Om Sharavana-bhavaya Namaha
Adorations to Lord Subrahmanya
There once lived a fierce and wicked demon named Tarakasura. He was greedy for more power and wanted to control all the three worlds. He performed several years of penance and austerities to invoke Lord Brahma.
God is moved by our prayers. God is kindness, generosity and love. God grants each one of us what we desire if we should just ask him. All of us are equal in his eyes be it a demon, deva, human or animal. His love for the whole universe is immeasurable and he will never refuse any of his devotees if we approach him with complete devotion.
Lord Brahma moved by the sincerity of Tarakasura’s devotion finally appeared before the demon. The Lord said, “Tarakasura, I have heard your prayers and drawn by your devotion I have appeared before you. What is it you wish?”
Tarakasura immediately fell at Lord Brahma’s feet and looking up at him with pleading eyes asked, “Lord, please grant that I never die.”
Lord Brahma replied, “Tarakasura, you know that this wish of yours cannot be granted as everyone who is born must at some time die. Ask for some other boon that is possible for me to grant.”
Tarakasura jumped up but kept his hands folded. His evil mind was working furiously. He was trying to figure out how he could, if not prevent death, at least avoid it for a long, long time.
He then remembered that Lord Shiva was in deep meditation and could not be disturbed. He also knew that Lord Shiva after the death of his first wife was in no mood for marriage. Hence it was unlikely that Lord Shiva would ever have a child.
Tarakasura’s tiny, nasty eyes now twinkled merrily at the thought of his wicked plan. With a smug grin on his face, he turned to Lord Brahma and said, “Lord as you cannot grant me freedom from death, please grant me the boon that no one other than the son of Lord Shiva can ever kill me.”
Lord Brahma granted his wish by saying “Tarakasura, so be it.”
The Lord then returned to his heavenly abode, leaving behind an ecstatically happy Tarakasura. He knew that no man or God could now kill him. He could fearlessly go about conquering the three worlds as he was now invincible.
Almost immediately the power hungry Tarakasura began his invasion of the earth. This was an easy conquest for the demon as no man could match his strength or fighting prowess. He went on to conquer the atmospheric world, the skies and thereafter he headed for battle against the devas in heaven. The devas put up a good fight and the battles went on for several years. However, because of the boon that Lord Brahma had granted him no one could kill Tarakasura. Finally, the devas too had to admit defeat and the evil asura became the conqueror of the three worlds.
Tarakasura was mean and cruel and he began his rule of harassment and torture. He was brutal, nasty and ruthless. Tarakasura showed no mercy to anyone. He was domineering and vicious. The whole universe was unhappy
The devas decided to go as a delegation to Lord Brahma to beg Him for protection against Tarakasura. Seeing all the devas Lord Brahma asked, “Why have all of you come to see me?”
Lord Indra, the king of swarg (heaven) and the chief of all the devas respectfully bowed before the Lord and said, “Lord, all three lokas are suffering under the tyranny of Tarakasura. He has conquered the three worlds and is making the lives of every single inhabitant a complete misery. We devas get no peace from him. He has driven us out of heaven and heaven is now under the control of the demons. Please Lord help us.”
Lord Brahma said, “It is because of the boon that I have granted him that he has become invincible. I will speak to him and ask him to leave the heavens.”
The devas left happy that their problem was to be solved.
Lord Brahma true to his word summoned Tarakasura and said, “Tarakasura, I believe you have established yourself in heaven. The heavens belong to the devas. You must leave there immediately.”
The crafty Tarakasura did not wish to annoy the powerful Lord Brahma so he quietly agreed to leave heaven. But as he left Lord Brahma’s abode, he was laughing to himself thinking, “Ha ha, I agreed to leave heaven but not to stop harassing the devas and making them sad and miserable. I will continue to torture them. They must always know that I am more powerful than any of them.”
Very soon the devas realized that even though he had left heaven Tarakasura had not stopped disturbing and tormenting them. Unfortunately, when they went back to Lord Brahma begging for help Lord Brahma said, “I cannot do much more as according to the boon I have granted the asura, only a son of Lord Shiva will be able to kill him.”
The devas were upset and said in unison, “But Lord Shiva is in meditation and no one can disturb him. Then there is the even greater problem that Lord Shiva has no intention of marrying. What can we do?”
Lord Brahma advised the devas, “Go and see Kama deva (God of love) and ask him to help you to get Lord Shiva to marry Goddess Parvati.”
The devas went to see Kama deva and asked for his help.
Kama deva agreed and sent his arrow of love directly to Lord Shiva. When Lord Shiva was disturbed, he, being very short-tempered, was enraged. In his anger his third eye opened. Flames flashed out from his third eye and burnt Kama deva to ashes.
