A friend once said that the day he got bored of India, he would leave. He is still here almost 20 years later. India never ceases to astonish, surprise, and spin yarns for you. After all these years, over Diwali sweets with friends, I discovered that there are reasons and reasons for celebrating Diwali-the day remains the same, but the reasons differ. Till yesterday I only knew the story of Ram - the prince of Ayodhya.
Today, I was told that in Tamilnadu (South India), Ravana, the evil demon adversary of Ram, is the true hero-the guy that Ram kills before his return to Ayodhya - so, here, Diwali is a celebration of Krishna's killing Nakasura-yet another demon, who with his dying breath, asks for a boon, to be remembered on Earth-hence, the Diwali celebration. Keeping in mind that both Ram and Krishna are different Vishnu avatars makes the picture more confusing. There are others who maintain that Diwali is "Nombu" a vrata day for women-certain austeries are performed to request boons from the Gods-blessings for family, husband, but never for one self. In some quarters, this day is used to remember the dead.
In Western India, Diwali is the day to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and spouse of Vishnu. In East India, however, this is Kali Puja. Kali, Parvati, Durga are all different forms of Shiva's wife, and the daughter of Earth. When humanity was being harassed by the demons of the underworld, they ran to Durga and asked for help. Durga then took the destructive, ferocious form of Kali-naked, dark blue, with hair flowing to her waist, and armed to kill. She started killing the demons and wore their heads in a garland around her neck-she was blood thirsty, destructive, unstoppable till finally people approached her husband Lord Shiva for help. So as Kali was doing her war dance, Shiva came and lay on her path. When Kali stepped on her Lord, she realised her great error and stuck her tongue out in horror. This is how she is worshipped today, stepping on Shiva, dripping blood and sticking her tongue out!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment