Jalandhar – Part 2

In the first part, we read about Jalandhar challenging Lord Indra and subsequently winning Lord Vishnu on his side. The gods then approached Lord Shiva to help them out.

When the gods approached Lord Shiva to bail them out, Shiva with the help of Narada, hatched a plot. As part of the plot, Narada went to meet Jalandhar.

Narada was received with great respect. Narada was quite pleased with the splendour and grandeur of Jalandhar, but then he went on to say, that all the grandeur was nothing in comparison to that of Lord Shiva’s. Also, all the grandeur was meaningless without a consort like Parvati. Jalandhar asked Narada as to where could he find her. Narada immediately advised him to seek Parvati at Mount Kailash. Hearing the celestial ascetic say this, Jalandhar fell in the trap and immediately sent a messenger, Rahu, to Lord Shiva asking for Parvati.

Some versions say that once Jalandhar was praising the beauty of Vrinda. Feeling both flattered and embarrassed, she told him, that if he was smitten by just her beauty, then what would he do, if he saw the celestial beauty of Parvati. It was this statement of hers that made Jalandhar get curious about Parvati and longed to see her.

As soon as Shiva heard the message from Rahu, he got angry and in his rage a dangerous devouring being emerged from his eyebrows. This being was breathing fire and raging with terror. The sight put fear in the heart of Rahu and he begged Shiva to save him. Seeing this Shiva ordered the being to leave Rahu. But the being was created to devour Rahu and so was hungry and asked Shiva that his hunger had to be satiated and since he was the creator, he needed to resolve the same. Hearing this, Shiva simply said – “Go ahead and eat yourself”. No sooner had Shiva said this, that the being started eating itself starting from its feet, to body and then arms. Just when only the face was left, that Shiva stopped him and was so impressed with his devotion towards his creator, that Shiva blessed it and named it Kirti-mukha or the face of glory and gave it a place of honour on the ramparts of the temple. (To read more about the meaning of such symbols, please refer to my article - Mahashivratri - Part 2 )

Rahu went back and narrated the whole incident. This angered Jalandhar and he decided to wage a war on Shiva and a fierce battle took place between the two armies. When Jalandhar realised that the army of Shiva was gaining ground, through his powers, he created beautiful apsaras, to distract the army of Shiva. Soon Shiva’s armies were busy staring at the lovely damsels and started losing focus on the battle.

Taking advantage of this, Jalandhar assumed the form of Lord Shiva and approached Parvati. When Parvati saw the lustful eyes of Jalandhar, she immediately recognised him and was angry and upset. She managed to immobilise him, but was hurt and felt violated. She approached Lord Vishnu and urged him to teach Jalandhar a lesson for this single act of his.

We will next see what Lord Vishnu does on the request of Parvati. Keep reading…