Love Dart

At the airport, your columnist’s path crosses that of the star of Jodi-Breaker. For someone who makes a career out of wrecking loveless bonds, he seems like a decent sort of chap. Things get complicated when the hero himself gets nicked by Cupid’s arrow. That’s the Power of Love for you: to which even a Great God like Shiva — whose Great Night of Spiritual Awakening was recently celebrated — has to take a bow (no pun intended)!

As Kalidasa narrates the story in his matchless epic, Birth of Kumara (Kumara-Sambhava), the demon Taraka has won a boon that he can only be killed by none other than Shiva’s son. With Shiva being famous as a celibate Yogi in the triple worlds, the demon’s deathless run at being a baddie without being brought to book seems quite assured.

The world is at its wits’ end, when Parvati, the daughter of Mount Himalaya, decides to fall in love with Shiva. Alas, there seems to be no question of his reciprocation. That’s when Kamdev, the God of Love, literally takes courage in his hands and shafts Shiva with one of his flower-power darts! And thereby hangs an epic tale: For his cheekiness, Kama gets burnt to ashes by Shiva’s wrathful Third Eye.

But with Eros gone, the cosmic order comes grinding to a halt. Death (or Thanatos) apparently has no respite: with life itself threatening to pull away from the planet, things turn topsy-turvy. Cosmic order is only restored when Shiva releases Kama from his death-spell, with the caveat that Cupid must work his magic invisibly. Freud too uses him in the drive theory to represent bipolar energy.