Shakti: The Feminine Divine (6 page)

In what would turn out to the most valuable lesson Indra would ever learn, Sachi had said, ‘I don’t have to remind you that you are the most powerful god in the cosmos. Without you the very wheel of time would remain motionless. The universe relies on your leadership and it behoves you to act like the god you are. Getting defensive is not the way to go about it, unless you fancy pointing out your vulnerable spots to all and sundry. In case I haven’t made myself clear—never bother to explain your actions to friend and enemy alike and none will ever have the guts to question you.

‘Our marriage was necessary to prevail over a dreaded foe, and as such, it was an act of valour. Believe in it and refuse to apologize for it. You will see, others will believe in us too and they will realize that our union is blessed not only for us, but for the prosperity of the three worlds, because they will always be too stupid to see the truth, even if it is rammed down their
gullets.’ Indra could have taken umbrage, but surprisingly that was the moment he came closest to loving her, for he realized that next to Vishnu himself, she would always be the strongest person fighting on his side.

Sachi had been right too. The seamier details of the love affair were drowned out among the euphoric celebrations. It was so much more romantic to pretend that Indra had attempted to infiltrate the enemy camp, won the affection of Sachi and together they had escaped at great risk to life and limb.

Puloma, of course, had been killed in the scuffle by Indra himself, and the rest of his godless brood were massacred by the celestial hordes. Who was to say that it was not the truth and nothing but the truth? With time, even Indra and Sachi became hazy on the details and the treacherous whispers of fratricide were almost completely stilled.

Sentiment was not Sachi’s forte and the memories of those heady times did not make her misty-eyed. In fact, the main reason she took the time to look back into her past was to remind herself of the fate that awaited those who got careless. Over and over, Sachi swore to herself, ‘I will never fail. I can get whatever I want and I will! Always!’

Thoughts of losing were strictly for losers and Sachi turned her focus towards her most recent victory—the downfall of Usas. She hated beautiful women in general and Usas in particular, although she would have been hard-pressed to explain exactly what it was about the gentle goddess that infuriated her so.

The obvious causal factor was that Usas was too beautiful for her own or other women’s good. Nobody liked to admit it, but for a beautiful woman the entire cosmos was her oyster.
Sachi was quite attractive and followed an exhaustive beauty regime, at the risk of neglecting almost all else that merited her attention, to preserve her charms. Usas expended less than a tenth of Sachi’s efforts and she was ten times as beautiful. All the gods became weak-kneed in her presence and shamelessly fought with each other, ignoring dignity and decorum, for her attention or even something as paltry as a bewitching smile. The seemingly endless lovemaking, which seemed to define her existence, put a spark in her eyes and roses in her cheeks, appealing touches that other women achieved using cosmetics.

‘It is unfair that unbecoming licentiousness, which dissipated the looks of mortal whores, should enhance her appearance so,’ Sachi fumed.

In contrast, Sachi was treated with nothing but the respect which was the due of a queen and, occasionally, deferential wariness. But none of the gods made sheep’s eyes at her, lavished her with compliments, gave her personalized gifts or engaged her in conversations peppered with risqué innuendo. Her spouse was famed for his innumerable dalliances, but needless to say he would not allow anyone to put the cuckold’s horns on him, not for reasons of the heart, but merely for political expediency.

Had she known his actual motives, Sachi would have been furious, but she firmly believed that it was because he loved her too much for his own good. Sachi could scarce abide it; what was the point of spending so much time on looking good if it was solely for the benefit of her husband or the twittering females in her retinue?

The match Sachi had made with Indra was everything she had wished for, but thanks to Usas the chinks in their marriage were exposed. Hardly a romantic at heart, she nevertheless
missed the wild, uninhibited passion that had characterized the early stages of their illicit relationship, if only because Usas still seemed to have it in her blithe existence. Indra still visited his wife’s bed, but both of them went through the motions with clockwork precision. Grand passion seemed to be the first casualty of marriage.

