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Skandha 4, adhyayas 5-7 · Saptah day 2
From a lock of Shiva's matted hair springs Virabhadra to wreck Daksha's hall — until Brahma begs mercy and Shiva restores the rite.
Continuing his narration to Vidura at Haridwar, the sage Maitreya describes what followed after Sati burned her body in inner yogic fire at the sacrificial arena of her father, Daksha Prajapati (4.5). The principal figures of this sequel span the three great presiding deities of the universe and the assembly of Vedic progenitors: Lord Shiva (`Rudra`), the self-absorbed lord of Kailasa who had just lost his beloved consort Sati; Daksha Prajapati, the proud chief of the creators whose ritual arrogance had provoked his daughter's self-immolation; Lord Brahma, the four-faced grandfather of creation and father of both Daksha and Rudra; the wandering celestial sage Narada, who carries word of the tragedy to Kailasa; the officiating priests and gods—including Bhrigu, Bhaga, and Pushan—who had mocked Shiva in the assembly; and finally Lord Vishnu Himself, whose appearance at the restored altar reconciles the entire cosmic family.
Neither Brahma nor Vishnu had attended Daksha's original `Brihaspati-sava` sacrifice, knowing that a rite performed in spite of Shiva was hollow at its core. Now, with Sati's body reduced to ashes on the sacrificial ground and Shiva's attendants driven back by the fiery Ribhu spirits conjured by Bhrigu's mantras, the word traveled swiftly to Mount Kailasa.
When Devarshi Narada reached Kailasa and reported that Sati had died because of her father's insult and that the ganas had been routed by the Ribhus, Lord Bhava was swept by a tempest of grief and cosmic fury (4.5.1–2). Biting his lip in wrath, his eyes blazing like the fires of universal dissolution, Shiva tore a single lock from his matted hair (`jata-lata`) that flashed like lightning and flames, stood up with a terrifying laugh (`hasan adbhutam`), and dashed the lock against the ground (4.5.3).
From that fallen lock sprang the colossal warrior Virabhadra (`4.5.4–5`). His body brushed the vault of the sky; he was dark as a raincloud, endowed with a thousand arms, glowing like three suns, with fierce fangs, fiery hair, and a garland of human skulls around his neck. Folding his hands before Shiva, he asked: "What command do you give me, O Mahadeva?" Shiva answered (`4.5.6`): "Born of my splendor, O warrior, march at the head of my hosts and destroy Daksha and his sacrifice (`daksham sa-yajnam jahi`)!"
Surrounding Virabhadra like roaring oceans, Rudra's armies hurtled toward Daksha's sacrificial enclosure with tridents in hand and anklets clanging (`4.5.7–9`). Inside the hall, the priests, the sacrificer's wife, and the assembled brahmanas looked toward the northern quarter and saw a towering storm of dust darkening the heavens even without wind (`4.5.10–11`). Does this dust come from bandits because righteous King Prachinabarhi is no longer ruling, the frightened women cried, or is the world dissolving today? Has not Daksha committed a terrible sin before his own daughters by driving gentle, guiltless Sati to her death and making an enemy of Lord Shiva, whose crooked brow at the end of the age scatters the stars from the sky (`4.5.12–13`)?
As violent portents shook the earth and sky, Rudra's army burst into the sacrificial hall (`4.5.14–19`). Tawny and dark warriors with faces like sharks moved through the compound: some smashed the eastern and western beams of the great pavilion (`prachina-vamsha`); some wrecked the kitchen (`patnishala`), the soma-pressing hall (`sadas`), the storage sheds (`havirdhana`), and the fire altars (`agnidhra`); some shattered the sacrificial pots, extinguished the fires, urinated in the soma troughs (`urinah`), tore down the boundary cords, and chased down the fleeing priests and gods with stones (`4.5.18–20`).
Then the main offenders paid in the exact coin of their earlier offense against Shiva (`4.5.21–23`). Maniman bound the officiating priest Bhrigu, and Virabhadra himself tore out Bhrigu's moustache and beard (`shmashruni`), because Bhrigu had smiled and twitched his moustache when Daksha cursed Shiva in the assembly. Virabhadra flung the sun-god Bhaga to the ground and plucked out both his eyes in wrath, because Bhaga had squinted and signaled to Daksha in approval while Shiva was being reviled. Just as Balarama later knocked out the teeth of the King of Kalinga during Aniruddha's gambling match, Virabhadra knocked out the teeth of the god Pushan (`4.5.22`), because Pushan had grinned and bared his teeth while Daksha mocked Mahadeva.
