On this page
At that time an asura named Taraka arose, and no one could beat him. The gods fought him in battles of many kinds and lost. When they went to Brahma and cried out, Brahma gave them the one condition of the asura’s death. It would come when a son was born of Shiva’s seed, and that son alone would conquer him in battle.
The condition lands on a man who has just closed his eyes. A few lines earlier the seven sages had brought Shiva the story of Parvati, who did her tapas to have him as her husband. Shiva, immersed in joy at her love, had steadied his mind and sat down to meditate on Rama. Brahma’s remedy is to send Kamadeva to stir that mind, and Brahma calls his own remedy a great quandary before he gives it. The one who is sent says aloud, laughing, that opposing Shiva is no good for him. On the road he thinks that his death is certain. He goes anyway.
What follows is two ghadis in which every living thing in the universe lets go of its bounds and those Rama protected are saved. A spring brought into the forest for one man, arrows loosed from a mango branch, a third eye, ash. Then Rati stands before Shiva, and the boon she leaves with gives her husband a name and a body in another age. The gods come with Vishnu and Brahma to ask for the wedding they want to see with their own eyes. At the end the seven sages go to Parvati with sweet words the verse calls mixed with guile.
Shiva in samadhi, and those sent to break it
The main figures in this episode
- Shiva who hears Parvati’s story from the seven sages, steadies his mind, and sits down to meditate on Rama. Kama’s every art fails to move his samadhi. The arrows in his heart wake him. He burns Kama with a look from his third eye, gives Rati a boon, and answers the gods’ plea for his wedding with “So be it.”
- Parvati brought home from her tapas by her father at the sages’ word. She is the one who did her tapas to have Shiva as her husband. She speaks no word in this episode, and at its end the seven sages come to tease her.
- Brahma who tells the gods the one condition of Taraka’s death, proposes sending Kama and calls his own proposal a great quandary. Later he pleads with Shiva on the gods’ behalf and sends the seven sages to Himavan’s house.
- Taraka the asura who conquered every world and its guardians, unaging and undying. He is told of in the opening lines and seen no more in this episode.
- Kamadeva the god with the fish on his banner and the flower bow, with five arrows in the commentary’s count. He says that opposing Shiva is no good for him and goes. He brings the world under him for two ghadis, fails before Shiva, and is burned to ash.
- Rati Kama’s wife, heard of first inside her husband’s name, who faints at the news of him, stands before Shiva with folded hands, and goes away with a boon.
- The seven sages who open the episode by sending Himavan for Parvati and carrying her story to Shiva. They close it by going to Parvati with sweet words mixed with guile.
- Rama on whom Shiva meditates as he sits down. The sortha names him as the protector of those who were saved in Kama’s hour. His words, in the commentary’s reading, Shiva remembers when he says “So be it.”
One condition that settles everything
The episode opens on a task done. The sages sent Himavan, and he brought Parvati home with entreaty. Then the seven went to Shiva and told him her whole story. Shiva had given them three tasks when he sent them to test her. The second of the three, Himavan prompted to send her home, is finished in the first line here. Hearing of her love, Shiva was immersed in joy, and the seven sages went home glad. The commentary places that home in Brahma’s world. Then Shiva steadied his mind and began to meditate on Rama. The samadhi that the world will be turned upside down to break is a samadhi of meditation on Rama.
At that same time the asura Taraka arose. The strength of his arms, his might, and his radiance were vast. He conquered all the worlds and the guardians of the worlds. The gods were stripped of happiness and wealth. He was unaging and undying, and so he could not be conquered. The gods fought him in battles of many kinds and lost. Then they went to Brahma and cried out, and Brahma saw all the gods in distress.
He explained it to them all. “The danava’s death will come when a son is born of Shiva’s seed. He alone will conquer him in battle.” The asura’s death is tied to a birth, the birth to a marriage, and the marriage to the man who has just closed his eyes to meditate on Rama.
The counsel its own giver called a quandary
Brahma went on. “Hear my word and make the remedy. It will come about. The Lord will help. Sati, who gave up her body at Daksha’s sacrifice, has gone and been born in Himavan’s house. She has done tapas to have Shiva as her husband, and Shiva has given up everything and sits in samadhi.”
Then, before the counsel itself, his own judgment of it. “Though there is a great quandary, still hear one word of mine.” A quandary is a state with no clear way through it. Brahma calls this one great, and gives his word all the same. “Send Kama to Shiva. Let him stir Shiva’s mind. Then we will go and bow our heads to Shiva and have the marriage made by force.” The bowed heads and the force stand in the same line. The commentary softens the force into pressing him until he agrees. “In this way the gods’ good may well come about.” The commentary adds in a bracket that there is no other way.
Everyone said the counsel was very good. Then the gods praised Kama with great love, and he appeared. He is the god whose banner carries a fish, bearing the arrows the verse calls odd in number. The commentary counts them as five.
