Skanda and the Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga — the Ganesha-Kartikeya Marriage Chapter of the Shiv Mahapuran

Before going further into the story of Ganesha and Kartikeya's marriage, the speaker asks listeners to remember one thing about every marriage-related narrative in the Puranas. Whoever has any Dosha connected with marriage — a flawed seventh house in the birth chart, a pret-pishach yoga formed there, the presence of Pitru Dosha, Grahan Dosha and the like, a widowhood yoga in the girl's or the man's horoscope, delay in marriage, or a situation where after marriage one of the two spouses keeps falling seriously ill — should certainly recite these marriage narratives found in the Puranas. He says the dosha is destroyed from its root and health benefits follow. If any dosha connected with untimely death or widowhood has arisen, that too is removed. He adds that this is not limited to the marriage of Shiva and Parvati or of Ganesha and Kartikeya: whoever one's own Ishta Devata is, listening to the story of that deity's marriage is equally appropriate.

The speaker says this is the very last chapter of the Kumar Khand of the Rudra Samhita of the Shiv Mahapuran. After the accounts of the births of Ganesha and Kartikeya and the slaying of Tarakasura, NaradaA celestial sage and recurring listener/questioner figure across Puranic literature. asks Brahma how the two came to be married. Brahma tells him that the two grew up together on KailashThe mountain abode of Shiva and Parvati. like the moon of the bright fortnight, both served their parents, and ParvatiThe daughter of the mountain and consort of Shiva; the questioner to whom much of tantra is expounded. and Shiva, who loved them deeply, decided their sons were now fit for marriage. When the sons come to know this, each begins to insist, in the manner of ordinary worldly conduct, "I will marry first," and they keep quarrelling. The speaker points out that the text keeps repeating the phrase "taking recourse to the way of lokachar": in reality there is no such issue at all, but because Bhagavan has a message to give to society and Sanatan culture through his leela, he takes recourse to worldly custom. The parents then devise the well-known plan: we love you both equally, so here is a beneficial condition — whichever of you first circles the whole earth and returns will be married first. Kartikeya sets off at once. The wise Ganesha reflects: I cannot even stride across it; after walking one kos I cannot walk again; what happiness will circling this earth bring me? Ganesha bathes according to the rules, comes home, and asks his parents to sit on the asana he has set up for worship and fulfil his wish. He worships both, circles them seven times, prostrates seven times, praises them with folded hands, and says: mother, father, now marry me quickly. They tell him to go and properly circle the earth with its forests, as Kumar has gone, and return first. Ganesha, restrained yet angry, replies: you two are dharma itself and supremely learned, so hear my dharma-based words — I have already circled the earth seven times. Taking recourse to worldly custom they ask: son, when did you circle this vast earth of seven continents, stretching to the oceans and covered with dense forests? Ganesha answers that by worshipping his parents Shiva and Shiva he has, through his buddhi, circled the ocean-bounded earth — and that such a statement stands in the Vedas, the shastras and the dharma shastras.

The speaker explains what the Veda-shastra says behind Ganesha's claim: whoever worships his parents and circles them obtains, without any doubt, exactly the fruit that comes from circling the entire earth. Merely by circling his parents seven times, Ganesha achieved seven circuits of the earth — this, he says, is the statement of the shastras. He then draws attention to a further message in the passage and asks everyone to listen carefully. One who leaves his mother and father at home and goes off to a tirtha incurs the same sin that is said to come from killing them both. If your parents are alive and able, he says, you should never go on a Teerth Yatra leaving them behind; you should go taking them with you. Go without them and the sin is equal to their murder. The text goes on, he says, to state that the lotus feet of one's mother and father are themselves the great tirtha for a son. Other tirthas are obtained only by going far away; this tirtha, close at hand, is the means of every kind of easily attainable dharma. For a son the parents, and for a woman her husband, are the very best tirtha within the home: a wife gains the fruit of serving a tirtha by serving her husband, and a son gains the benefit of a tirtha by serving his parents, right at home. Ganesha tells his parents, drawing on shastra and dharma, that the Vedas say this constantly and they too must act on it, otherwise they will become untrue — their own form would be false and then the Vedas would be false. So, he says, perform my marriage quickly, or else declare the Vedas and shastras false. The speaker remarks on how skilfully Ganesha, the very source of intellect, put his case, and draws the message: there is no tirtha greater than one's parents; tirthas come only after service to them. As far as one's capacity allows — with the body, with wealth, with intellect, in every way — one should serve one's mother and father.

