Lord Ganesha- 6
September 20, 2024
Om tat sat! I wanted to write a post today but thought of procrastinating it for the next day. Well, Divine took notice and when I was mindlessly scrolling through the YouTube Videos (shots), I stumbled upon this one-
https://youtube.com/shorts/wUPmPzACjFg?si=2naUK2qzAY0kz0Ai
This girl’s sweet voice and devotion melted my heart, holding back my tears, I changed my mind and I opened my notes’ register. The next story in this series about the time when Bhagvan Vishnu had to invoke Lord Ganesha.
Madhu and Kaitabh
Bhagvan was in his eternal sleep. A stem grew out of his navel which held a lotus on its other end and on that lotus sat Lord Brahma. Things were good and serene with nothing anywhere except water. There was no disturbance and everyone was peaceful but as we know, change happens and so did it.
From Lord Vishnu’s ear slipped some wax and it took the form of two monstrous and powerful demons- Madhu and Kaitabh.
Well, a little wax slipped out of Lord’s ears and gave rise to two demons whose ego grew massive because they arose when the Lord was asleep and withdrawn from the world. This incident caused Lord Vishnu to take action for the betterment of the world. It happened as narrated below.
The two demons grew large and so did their hunger. Born of ignorance, their pride over their physical strength knew no bounds. They grew out of the Lord’s body- part, so, they were powerful. They went on to create chaos and disturbance but the great yogi- Lord Vishnu lay peacefully in his eternal sleep!
The demons saw Lord Brahma and to quench their hunger they decided to devour him. They ran after him like wild beasts like they were and Lord Brahma invoked Mother Yogmaya to deter Lord Vishnu from his sleep! Yogmaya Devi is a form of the Divine Mother and who else had the power to deter Lord Vishnu from his sleep other than the Goddess herself?
The Devi came and Lord Vishnu woke up. He saw two demons in front of him and immediately a combat began- two versus one.
Madhu and Kaitabh being born of Lord Vishnu’s body had great physical strength but they didn’t match his wisdom as Lord Vishnu has always been the protector of Dharma or righteousness whereas the two demons here were riddled with everything a-dharma!
A long time elapsed but the two demons were unflinching! So, Lord Vishnu went into a forest to meditate on Lord Shiva for a solution. Lord Shiva told him about Lord Ganesha, the energy of who clears up the problems off one’s path and makes it possible. (Keep in mind, it’s a play of the Divine!)
Afterall, Lord Ganesha was the son of Devi! He too resides everywhere where Devi does so, how come victory be possible without Lord Ganesha’s invocation? Hence, Lord Vishnu invoked Lord Ganesha’s energy and eventually it lead to the downfall of Madhu and Kaitabh.
Bhagvan returned to the two demons and resumed his fight. They, in their ignorance and pride said that they were happy with Vishnu’s fight so they wished to give him a boon!
Crazy! The ignorant were not realising their own downfall at the feet of Bhagvan and Bhagvan too played along in his eternal play! He said- I want you to be dead.
And hence, Lord Vishnu grew himself up to magnificent size and the two demons lay on his lap, eventually getting killed!
On an another note, I listened to a video by the revered saint Om Swami ji who once explained this incident and its esoteric meaning which I will paraphrase here in very basic terms. Madhu means sweet and Kaitabh means bitter, just like our thoughts. Hence, the demons are personification of duality and it ends when consciousness arises as everything we sense via sense organs will end eventually! The eternal truth is always Bhagvan!
Om tat sat!
-Chitra Om
