cured if one visits Palani and worships LordSubramanya there. In South
India, the Lord's Lilas are dramatized on the stage.
In addition to the Skanda Sashti, devotees of Lord Subramanya observe
weekly andmonthly days in His honour. Every Friday, or the Kartigai
Nakshatram day every month, orthe sixth day of the bright fortnight, --all
these are sacred days for His devotees. Thesixth day of the month of Tulam
(October-November) is the most auspicious of them all. This is the Skanda
Sashti day.
In many places the festival commences six days prior to the Sashti itself
and concludeson the day of the Sashti. During these days, devotees recite
various inspiring hymns andread stories connected with Lord Subramanya.
They worship the Lord and take Kavadi. Theygo on pilgrimage to the various
Subramanya shrines.
The Tirumurukatrupadai has been composed in His praise by the famous
Nakkerar.He who studies this eminent work daily with devotion and faith,
gets certain success inlife as well as peace and prosperity. The Tiruppugal
is another well-known book inTamil, which contains the inspiring devotional
songs of Arunagirinathar in praise of LordSubramanya. The Kavadichindu
songs are also in praise of the Lord. The SkandaSashti Kavacham is another
famous hymn in praise of Lord Subramanya and is sungparticularly on festive
occasions.
Perhaps the most potent propitiatory rite that a devotee of Shanmukha
undertakes toperform is what is known as the Kavadi. The benefits that the
devotee gains from offeringa Kavadi to the Lord are a million-fold greater
than the little pain that he inflicts uponhimself.
Generally, people take a vow to offer the Lord a Kavadi for the sake of
tiding over agreat calamity. Though this might, on the face of it, appear a
little mercenary, amoment's reflection will reveal that it contains in it
the seed of supreme love of God.The worldly object is achieved, no doubt,
and the devotee takes the Kavadi; but after theceremony he gets so
God-intoxicated that his inner spiritual being gets awakened. This isalso a
method that ultimately leads to the supreme state of devotion.
The Kavadi has various shapes and sizes, from the simple shape of a
hawker's storehouse(a wooden stick with two baskets at each end, slung
across the shoulder) to the costlypalanquin structure, profusely
flower-bedecked and decoratively interwoven with peacockfeathers. In all
cases the Kavadi has a good many brass bells adorning it and announcingit
as the Kavadi-bearer draws it along. As the Kavadi-bearer very often
observes silence, the bells are the only eloquent signs of a Kavadi
procession.
The two baskets hanging at each end of the Kavadi contain rice, milk or
other articlesthat the devotee has vowed to offer the Lord. The more devout
among them, and especiallythose who do it as a Sadhana, collect these
articles by begging. They travel on foot fromvillage to village, and beg
from door to door. The villagers offer their articles directlyinto the
basket of the Kavadi. The Kavadi-bearer continues begging until the baskets
arefull or the avowed quantity is reached, and then offers the Kavadi to
the Lord. Some keendevotees undertake to walk barefoot from home to one of
the shrines of Lord Subramanya, bearing the Kavadi all the way and
collecting materials for the offering. He has to walk ahundred miles
sometimes! The people who place the articles in the baskets also receive
theLord's blessings.
The Kavadi-bearer is required to observe various rules between the time he
takes up theKavadi, and the day of the offering. He has to perform
elaborate ceremonies at the time ofassuming the Kavadi, and at the time of
offering it to the Lord. He also puts on the dressof a Pandaram, a Saivite
mendicant. It consists of a saffron-coloured cloth, a conicalscarlet cap,
and a cane silver-capped at both ends. Lord Siva, the Supreme
PandaramHimself, loves to wear this dress. The Pandaram lives on alms only.
The bare chest of theKavadi-bearer is covered with several rudraksha malas.