Brahma relates, the speaker says, that on hearing Ganesha's words Parvati fell silent, and then spoke in praise of her son: son, a pure intellect has arisen in you, a great soul; what you have said is true, there is no doubt. One whose intellect keeps its excellence even when a crisis is upon him has his sorrow removed just as darkness is removed when the sun rises. The speaker asks listeners to pay attention, because this is meant for all of us. Crisis comes upon everyone. What Bhagavati is saying is that even when a crisis comes, the buddhi should keep its special quality — the intellect should stay awake as to what thought and discrimination must be applied to get out of the crisis. When, in a crisis, one panics, loses heart and abandons thinking with the intellect, that is when real trouble follows; where will such a person's intellect draw strength from? He recalls that a hare once made a mad, drunk-with-power lion fall into a well. Bhagavati goes on: the dharma laid down in the Vedas, shastras and Puranas for a child, you have certainly followed; what you have done rightly, no one else could do. We have both accepted your word, and it can no longer be undone. Ganesha was thus assured that his marriage would take place.

When we think of the Prajapatis, the speaker says, we know of Manu and of Daksha Prajapati. The one whose daughters Ganesha married is also a Prajapati, named Vishvarupa. His two daughters are Bhagavati Siddhi and Bhagavati Buddhi — the pair we all call Riddhi-SiddhiGanesha's two consorts, personifying prosperity and accomplishment.. Ganesha's marriage with both of them was arranged and completed with great festivity. Ganesha had two sons, Shubh-LabhGanesha's two sons, personifying auspiciousness and gain., whom we all know; in the Puranas they are also called Kshema and Labha. From the wife named Siddhi was born Kshema, that is Shubh, and from the wife named Buddhi was born the son Labh. Thus, the speaker says, Ganesha's marriage took place and his two sons were born — meaning Shiva and Parvati became grandfather and grandmother, and their household became complete. Shiva alone, he remarks, if seen directly, is a grandparent in the ordinary sense: he became a parent and also a grandparent.

After Ganesha's marriage, the speaker relates, Kartikeya completed the parikrama and came back to his palace. Here NaradaA celestial sage and recurring listener/questioner figure across Puranic literature. enters, and the speaker asks listeners to notice a pattern: whenever some very great event is about to happen, Narada is made the sutradhar — it is Narada who goes and sows whatever seed has to be sown, which is why he is called the mind of Bhagavan. By Shiva's inspiration Narada reaches Kartikeya and says: I tell you the plain truth, neither from deceit nor from envy — what your parents have done no one in this world could do. Using the circling of the earth as a pretext they sent you out of the house and performed Ganesha's splendid marriage; he has the two jewel-like daughters of Prajapati Vishvarupa as wives and two sons by them, and lives in his parents' house enjoying every happiness. By your parents' command, given through deceit, you circled the earth with its oceans and forests — and this is the fruit you got. The speaker adds that Narada says much more, drawing on niti sutras and smriti shastras, to the effect that the parents had done Kartikeya an injustice. When Narada fell silent, Kartikeya went to his parents in extreme anger, bowed to them, and renounced KailashThe mountain abode of Shiva and Parvati.. Shiva and Parvati kept forbidding him and trying to hold him back, but he went south to Krauncha mountain and began to live there. It is said that Kumar Kartikeya, who takes away everyone's sins by his mere darshan, is there even today. From that day the son of Shiva remained Kumar; this name, famous in the three worlds, gives happiness, destroys all sins, is the very form of merit, and bestows BrahmacharyaStrict celibacy required through an extended ritual observance.. The speaker had flagged earlier, calling it a matter of deep secrecy, that the leela being played with Kartikeya was laying the foundation for the Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga. It also connects with the special tasks Shiva had at the time of the slaying of Tripura — the three sons born to Tarakasura — and it was arranged to send Kartikeya to the southern region: had he not gone there, given how the asuras were creating havoc, Sanatan would have kept suffering harm there forever. That, he says, is why Kartikeya is in the south even today; this was never an ordinary matter.

The speaker asks listeners to keep in mind that the whole subject of Kartikeya's marriage and his beloved belongs to his other avatars; reading the full Skanda Purana and similar texts makes this clear. What we read about Shrivalli, Kartikeya's beloved, and about Bhagavati Devasena is a separate story: in a separate form he did marry, according to that account. But the form that is Bhagavan's direct vigraha, the one who went to Krauncha mountain, remains present even today as Kumar. Because Bhagavan is worshipped there in this Kumar form, he says, it is stated that a girl who is more than thirteen years old and has not yet reached menopause should not go to that place. He recalls the big controversy that broke out at the South Indian temple over whether women would be taken in, and says this was the reason behind it: Bhagavan sits there in the form of Kumar, and from that day he has remained there in this very form.

