Bhramari
Hi everyone! Okay, so this week will be a little different than the last couple of weeks as Shiva is busy tending to his duties. Let me first introduce myself. My name is Parvati, the goddess of love, fertility, and the Mother Goddess. You may also see my name as Gowri or Gauri, and of as you already know, I am Shiva's wife as well.
My appearance also holds much significance as it does with Shiva. You will often see me wearing a red sari and near my son Ganesha (as you probably saw last week, I hold my son very dearly). However, I also like to take other forms such as the great Kali, the destroyer of evil, and the protector of the innocent. Shiva asked me to retell one of my favorite stories since he was busy, so I will try not to get off track. Now for this week, I decided I decided to introduce one of my more minor manifestations. Everyone knows the famous Kali or Durga, but not many know of Bhramari.
We begin first with a demon who could not stand the gods. His name was Arunasura, and he harbored deep hate toward the gods, so much so that he desired to rid of us. Yet, as merely a demon he nowhere possessed the power to act on this hatred. Ironically, there was only one way to derive the very power to defeat the gods: from the gods themselves. Thus, Arunasura set out to devote himself to Brahma, the creator and the one god he believed would reward him for his devotion. He set out to banks of the Ganges near the Himalayas and began a 40,000-year penance. For the first 10,000 years, Arunasura only ate dry leaves; for the second ten thousand years, he only drank drops of water; for the third ten thousand years, he only took in what he inhaled from the air. Finally, for the last ten thousand years, he consumed nothing at all. Oh and I forgot to mention that he was also meditating and repeating religious verses the whole time, so it was not like he was doing much either.
After he finally reached the last year of his tapasya (essentially inner cleaning and meditation), his body began to see the effects of being so severely neglected. He was barely breathing and was so withered that his vessels and nerves could be seen. However, Brahma had seen enough and descended onto the Himalayas to meet his loyal devotee. He asked Arunasura what he desired from the Creator, and Arunasura answered by asking to be immortal to all attacks from two and four- legged creatures. Brahma, having been so impressed by Arunasura's 40,000 year penance, gave him this protection.
Yes, I am sure you all are wondering why a god would ever give a gift to a demon, especially one who hated the gods so much. However, as gods, we must take care of our loyal followers, and Arunasura was a loyal follower of Brahma. Nevertheless, he now possessed the powers he needed to conquer the gods. Arunasura called upon his fellow demons to join him in his attack, and they began their trek toward the Heavens.
Sure enough, the sight of a demon army marching to our abode startled the gods. Immediately a conference was held among the great gods, such as Indra, Vishnu, and my husband Shiva, to discuss how to defeat this army. I too was invited, but you see my son Ganesha could not be without his mother, so I had to stay at Mount Kailash. However, Aruasura and his army had already begun to ravage the Heavens. The gods retreated to Mount Kailash as it was the last region Arunasura did not have in his possession.
Arunasura's army arrived at Mount Kailash and began the trek uphill to finally defeat the gods. Shiva met them at the foothills, his trident at hand, ready to battle the evil demon. Shiva fought valiantly until Arunasura and his army began to surround him. Shiva knew of Brahma's gift, so he began to transform into the ferocious Sharabha, who had eight legs, but Arunasura captured him before his transformation. Now no one lay between my home and the gods and Arunusura's army. Yet, as Shiva was being captured, he called unto me to save him.
You see, I also knew of Arunasura's protection from two and four-legged creatures, so I had to be clever in how I appeared before him. I could not simply fight him in my natural state. As I arrived at the foothills, I began to transform. I gathered a mighty trident, mace, shield, and sword onto my four hands and called upon millions of bees, spiders, wasps, hornets onto my body. My transformation was complete; I was now Brahmari, the Goddess of Bees.
With my new and powerful form as well as my insect body, I unleashed an assault onto the demon army, destroying every one of them until only Arunasura remained. Sure a two or four-legged creature could not defeat him, but he had forgotten to take into account the many insects who were not considered part of those creatures. As Arunasura stood before me, knowing defeat was imminent, I sent forward all the insects to deliver the final blow. They rushed toward his body, ripping it piece by piece until he lay motionless in defeat. The demons were finally defeated, and the gods could return to their homes while I returned to Ganesha.
That is all for me, everyone! When Shiva told me he was making a website to share about our animal family members, I was excited to tell the world about Brahmari. Peope tend to forget about her when it comes to stories about me, but as you can see, she was instrumental in saving the gods. This will be the last of me for a while, but I encourage you all to check out the stories from previous weeks!
Author's Note: This week I decided to have Parvati narrate the story rather than Shiva as it was her form, Bhramari, that is the heroine in the story. Although her narration style was not as personable or humorous us as Shiva, I still felt it was important for her to retell the story and understand it from her point of view. Plus it also allowed me to introduce Parvati as a character to the reader and add more variety. In regard to the story, the plot is taken from the tenth book and thirteenth chapter of the Devi Bhagavata Purana. Overall, the plot remained the same, but I added aspects to connect all three stories together. For example, I mentioned Sharabha as a potential loophole to the two and four-legged protection Arunasura possessed. Additionally, I included some mentions of Ganesha to connect with last week's story and portray Parvati as the Mother Goddess. I also decided to answer a question that I had when I read the story at first. Personally, I was confused as to why the gods would give a gift to the demon, knowing how much he hated them. I decided to make it where Brahma valued the devotion more than perhaps knowing of Arunasura's underlying intentions.
Bibliography:
Bhramari from Devi Bhagavata Purana