Asvini Kumar

RV [1-120.01]

Asvins, what praise may win your grace? Who may be pleasing to you both?
How shall the ignorant worship you?

RV [1-181.04]

Here sprung to life, they both have sung together, with bodies free from stain, with signs that mark them;
One of you (is) Prince of Sacrifice, the Victor, the other counts as Heaven’s auspicious offspring.

RV [1-022.2,3]

We call the Asvins Twain, the Gods borne in a noble car, the best of charioteers, who reach the heavens.
Dropping with honey is your whip, Asvins, and full of pleasantness; sprinkle therewith the sacrifice.

Conversations and Stories

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#1: Prajapati’s Yagna
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Asat was winning. Pani started covering Brahmanaspati.

Sati (Parvati), the Mother, belonged to both Daksha and Rudra: as the daughter of the former and as the wife of the latter. Then Darkness came. Mother, in a fit of rage and desperation, terminated her Representation in that Loka.

Sacrifice (Yagna) was thus obstructed, and Asat won, disconnecting Savitar from Brahmanaspati. Shiva took refuge in his aloofness, now that he was Rudra alone, bereft of the Mother.

Daksha, too, suffered; Vishnu rambled on like a headless chicken for some time. Vishnu collapsed back to Daksha, causing serious questions over his ability for miracles, for incarnations.

Mother’s first born, Ganesh, meanwhile lost Dyava-Prithivi to Vrtra. Mother’s second born, Kartikeya, suffered against Dasyus in a bloody war of Dharma over the control of Prithivi.

Shiva’s family, like the four realms, disunited. Prithvi suffered. Cried for Saviour, though even that was not to be enough.

Krishna came. Against all odds.

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#2: the fight
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Shaivite said: Shiva is Brahman. And thought: I proved Shiva to be supreme.
Vaisnavite said: Vishnu is Brahman. And thought: I proved Vishnu to be supreme.
Vedantist was silent, listening. And thought: Brahman is supreme. I won.
Onlooker said: vedantist has indeed won; in the battle of two, it is the third that gains.

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#3: Pani’s plot
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Pani marvelled at his work, said:
From now on, for eternity, these three- Daksha Rudra and Brahman, will continue sleeping the Death, the Asat. From now on, this Death be called Immortality, and that which is Immortality, be christened Death.

Vrtra said: I didn’t understand, my Lord.

Pani: O DasyuNaresh, call me Immortal, and call them- Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma, mortal. Label anything mortal that sacrifices, tries to connect the Realms, tries to make Soma juice flow, tries to do Yoga of Evolution.

Vrtra: by what name shall I address you, then, my Lord?

Pani: call me Brahman.

Vala exclaimed: but that is cheating my Lord!

Pani: no one will ever know. This Brahman is the silent one; we can commit crimes in his name. No one will ever know.

Vrtra: I didn’t understand, my Lord. Why not call you as Daksha or Rudra for that matter?

Pani: O dumb head, let me put it this way. Have you read Veda? All its Gods, the Immortal children of Aditi, are way too vocal, noisy. But this one, this Brahman, is totally mute.

Vrtra: I have read Veda, my Lord, but could not make out head or tail of it.

Vala: and I thought you, coming from a background of privilege, had refined sense and sensibility!

Vrtra: that I have; my father was XXX at king XXX’s court, I have studied XXX at XXX university, I was born…

Pani: Enough. If you, the bright one, can’t understand it, verily, this Veda is all gibberish.

Vrtra: So what should I teach them, the Dasyus?

Pani: Raise the gibberish to your level and taste, call it the “culmination of Veda”, and preach it in the name of Veda. But know, all the while, in your inner heart, the falsity of Veda.

Vala: Veda is just ritual. Primitive thought. Its mantras, particularly the Gayatri mantra, tickle me no ends!

Vrtra: my lord, should I renounce, not marry, in order to preach?

Pani (concluding): not at all necessary, that is for the frustrated Yogis. Don’t let them anywhere near the corridors of power. As for you, you will always be in company of kings. Dasyus will hate the very Gods they will worship. One would ask of his God: grant me immortality, that is, eternity of youth, eternity of lust, eternity of greed; otherwise I will not come to you again; you are after all, just fake, since Brahman alone is real.

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#4: when even the Onlooker wasn’t spared
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Onlooker was agitated, anguished. A voice raised upwards from the depths of his very soul.
“Why didn’t, Aditi, my beloved, Mother, you make me realise all this all these thousands of years?”

Aditi reveals herself, reveals in a form of Mother.