Sitting upon Daksha's chest, Virabhadra tried to sever his head with a razor-sharp weapon, but could not cut through the skin (`4.5.24`). Astonished to see his weapons rebound from the neck of a sacrificer protected by mantras, the Lord of the Pramathas resorted to the method used for sacrificial animals (`pashu-marana-yogena`), twisted and severed Daksha's head from his trunk while the bhutas roared "Well done!", cast the severed head into the southern sacrificial fire (`dakshinagnau`), burned the remaining buildings to ashes, and marched back to Kailasa (`4.5.25–26`).
Battered by spears and swords, their limbs bleeding and their pride crushed, the defeated gods, priests, and members of the assembly fled to Svayambhuva Brahma (`4.6.1–2`). Bowing before the creator, they recounted everything that had happened. Brahma, who along with Lord Narayana had known what would come and had deliberately stayed away from Daksha's sacrifice, gave them a candid rebuke (`4.6.3–7`). It is never leads to auspiciousness, he told them, to retaliate against a master capable of sustaining life when one has provoked him first; yet you have offended an even greater being—Lord Shiva, the spotless sharer of the sacrificial offering, the self of all creatures (`bhutatman`), seated in eternal peace (`4.6.4–5`). Your only recourse now is to fall at his lotus feet with pure hearts and beg forgiveness for your harsh words before his remaining wrath consumes the worlds!
Leading the devas, pitris, and Prajapatis, Brahma journeyed from Satyaloka to Mount Kailasa (4.6.8–32). Maitreya pauses for twenty-four verses to paint the serene majesty of Shiva's abode: a realm rich with desire-trees, rivers pulsing with the fragrance of mandara lotuses where celestial women bathe, forests where peacocks, cuckoos, and bees sing, and hermitages surrounding the lake Alaka and the Saugandhika lotus grove flushed by the heavenly Ganga falling from Sati's feet. Beneath a giant banyan tree (`maha-vata`) a hundred yojanas tall whose vast shade knew neither heat nor sorrow, they found Lord Shiva seated in deep composure like the sage Sanat-kumara himself—the shelter of paramahamsas, wearing an antelope skin, ashes, a crescent moon, and matted hair, with one foot resting on his left knee, a rosary (`akshamala`) on his wrist, and his fingers held in the teaching mudra (`tarka-mudra`) as he expounded the truth of Brahman to Narada and the Siddhas (4.6.33–39).
As soon as the gods bowed from afar, Shiva rose in respect for his father Brahma and bowed his head—even as the Siddhas, Maharshis, and Narada bowed to Shiva (`4.6.40–41`). With a smile, Brahma offered a hymn (`4.6.42–53`): I know you as the Lord of the universe, the source of Prakriti and Purusha and the womb of the absolute Brahman beyond them, who creates, maintains, and dissolves the worlds like a spider (`urnanabhih`) spinning its web (`4.6.42–43`). It was you who ordained the Vedic sacrifice through Daksha as your instrument to preserve dharma and righteousness (`4.6.44`); those who are bound by attachment and anger see multiplicity where great souls see only the Lord (`4.6.46–47`). Having missed their rightful share at the ruined rite, let the sacrifice be restored by your grace (`4.6.50–53`): let Daksha live again, let Bhaga regain his eyes, let Bhrigu's beard grow back, let Pushan have teeth, and let the remaining portion of the sacrifice (`uchchishta`) be yours in perpetuity!
Laughing gently at Brahma's words, Lord Mahadeva replied (`4.7.1–5`): "O great Prajapati, I neither remember nor dwell upon the offense committed by ignorant folk deluded by the Lord's maya; I merely administered discipline to those whose vision was clouded, just as a father corrects his own foolish children!" Then Shiva decreed the exact terms of restoration (`4.7.3–5`). Because Daksha's head has been burned to ashes, let him have the face of a sacrificial goat (`basta-mukha`); let the god Mitra see his sacrificial share with his own eye for Bhaga; let toothless Pushan eat offerings of ground flour (`pishta-bhuj`) through the teeth of the sacrificer (`yajamana`); let the gods whose limbs are whole heal after gifting him the remaining portion of the rite; and let the priests and adhvaryus with broken arms work through the hands of the Ashvins (`Ashvibhyam`) and Pushan, while Bhrigu wears the beard of the sacrificial goat (`basta-shmashruh`).
