Yamuna becomes Kalindi

 

Yamuna becomes Kalindi

We had seen earlier how our Puranas are not just stories but blessings. The blessings could be a mantra, a type of worship, a temple or a river. This is the story of river Yami (also known as Yamuna) mentioned in the Vamana Purana.

The river Yamuna was white and pure and was gurgling happily down the plains. Yamuna was the daughter of Lord Surya and Sanjana and the sister of Lord Yama. She was a happy person, well loved by her father and was protected by her brother. Yamuna also known as Yami loved prancing through the plains and was proud of her milky white waters. So how did she become dark?

Daksha Prajapati did not like his son in law, Shiva. Daksha had always felt that his daughter Sati was too beautiful and too good for an ascetic wearing tiger skin and carrying skulls. He felt that Shiva cheated him by coming uninvited to Sati’s swayamvara. Daksha could not do anything but give his consent as it was a swayamvara and every one was watching. Sati and Shiva left for Kailasha after the wedding.

After some time, Daksha wanted to do a yagna. He wanted to invite all the Devas and do a yagna that no one had done before. Daksha decided to purposely leave Shiva out of the invitee list to teach him a lesson. Of course, the news of the yagna reached Lord Shiva and Sati through the well intended trouble maker Narada.

Sati was torn between her father and Lord Shiva. She wanted to go for the yagna uninvited. Shiva warned Sati not to attend the yagna as they were not invited. He told his wife “You will not be treated well. Why do you want to go a place where you are not invited?” Sati still went to the yagna. Unfortunately, Daksha is drunk with arrogance and ignorance. He was happy to see his daughter, but still insulted his son in law, Lord Shiva. Angered by this, his daughter Sati, leaves her body.

Shiva’s army, the Shiva ganas, angered by the death of their lady, destroyed the yagna and hurt and killed the people in the yagna. Lord Brahma and Vishnu realised that leaving a yagna half finished will not be good for the universe. They requested Shiva to control his ganas and remove the body of Sati so that the yagna could proceed. Shiva agreed reluctantly. He did punish Daksha by cutting off his head. At the request of the Devas, he replaced Daksha’s head with that of a goat’s so that he could conclude the yagna. He picked up the body of Sati and left the place.

This created the next problem. Angry and sad, Shiva did an akala (akala means untimely) thandavam with Sati’s body in his hand. The akala thandavam created complete dissonance all over the universe. Vishnu realised that unless and until the physical body of Sati is held by Shiva, he will not move on. So slowly dancing to the same rhythm as Shiva, he cut off the various parts of the body using the Sudarshana chakra.

At some point, Shiva realised that he was no longer carrying the body of Sati. Angered at this, he cursed “Whoever removed the body of my beloved Sati from me shall suffer separation.” Once he cooled down, he realised that he had actually cursed Vishnu. Shiva felt sorry as he was very fond of Vishnu. Vishnu was unperturbed as usual. He said “Thank you. This is going to happen to me some time, may not be as Vishnu, but in one of my avatars.”  Shiva was still repentant and told Vishnu “When that happens and you get separated from your consort, I shall be the one who takes all the effort to bring both of you together.” (Ofcourse, to fulfil his promise Shiva was born as Anjaneya or Bajrangbali to assist Lord Rama)

Coming back to Shiva, even without the body of Sati, he was still rest less. His longing for his wife did not come down. He wandered the three world’s looking for peace. He could not focus on his duties of protecting his universe. Nothing anyone could say or do could reduce his misery.

One day while walking around the Himalayas in the early spring, Shiva’s loneliness increased. The flowers were blooming, snow was melting, the bees were buzzing. Every being on earth was enjoying with its partner.

At that moment, Shiva came across the gushing white waters of Yami near her origin. The waters looked very inviting and cool. Lord Shiva thought for a moment and decided to jump into the cool waters of the river. Yami was shocked. She was suddenly feeling the entire energy of a powerful God like Lord Shiva. She felt blessed that he chose to enter her waters but was shocked to see that she was absorbing all his sorrow. Her waters were turning grey and slowly they became black. Yami could not do much. After all he was the Supreme Lord.

After cooling himself in her waters, Shiva emerged. He blessed Yamuna but she was looking sad and depressed. Shiva asked her “Yami, I would like to grant you a boon. Ask me what you want.”

Yami said “Swami, I was a white river whose waters were pure like that of a swan. Now, as I have absorbed your thoughts of loneliness, my waters have turned black. I feel that people will not like to enter my waters anymore as they may consider me inauspicious.”

Shiva smiled and said “Yami, hereafter any one who bathes in your water will wash off their sins as I have bathed in your waters. You shall be blessed with a glorious presence on earth and shall be known by the name of Kalindi.”

Blessing Yami, Shiva went off on his wanderings and Yamuna became Kalindi.