A story · Shiva Purana · The Wars

Shukra Swallowed

Shiva Purana 2.5.47 · read aloud in the app

The story · English

Vyasa asked Sanatkumara to tell it again, and at length. In that dreadful battle, Shukra, the learned teacher of the demons, had been swallowed by Shiva. What did the great yogi do inside the belly of the wielder of the Pinaka bow? Why did the fire of that belly not burn him, though it burns at the world's end? How did he get out, and how did he win the knowledge that turns death back? And how did Andhaka, too, come down from the trident and gain leadership of Shiva's hosts? Sanatkumara remembered Shiva's lotus feet and answered. He called the tale nectar, and praised Vyasa as a foremost devotee of Shiva. Then he began, with the war between Shankara and Andhaka still raging.

In that war the victory swung back and forth. The mighty demons won for a time, then the bright victory went to Shiva's attendants, the pramathas. Andhaka the great demon heard this and was downcast, and he began to ask himself how he could win. He drew back from the fighting, and alone, quickly, he went to Shukra. He climbed down from his chariot, bowed to his teacher, and spoke with folded hands. He reminded Shukra how the demons had always stood in his shelter, how the gods feared them, and how they had broken the pramatha ranks by his grace. Now, he said, look at Hunda and the other fallen commanders, struck down and dead. You drank the smoke of sparks for a thousand years and won a knowledge. The time for it has come.

Andhaka asked that all of them see the fruit of that knowledge today, and that Shukra, in mercy, raise up the dead demons. Shukra listened with a troubled heart. He weighed what to do. To fight the pramathas himself did not suit him, yet those who took refuge with him must not be abandoned. He settled it within, accepted Andhaka's words, smiled a little, and spoke, with his mind fixed calmly on Shiva's lotus feet. What you say is all true, he said. I won this knowledge for the demons' sake, drinking the harsh smoke for a thousand years. It came from the Lord and always brings joy to kinsmen. The demons crushed by the pramathas I will raise as a farmer raises withered crops. In a moment you will see them stand, whole and unwounded, as if waking from sleep.

Shukra then recited the knowledge, thinking of each demon in turn and remembering the Lord of knowledge with devotion. At the mere recitation they all rose at once, warriors with weapons in hand, as if they had only slept. Hunda and the other great demons roared like clouds full of water, and they went back to the fight, bellowing fearsome cries, unafraid among the pramathas. Nandi and the other pramathas, proud in battle, were amazed. They reasoned that the whole matter must be reported to Shiva. Nandi, son of Shilada, could not bear what Shukra had done. He came to Shiva, said victory to him, and told him: our feats of war, hard even for Indra and the gods, are undone. Shukra, with his knowledge that gives life back to the dead, has sent Tuhunda, Hunda, Kumbha, Jambha and the rest back from Yama's house. Where is our victory, Lord, where is our peace?

Shiva smiled and answered Nandi. Go quickly, he said, and bring that best of the twice-born out from among the demons, as a hawk snatches a quail from its nest. Nandi roared like a lion and a bull together, plunged through the army, and came to the place where the lamp of Bhrigu's line stood guarded. The whole host of demons was around Shukra, with nooses, swords, trees, stones and mountains in their hands. Nandi threw them into confusion and carried Shukra off, as a sharabha carries off an elephant. Shukra's clothes were loose, his ornaments fallen, his hair undone. The demons followed with lion-roars, and rained down thunderbolts, tridents, swords, axes and discs on Nandi like clouds. He burned hundreds of those weapons with fire from his mouth.

Nandi came to Shiva's side, with the enemy battered behind him, and said: this is Shukra, Lord. Shiva took Shukra as one takes an offering from a pure fire. He said nothing. He put the poet into his mouth like a fruit. The demons cried out in grief, again and again, and the cry rose loud. Vyasa asked what Andhaka and his chiefs did once Rudra had swallowed Shukra. Sanatkumara answered that the demons lost all hope of winning. They were like elephants without trunks, bulls without horns, gods without a leader, Brahmins without study, a wife without her husband. Seeing them lose heart, Andhaka spoke to Hunda and Tuhunda and the rest. Nandi has cheated us, he said, taking the poet by force. All our courage, strength, glory and splendour were taken when Shukra was taken.

Shame on us, Andhaka said, that we did not save our teacher, who is able to do everything. So fight the enemy now, without delay. I will remember Shukra's lotus feet and kill the pramathas with Nandi. I will cut down these helpless ones, together with the gods and Indra, and free Shukra, as a yogi frees the soul from its deeds. Or if that lord by yoga comes out of Shiva's body himself, we will be kept safe. The demons, deep as thunder, answered without pity, having resolved to die. If our lives are fixed, the pramathas cannot kill us. If not, why leave our master in battle? Those who desert their lord go to the realm of blind darkness. They beat the war drums and crushed the pramathas in battle.

Arrows, swords, thunderbolts, stone clubs, maces, spears and pestles flew on both sides, and the slaughter was great. The twang of bows, the trumpets, the trumpeting elephants and neighing horses made a great uproar that filled the space between heaven and earth. The armies lay streaked with blood, standards broken. Then Nandi and the pramathas struck hard and won. Seeing his army scattered, Andhaka drove his chariot at them himself, and pierced each of them with as many arrows as they had hairs on the body. Skanda, Vinayaka, Nandi, Somanandi, Naigameya and Vaishakha rose in anger and fought, and Andhaka was blinded by them. Meanwhile Shukra, within Shambhu's belly, heard the din. He wandered like wind in a house with no door, looking for a gap, and saw the seven worlds, the gods and the war below. A hundred years he searched, and found no gap, as a wicked man finds no flaw in a pure one.

By Shambhu's yoga, in the form of seed, Shukra recited a great mantra and came out of the belly by the way of the male organ. He bowed to Shiva. Gauri took him as her son, and so he became free of obstacles. Shiva smiled and said: since you came out of my linga like seed, Bhrigu's son, you are called Shukra, and you are my son. Go. Shukra, bright as the sun, bowed again and praised him with folded hands: endless in feet, forms and heads, how can I praise you. Then, at Shiva's command, he entered the demon army like the moon entering a line of clouds. Sanatkumara gave the mantra, beginning Om, namaste deveshaya, naming Shiva by hundreds of titles. Then Andhaka was seen thin and dry upon the trident, meditating on Shiva. Shiva wet him with divine nectar and lowered him from the point. Andhaka bowed, asked pardon for his sins, even against Parvati, and asked only to see her as mother, and live among the hosts, free of hatred. Shiva granted it, and Andhaka became leader of his hosts.

Sanatkumara then told how Shukra first won the knowledge. He went to Varanasi, set up a linga there, and dug a lovely well before it. For five thousand years he bathed Shiva in milk, curds and other sweet liquids, anointed him, and offered flowers and leaves. He praised him with thousands of names. When the Lord did not turn to him, Shukra took a harder vow and drank the smoke of sparks for a thousand years. Shiva came from the linga, brighter than a thousand suns, and said: ask. Shukra praised him with eight verses to his eight forms. Shiva raised him up and gave him the knowledge called Mritasanjivani, the knowledge that gives life back to the dead, and made him the planet Venus. He named the linga Shukreshvara. Then Shiva entered the linga, and Shukra went home content. Sanatkumara asked Vyasa what else he wished to hear.

कथा · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Andhaka · Shiva Purana 2.5.43
• Next: Bana's Thousand Arms · Shiva Purana 2.5.54
• All of Shiva Purana · Ask Krishna about it

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