Lord Kamadeva—The legend associated with the god

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Mumbai: A young handsome man carrying a bow and arrow on his wings is sitting on a beautiful parrot. His arrows are full of aroma as it is covered by flowers of jasmine, blue lotus, Ashoka and mango tree leaves. His bow is made up of sugarcane and strands of honeybees thereby making it very gentle.

The description of the above-mentioned god is none other than Lord Kamadeva. He is rightly celebrated as the God of Love. As per the ancient scriptures of Atharva-Veda, Kama-Deva means divine love or God of Love.

There are many legends attached with the birth of Lord Kamadeva. According to the ancient Shiva Purana, he was born from Lord Brahma’s mind. He is also considered to be the son of Lord Krishna and consort Rukmini, who were incarnations of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi respectively. Some believe that Kamadeva is the son of goddess Sri and, additionally, Pradyumna, Krishna’s son, is considered to be an incarnation of Kamadeva.

So, why is Lord Kamadeva addressed as the God of Love? Legend has it that Lord Kamadeva played the role of a cupid between Lord Shiva and his consort Goddess Parvati.

Lord Shiva renounced his worldly duties and went into deep meditation after his wife, Sati jumped into the fire and gave up her life. As Lord Shiva ceased to look into the matters of the world, problems arose and other Gods went to Lord Kamadeva for help. Meanwhile, Goddess Parvati was praying to become Lord Shiva’s life partner.

Lord Kamadeva happily agreed to shoot his arrow of love to break Shiva’s meditation. However, this resulted in something disastrous for the god of love, as he had to face the brunt for breaking Shiva’s concentration and was reduced to ashes, because of lord Shiva's anger. Lord Shiva's third eye opened and Kamadeva was burnt to ashes.

Kamadeva’s consort, Rati was the Goddess of Love and on seeing her husband dead she could not help but wail in grief. However, after Rati pleaded and requested Lord Shiva to bring back her husband, lord Shiva's anger calmed down and lord Kamadeva was brought back to life.

Lord Shiva married Goddess Parvati. Followers of Hinduism, pray to Lord Kamadeva to seek true love. They believe that enchanting his kleem mantra 108 times for 21 days can lead to better appreciation of one’s partner.