Life: The Journey Continues…

      I promised in a previous post to explain in this blog, the origins of Deepavali or Diwali in some detail. Recently, a related festival, Ramanavami, came and went (’twas from the 19th to the 27th of March this year); which reminded me of this promise. I guess now’s as good a time as any to make good on it. There are two main incidents which are taken to be the reasons Hindus celebrate Diwali. In South India, they’ll tell you it’s to commemorate the defeat of Narakasura by Lord Krishna. In the north, you’ll hear that Diwali celebrates Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya and his coronation after triumphing over Ravana and winning back Sita. There’s also another smaller story about the demon Bali, but we won’t go there.

      Okay, so the first question is naturally, who are all these people? Hehe… I do love a good tale! And I’ve always loved mythology.

      Let’s start with Narakasura. Heck, let’s start with his name. You know the comic book character Hellboy? Well as a kid, Narakasura was the original Hellboy. Mercifully, no copyright scandal ensued over the use of the name. ‘Naraka’ is Sanskrit for ‘hell’ (from which, by the way, comes the Malay neraka, of the same meaning) and ‘asura‘ means ‘demon’. His other name is Bhaumasura, bhauma meaning son of Bhumi, the Earth. And when I say son of the Earth, I mean the Earth personified as a godess, like Gaia is for the Greeks. Gee, I guess that makes him the original bumiputera as well! =P

      Okay, so the Earth was his mom. Who was the proud father? There are two possible answers to this. Probably because there are at least six main, slightly differing versions of Naraka’s story, told in the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Harivamsha, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavat Purana, and Kalika Upapurana. These probably look like a mouthful, and they are, but they’re all ancient Indian books. The Ramayana I’ll be coming to in a bit, actually. But back to Naraka’s father. So one version is that Lord Vishnu, God of Preservation, was the father, and another version says a demon named Hiranyaksha… erm, did the honours. I say this because in both versions he was kinda born… as an accident.

      Lord Vishnu merely had contact with the Earth, and a child was born. He was actually saving the Earth from Hiranyaksha, who also merely held the Earth. Though in this case, since it was against her will, you could consider it rape. A side note: People in Hindu mythology all have kick-ass names. Hiranyaksha means Goldeneye (hiranya = gold, aksha = eye)! Another potential copyright scandal which thankfully never took place.

      The Earth asked Lord Vishnu to grant Naraka long life, and great power, which He did without hesitation. As a kid, Naraka was actually pretty loveable. He was a goody two-shoes, mummy’s boy, even if he did have a scary name. All this changed when he fell into some bad company. He befriended another demon named Bana, who made Naraka realise what he could accomplish with his power. So he became power-hungry and went around building up an army from scratch.

     His first order of business was to wage war on another demon named Ghatakasura. He conquered Ghatakasura’s kingdom of Pragjyotisha (modern day Assam) and established it as his own. Then he went on a military conquest to… you guessed it folks, rule the world (cue evil genius laughter)! Which he did. Next, as is typical with all megalomaniacs, he got bored of that, and took on a new challenge: Conquering Heaven itself! Indra (the Hindu version of Zeus) and his demigods had to eventually yield Heaven up to Naraka and his fighting Uruk-Hai. Whoops, did I just say that? Hehe, but you get the idea. Anyway, after this, his riegn of opression went full swing.

      Indra and the gods were understandably pissed. They went to Vishnu and asked Him to set things right, since He was probably the only one powerful enough to do it, and Naraka (or at least his power) was kind of His fault to begin with. Vishnu, much in the same way big bosses take their time when addressing employee complaints, said He was busy and would take care of it later. Naw, just kidding. Actually, the delay was because He’d guaranteed Naraka’s longevity. He said He’d be born on Earth as a man named Krishna, and deal with Naraka then.

      Okay, time to introduce Krishna. Krishna was a historical figure who has suffered heavy mythologisation. Haha, cool… I just made up a new word! Anyway, Krishna’s full life and exploits are too much to tell even briefly here. But here’s what I will say. He was born to a couple named Vasudeva and Devaki, who belonged to a people named the Yadavas. He lived about 5000 years ago, according to the bunch of historians that I’ve come to believe. The Yadava clan was quite small and initially they weren’t major players in India. But they were related to one of the largest, most powerful royal dynasties at the time, and they eventually settled down in the island of Dvaraka, somewhere offshore modern Gujerat.