Looking at Usas, who had yet to bag herself a husband, Sachi, from her high horse of wifely virtue and fortitude, ought to have pitied her, but she was furious to realize that she was a mite jealous. The goddess of dawn had been around a lot longer than Sachi, but she still got the benefit of the heady experiences that marked the first flush of youth.

It was a fervent desire of hers that the goddess should wind up getting trapped in a marriage she abhorred and be forced to bear children, so that she may settle down with adult responsibilities and its attendant sorrows. Perhaps her looks would start to fade, her manner would become coarse and the infernal sparkle in her eyes would dim. Only then would everybody give her a wide berth.

Poets sang about the beauty of Usas and waxed eloquent about her breasts, which Sachi resented but allowed to slide because the males of the species saw everything through the magnifying lens of their sexual proclivities. But what bothered her was the inordinate praise showered on the jumped-up trollop for the ‘services’ she performed so tirelessly and ceaselessly for the benefit of the three worlds, as a mother and warrior.

‘Usas deserves to be lauded for services performed under the sheets that go above and beyond the call of duty!’ Sachi was known to joke every time someone was foolish enough to praise the goddess in her presence.

‘That frivolous creature has no business accepting praise for her so-called mothering!’ she had groused to a few sympathetic ears, ‘She does not even have any children, despite her strenuous exertions in the boudoir. And if anybody deserves kudos for being a good mother, it is I, since I risked life and limb to bear my dear husband a fine son and a beautiful daughter!’

Of course, she saw no reason to mention that after she had grudgingly allowed her children to reside in her womb for the duration of the pregnancy and popped them out as quickly as she could, Sachi had turned them over to the tender care of the nursemaids, wanting no more of the joys of motherhood.

The Dawn’s fall from grace had been even more spectacular than Sachi had envisioned. Usas had been thoroughly humiliated that day in full view of her fellow celestials. Her incestuous passion for her father and their shameless coupling in public had brought dishonour on them both. They had been forced to acknowledge what Sachi had insisted all along—Usas was no different from the filthy prostitutes who had tagged behind her father’s army, selling their bodies at giveaway prices to all and sundry.

It was Sachi who had worked tirelessly to call attention to Usas’s misdeeds with her genteel murmurs on the subject whenever a gap in any conversation presented itself. While she generously feasted her guests or allowed them to partake of the bounties she had to offer, she would discreetly point out Usas’s shortcomings, from her inappropriate attire to her promiscuity.

‘It is so very brave of her to usher in a new day, every day, and that too with Surya blazing down her back. Everybody knows that the sun god’s splendour can make even the celestials go blind. She must love him a lot to make the supreme sacrifice every day. It is one of the sweetest things I have ever heard! It is
comparable to the great love my lord and I have for each other!’

There were murmurs of assent and her guests added their own words of praise before Sachi would continue, ‘However, I tend to worry about her… Surya is famed for his chivalrous conduct, but sometimes he gazes on the Dawn with so much admiration that I am scared he’ll burn her diaphanous garments, which already seem inadequate to the task of providing her body much cover, right off her back!’

As if on cue, there would be shouts of laughter and the claws would be unsheathed.

‘I really think Usas ought not to bare her breasts so brazenly. It makes great material for erotica worthy of the shabbier taverns or brothels on earth, and it makes me want to kick her impudent behind into behaving with the decorum befitting a celestial!’ a self-appointed guardian of morality would remark.

‘I would like to do things to her derrière myself…’ a male voice would pipe up, even as the ladies shushed him and wagged elegant fingers at the offender. Sachi would lean back in quiet contentment and pat herself on the back, while a heated argument got underway that involved the dissection of the beautiful Usas.

Conservatives in the gathering would bristle over her immodest ways, insisting that it ill behove a goddess to be so wild and carefree. The more liberal tended to speak up in her defence, but others merely wished to be given a chance to voice their sexual fantasies featuring her. Either way, it was a great way to chip away at the respectability that shielded Usas from the malice of her small but steadily growing number of detractors. It was only a matter of time before she was toppled off her pedestal and reduced to an object provoking ill will and
lust in equal measure, neither of which boded well for her.