He went knowing
The gods told Kama all their trouble. He heard it, thought it over in his mind, and said, laughing, “Opposing Shiva is no good for me.” Those are his first words here.
“Still, I will do your work. The Vedas call help to others the highest dharma, and one who gives up his body for another’s good, the saints praise him always.” He sets his reason in scripture: the Vedas first, then the saints. The gods have heard him say it is no good for him, and now they hear him agree.
So saying, he bowed his head to them all and set out, the flower bow in his hand and his helpers with him. The commentary names them as spring and the rest. As he went, Kama thought this in his heart: opposing Shiva, my death is certain. The thought stays in his heart. Aloud he had said only that the errand was no good for him. The word for death comes to his mind on the road. It will come to his mind once more.
A universe of two ghadis
Then he spread his power and brought the whole world under his sway. In the moment Kama was angered, every bound the Vedas had set was wiped out, in an instant.
The verse counts what fled. Celibacy, vows, the many kinds of restraint, patience, dharma, knowledge and its realization, good conduct, the repetition of holy names, yoga, dispassion. The whole army of discernment fled in fear. The chhand follows it into hiding. Discernment fled with its helpers. Its champions turned their backs on the field and hid, at that hour, in the caves of the mountain of good books. The commentary reads the caves plainly: knowledge, dispassion, restraint, rule, and good conduct were left written in the books, and dropped out of conduct. A stir fell on the world. The commentary hears everyone crying out to the Creator with the questions the verse gives: what is to happen, who will protect. And who has two heads, that Rati’s lord has taken up bow and arrow against him in anger? Rati is heard of here first, inside her husband’s name.
The doha counts everyone in. Every living thing in the world, moving or still, that bears the name man or woman left its own bound and came under Kama. Desire was in every heart. Branches bent toward the creepers at the sight of them. Rivers swelled and ran to the sea. Ponds and pools mingled with each other. “When the insentient have been described in such a state,” the verse asks, “who can tell the doings of the sentient?” Beasts and birds of sky, water, and land forgot their season and came under Kama.
Everyone was blind with desire and distraught. Even the chakravaka birds, the pair that parts every night and waits for the day, no longer kept night from day. Gods, danavas, men, kinnaras, serpents, pretas, pishachas, bhutas, vetalas: “their state I did not describe,” says the teller, “knowing them always Kama’s slaves.” Those the verse does describe are the ones who fell this time. Siddhas, the dispassionate, great sages, and yogis too came under Kama and lost their yoga, or pined for a woman. The commentary gives both readings of the word.
The second chhand goes higher still. Lords of yogis and ascetics came under Kama. Who can speak of the vile? Those who had seen all things, moving and still, as Brahman now saw them as woman. Women saw the world as all men, and men saw it as all women. For two dandas, which the commentary measures as two ghadis, less than an hour, this was Kama’s show inside the universe. The verse’s word for it is a show. The yogis’ practice had been a way of seeing, and their fall came in the same seeing.
Then the sortha, which keeps one exemption. No one kept steadiness. Kama stole every mind. Those whom Rama protected were saved in that hour. Shiva had sat down to meditate on Rama at the start of the episode. Kama will find his samadhi unmoved. The sortha says who was saved and who saved them, and stops there.
Before Shiva, and the wager of spring
Two ghadis the show lasted, until Kama reached Shiva. Seeing Shiva, Kama was afraid, and all the world returned to its own state. Before an arrow was fitted, before Shiva’s eyes opened, the sight of him was enough. All living things were at once at ease, like drunkards when the drink leaves them.
Then the verse says it again with Shiva’s hard names. Seeing Rudra, the terrible one, the Lord who is hard to assail and hard to fathom, Kama was afraid. There was shame in turning back, and nothing could be done. Resolving on death in his mind, he devised a plan. The word for death crosses his mind for the second time: once on the road, once here, before Shiva.
His plan was a season. At once he brought forth spring, the king of seasons, and rows of new trees stood in flower. Forests and groves, wells and ponds, and every quarter became most handsome. Everywhere love seemed to surge. At the sight of it Kama woke even in dead minds. The chhand stays in that forest. Its handsomeness is past telling. A cool, fragrant, slow wind blew, the true friend of the fire of desire. Many lotuses opened on the lakes and clusters of bees hummed over them. Swans, cuckoos, and parrots called in sweet voices, and apsaras sang and danced. All of it was raised for one man.
The doha gives the result. With every art, in ten million ways, he and his army lost. Shiva’s unmoving samadhi did not move. Then anger came to the one the doha calls the heart-dweller, the god whose home is the heart.
From the mango branch
He saw a fine branch on a mango tree and climbed it, his mind full of anger. He fitted his own arrows to the flower bow, took aim in great anger, and drew to the ear. The god who laughed as he spoke to the gods, and set out in the name of help to others, makes his last move in anger.