Rejoicing that Rudra was appeased ("Sadhu, sadhu!"), the sages and gods invited Shiva himself to the sacrificial ground and returned with Brahma (`4.7.6–7`). Doing exactly as Bhava had instructed, they joined the head of the sacrificial animal (`savaniya-pashoh shirah`) to Daksha's headless trunk (`4.7.8`). The moment the head was attached and Rudra glanced upon him with compassion, Daksha woke as if rising from sleep (`supta ivabudhat`) and saw standing before him the very son-in-law whom he had once reviled in hatred (`4.7.9`).
His mind once polluted like an autumn puddle was now washed clean as crystal by the sight of Bhava (`4.7.10`). Overcome with love and longing for his lost daughter Sati, Daksha tried to speak, choked with tears, steadied his heart with effort, and offered a deeply moving prayer (`4.7.11–15`): "Though I wronged you by insulting your greatness, O Lord, you did me the greatest favor (`anugrahah`) by punishing me! Even when a brahmana falls from his vows, neither you nor Hari abandons him; how then could you neglect ignorant ritualists? To awaken me when my eyes of true sight were ruined by false pride in caste, austerity, and learning, you took up the rod of chastisement (`danda`) in supreme compassion—how can I ever repay you?"
With Brahma and Shiva's blessing, the priests kindled the fires again and chanted the `Purodasha` hymns in three pitches (`tri-kapala`) to purify the arena contaminated by Virabhadra's assault (`4.7.16–17`). The moment the sacrificer Daksha meditated in a purified heart upon the Supreme Person while the adhvaryu held the oblation of ghee, Lord Narayana—the protector of the universe—appeared directly in the sky (`4.7.18–23`). Dark as a raincloud, clad in blazing yellow silk, riding on the shoulders of Garuda (`Stotra-vaha` / `Brihad-ratha`) whose dark wings are the hymns of the Sama Veda, His eight arms holding conch, wheel, lotus, arrow, bow, shield, sword, and club, attended by Sunanda, Nanda, Brahma, and Shiva, the Lord shone so brightly that the sun and all lights faded (`4.7.18–23`).
Standing with folded hands while their bodies trembled in awe, one voice after another praised Him (`4.7.24–47`): Daksha compared Him to the pure consciousness undefiled by vessels of clay and water (`4.7.26`); the priests thanked Him for protecting the sacrifice abandoned because of Nandishvara's curse (`4.7.27`); the assembly members described the perilous forest of samsara (`4.7.28`); Rudra declared that meditating on His spotless lotus feet fulfills every desire (`4.7.29`); Bhrigu, Brahma, Indra, the wives of the sacrificers, the Rishis, the Siddhas, the Lokapalas, the Yogeshvaras, and the Vedas in person each offered a verse of homage.
Looking with affectionate grace upon Daksha, Lord Hari spoke the crowning teaching of the episode (`4.7.50–54`): "I myself am Brahma and I am Sharva (Shiva), the supreme cause of the universe, the Self and Witness (`atma sakshi`), self-effulgent and free of attributes (`nirvisesha`). Entering into my own maya constituted of the three gunas, I create, maintain, and dissolve all things and receive the names Brahma, Vishnu, and Shankara according to each function (`4.7.50–51`). Notice how a person sees neither his own head, hands, and feet nor another being as separate from his own self; in the very same way, one who is unbewildered does not look upon the three of us—who are the one Self of all beings—as separate (`na bhidam achakshte`), and thereby attains eternal peace (`shantim richchhati`, `4.7.52–54`)!"
Instructed thus by Bhagavan, Daksha worshiped Hari with the primary offering, offered Shiva his rightful sacrificial share, and bathed cleanly in the concluding `avabhritha` waters (`4.7.55–57`). And Sati, who had cast off her former body at her father's altar, was born again to the mountain king Himavan (`Parvata-raja`) and his queen Mena—returning to her beloved Lord Shiva as Ambika (Parvati), never to be separated from him again (`4.7.58–61`).
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