But for Sachi, the golden girl would have gotten away with the vilest of moral transgressions on the strength of her guts and escaped with her sheen intact.

‘You cannot let her get away with this!’ she had whispered urgently to Indra after the shameful incident, her voice charged with the force of her feelings. ‘Incest is the most execrable of offences and if we condone it, the three worlds will be destroyed! Surely you are aware that if we allow moral deterioration to proceed unchecked, we will be hastening the end of entire kalpas, and before you know it, the mighty god of thunder will be reborn as an ant and breaking his back for a lousy crumb. Make her answer for the terrible sin that has tarnished the honour of the immortals and let her blood cleanse the heavens of the infamy that transpired in its hallowed heights, lowering it to the level of the basest den of inequity!’

Indra had acted then as if on his own volition. He had raised his invincible vajra and hurled it at Usas, just as she had begun to believe that the worst was behind her. She had escaped with her life, but just barely. His fury had driven her from the heavens and she had fled pell-mell without the tiniest shred of dignity, like a common harlot, to escape being stoned to death. Laughter had threatened to bubble over from her lips as Sachi had watched the annihilation of one she could not endure. It had taken every ounce of self-control for her to adopt a suitably solemn mien as befitting the occasion. There would be a time to celebrate later, she knew.

In a soft voice, which nevertheless managed to carry, Sachi had said, ‘You did the right thing, my lord! It could not have been easy for you, the protector of women, and the champion of virtue to do this, but it had to be done. Usas will serve as a
warning to girls about the perils of overstepping the bounds of propriety, so that those little girls in future who are made from the same cloth would be persuaded to keep their legs crossed and refrain from seducing noble men into behaving like sex-crazed animals.

‘Once that purpose is served, the goddess of dawn will be expunged from our memory and we will finally be free from the evil influence she had brought upon us. We owe it all to you! Once again, you have restored the Vedic way of life and proved that our eternal trust in you is not misplaced!’

Cheers had erupted all around them and this time, Sachi allowed herself a small smile. Usas was just a speck on the horizon. But with her keen eyesight, Sachi noted with savage delight the telltale evidence of Indra’s cruelty on her previously unblemished back. She hoped that the goddess’s crowning glory was singed beyond recognition too. The thought made her smile again.

If she had been a lesser devi, Sachi may have felt unease. After all, though Usas had fled, she had managed to survive the catastrophic events of the day and what didn’t kill you only made you stronger. She was not sure where that little bit of wisdom had sprung from. It could have been from the sages, who always felt obliged to adorn their conversations with little pearls of perspicuous truths, or it could have been the intoxicants they ostensibly imbibed with the view of prying open their inner eye talking.

It hardly mattered if the Dawn were to return in a brand new avatar, stronger than ever before, bouncing as jauntily as ever. Sachi would be waiting. Only this time, she would not rest until Usas lay dead at her feet like her dear departed father.

Another Beginning

V
ISHNU LOVED THE
sea of tranquillity he was floating in. For all intents and purposes, he was supposed to be in deep slumber, stretched out on the comfortable bed his Sesha had thoughtfully provided him with, but it was too restful a time to waste entirely on precious sleep. An infinitesimal part of him was thus allowed the chance to stay up just a little bit longer.

Even the Divine Preserver of the infinite resources needed some me time. He liked it even better because he knew that dear Shakti, the Divine Mother who never slept, wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to chat, unhindered by the pressing demands that beset the both of them. Anticipation of her presence filled him with delight.

As if on cue, she arrived and sat down beside him with a laugh. ‘Just for the record, I was impatient to see you, but since you were even more impatient to see me, I decided to make you wait! It was worth it, and I would have kept you waiting longer just to test your love for me, but my own patience ran out!’

‘You did not have to test me! Unfortunately for me, everybody in the three worlds seems to be aware that I can’t resist you and consequently, I get taken advantage of by one who is supposed to be my dearest friend!’ Vishnu teased with a smile, for she had taken his hand in hers with a possessive air. He would have willingly given up sleep to be with her like this for as long as he could.