Now no longer in meditation his attention turned to Goddess Parvati. The Goddess had been serving Lord Shiva with deep love. Lord Shiva agreed to marry the beautiful Goddess.
Sadly, this was not to be the end of the devas’ problems with Tarakasura. Kama deva’s wife Rati was completely distraught at the death of her husband. In her distress she cursed Parvati, “You will bear no children in this marriage.”
If Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati had no children there would be no one who could vanquish Tarakasura.
Lord Shiva after hearing the deva’s problems said to them, “Parvati and I will go to Amarnath cave. There through deep, intense meditation we will create a child. However, you devas must make sure that no one disturbs us.”
The deva’s stood guard outside the cave to make sure no demons came anywhere near the cave.
As Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati went into deep meditation, a ball of fire emerged out of their cosmic energies. The fire was so hot that the Gods summoned Agni, the God of fire, to hold the ball. The heat got too hot even for Agni to bear. So, he rushed to Goddess Ganga and handed it to her. When even Ganga could not bear the heat, she placed the fire ball into a lake in a forest of reeds. It was then that Goddess Parvati broke her meditation. She took the form of a water body. Only Goddess Parvati could bear the powerful energy of Shiva and Shakti.
Eventually, that fire ball took the form of a baby with six faces. The son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati was born not from her womb but from their meditation. When Goddess Parvati saw those six cherubic faces, she instantly fell in love with the infant. The divine baby was named Kartikeya.
The devas were delighted to hear of the birth of Kartikeya. They now had some hope of defeating Tarakasura. They were looking forward to gaining peace in heaven. Emboldened by the birth of Kartikeya they declared war on Tarakasura and his demon army. They marched confidently to war. The deities assembled at the seashore. Tarakasur arrived there with his huge army. The battle began.
The mighty Tarakasura attacked with full force and it looked like once again the devas would have to accept defeat. One by one the devas fell. Lord Indra suffered such a heavy blow that he fell to the ground unconscious.
As he mowed down his enemies one by one Tarakasura laughed loudly his evil vile laugh, “Ha ha ha, you devas seem to enjoy being clobbered. You keep coming back for more. Each time you try to challenge me, I effortlessly toss each one of you aside and yet you don’t seem to understand that I Tarakasura am the greatest warrior of all. I can never be defeated. Ha ha ha.”
He clobbered, kicked and shot the devas with ease. Even Lord Vishnu was having difficulty withstanding Tarakasura’s onslaught. It was then that Lord Brahma said to Kartikeya, “Son, it is time for you now to go and battle against the demon Tarakasura. You must fight and kill him and free the devas from the strangle-hold of the demons.”
Kartikeya folded his hands in respect and replied, “Lord I will do exactly as you ask of me. Please give me your blessings.”
Lord Brahma blessed the child. All the Gods gave him divine weapons. Goddess Parvati presented him with the spear called Vel which was embodied with the power of Shakti and could not be countered by any weapon possessed by the demons. The young boy, just 7 years old, prepared for battle.
When he reached the battle ground Tarakasura took one look at the child and laughed uproariously. He mocked the devas saying, “Look at you devas, you are now hiding behind a child. Should I kill this boy you are to blame.”
A frightful battle begun between the terrifying, huge, ugly demon and little Kartikeya. It was indeed a fierce battle and both the demon and the child suffered many injuries. But neither would give up. It was a long hard fight. Then suddenly Kartikeya seeing a brief moment when Tarakaura was exposed pierced the Shakti weapon into the demon’s chest. That blow pierced the heart of Tarakasura and he fell to the ground dead.
All the devas rejoiced. They were now free of their dreaded enemy Tarakasura
and his many dreadful demons.
Kartikeya was happy that he had fulfilled Lord Brahma’s command. He rushed home to his mother Parvati to tell her how he had used the weapon that she had gifted him. Goddess Parvati was equally happy to see her son back and hugged him tightly with love.
The devas were so proud of Kartikeya that they could not stop singing his praises. They made Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of their army. From the day that he slayed Tarakasura Kartikeya has been known as the God of war.
But what of Kama deva who lost his life for no fault of his? When the devas went to Lord Shiva and explained that Kama deva had only done their bidding to save them from the terrible demon Tarakasura, the kind hearted Shiva relented. He told them that Kama deva would be reborn as the son of Lord Krishna and Rukmini and he would be united then with his wife Rati.
LIFE LESSONS
1. Evil always loses.
2. Even if a wicked person seems to be getting away with his wickedness know that in the end, he will pay for his wickedness.
3. We may face difficulties but we must continue to overcome them and not lose heart – where there is a will there is always a way.
4. Like Kartikeya every child has his/her own special talents gifted from God and these must be used to do only good.
5. It is important that we too like Kartikeya fight for what is right and good.
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