Today (Tuesday, October 22) is the Shashthi of Shukla Krishna Paksha of Kartik month. It is called Skanda Shashthi. The importance of this date falling in the month of Kartik is very high, because the month of Kartik is named after Kartikeya Swami and he was incarnated on Shashthi Tithi only. Shashthi being the birth date of Kartikeya Swami, special worship of Lord Karthikeya is done on Shashthi Tithi of every month.
Karthikeya Swami had killed Tarakasura
According to the legend, a demon named Tarakasur had pleased Lord Brahma by doing penance. Lord Brahma appeared before Tarakasura and asked him to seek a boon from him. Tarakasura wanted to ask for some boon from Lord Brahma by which he would become immortal.
At that time, Lord Shiva was meditating in separation from Goddess Sati. It was not possible for any god or goddess to break his meditation. Tarakasura thought that now Lord Shiva will remain in meditation and will not marry again. Therefore, Tarakasura asked for a boon from Lord Brahma that he should be killed only by the hands of Shiva's son. Lord Brahma gave this boon to Tarakasura.
After receiving the boon, Tarakasura became very powerful. All the gods were not able to kill him. Tarakasura had taken over all the three worlds – earth, heaven and underworld. All the gods became sad and reached Lord Vishnu.
Vishnu ji planned that in order to kill Tarakasura, Shiva ji would have to get married for the second time. After this, Kamadeva was asked to distract Lord Shiva.
Kamadeva had broken Lord Shiva's meditation with his lustful arrows. At that time, Himalayaraj's daughter Parvati was doing penance to get Lord Shiva as her husband. Lord Shiva was pleased with the penance of the goddess and later Shiva and Parvati got married. After marriage, Lord Shiva's son Kartikeya was born. Kartikeya was followed away from Shiva and Parvati by the Krittikas. Therefore the child was named Kartikeya.
When Kartikeya grew up a little, Shiva and Parvati called Kartikeya to themselves. When the gods came to know about Kartikeya, they all reached Shiva and Parvati. The gods said that you should send Kartikeya with us, because it is at his hands that Tarakasura will be killed.
For the welfare of the gods and the three worlds, Lord Shiva sent Kartikeya Swami as the commander of the gods. Later there was a war between Kartikeya Swami and Tarakasura. Karthikeya killed Tarakasura in the war. When Lord Shiva came to know about this, he became very happy.
When Kartikeya killed Tarakasura, the eighth month of the Hindi calendar was going on. Pleased with the success of his son, Lord Shiva named this month Kartik.
Kartikeya Swami was angry with Shiva-Parvati
One day Shiva and Parvati thought about the marriage of their sons Kartikeya and Ganesha. After this thought came, Shiva-Parvati told both the sons that the person who would return first after circling the universe would be married first.
Kartikeya sat on his vehicle peacock and flew around the world. Ganesh ji's vehicle is a rat, it was not that fast. Ganesh ji immediately circled his parents and said that for him my parents are the whole world. Pleased with this, Shiva and Parvati got Ganesha married.
After some time, when Kartikeya Swami returned after roaming around the world, he saw that Ganesha had got married. When they came to know the whole story, they became angry with Shiva and Parvati and went to Kraunch mountain.
Today the Kraunch Mountains are located on the banks of the Krishna River in the Krishna district in South India. It is also called Shri Parvat. Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga is situated here.
Shiva-Parvati tried hard to convince Kartikeya, but Kartikeya did not agree. Then Shiva-Parvati decided that from now on every new moon day, Lord Shiva and every full moon day, Parvati would go to Kronch mountain to meet Kartikeya. Today Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga is situated here. Mallika means Parvati and Arjun means Shiva. The lights of both Shiva and Parvati are located in the temple.
Graphics Source: NavJivanIndia | VaskarAssets
