Valentines Day, Manmada & Shiva Ratri

Valentines Day, Manmada & Shiva Ratri

Valentine’s Day and Maha Shiva Ratri fall within a span of few days this year (2023). It occurred to me that in our tradition, Valentine’s Day can probably be associated with Manmada or Kamadeva, and it reminds me of a beautiful chapter from the Balakanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana.


Rama and Lakshmana have left Ayodhya with Rishi Vishwamitra enroute to Sidhdhashrama.  On the way, they come to the confluence of Rivers Ganga and Sarayu (modern day Ghaghara River). They approach an ancient ashrama where innumerable rishis have have been doing tapas for thousands of years. Seeing that ashrama and its intense spiritual energy, Rama asks Vishwamitra about the history of this incredible place. Vishwamitra smiles and tells him that thousands of years ago manmada roamed this area in his body. During the same time, Sthaanu (Shiva) used to do intense tapasya in this very same ashrama. One day Shiva got up from his samadhi and as he was going somewhere with his ganas, manmadha attacked him. Shiva looked at him in rage and in the fierce heat of his vision manmadas limbs started melting and finally his entire body vaporized. He thus became "Ananga" - one without an anga. And the region Manmadha lost his Anga started being known as Anga desa (Most know of Anga from Mahabharata. Duryodhana makes Karna the king of Anga).


The beauty of this story is the underlying world view of bharatiya thought. The two eyes see the material world. The third eye is the awakening or the spiritual insight into the nature of our existence, one that comes from viveka and vairagya. Manmadha represents the tendency to become subservient to our indriyas and thus pulls us away from vairagya and our quest for kaivalyam. I thought it was an interesting anecdote worthy of sharing.


Har Har Mahadeva!
Happy Maha Shiva Ratri!!


Here is a link to my parayanam of this story from Valmiki's Ramayana for anyone who may be interested in listening and following it in Sanskrit.


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