The Kavadi-bearer observes strict celibacy. Only pure, Sattwic food is
taken; heabstains from all sorts of intoxicating drinks and drugs. He
thinks of God all the time. Many of the Kavadi-bearers, especially those
who do it as a spiritual Sadhana, imposevarious forms of self-torture. Some
pass a sharp little spear through their tongue, whichis made to protrude
out of the mouth. Others may pass a spear through the cheek. This sortof
piercing is done in other parts of the body also. The bearer does not
shave; he grows abeard. He eats only once a day. The spear pierced through
his tongue or cheek reminds himof the Lord constantly. It also prevents him
from speaking. It gives him great power ofendurance.
The Kavadi-bearer enjoys a high state of religious fervour. He dances in
ecstasy. Hisvery appearance is awe-inspiring; there is divine radiance on
his face. Devotees oftenexperience the state of feeling union with the
Lord. Sometimes the Deity enters them andpossesses them for some time.
The Agni-Kavadi is the most difficult offering. With the Kavadi hanging on
hisshoulder, the devotee walks through a pit of burning coals. Hymns are
sung in praise ofthe Lord by those assembled all around the pit. Drums are
beaten and incense is burnt. Theentire atmosphere is awe-inspiring. The
true devotee enters into ecstasy and easily walksover the fire.
At the Sivananda Ashram in India, Skanda Sashti is observed for six days,
preceding andincluding the Sashti day. Devotees of Lord Subramanya live on
milk and fruit and dorigorous Sadhana. They get up at 4am during
Brahmamuhurta and meditate on the Lord.
On each of the six days, all the participants do Japa of the Mantra,
OmSaravanabhavaya Namah, as much as possible. They even greet one another
with thisMantra.
Yogis and learned scholars deliver lectures on Subramanya Tattwa, or the
divine sportof the Lord. During the evening Satsang, hymns in praise of
Lord Subramanya are sung. Readings are taken from my book, Lord Shanmukha
and His Worship. Devotees singinspiring songs on the Lord.
An elaborate ceremonial worship is performed daily to the sacred image of
LordSubramanya. On the last day a grand havan is performed. The evening
Satsang isdevoted entirely to the adoration of Lord Subramanya.
Pray from the bottom of your heart: "O my Lord Subramanya, O all-merciful
Lord, Ihave neither faith nor devotion. I do not know how to worship Thee
in the proper manner, or to meditate on Thee. I am Thy child who has lost
his way, forgotten the goal and ThyName. Is it not Thy duty, O
compassionate Father, to take me back? O Mother Valli, willyou not
introduce me to Thy Lord? Thy love for Thy children is deeper and truer
than thatof anyone else in this world. Though I have become Thy worthless
and undutiful child, Obeloved Mother Valli, pardon me! Make me dutiful and
faithful. I am Thine from this verysecond; always Thine. All is Thine. It
is the Mother's duty to correct, educate and mouldHer reckless child when
it strays aimlessly on the wrong path. Remove the gulf or the veilof
delusion that separates me from Thee. Bless me. Enlighten me. Take me back
to Thy holyfeet. I have nothing more to say. This is my fervent prayer to
Thee and Thy Lord, mybeloved and ancient Parents."
May Lord Subramanya shower His Grace upon you! May His blessings grant you
peace, blissand prosperity!
