I have always been fascinated by people who can look at the twinkling stars in the sky and so confidently point out ‘look that is the big dipper!’ I have struggled to identify anything! There I was, squinting very excitedly up at the sky one day, when my son, an amateur astronomer too, sauntered in and pointed out to a flickering star and said “That’s Mars!”
“How do you know?”
“Well, can’t you see it is red!” (Of course, it wasn’t!)
And that got me thinking about Mars the red planet, better known as Mangal.
Why was this planet considered red and angry?
While the origin of Mangal is disputed, one thing is taken as a given: The earth is his mother who conceived him out of Shiva’s sweat! But there are two complex narratives-
The first is where lord Shiva battled hard against a rakhshasa called Andhakasura and became so tired that he rested for while on the dusty soil and a few drops of sweat fell into the Earth. Before we go into Mother Earth’s reaction to this, it is important to understand who Andhakasura was and why Shiva had to exhaust himself fighting him.
Andhakasura had worked very hard to appease Shiva who, impressed by his efforts, asked him to name his gift or a boon of his choosing. Unfortunately,
Andhakasura asked for invincibility. Every drop of his blood on earth would bring a new Andhakasura into being. With this gift, Andhakasura went about destroying as much of the world as he could and Earth turned red with his blood.
All turned to Shiva for help. And a terrifying battle followed – the whole of creation was in turmoil. Earth wept, the rivers ran red and poison rained down from the skies. In the midst of the contest, Shiva sat down for a moment to rest and think. He shook his head in despair and sweat dripped of forehead falling on Earth. She heaved and shivered with deep emotion and brought forth Mangal, red from the blood-soaked earth. Mangal carried within himself the emotions that gave birth to him—anger and stress, but born of the Earth he valued humility and had had the ability to soak up all negativity as well.
But now Shiva had a battle-ready son on his side! Mangal soaked up Andhakasura’s blood, which brought the number of Asura clones springing up all over the universe, and gradually Shiva was able to get the better of the Asura. When Shiva turned to Mangal to thank him, he saw that he could never have been happy living on Earth as her child. And thus, Shiva decided to give him his own place in the milky way.
In the other narrative, the Angry Shiva stands in front of his helpless father-in-law Daksh seeking revenge for the death of his wife, Sati. As he sought to keep his temper under control, beads of sweat gathered on his brow, which dropped down on Earth as he bent down to pick up Sati’s body. His sweat scalds the earth and she creates a fiery red warrior, Mangal.
Shiva commands him to set everything on fire; Mangal bows and fulfills his duty singeing the world while Shiva dances his dance of destruction. As the world turns to cinders, Shiva calms down and so does Mangal, till he is just a red glowing ball, and Shiva places him in the firmament.
You can pick whichever narrative you want, but the truth is that Mangal is the Earth’s child. So close to us, that we even travel there. Maybe, he will be less menacing and we will be able to live there. Right now, He watches over us, getting us angry about things that should bother us and teaching us the essence of his mother Earth is humility and acceptance. His concern is often looked at with fear, but what is life without a touch of danger?
By Sheila Bhattacharya
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