Aditi: did you even utter my name, once, in all these millennia?
Onlooker: no, Mother, I didn’t. I am sorry.
Aditi: or, did you do the continuous Yagna of mighty Agni?
Onlooker: neither, Mother.
Aditi ( to herself): so Agni is unlit. unlit within.

Aditi: but, then, sure you did worship some of the Gods of Dyava-Prithivi?
Onlooker: I don’t know anything about Dyava-Prithivi, Mother.
Aditi ( mumbles): ok. let us get to the point.

Aditi: do you offer Yagna to Bhag?
Onlooker: no, Mother. (Yagna, ritual??)
Aditi: do you offer Yagna to Varuna?
Onlooker: no, Mother. (Water God??)
Aditi: do you offer Yagna to Vayu?
Onlooker: no, Mother. (Wind??)

Aditi: oh me! How did you then defend your land, life and honour?
Onlooker: I didn’t. Mother. (breaks down).
(pause)
Onlooker: but times have changed Mother. Now, in the age of Technology, children of Bharati, resourceful, talented, sure do retain an edge over Asuric forces.
Aditi: do you, then, offer Yagna to Indra?
Onlooker: no, Mother. (the pervert demi God??)
Aditi: do you offer worship to Mitra?
Onlooker: no, Mother. (Mitro devo bhavah??)
Aditi: do you offer Yagna to Marut?
Onlooker: no, Mother.
Aditi: without a clear intellect, an aesthetic depth, or an innate character, where do you stand? Does all this sound to you as some alien language? This Sanatana Dharma? What have you been upto? Forget it. Forget everything. Just tell me one thing- did you pray to Asvini Kumar?

Onlooker: no, Mother, no. I have no idea who the Asvini Kumar is. All that I cared about was Moksha, Nirvana, Liberation. Or that is what I was told about. Oh, I am so confused! Oh, all this Moksha baggage, and with that a life lived of Dasyu, even death doesn’t liberate.

Aditi: wake up. This the last call.
Aditi ( mumbles): teach Moksha to enemies. (goes)

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#5: Asvini Kumar
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Onlooker was unwell. He started vomiting. Vomiting the Truth, literally, couldn’t hold it back now.

“Can you see me?”
Onlooker: who said that?
“Who am I. Speak.”
Onlooker: nAsatya!

Onlooker: Nasatya! kumAra! My Saviour!
Onlooker: Asvini Kumar!
(falls at Nasatya’s feet)

Asvini Kumar, as a friend would, embraced Onlooker!
Onlooker: I am saved!
Onlooker: you are the Nasatya, slayer of Asat. You are the Only God, were there any. You are the Only Way. You, Asvini Kumar, alone have the power to connect Prithvi to Dyo and even more, to make Dyava-Prithvi complete. You alone, Lord of Effort, of Sacrifice, of Yagna, have the power to bring Immortality on Earth.
Asvini Kumar: yes. I am Immortality. Can you see, now, why it is called Sanatana, Immortal, Dharma?
Onlooker: yes, Nasatya. I see now. It is not because Dharma has always been there or will always be there (that is not the meaning of Immortality). It is because, you, Nasatya, established this Dharma here on Earth.
Asvini Kumar: oh! Where? Under what name?
Onlooker (takes breathe): it was under the name of Murugan, Kartikeya, Kumara – The Lord of Immortality, that you established Dharma. You were also called by your very own, as Tamil Kadavul, the One God of Tamils. Oh yes, now I remember, it was the Land of Tamils.

Asvini Kumar: know that to be the Homeland.
Asvini Kumar: Homeland. the net-giver. Pilgrimage. Even Gods owe that land. That is why Rama had to incarnate, when that Pani specimen, Ravana became irresistible.
Onlooker: tell me about your other Avatars, Nasatya.
Asvini Kumar: Hanuman. Kumara, That Lord of Immortality.
Onlooker: indeed, Nasatya, without Hanuman who is the God before all Gods, the most worshipped, there would be no Sanatana Dharma in the expanses of Bharati.

Asvini Kumar: Bharati. The net-giver. Pilgrimage.
Onlooker: Nasatya, you incarnated as Christ, too!
Asvini Kumar (laughs merrily): the march of Sanatana Dharma!

Onlooker: Bharati is in great distress, again. An ugly mix of Dasyus, Vrtras, Valas, and Panis inhabit that land. Now that I am awake, what should I do Nasatya?

Asvini Kumar: sing my songs. tell my story. tell Rig-Veda!