In the history of language and literature, the most outstanding works are
the Epics ofthe various nations. The superb literary productions of Greece
are the writings of Homer, --the Illiad and the Odyssey. In Italy, similar
Epics were produced byDante and Virgil, --Dante's "Divine Comedy" and
Virgil's "Aeneid". In English literature, the best Epic examples are
Milton's poems and Shakespeare's plays. InIndia, we have the Itihasas and
also the Puranas. Here, in this type ofpoetry and expression, the soul
rises to the maximum of its virility and portrays in themost majestic
manner the picture of creation. The intention of these poets, whether of
theWest or of the East, is to describe in soulful language and in
picturesque style, theprocesses of creation, the comedy and the tragedy of
evolution and involution, the storyof the life of man which is painted
sometimes with the optimistic colours of comedy andsometimes with the
pessimistic ones of tragedy. Life is both, and it can be pictured fromtwo
different angles of vision. The central motif of all the Epics of the world
hingesupon a conflict which gets resolved in the end. Somehow, the feature
of a clash betweenforces seems to have caught the vision of the poets and
the adepts as the pivotal point oftheir observations. When a careful
attention is paid to the processes of nature and thehistory of human life,
one observes that nature outwardly and man inwardly have toconfront
situations which can be best described as a series of conflicts. Every day
is aconflict before us, an opposition, a confrontation and a question which
demands an answer. Our struggles throughout the days and the nights of our
life are our attempts to answerthe question of life which is the great
enigma or mystery. Life poses a problem which manhas not succeeded in
solving with all his intellectual endowments. The deeper vision oflife,
which you may call philosophical or mystical, spiritual or religious, has
revealedthe basic or the foundational features of creation as a movement
towards and a movementaway from a Centre. This seems to be the secret
behind and an answer to all the questionsof life. There is a Centre
somewhere towards which everything seems to be gravitating andwhich at the
same time seems to be repelling everything. This simultaneous feeling of
thepull and the repulsion is the conflict. This is at the basis of all
problems.
The Epic language describes this dual warfare of the pull and the
repulsion as thebattle between the divine and the undivine powers. The
divine forces are those factors, impulses and aspirations which urge
everything towards the Centre, and the undivine onesare the opposite ones
which compel everything to be driven away from the Centre. There isthis
double urge in man, in everything and in all Nature, nay in the whole of
creation. Everything seems to be moving in two directions at the same time,
an impossibility tounderstand and explain. How can one thing move in two
directions at the same time! This exactly is the mystery of life. We are
'impulsive' towards two different directions.'Impulsive' is the only word,
because it is an irresistible urge or desire that we feelwithin ourselves,
to do two things at the same time. Nothing can be worse than thissituation,
because it is an impulsion towards an impossibility. No one can do two
contrarythings at the same time and one cannot have a conflicting desire
operating at the sametime in one's own mind. But this is what is happening.
If this did not happen, we wouldnot have been what we are today. Man exists
because of the existence of this conflict inhis own mind pulling him in two
different ways--one urge moving in one direction andanother in another
direction. So man is divine and also undivine at the same time. We havea
divine aspiration beckoning us towards the Centre, though it is invisible
to our eyes.There is also in us an equally powerful urge, perhaps, which
drives us outward towards theobjects of senses, in the direction of the
activities of life, forcing us to entangleourselves in the social norms and
the calls of life. Which is unimportant--the calls oflife, or the
aspirations which we regard as religious and uplifting? Actually, it is
theexpression of a single impulse in two different directions. This is a
cosmical impulse andalso a psychological one. The whole Nature feels this
impulse, the whole universe isfilled with it and each one of us is also
full with it.
The Epics and the Puranas, the great heroic poems, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata andthe Puranas, or for that matter, Milton's 'Paradise Lost'
and 'Paradise Regained',whatever be the name that you give to these Epic
approaches, all these are enrapturing,poetic exclamations of moments of
rapture, when there was a flash of insight from thebottom of the soul of
the poet concerned. These are the poems which we call the Epics, andthis is
why we are moved when we read them. Our hairs stand on end, our emotions
begin tobe in a state of turmoil and we begin to tremble and shake, and we
are forced to assumethe role of the personalities portrayed in the Epics.
We begin to move with thosespecimens of individuality which the Epic poems
describe. That is the power of the poet. The greater is the force of
poetry, the more also we feel impelled to move with theindividualities
described therein, and we become those individuals for the time being.
Welaugh and weep, we feel happy and we are sunk in grief, as we move with
the heroes and theheroines of these majestic Epics.
