We have the nine-day worship of the Divine Mother, during the Navaratra. Even so the Skanda-Shashthi is the traditional six-day worship of Lord Skanda or Karttikeya, the spiritual offspring of Lord Siva. We may even say that He is Lord Siva Himself, the Power of Lord Siva personified.
This great Avatars of Karttikeya is of deep significance and of very special importance to us, who have dedicated ourselves to the spiritual ideal, who have, by the Grace of God, begun to feel that the real purpose of life is not to be attained by enjoyment of the perishable objects of this physical world, but by striving to achieve the realisation of the spiritual ideal, by the attainment of the Eternal, the Imperishable; for, the manifestation of the Lord as Skanda has been in the nature of a practical demonstration of the laws that operate upon the inward path of ascent unto divinity. Saints and sages are, as it were, a living commentary upon the great scriptures; even so the great Avataras, the Divine personalities of our Puranas, their life and Lilas form a demonstration of the laws that operate upon the spiritual realm, of truths pertaining to the inner life of Yoga, inner Sadhana and Sakshatkara.
Different aspects of this inner life of Yoga and Sadhana are brought out and demonstrated by different manifestations of the Supreme Deity and their various Lilas. If their right significance is understood, it will be of immense practical help and guidance to the Jiva which is trying to attain the Supreme and to realise the Paramatman.
In the Skanda Avatara is brought out the fact of the eternal struggle between Avidya and Jnana, between the lower Asuric and the higher divine forces, that operate both upon the cosmic scale as well as within the individual Prakriti; and the resolution of this eternal struggle and its consummation in supreme triumph to the divine forces is brought out in the Skanda Lilas.
We are told that Tejas burst forth from the Ajna Chakra of Lord Siva, which assumed the form of Lord Skanda. Thus He is the Jnana Jyoti. A very significant fact is there that ultimately He was taken out of six lotuses by Goddess Parvati from the Saravanappoigai, the lake where reeds were growing. We know that the supreme spiritual experience or the Aparoksha Anubhuti is attained, in Yogic parlance, through Shat-Chakra-Bheda or by piercing the six plexus.
It is the emerging out of the six lower lotuses that finds the Jiva ultimately in a state of perfect (Purna) Yoga or Wisdom in the Sahasrara Chakra. Thus, in Skanda we have the ultimate product of an emergence out of the six lotuses or Shat-Chakras and this we know to be Supreme Wisdom. Therefore, Lord Skanda is a mass of ultimate transcendental Supreme Knowledge that has to destroy nescience, Ajnana or darkness, represented upon the plane of manifest cosmos in the form of the Asuric hosts.
This great Avatars of Karttikeya is of deep significance and of very special importance to us, who have dedicated ourselves to the spiritual ideal, who have, by the Grace of God, begun to feel that the real purpose of life is not to be attained by enjoyment of the perishable objects of this physical world, but by striving to achieve the realisation of the spiritual ideal, by the attainment of the Eternal, the Imperishable; for, the manifestation of the Lord as Skanda has been in the nature of a practical demonstration of the laws that operate upon the inward path of ascent unto divinity. Saints and sages are, as it were, a living commentary upon the great scriptures; even so the great Avataras, the Divine personalities of our Puranas, their life and Lilas form a demonstration of the laws that operate upon the spiritual realm, of truths pertaining to the inner life of Yoga, inner Sadhana and Sakshatkara.
Different aspects of this inner life of Yoga and Sadhana are brought out and demonstrated by different manifestations of the Supreme Deity and their various Lilas. If their right significance is understood, it will be of immense practical help and guidance to the Jiva which is trying to attain the Supreme and to realise the Paramatman.
In the Skanda Avatara is brought out the fact of the eternal struggle between Avidya and Jnana, between the lower Asuric and the higher divine forces, that operate both upon the cosmic scale as well as within the individual Prakriti; and the resolution of this eternal struggle and its consummation in supreme triumph to the divine forces is brought out in the Skanda Lilas.
We are told that Tejas burst forth from the Ajna Chakra of Lord Siva, which assumed the form of Lord Skanda. Thus He is the Jnana Jyoti. A very significant fact is there that ultimately He was taken out of six lotuses by Goddess Parvati from the Saravanappoigai, the lake where reeds were growing. We know that the supreme spiritual experience or the Aparoksha Anubhuti is attained, in Yogic parlance, through Shat-Chakra-Bheda or by piercing the six plexus.
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