He loosed the sharp arrows, five in the commentary’s count, and they struck Shiva’s heart. The samadhi broke and Shiva woke. His mind was greatly stirred, and the verse’s word for it is the word Brahma used when he asked that Kama stir Shiva’s mind. What Brahma asked for is now there. Shiva opened his eyes and looked in every direction.
Among the mango leaves he saw Kama. Anger rose, and the three worlds trembled. Then Shiva opened his third eye, and at his glance Kama burned to ash. Kama had needed a season, an army, a bow and its arrows, and the whole creation. Shiva’s part was one look.
A great cry went up in the world, and the verse sorts the world four ways over this one death. The gods were afraid. The asuras rejoiced. Those who live for pleasure remembered the pleasure of desire and worried. The seekers and yogis were freed of their thorn.
Rati, and a boon that returns no body
The yogis were freed of their thorn, and in the same line Rati heard what had become of her husband and fainted. Weeping, crying out, lamenting in many ways, she went to Shiva himself. With great love she entreated him in many ways and stood before him with folded hands. The verse gives none of her words. Shiva, who is quickly pleased, saw the helpless woman and spoke, in words the commentary reads as consolation.
“Rati, from now your husband’s name will be Ananga. Without a body he will pervade all. Then hear of your meeting with him.” Ananga is the bodiless one: a name, and a reach. The body Shiva saw among the mango leaves is gone, and without it he will reach everyone.
“When Krishna comes down in the line of the Yadus to lift the earth’s great burden, your husband will be born as Krishna’s son. My word does not turn false.” The verse says only Krishna’s son. The commentary names him Pradyumna. The comfort is set in another age, and it comes with full particulars: which line, whose son, and what the descent is for.
Hearing Shiva’s words, Rati went. She had come weeping, and she left with one promise. “Now I tell another story at length,” says Yajnavalkya to Bharadvaja, and the telling turns to the gods.
The gods’ plea, and the seven sages’ tease
The gods received all the news, and Brahma and the others went to Vaikuntha. From there all the gods, with Vishnu and Brahma, went to where Shiva was, and each praised him in turn. Shiva was pleased.
“Say, gods,” he asked, “why have you come?” Brahma answered. “You are the knower of every heart. Still, moved by bhakti, I make my plea, master.” He says first that Shiva already knows, and then he says it. “In the hearts of all the gods is this great eagerness, Shiva: they want to see your wedding with their own eyes, master.” The marriage that began as Brahma’s remedy against a danava is now a festival the gods want to watch.
“Let this festival be seen with full eyes. Do something for that, you who broke Kama’s pride. Burning Kama, you gave Rati a boon: that was very well done. To punish and then to show grace is the natural way of masters.” In one line the burning and the boon stand together, and the next line names the principle. Then the plea itself, in plain words. “Parvati has done boundless tapas. Now accept her.”
Hearing Brahma’s plea and remembering the Lord’s words, Shiva said gladly, “So be it.” The commentary names the Lord’s words as Rama’s, the plea Rama made in the last episode: go and marry Parvati, and keep in your heart what I have said. The man who sat down at the start of the episode to meditate on Rama gives his consent remembering them. Then the gods beat their kettledrums, rained flowers, and cried, “Victory, victory to the lord of the gods!”
Knowing the moment, the seven sages came, and Brahma at once sent them to Himavan’s house. They went first to where Parvati was and spoke sweet words, which the verse says were mixed with guile. The commentary calls them playful, meant to delight. “You did not listen to us then, at Narada’s teaching. Now your vow has turned false: Shiva has burned Kama.” The seven who say this came after Shiva’s “So be it” and were sent from that assembly. Parvati’s answer, given smiling, opens the next episode.
The people on both sides of the fire
Three times in this episode a speaker names the case against what he is about to do, and then does it. Brahma calls his counsel a great quandary and gives it. Kama says that opposing Shiva is no good for him and agrees to go. Brahma tells Shiva that he knows every heart and then makes his plea. And the sweet words the sages take to Parvati are called guile by the verse that reports them.
Punishment and grace stand side by side here, and Brahma is the one who says so, calling the boon very well done. Shiva burned the body. The boon that followed gave Kama a name, a reach that needs no body, and a birth to come as Krishna’s son.
Three things the episode points toward do not happen in it. Taraka does not die and is seen no more after the opening lines. The son whose birth Brahma named as the condition is not born. The wedding for which all of this was set in motion is still to come.
The burning itself takes a single clause: at his glance, Kama burned to ash. What fills these dohas is the preparation before it and the reckoning after: a quandary, a laugh, two ghadis of the universe, a spring, a branch. Then a cry, a faint, a boon, a festival asked for, and a tease.
Under this story of Shiva, Rama is present three times. Shiva sat down meditating on Rama. In the two ghadis when every mind was stolen, those whom Rama protected were saved. And when Shiva says “So be it,” the words he is remembering are, in the commentary’s reading, Rama’s.
The same story, elsewhere: the Shiva Purana: The Burning of Kamadeva.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Balkand, doha 82 to 89, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.