USURPER OF EVIL

XIII                       

 

 

Angering Daksh

 

 

 

Once all celestial beings gathered at Prayag to offer oblation to Supreme GOD. They organized a yajna for this purpose. Lord Shiv accompanied by wife Sati also graced the occasion. All honoured him for his status of being an abode of dispassionate wisdom who was ever reluctant to enter into wedlock and had married only to serve the purpose of removing suffering of helpless deities who needed his son to route their enemies. The deities  chose king Daksh who was the father of Sati, as the host of the ceremony. When king Daksh arrived there all deities rose from their seat and saluted him respectfully. Lord Shiv who was reluctant to observe all formalities  did not bother to rise up. He remained seated in his place with eyes half close in meditation and was oblivious of presence of king Daksh. King felt hurt. He had no understanding of spiritual state of his son-in-law. Feeling hurt by his apparent disrespect to his father- in- law, He mentally decided to teach Lord Shiv a lesson.

 As Lord Shiv did not apologise for this act king Daksh felt all the more hurt and could not contain his displeasure. He spoke in a loud voice to all,-“All celestial beings bow before me. Then why this pretender surrounded by ghosts and prets is behaving so, like an evil-minded man by not bowing in front of me? Why this shameless dweller of cremation ground is not offering salutations to me? Surrounded and followed by hypocrites and evil souls he is expert only in conjugal sport. I banish him from this function and curse him that he shall not get any share in this yajna”.

 Several august persons acclaimed and seconded king Daksh which included great grandson of Lord Brahma,  Bhrigu as well. Poor Nandi who bears Lord Shiv on his back  could not bear the condemnation of his Master and spoke in front of all,-“O Imbecile Daksh! How can you banish my Lord from this yajna? How dare you condemn and disgrace my Lord whose mere vision sanctifies the three spheres?”

 Daksh infuriated back and thundered,-“O Follower of Shiv! You will forego Vedic wisdom, indulge in misconduct and evil deeds and turn out to be a boozer.”

 Nandi also retorted,-“O Moron! You are ignorant of spiritual status of Lord Shiv. These arrogant Brahmans such as Bhrigu also joined you in condemning Lord Shiv. I curse you all that your mind would remain confused out of reading Vedas and you will never know the Spiritual truth. For you people only swargalok will be the ultimate abode.”

 Hearing such curse from Nandi who was incarnation of Lord Krishn furore was created amongst the elite guests and participants. Lord Shiv was yet calm and sported a mysterious smile only. He laughed and said to Nandi,-“Nandi! You are abode of Supreme Wisdom. Anger not. No curse can touch me. Supreme Self is omniscient and manifest in all forms. Why do you get agitated over such trifles then? Remain established in your Supreme Self.” Nandi became mum, having full faith in his master’s command. Lord Shiv left the gathering peacefully leaving behind a hurt Daksh simmering within with vengeance. He plotted to humiliate Lord Shiv somehow to settle scores with him.

 Soon with this intention king Daksh organized a huge function at mayakshetra which is supposed to be modern Haridwar. Deliberately he invited all seers and deities but did not send any invitation  to Lord Shiv. This hurt his daughter Sati. Sati had dare tested the status of prince of Ayodhya- Ram by disguising as his wife Sita and thus had been deserted by husband Shiv. She had lost her status of a consort as Lord Shiv had given her a seat in front of him and treated her only as Sita, the chaste wife of Lord Ram and thus  as a mother to Lord Shiv.

 Sati daily saw celestial beings preparing to attend the great function organized by her father and felt most hurt for not being invited. She had lost the right over her husband already but could not share her grief with him as Lord Shiv used to remain immersed in Samadhi most of the time. Unable to resist the temptation of meeting her mother and sisters and bereft of grief being given by Lord Shiv, she  made up her mind and said to Lord Shiv,-“ Lord! I have learnt that my father has organized a huge yajna. All sages and deities are preparing to go there. You seem to be disinterested in attending the yajna. Let us also go there.”

 Lord Shiv was aware of nature of his father-in-law. “Devi! Your father is displeased with me. Only proud and unenlightened sages and deities are attending his yajna. One who goes anywhere uninvited is meted out only insult. It is better that we keep away from it,” He counselled.

Sati however pleaded further,-“Shambhu! You are the Supreme Lord. My father is ignorant and that is why he degraded you. Please allow me to go there as I wish to know more about this matter.” Lord Shiv replied,-“O pious goddess! If you are so keen to go, then fine. Mount my chariot Nandi and take some servitors along to escort you.”

