Full · 6 min aloud
There is one night in the month of Bhādrapada when many families are careful not to look at , the Moon. This is the story told for that restriction.
It begins at 's home on . arrives carrying a new fruit and gives it to . Young asks for it. turns to and asks who should receive the fruit; says it should go to the young boy, and gives it to .
Then the story moves away from the fruit. returns to his work of creation, and places an extraordinary obstacle in his way.
assumes a fierce form. reels before him. sees that form, sees 's attendants, and laughs.
The text does not treat the laughter as harmless amusement. It treats it as ridicule.
becomes angry and curses : he is not to be seen in the three worlds, and anyone who sees him will share in the distress attached to that curse.
loses his brightness and becomes invisible. He is overcome with anxiety and begins to wonder how this happened to him.
The other gods quickly understand that this is not a private quarrel. A world without has a problem. Led by and , they go to , praise him and ask him to show favour to and to the worlds affected by the curse.
is pleased with their appeal, but there is a difficulty. He will not make his own word false.
says that even if shook, the sun fell, fire became cold or the ocean crossed its boundary, his spoken word would not become false.
So he does not erase the curse. He narrows it.
The wording is unusually strict: the effect applies whether is seen knowingly or unknowingly. The gods accept the limited form of the curse, bow to and shower flowers before carrying his decision back to .
The restriction is placed on seeing on the fourth day of the bright fortnight. The gods then tell more specifically: he must not be seen on that fourth day in Bhādrapada.
They also tell him what to do next: go to for refuge.
does.
He goes to the southern bank of the , repeats 's one-syllable mantra and undertakes a severe austerity. The story gives the enormous span of one hundred and twenty years.
At last appears before him, dressed in red, wearing red garlands and red sandal paste, with four arms and an elephant's face, his splendour filling the worlds.
is frightened at first. Then he steadies himself, folds his hands and praises .
Most importantly, he does not argue that the laugh meant nothing. In his prayer he calls what he did a transgression committed through ignorance and asks to be pardoned.
accepts the prayer.
He restores to his former appearance, but the Bhādrapada-fourth restriction remains. The restriction on looking at remains.
also changes the relationship between them. He gives a place on his own forehead in the form of a crescent, and prescribes occasions on which is to be worshipped.
then erects an image of and worships it. The gods and sages honour the place, and returns home restored.
The new image is named for as the one who bears , and the place is honoured as a place of accomplishment. The reconciliation is made visible in worship rather than left as a private exchange.
So the story does not end with someone being mocked and permanently cast away. The offence remains real; the spoken curse is not pretended away; refuge, austerity and pardon change what can still be changed.
slow down hereThe night remembers both things: the laugh that caused the hurt, and the refuge that was still given afterwards, and it still leaves room for return again.
Short · 3 min aloud
There is one night in Bhādrapada when families are told not to look at , the Moon. This story gives a reason.
had brought a special fruit to . Young asked for it, and the fruit was given to him. Afterwards, when returned to his work of creation, placed an extraordinary obstacle in his way and appeared in a fierce form.
saw him and laughed.
The laughter is treated as ridicule, not as a harmless accident.
was furious. He cursed so that he would no longer be seen, and said that seeing him would bring distress.
The gods quickly understood what that would mean. They went to and asked him to show favour to and to the worlds that depended on him.
would not pretend his spoken word had never been spoken. Instead he limited it. was not to be seen on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada. That is the restriction remembered in this telling.
They tell him that 's disappearance has put the whole world into difficulty.
The gods carried the news to and told him to seek refuge in .
So went to the southern bank of the . He repeated 's mantra and performed a long austerity until appeared before him.
bowed. He admitted that his offence had been committed in ignorance and asked for pardon.
restored him to his former brightness. But the fourth-day restriction remained. He also gave a place on his own forehead as a crescent and established occasions on which should be worshipped.
is restored, not discarded in the end.
slow down hereThe night remembers both things: the laugh that caused the hurt, and the refuge that was still given to him afterwards.