‘Bhringi’s story is part of temple lore’

Bhringi expressed his desire to go around Shiva to express his devotion. As he was going around, Shiva’s consort, Shakti, said, ‘You cannot just go around him.
‘Bhringi’s story is part of temple lore’

BENGALURU: Bhringi expressed his desire to go around Shiva to express his devotion. As he was going around, Shiva’s consort, Shakti, said, ‘You cannot just go around him. You have to go around me too. We are two halves of the same truth.’ Bhringi, however, was so focused on Shiva that he had no desire to go around Shakti. Seeing this, Shakti sat on Shiva’s lap making it difficult for Bhringi to go around Shiva alone. Bhringi then took the form of a snake and tried to slip in between the two.

Amused by Bhringi’s stubborn conduct, Shiva made Shakti one half of his bodythe famous Ardhanareshwar form of Shiva. But Bhringi was adamant. He took the form of a bee and tried to bore his way between the two. This annoyed the goddess so much that she said that Bhringi would lose all parts of the body that come from the mother. Instantly, Bhringi lost all flesh and blood and he became a bag of bones. He collapsed on the floor, unable to get up. Bhringi realized his folly. Shiva and Shakti are not independent entities. One cannot exist without the other. - Bhringi’s story is part of temple lore.

In images, he is visualized as a skeleton standing erect on a tripod to remind everyone of the contribution of mothers. This is not scientifically true but a common tantric belief. -In Bengali Krittibasa Ramayana, composed 500 years ago, widows of a king make love to each other after one of them drinks a magic potion and thus they are able to conceive a child named Bhagirathi. Unfortunately, as no man is involved, the child is born without bones, reflecting tantric understanding of human reproduction. - Jain tantra differentiated between the physical body (dravya- sharira) from the emotional body (sthula-sharira).

Hindu tantra recognized a third body (karana-sharira), a social construct, based on estate and titles, that we create ourselves or comes to us because of fate. The physical body can be male (ida) and female (pingala). The psychological body is attracted to masculine (ida) and feminine (pingala) traits. The social body was made of clothes we wore and behaviour we exhibited. Tantra recognized that not all beings with male bodies, and male costumes, were attracted to feminine traits.

Over 1500 years ago, these monkscholars felt the need for the category ‘queer’, distinguishing the physical, from the biological and the social. These combinations and contradictions had to be resolved in society, and not through monastic practices. Monasticism was about knowing and accepting, not denying. - Though Shiva accepts Shakti as one half of his body, there are many tales of quarrels and separations, with Shiva taking refuge on Mount Kailash and Shakti going into the Deodar forest, until they reconcile.  The separation and union of Shiva and Shakti reflects the rhythms of nature when forces split and bind again and again.

(Excerpted from Marriage: 100 Stories around India’s Favourite Ritual by Devdutt Pattanaik, with permission from Rupa Publications)

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