PARAKUNNATH SREE VETTAKKORUMAKAN PAYYAN KSHETHRAM (TEMPLE), AROLI, KANNUR, KERALA: Lord Kartikeya is the son of Shiva and Parvati, and is a much revered deity especially in South India.

Sunday 9 July 2017

Lord Kartikeya is the son of Shiva and Parvati, and is a much revered deity especially in South India.

Lord Kartikeya is the son of Shiva and Parvati, and is a much revered deity especially in South India. He is known by various names like Murugan, Shanmukha (Shanmuga), Subhramanian, Shadanana, Guha, Senthil, Saravana, Kumaraswamy and Skanda. Kartikeya is quintessentially brave, intelligent, and perfection personified because of which he is worshipped as the god of war and victory. He is also the brave leader of god's forces and was created to destroy demons, symbolising negative tendencies of human beings.

In North of India Kartikeya, also called Kartik, is believed to be the elder son of Shiva and Parvati but his devotees in South believe him to be the younger son with Ganesha being the elder offspring of Shiva and Parvati.

Legend says that because Shiva and Parvati would shower Ganesha with more love, Kartikeya decided to leave Kailasa and move to the mountains in South and did not change his mind in spite of being urged by Shiva himself. And this is how he began to be worshipped in South India more than in North.

According to the Skanda Purana, Shiva's first wife Sati angrily immolated herself after she felt insulted by her father Daksha when he didn't invite Lord Shiva for a Yagna Ceremony and further insulted Him. An irate Lord Shiva then destroyed the Yagna with the help of ganas. An ascetic Shiva was married with great difficulty the first time around and a second marriage was nearly impossible. Taking advantage of the fact the demons - Tarakasur and Surapadma thought the boon of being killed only by Lord Shiva's son would make him invincible.

Kama, the God of Love, awakens Lord Shiva from His penance to remarry Him to Goddess Parvati. Angered by the interruption in his meditation, Lord Shiva burns Kama to ashes with His third eye though He does fall in love with Goddess Parvati. Lord Shiva's hands His fiery seed fire to Agni who can handle it till the radiance becomes Shiva's offspring. Unable to bear the heat, Agni gives the radiance to Ganga who deposits it in a lake in a forest Sara Vana where Kartikeya is born (giving him the name Saravana) with six faces - eesanam, sathpurusham, vamadevam, agoram, sathyojatham and adhomugam, and hence the name Shanmuga or Shadanan. Kartikeya was cared for by six women symbolising Pleiades (Kritika in Sanskrit) and thus got the name Kartikeya.