Tripura Antakar : Destroyer of three cities .( VIra Murti )
What is tripura and what does it signify ? It is an amalgamation of the three main impurities which go on to bond a person, namely ego ( aham ), deeds and their effects ( karma ) and illusion ( maya ) . One who is truly blessed by God Almighty is fortunate enough to an absence of all these three impurities, since these are burned away , and in their place is a state of total peace and tranquility, with Lord Shiva taking abode in such places, and dancing out there ! ( Thirumular )
What is tripura and what does it signify ? It is an amalgamation of the three main impurities which go on to bond a person, namely ego ( aham ), deeds and their effects ( karma ) and illusion ( maya ) . One who is truly blessed by God Almighty is fortunate enough to an absence of all these three impurities, since these are burned away , and in their place is a state of total peace and tranquility, with Lord Shiva taking abode in such places, and dancing out there ! ( Thirumular )
Now coming to the story : there were these three demons who had been granted a boon by Lord Shiva that they would be invincible, and could not be destroyed unless and until they were all together, and would need to be killed by a single arrow . These three demons were named Kamalakshan, Tarukakshan and Vvidhunmali, and they went on to create their forts in different areas and ruled the world.
However there were some Devas who were not too happy with the activities of these demons and they went on to complain about the same to Lord Shiva. But Lord Shiva told them that he just could not do anything to these three demons as long as they continued to pray to him .Since these demons were very regular in their prayers to him , he would not venture out to destroy them !
So Lord Vishnu took on the form of a sage, and started the task of teaching each of these three demons mayavatham, resulting in their stopping their prayers to the Lord, instead praising themselves and troubling the Devas by torturing them. Now since these three demons had given up all the goodness they had within them, Lord Shiva appeared before them so as to destroy them , and these three demons got together, having forgotten the boon they had been given by the Lord . They dared even to fight with Lord Shiva assuming that they were invincible !
However there were some Devas who were not too happy with the activities of these demons and they went on to complain about the same to Lord Shiva. But Lord Shiva told them that he just could not do anything to these three demons as long as they continued to pray to him .Since these demons were very regular in their prayers to him , he would not venture out to destroy them !
So Lord Vishnu took on the form of a sage, and started the task of teaching each of these three demons mayavatham, resulting in their stopping their prayers to the Lord, instead praising themselves and troubling the Devas by torturing them. Now since these three demons had given up all the goodness they had within them, Lord Shiva appeared before them so as to destroy them , and these three demons got together, having forgotten the boon they had been given by the Lord . They dared even to fight with Lord Shiva assuming that they were invincible !
On this fateful day , the earth became the chariot for the Lord, Lord Brahma became the charioteer, Lord Vishnu the arrow, the sun and the moon the wheels of the chariot , the mountain meru as the bow, and the serpent Vasuki as the string in the bow. In this way, all the gods were present in some form or the other in that specially crafted chariot.
Only one aspect needed attention since the gods of fire and death were in the wheel instead of the arrow., which was soon rectified by Vinayaka who broke the wheel to put them in the arrow, and eventually when everything was in place , the Devas were very proud of the fact that with their support Lord Shiva was proceeding to decimate the three demons into non existence.
Lord Shiva however has entirely different plans in mind, he did not actually use any of the Devas for what he had in mind ! He just smiled and in that smile the three demons were burnt down , since the rudhraksha appeared from the three eyes of Lord Shiva during tripurasamhara The Devas were really astounded to realise they had been really stupid to assume that the Lord could not destroy the demons without their support .
Only one aspect needed attention since the gods of fire and death were in the wheel instead of the arrow., which was soon rectified by Vinayaka who broke the wheel to put them in the arrow, and eventually when everything was in place , the Devas were very proud of the fact that with their support Lord Shiva was proceeding to decimate the three demons into non existence.
Lord Shiva however has entirely different plans in mind, he did not actually use any of the Devas for what he had in mind ! He just smiled and in that smile the three demons were burnt down , since the rudhraksha appeared from the three eyes of Lord Shiva during tripurasamhara The Devas were really astounded to realise they had been really stupid to assume that the Lord could not destroy the demons without their support .
Now comes the interesting part , the destruction of the Lord was a creative one , to destroy meant that he recreated by purifying the evil forces . That is what exactly happened in this case as well ! Lord Shiva granted the gift of life to each of these demons , with one of them being given the task of fanning him with chamaran and the other two being used as his security at his abode . This was essentially because they were initially his ardent devotees , even though they went wrong subsequently.
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