The speaker asks listeners to remember that in all matters connected with virility (paurush), with fierceness (ugrata), with strength, with BrahmacharyaStrict celibacy required through an extended ritual observance., and with blood, the name of Kumar is foremost. Kartikeya, he says, was born directly from the TejasRadiant divine energy or luminous potency — here, Lord Shiva's own Tejas, which ultimately became Kartikeya. of Shiva. Just as Ganapati arose from the ubtan present in the pores of Bhagavati's entire body and is therefore the direct embodied form of Bhagavati herself, in the very same way Kumar Skanda, born of Shiva's own tejas, is directly Shiva himself. These, he says, are the respective specialities of the two.

The speaker says that Kartik Maas, the most famous month of Bhagavan Narayana, got its name from Kartikeya, because Narayana too has always had great love for Kartikeya. On the day of Kartik Poornima, he says, all the tirthas there are, all the devas and devis, the rishis, munis and siddhas — every one of them goes to Krauncha mountain for darshan of Kumar. It is said that if KrittikasSix celestial maidens who together nursed and raised the infant Kartikeya as their own son. nakshatra falls on the day of Kartik Purnima, that tithi becomes so full of merit that if one takes darshan of Kumar Kartikeya on that day, all one's sins are burnt to ash and all of one's wishes are fulfilled.

Parvati, the speaker relates, became extremely sorrowful from separation from Skanda and told Shiva that he too should go there — for what mother would not grieve if her own son went away? So Bhagavati Parvati went together with Shiva, in a single form, to Krauncha mountain, and there they were established in the form of a Jyotirlinga — the Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga. Since this jyotirlinga manifested there because of separation from a son and out of excessive affection for that son, whoever, for any reason, suffers separation from a son should certainly take refuge in it. Separation from a son, he clarifies, does not only mean a son leaving home; it also covers those whose children die in the womb or die after being born. He names two jyotirlingas — Ghrishneshwar and Mallikarjuna — and notes that in the order of jyotirlingas Mallikarjuna comes second, after Somnath. Any couple with whom this keeps happening — a daughter is born and survives but a son dies, as happens many times — should certainly take refuge in the Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga. This pattern, he says, is some kind of Shraap. His remedy: whatever Rudrabhishek and the like you have performed, have the SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. made in it that "for the pleasure of Bhagavan Mallikarjuna Mahajyotirlinga we are performing this rudrabhishek." Then Bhagavan Mallikarjuna certainly bestows grace and removes the separation from one's son — Parvati and Shiva remove that viyoga. That jyotirlinga, he adds, is established even today; Shiva and Parvati are ever present there and devotees still receive darshan. In a jyotirlinga kshetra Shiva dwells always, in many forms; there is no need even to look for Shiva there, for their presence remains constant.

When Kumar saw that Bhagavati Parvati and Bhagavan Shiva had come there, the speaker relates, he became detached, because there was still pain in his heart. He went away again and began to live three yojanas further off. The speaker offers his own guess that this should be the Sabarimala region. Then, it is said, at parva times Shiva and Parvati always keep going to that place. On the day of Amavasya Shiva certainly goes there, and on the day of Poornima Bhagavati Parvati goes to meet Kumar.

This whole story, the speaker says, describes the love that Shiva and Parvati bear toward Skanda, and it also tells the story of Ganesha. The mahatmya of the account is that if it is recited every day — it is only a single chapter — then any separation of any kind, any distance that has formed from one's parents or from one's son, is removed; one is freed from it and the way forward is cleared. The mahatmya states that whoever reads, teaches, hears or narrates this story has all his wishes fulfilled, and one should not doubt it. A brahmin becomes endowed with brahma-varchas, a kshatriya becomes victorious, a vaishya becomes rich in wealth, and a shudra attains excellence. The sick person is freed from disease and the frightened person is freed from fear; such a person is not troubled by obstacles such as bhoot and Preta. Such, he says, is the greatness of the marriage of Kartikeya-Mallikarjuna and of Ganapati. The account, he continues, is free of sin, increases fame and happiness, lengthens life, brings the attainment of heaven, grants incomparable sons and grandsons, gives liberating knowledge concerning Shiva, is pleasing to Shiva and Shiva, and increases devotion to Shiva. Whichever devotees wish to gain knowledge of Shiva's advaita and desire welfare should always listen to this Shiva-filled narrative — so it is described in its mahatmya. With this, he says, the last chapter of the Rudra Samhita's Kumar Khand is complete.