Skanda -- the True Leader . . . .

-- “ke janto maa Durga r kathamo r upekkhito chheleti r eto mahatmyo?”(who knew, the most neglected boy of Durga-kathamo has such magnanimity?)

        Thank you, dada. These words of yours set my path to another horizon. And I got out of me in search of Skanda. Kumar Kartikeya, the warlord of the Gods, a General with an invincible army of Gods, a face of bravery, an epitome of beauty. But what do we know about Him? Who is He? The son of Lord Shiva and brother of Lord Ganesha! Just another demi-god in the list of Indian mythology! Or He is too good to hide Himself deep within the unknown!

        In this search we have nothing with us. We don’t know, where to or how to find Him. This journey runs with a heart full of love and questions at the same time. Who can describe or define Him better than himself? So we started our search. From the deepest forests to the pages of hidden ancient scriptures, we searched. Asked the wise, when we lost our trails. Fought hard against our inner enemy, apprehension. And finally when we thought, we’re reaching to the end, the boundary expands and we stand still to know that we know nothing and just have wasted our efforts and time. When we lost our hope to find our beloved Skanda, our vision got expanded. We experienced the spray of the sea but we were too blind to see its beauty.

        Lord Skanda is not a God, he is like a dormant volcano. A spirit to encourage the warriors to move forward in their ‘good-fight’; a leader to guide his army in the battlefield. He is a teacher, an ideal, a real hero to those who are ready to die for what they want the most. He is the fire to the ignite within a human, which burns a person and purify. From the very beginning of time Skanda still continues to lead his army of gods in their good-fight and trains the new human minds who further joins the army and live their dreams. Instead of helping a voyager in his journey, Skanda makes the path more and more difficult. In the other hand teaches him to smash all the obstacles. More we discovered him, more we got amazed. Our love transformed into salvation and respect and He started to guide us in our good-fight. We no more had to find Him here and there. The books which wrote a little about Him, became meaningless to us. In our daily lives we started experiencing Skanda beside us. He guided us in the darkness, punished us when we mistook. He taught us the rules of our battlefield and also the timings when to break them. When to spare the enemy and when not to. Standing in the 21^st century we were afraid to go to our battlefield; He gave us courage.

But when again we wished to know Him more, He eludes. Now we don’t wish to know Him anymore. It is enough for us to have Him beside ourselves. Let us tread in the uncharted path too; no harm, our ushering light is there, He is with us. No more hesitant we should be to undertake any herculean task. Victory is there awaiting us with full open arms to embrace us with more difficulties. There are still borealis in the caves of the Himalayas or in the sly cozy corner of the far away jungles or near Narmada cliffs who know the truth behind this Skanda and His contrivances that we hardly try to gauge on and on. This is the plight of we, the so called 21^st century harbingers rather lacking in firm conviction even of own self whats of others? May we pray in numbness but assiduously follow the very rut that has had been pre ordained by Him, the Lord Skanda, our only unsung paragon of beauty on peacock with his mighty ‘Vel’.