We have in India two great Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,
andalso eighteen Puranas, each one touching upon one aspect of this
universal activity goingon in the form of evolution and involution, the
warfare between the divine and theundivine forces. There is a perpetual
conflict between god and devil, as the theologianssometimes tell us. The
ruling divinity of the universe and the forces of darkness fightwith each
other. A noble and sublime instance of this Epic event that is supposed to
havetaken place aeons back in the history of the cosmos, is the Skanda
Shashthi Festival,which is observed for six days and which concludes and
consummates on the sixth day,dedicated to Lord Skanda. The great hero of
this cosmic drama which is described in the SkandaPurana, and in certain
other scriptures like the Mahabharata, is Skanda, the greatWar-God of
India. Oftentimes, westerners compare Him with Mars, the Generalissimo of
thecelestials, the angels in heaven. In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna, the
spokesman of thegreat poem, identifies Himself with Skanda among the
generals--"Senaninam-ahamSkandah."
The religious history of this event commences with a magnificent
portrayal of the greatGod Siva absorbed in meditation and deeply immersed
in Samadhi, oblivious of what we maycall darkness, evil or the centrifugal
forces. God's absorption in Himself in the 'I amthat I am' is the total
cosmic opposition to the multifarious dark activities of the urgesin the
direction of the senses whose leader is the ego and whose colleagues are
desire andanger. The greatest forms which this impulse of externality can
take in us are thesethree. The ego is the centrality of the urge, the
central dynamo, as it were, which pumpsthe energy necessary for the
movement of this impulse outwardly. And, desire and anger arelike the two
arms of this adamantine centrality of individuals. So, in a way, we may
saythat there are only two forces, and we may not be wrong when sometimes
we say that thereare three forces. We have the Supreme Creator and the
Satan in the 'Paradise Lost' ofMilton. We have the description of the
Inferno, the Purgetorio and the Paradiso in thecomedy of Dante. We have
Ravana and Kumbhakarna in the Ramayana, Duryodhana and Duhsasanain the
Mahabharata. Mostly they are forms of a dual force, like Sumbha and
Nisumbha in theDevi-Mahatmya, and Sunda and Upasunda in the Mahabharata.
They are invincible for allpractical purposes.
There cannot be so forceful an energy as desire, anywhere. Desire is
the greatest powerin the world. Of all the powers, the desire is the
strongest, because nothing can movewithout desire. Hence desire should be
regarded as the impulse for any kind of movement, in any direction. The
nature of desire is so complex that in a poem called the KamaGita, in the
Mahabharata, we are told that desire laughs at people who are trying
toconquer it. Because, the attempt to conquer desire itself is a desire.
This is the reasonwhy it laughs. Sri Krishna sings this Kama Gita to
illustrate the difficulty of conqueringdesire of any kind, unless proper
means are employed.
Gods were startled, and they were in a state of consternation when the
demoniacalforces attacked them. The gods too had their own strength, no
doubt. Virtue is supposed tohave power to overcome vice. But often we feel
that the virtues of the world are incapableof confronting the vices of the
nature. It is not enough if we are virtuous. The vices aretoo strong for
us. We have seen with our own eyes human history, these days. Virtue
doesnot seem to succeed. The gods were virtuous and the demons were
vicious. But, the godscould not face them, just as the virtuous ones in
this world are unable to defeat thevicious. The virtuous people are
suffering and the evil ones are thriving.
What is this mystery? The mystery is not known to many. The truth is
that while virtueis generally understood as the opposite of vice, we forget
the fact that it is also thecounter-correlative of vice. So, it has not got
the strength to confront the vice. Vice orevil can be overcome by a power
which is transcendent and not merely ethical and moral.The evils of the
world are not afraid of mere morality and ethics. Mere goodness will notdo.
There should be Divinity in our personality, and Divinity is far superior
to meregoodness in the form of an ethical behaviour and a moral conduct.
Divinity is anintegrating force, while virtue is only a counter-correlative
of vice. There cannot bevirtue unless there is vice. Because, if there is
no evil at all, there cannot be any suchthing called goodness. But Divinity
is a different thing altogether because it transcends boththe good and the
evil.
