File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_1998/nietzsche.9810, message 55


Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 21:59:03 -0500 (EST)
From: malgosia askanas <ma-AT-panix.com>
Subject: A bit of gaudy puppetry in the clouds



When Sankara saw how sad the Goddess was, he said to her, 'How can you be
so sad just because you lack a son, beautiful goddess?  If you want to
kiss the face of a son all over, I will make a son for you; kiss him
if you yearn to do so.'  As he said this, Shiva pulled at the gown of the
daughter of the mountain and made a son with that fabric, and then
Sankara said, 'Daughter of the mountain, take your son and kiss him
as much as you wish.'  Parvati said, 'How can this piece of cloth be
the source of a son for me?  This is my red dress.  Stop teasing me,
great lord Shiva; I do not have the mentality of a common beast.  How
shall I rejoice in a son obtained by means of a piece of cloth?'  But
when she said this, the Goddess born of the mountain made the cloth
into the shape of a son, and she held him to her breast, brooding
upon the teasing words of her husband.

And when that cloth in the form of a son had touched the breast of the
Goddess, it came to life and fell from her breast, and it quivered and
quickened more and more.  As she saw it quickening, Parvati cried out:
'Live, live!', and she caressed it with the two lotuses which she held
in her hands as she spoke before Shiva.  Then the boy came to life,
getting his life's breath at that very moment, and he made Parvati 
rejoice as he cried out indistinctly, 'Mama! Mama!'  The Goddess took
the little boy and was filled with maternal love; she held him to
her breast and gave him her breasts to suck, and milk flowed from
her breasts.  As the boy drank the milk, his lotus face broke into
a smile, and he gazed up at his mother's face and she kissed his face
all over.



                  [The Birth of Ganesha (from the Brhaddharma Purana)]


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