 Sati was enthused. She took several servitors along and dressed like a queen, reached her parents’ home where his mother and sisters offered a warm welcome threw a disparaging glance at her and looked reluctant to her. Still feeling home, Sati entered the main hall authoritatively where yajna was to about to begin. She found well marked seat for all invitees but no place for Lord Shiv. Nor was there any offering kept for Lord Shiv. This infuriated Sati a great deal. Not able to bear with such arrogance and depravity of her father, Sati spoke in a loud voice,-“King! Why have you not bothered to invite Lord Shiv to this function? How can you even think of getting the reward of this oblation without making offering to one who sanctifies the Universe? Even though you are my father, you seem to me so ignoble owing to your showing such ignorance and depravity. I wonder how can Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu accept such insulting attitude to Lord Shiv?”

 She, then turned to the gathering and began to ventilate her wrath over all without heeding anything. All were appalled and meekly accepted her tongue lashing.

 King Daksh was equally curt and shouted at her,-“No need to drag the issue further. Why have you come here? All wise men present here know well that your husband is an abode of all vices. I also know him well. Ignorant of all scriptures, he has no etiquettes, no manners, and is evil incarnate. Only at the advice of Lord Brahma I allowed you to marry him. Since you have come to attend the function take away your share and calm down.”

 Sati turned into a flame that wished to engulf her father. She began to think within,-‘How will I face Lord Shiv if I go back to him thus?’ Thoughts of recrimination flooded in her mind. She shouted at all,-“One who condemns Lord Shiv goes inevitably to hell. Fie upon my body that is given by this father. I shall throw my this body into fire right now..” She then turned to her father and unleashed her last arrow,-“Father! You condemn Lord Shiv. You will have to repent for this.” Sati addressed the entire gathering and proclaimed,-“All of you are devoid of purity of heart. Lord Shiv will penalise all of you.” saying so, she sat down and produced fire through her divine will. Her entire body turned into a flame whose scintillating light blinded all. None could move forward to stop her. Spellbound all saw the flame disappearing and a charred corpse perched on the Earth in no time.

 All began to condemn King Daksh. The sanctum sanctorum got filled with wailings and screams.  The Ganas of Lord Shiv created havoc and destroyed all arrangements made by king Daksh. The followers of other guests battered Ganas of Lord Shiv. Hurt and harassed Shivganas rushed back to Lord Shiv and narrated the details of happening to him. Hearing the tale of end of Sati in anger, Lord Shiv was furious. He struck his mated lock on the ground with force. In no time a ferocious warrior and a ferocious goddess looking thirsty of blood appeared. Both of them bowed in front of their divine creator.  Veerbhadra! Bhadrkali! King Daksh has gone mad out of arrogance. Go and destroy the enemy including all the deities supporting him!” commanded Lord Shiv. The two commanders took a mammoth army of ghost, genies, devils etc. and flew to take the enemy to task.

 

 

Hearing that Lord Shiv had sent his commanders with mammoth army, king Daksh began to tremble in fear. Never in the farthest of his imagination had he thought that such action would invite consequences of such magnitude. He fell in the feet of Lord Vishnu and supplicated to protect him. “Daksh! You are indeed ignorant. One who insults honourable souls inevitably receives back fear, poverty and death. At this juncture, no one even me and all deities put together can do anything to help you,” explained Lord Vishnu to his devotee king. Hearing such words of helplessness from his protector Lord Vishnu, king Daksh turned pale. He lost his mind,- seeing the end of his glory and life imminent. He found his enemy attacking him from all sides with ferocious sounds and fiery weapons. Lord Vishnu added to his fear by saying,-“Daksh! No one can face Veerbhadra in fray. He possesses martial powers of Lord Shiv.”

 All terrified deities began to curse and condemn foolish king who had put them all in such difficult situation owing to his arrogance alone. The terrified deities prayed to Lord Vishnu to protect them. Aroused by their prayers and supplications, Lord Vishnu rose to fight Veerbhadra. Veerbhadra however true to his name cruelly thrashed Lord Vishnu showing no regard to his status. Lord Vishnu smiled to see his prowess and said,-“Veerbhadra! I am just a servant of Lord Shiv.  Daksh is moron. I can’t afford to turn down my devotees. As Daksh prayed to me so I have to fight you for his sake. Now I stop you and you also try to face me. Whatever is destined shall alone prevail upon us.”

 

Veerbhadra laughed heartily and roared back,-“I am glad to know that you consider yourself a servant of Lord Shiv.” saying so both got entangled in noisy and ferocious warfare trying to prove each other weaker. Veerbhadra finally succeeded in rendering sudarshan chakra inert. He cut down the sharung bow of Lord Vishnu into three pieces. Defeated by the warrior representative of Lord Shiv, Lord Vishnu disappeared from the battleground and seeing him vanish, all deities also retreated and ran for their life. Victorious Veerbhadra roared and reported his feat over deities to his master Lord Shiv who thumped the back of his chief warrior and promoted him as his Chief Commander.

 The curse given by muni Dadhichi to Lord Vishnu thus fructified.