So, when the forces of darkness began to assault the angels, the
Purana tells us that the forces were threefold. They are named, in the
SkandaPurana, as Surapadma, Simhamukha and Taraka; and in the Mahabharata
as Duryodhana, Kamaand Duhsasana. No one, however virtuous and good he may
be, could stand these forces. These demoniacal forces were too much for all
the angels put together. The Gods weretrembling in fear, just as virtuous
men in this world tremble in the presence of the evildacoits and the
unscrupulous thugs, who attack people inwardly as well as outwardly. Virtue
seems to have no place in this world. Angels were driven out, the Gods ran
awayfrom the heaven and evil reigned supreme. What is the solution? Not
mere goodness, notmere virtue, not a little charity, not a little sweet
speech,--none of these can standtheir onslaught. These things will not cut
ice in this evil world. Angels are good enough and they are far superior to
humans in virtue, ingoodness, in knowledge and in everything conceivable.
But they could not stand thisvicious force. They had to invoke God Himself.
And I may tell you that the solution forall the evils of the world today is
God only and not anything that man can do. Not I, notyou, not anyone can
solve the mystery of the evils of the world. Unless God is invoked, there
is no hope. Lord Siva, the great Master of Yoga who was immersed in
Samadhi, theabysmal universality of experience, was the only succour and
the source of hope to theGods and angels, in the war depicted in the Skanda
Purana. When this triple force, Surapadma, Simhamukha and Tarakasura,
attacked the celestials from all sides, they did notknow whom to appeal for
help. They ran to Brahma, the Creator. He said: "There isonly one solution
which is difficult to conceive, but there is no other alternative.
Theforce, the energy, the militant expression of Lord Siva is the only
answer to this problemof yours." When God becomes militant, nobody can
stand before Him. When the lionstands up, you know that there can be none
who can face it. God always keeps quiet. He isalways in a state of Samadhi,
as it were. He gives a long rope to everyone and neverinterferes with
anybody's affairs. You may do anything that you like, you can hangyourself
if you like and God is not bothered about it. But, when things become too
bad andintolerable, when the whole world begins to cry, these great
incarnations take place, Ifyou or I cry individually in a corner, that may
not be sufficient to bring down theincarnations. God tolerates when one man
cries or two people cry, because many others arehappy. But when everyone
starts crying, He cannot bear it anymore. This was the conditionbefore the
birth of Skanda. The whole world was in a state of travail, turmoil
andagitation. The birth of the War-God, Kumarasambhava as Kalidasa puts it,
is thestory behind this religious festival called Skanda Shashthi.
Without going into the details of the whole story here, I would like to
pin-point onlythe significance of the occasion, viz., the impossibility to
confront evil without thehelp of God, the power of Divinity. No one can
face the world except with the help of God.Armaments, military and police
are nothing before the evil of the world. No one canovercome it and it
shall continue. So, the Skanda Purana says that the War-God was bornfrom
the universal contemplation of the great Creator Himself. The Samadhi-Bhuta
Sakti orthe energy born out of the great Samadhi of Lord Siva, whom we call
Skanda, is theanswer for all the evils of the world. The force of cosmic
desire became a cumulativefocussing weapon, as it were, and with a sixfold
face the divine energy began to confrontthe multifaceted dark forces. We
have a sixfold psyche within us. The central, pivotalfeature of it is the
ego as I called it, or you can say the mind, which expresses itselfas the
five senses. The five senses energised by the mind drive us outward in
thedirection of the objects of the world. You would have heard it said that
the occasion forthe birth of Skanda or the War-God was the stimulation by
the god of Love, who darted hisweapons towards the great Siva, who was then
in a state of deep absorption, in Samadhi.These mysteries are difficult to
understand. Ordinary minds are not made in such a way asto probe into these
intricacies of Divine action. The energies that are required to facethe
evil of creation are potentially present inside us and they have to be
worked up by aparticular means. Desire is neither good nor bad. But, it can
become bad or good accordingto the circumstances and the way in which it
operates, under given conditions, in thehistory of creation. The birth of
Skanda had to be occasioned by the activity of desirepersonified as Kama or
Cupid, for the sake of overcoming the evils, one of which isdesire itself,
whose comrades are anger and other manifestations of egoism.
