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Kaarttikeya

[V-Raamaayan, 4/4/8]
Kaarttikeya is the younger son of Shiv Jee from Gangaa - the elder sister of Paarvatee. The elder son of Shiv Jee is Ganesh Jee from Paarvatee Jee. Kaarttikeya has several names - Shanmukh, Shadmukh, Skand, Kumaar, Subramanyam.

As the legend goes on, when a long time passed to Shiv Jee's marriage (read here the story of Kaam Dev) and no son was born to him then Devtaa went to Shiv Jee and requested him for the son to kill Taarakaasur, as according to Brahmaa Jee's Vardaan, he was to be killed by Shiv Jee's son only and at the age of seven days only.

Hearing Devtaa's request Shiv Jee got ready to release His semen, but He asked Devtaa as "who will bear my semen?". Devtaa said "Gangaa will bear it." So Mahaa Dev released His semen and Gangaa bore it. But it was so powerful that she couldn't bear its heat. She asked Agni Dev as where she should keep it. Now there was a Van in the foothills of Himaalaya called Shar Van (forest of reed). She left it there. Its heat melted the ice of Himaalaya, but nothing could flow out on the Earth, because it contained two essentials of Shiv Jee - Amrit (Ambrosia) and Halaahal (poison) which Shiv Jee kept in his throat since Saagar Manthan (churning of Milky Ocean) event.

Divinity does not give absolute Amrit or Halaahal to mortals, so they stayed in that Shar Van. So each reed stem became a straw and contained both Amrit and Halaahal. And from the same forest Kaarttikeya emerged. When Kaarttikeya was born, six Krittikaa took care of him and breast-fed him, that is why he is called Kaarttikeya. As he was born to kill Taarakaasur, he killed him on the 6th day of his birth.

The Meaning of AUM

There are many stories about Kaarttikeya. Once many Devtaa including Shiv Jee, Brahmaa Jee, and Kaarttikeya were sitting in Indra's court. Bhringee Apsaraa was dancing. Shiv Jee merely raised His eyebrows to stop the dance then looked at Kumaar once then at Brahmaa. Brahmaa Jee immediately stood up and spoke - "You asked me to start the education of Kumaar, so I did and first I taught him "AUM". He immediately asked the meaning of "AUM". I said you should not ask the meaning of "AUM" before learning it to write. 

He held my hand and he was about to beat me. Who killed Taarakaasur at the age of 6 days certainly wouldn't care for me so I explained the meaning of "AUM" in 12,000 verses but he was not satisfied. He said to me "Brahmaa, you don't know". He is standing before you. I don't know more than I have already explained." Shiv Jee got very happy to know about his son's intelligence. Then Shiv explained its meaning to him in 1,200 thousand (12 Lakh) verses. Kaarttikeya said - "It was wrong on my part to say that Brahmaa didn't know."

Shiv Jee understood Kaartikeya's sarcasm, that he was implying that Shiv Jee was also ignorant about the meaning of Aum. He got angry at this but was happy too in his heart to see his son's  intelligence. He asked "Then how many meanings of AUM are there of this word?" Kaarttikeya said - "12 million (1 Crore and 20 Lakh)."

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