More than thirty years ago, intrigued by some peculiar myths recounted in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, I had turned to my father who referred me to Sri Aurobindo's Secret of the Veda. This inspired me to explore the meanings hidden in the stories of Uttanka, Aruni, Upamanyu, the churning of the ocean, Garuda and Kacha¹. Manoj Das' recent talk published inInvocation swept me back into that engrossing weltanschauung². While talking about the mythic background of Savitri, he provides a brilliant insight towards the end regarding the inscrutable enigma of the Sphinx that has fascinated and intrigued mankind over the millennia. But that is not what set off my train of thought. Re-reading the text, I was riveted by the explanation he provides of the much-debated, puzzling image of Kali stepping on Siva³ as a dyadic symbol representing the dialectical relationship between Time and Eternity:

'Kali is the prakriti bound to time, with one leg raised, in eternal movement, wearing human heads as a garland representing all the destruction and creation that goes on. And she is dark because 'bound to this space and time, we do not know where we are going to place the next step, we do not know whether we will stand or if we are going to fall down; so her whole movement, which is a precise rendition of what is to come, remains veiled from our knowledge. Hence the image of dark time as a dynamic posture of Kali, marching forward, firmly founded on eternity.'

Where does Kali first appear? 

She is one of the ten terrifying emanations, mahavidyas, Sati figures forth when Siva refuses to let her attend her father Daksha's yajna. That is when he reluctantly agrees. We know what happens thereafter: unable to countenance her father's gross insult, Sati consumes herself in a supreme holocaust whereupon Siva's hordes rout the gods and rishis attending the ritual and decapitate Daksha. Does this hold any meaning for us, or is it just another of those 'time-pass' myths for the illiterate masses?

What does Daksha mean? Let us go to the root, as Sri Aurobindo has shown us in his Vedic researches. It shares the same root as 'dexterity,' the Latin dexter, 'on the right' (significantly, Daksha is born of Brahma's right thumb) and has the same meaning, 'skillful.' As usual, however, the Sanskrit has a subtler sense: 'clever, intelligent, mental power, strength of will, energy' (Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary). It is not merely manual skill but the mind's powers that are signified.

Daksha was declared as 'Prajapati', lord of creatures, by Brahma the creator, as Adam was by Jehovah. His overlordship sprouted a swiftly waxing arrogance that denied any superior. The Mother says about the first emanation of the Supreme Mother: 'In the sense and the feeling of (his) supreme power, (he) cut connection with (his) Origin and'being separated from (his) Origin, entered into darkness. The first one was Consciousness, Consciousness in Light, and by cutting Himself from His Origin, He went down and down towards Unconsciousness'This happened after (he) came down into the vital level.' The mythology of Daksha, 'A power of fallen boundless self' ⁵records this descent into the vital too. Rishi Durvasa visited Daksha wearing goddess Jagadambika's amrita-oozing garland that she had gifted him. Noticing Daksha's eagerness to possess it, the sage gave it to him. Placing the garland in his bedroom, excited by its wondrous fragrance, Daksha made love to his wife, polluting its purity. Upbraided for this by Sati and Siva, he nursed a grudge against them. For the pauper and skull-carrying Siva, Daksha had nothing but disgust and never forgave his daughter Sati for wedding him. Once, when Daksha reached a sacrificial ceremony, he noticed that his son-in-law Siva remained seated instead of rising to honor him. Considering himself grossly insulted, Daksha organized the Brihaspatisavana, a sacrificial ritual of heroic proportions to celebrate his glory, to which he invited all notables except Sati and Siva.

Man, set above all creatures by the mind, gets so enamored of his intellect's powers that he brushes aside as inconsequential Prakriti and Purusha, regarding them as mental creations of the feeble-minded, made in his own image. He believes that there is nothing beyond material existence and achieving the acme of material excellence, acquiring wealth and power and becoming the master of the world as he sees it. 

Myth knows of him by many names: the Alouads, Nimrod, Kamalaksha-Tarakaksha-Vidyunmali, Lucifer. Striving to storm heaven, piling Ossa on Pelion, they build towering structures, magnificent edifices, great cities mocking the heavens: the Tower of Babel, Tripura'the triple cities of gold, silver and iron'Pandemonium, Leningrad/Stalingrad, the World Trade Centre. Divinity is denied, spiritual life scoffed at and sought to be ground under heel by state power. The Senecan tragic hero's ominous mark of Cain is stamped upon man: 'I am myself, alone.'