TheBhagavadgita says: "Dharmaviruddho Bhuteshu Kamosmi." Here God refers
toHimself as desire, bereft of or free from any contravention of Dharma.
Here is a clue tothe mystery of how it became necessary for the Gods to
employ Cupid as an instrument torouse the divine desire in Siva for
confronting the evil desire of the demons. Desire islike a diamond which
cuts itself.
Religious adventure becomes more and more complicated as we proceed
along with itfurther and further. In the earlier stages religion seems to
be very simple, because itappears to be merely a question of going to the
church or sitting before a deity in atemple or following a system of
routine, a ritual, etc. But, when we enter into the heartof religion, it
ceases to be any kind of routine of this kind. It becomes an
inwardadventure of the spirit. It is not a doing of something, but a
complete reshuffling ofone's personality and a transformation of oneself
through a transvaluation of values, by aprocess in which we may have to
submit to conscription the very same forces in the worldwhich appear as our
opponents at present. The world is an enemy and also a friend.
TheBhagavadgita, again, gives an answer to this interesting question, how
the same thing canbe a friend and also an enemy. In the sixth chapter, we
are told that the Self is thefriend and the Self is also the enemy. Desire
is a friend and also an enemy. The world isa friend and also an enemy. By
means of the instrumentality of Kamadeva, the DivineForce of Siva was
roused up into action, which is otherwise Omnipresent. In the
Vedantaphilosophy, a distinction is drawn between two types of
consciousness, known as Sahaja-Jnana and Vritti-Jnana, which can be
translated as a universally present impersonal,featureless consciousness
and a directly operative consciousness acting in some given
way,respectively. Or, to give a grosser example, the impersonal fire which
is present in allthe five elements around us, is to be distinguished from
the concrete fire with which wecook our meal and light our lamp. Energy in
action is the fire that is burning through thecooking stove, and the energy
that is merely existing in an impersonal manner is like thefire present in
all the five elements. So, the force of Siva was impersonal in the
Samadhistate and it had no concern with good or bad, or anything that is
taking place anywhere;but when it had to be employed as a weapon to
counteract the evils of creation, it had tomanifest itself and cannot
merely remain as an impersonal featureless Samadhiconsciousness. So, the
energy burst forth from Siva's third eye which is the power ofKnowledge or
Chit-Sakti. It is not a manipulated energy created through machines
orthrough the energies of any kind of physical body or substance. Only the
energy of Wisdomcan counteract the evil of creation and not any other
power, not anything that we do inthe form of charity, goodness or our
so-called religiosity.
So we have in this great Epic of Skanda's incarnation, the 'Kumara
Sambhava', themighty portrayal of the adventure of the Spirit through the
processes of Sadhana,spiritual practice, wherein, we commune ourselves with
the highest power that isconceivable, the energy of God Himself. We have to
draw that energy forward and harness itto face this world. Then the power
of externality gets transformed into the peace ofuniversality. What
happened to the Rakshasas--Surapadma, Simhamukha and Taraka? Thoseforces
which were externalised and which were the desires impelling themselves
outwardlyin the direction of sense-objects, were transformed into the
universal peace of creation.Peace reigned supreme. There is nothing called
destruction anywhere. These demons were notdestroyed in the ordinary sense
of the term. You know the law of conservation of energy.Energy is never
increasing or decreasing in creation. It is only concentrated in
differentforms and at different places. The concentrated form of it is what
we call evil. So thevery same energy which was in the form of these
demoniacal elements was transformed by theDivine energy, which means to
say, all that was impulsive in the direction of externality, space, time,
causality and objectivity and desire of every kind, got withdrawn into
thepeace of the Absolute and the Goal of life was reached. This is, in my
humble opinion, thegreat spiritual significance behind the religious
festival called the Skanda Shashthi, which falls on the sixth day of the
bright fortnight in the month of Kartika (October-November). There are
other meanings which are manifold and interesting. Out of all this variety,
Ihave placed before you one feature for your contemplation.
K Rajaram IRS 5 11 24
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