      Krishna was an expert warrior, an astute politician, a seasoned diplomat, a learned scholar, and a wise philosopher. Though He wasn’t the king of the Yadavas, He carved out during His lifetime, not only their history, but that of the Indian subcontinent. But perhaps His greatest contribution to us is the Bhagavad Gita, largely considered to be the most important Hindu Scripture. Many denominations of Christianity consider Jesus Christ to be both fully God (though in the aspect of the Son) and fully man. Hinduism has the same concept of God coming down to Earth in human form, and Krishna is one of the two most famous examples of this.

      Okay, back to mythology and how Krishna defeated Narakasura. Naraka had recently stolen the earrings of Aditi, mother of the gods, as well as the umbrella of Varuna (the Hindu version of Poseidon). He also just recently took over a favourite pleasure-garden of the gods on Mount Mandara. So Indra and co. went complaining to Krishna. So Krishna went flying on Garuda, (the giant eagle who is Lord Vishnu’s… erm, noble steed, if you will) to Pragjyotisha. Oddly enough, He decided to take His wife Satyabhama with Him. Just for fun la… probably to show what a peice of cake this job was gonna be for Him. And to cut a long story short, he killed Naraka. Though, one version says Satyabhama killed him. Anyway, at his death, Naraka sort of realised the error of his ways (kinda late, no?) and asked that his death anniversary (to him the aniversary of his turning away from the Dark Side… hehe) be celebrated. And viola! That celebration is Deepavali!

      Okay… so that’s the South Indian explanation. What of the North Indian version? And what of Ramanavami and the Ramayana? Well, I’d initially planned on putting everyting in one post, but seeing how long this has turned out to be, I figure it’s probably better to dedicate a separate post to the story of Rama.

      Some final notes before I sign off: -

1. Naraka may be an actual historical person too. His son, Bhagadatta, has an interesting part to play in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Bhagadatta as described in the Mahabharata is the OLD warrior king of Pragjyotisha. In the Mahabharata war, he fights on the side of the bad guys of the story, the Kauravas. He’s so old that supposedly the wrinkles on his forhead and eyelids need to be tied with handkerchiefs so as not to obstruct his vision. He was still one heck of a warrior then, though long past his prime… and Arjuna (one of the five heroes of the story) has to shoot his handkerchiefs and blind him in order to defeat him in battle. Bhagadatta is mentioned to be the son of Naraka here too, though Bhagadatta as described in the Mahabharata war, is a human, not a demon.

2. The Bhagavad Gita is essentially a conversation between Krishna and his friend Arjuna, just before the Mahabharata war. Krishna agreed to be Arjuna’s charioteer in the war. When the two armies were arrayed in battle formation, and ready to fight, Arjuna asked Krishna to bring him to the centre of the battlefield, so he could get a good look at both sides. Not that he didn’t know it before, but he saw then his relatives, teachers, and friends from just about all the kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent. Only then did it really sink in: He’d have to fight and kill people like his grandfather, teacher, cousins, uncles, and friends to win this war. He started questioning whether this was the right thing to do, and said he’d rather forget the war altogether. Krishna tried to encourage him and remind him of his duty to fight. And since we make quantum leaps from one thing to another in daily conversation, Krishna’s little pep-talk to Arjuna eventually came to cover the most profound philosophy in Hinduism. Krishna even revealed His divinity to Arjuna. This little pep-talk is what we now call the Bhagavad Gita. Eventually, Arjuna was encouraged and no longer confused. He went on to fight the war and help his side win, as is told in the Mahabharata.

3. It’s well known that Deepavali is the festival of light. The word deepavali itself (more correctly spelled as Dipavali, but I follow the popular spelling here) literally means an array of lights. ‘Dipa‘ is Sanskrit for ‘lamp’ or ‘light’, while I’m guessing ‘vali‘ in this context refers to the ridge of a thatched roof. Traditionally, you’d line up the lamps on these ridges, and on the floor/ground surrounding the house compound. As already mentioned in my previous post which birthed this one, it celebrates the victory of good over evil; of light over darkness. More important than all the story-telling, is that we should be reminded to constantly win this battle within ourselves.

      Yep, that’s all for now, folks! Hope you found it worth the read!