November is the month for Subramanyam; son of Shiva and brother of Ganesha. He is known by many different names, Skanda, Murugan and Subramanyam being the most common. The images of him always include the vel (spear) and a flag (dwaja) with a rooster on it.
During some preparation for this month’s Skanda Shasti yagyas I came across a story about him that made me laugh out loud. It is from one of the puranas (Bagavata Purana maybe?) and goes like this;
Because he is the son of Shiva and Parvati he is immensely good looking with a strong male character. Astrologically he embodies the essence of Aries and the planet Mars. Impulsive, enthusiastic, charming, full of energy, and of course ready to fight at any time. His main purpose was to kill a particular demon who was causing trouble…but there was time before then when he was living in the heavens.
He was so good looking that none of the goddesses could possibly resist his charms, and so he spent his time sleeping with all the wives of the gods! Eventually, this started to cause problems, and his mother Parvati took him aside to have a few words about his behavior. “You need to stop this behavior,” she said. “Why?” was his reply, and he refused to change his errant ways.
So Parvati, whose power is unmatched in the universe, made it so that when he looked into the eyes of a woman all he saw was that the essence of the woman was that of his mother. So no matter where he went, he saw the universal mother as the essence of their soul.
Problem solved…behavior changed.