NAVARAATHRI SPECIAL SERIES #5 Skanthamata

Previously we have seen that Paarvathi became Lalita in order to enter into motherhood and now that Lakshmi is around to provide a stable financial situation, Paarvathi and her husband are ready to have a child.

After her idea of transforming herself into Lalita succeeded in seducing Shiva, they started making love. Their love making was so intense and fiery that the cosmos trembles with its force and the demigods became terrified. On one occasion, the demigods sense that the two are about to make a child. Frightened that the child born of such a union will be too powerful, they find a way to interrupt the two of them in the middle of intercourse. Shiva’s semen is discharged outside Paarvathi. Due to Shiva’s long duration of unwavering celibacy, it is so fiery and hot that no container can hold it, until it is finally held in the Ganges river, where it is incubated and finally born as the six male babies.
Already being deprived of the privilege of carrying her babies in her own womb, Paarvathi is now being deprived of seeing and breastfeeding her newly-born sons as they are all too far away from her now. Her sons are being fostered and breastfed by six select celestial maidens called the Kaartthigai maidens. It is only after the children are done with their childhood that Paarvathi got to see them.
When Paarvathi sees her sons, they seem to be disunited and no one could go along with the other. The first thing that Paarvathi does after embracing all her six sons is integrating all of them into a single body with six heads. Hence this six-in-one child came to be known as Aarumugaa (the six-faced one), as Kaartthikeya (as he was raised by the Kaartthigai maidens) and as Skantha (he who was born from spilt semen). Now Paarvathi is also known as Skanthamata, a mother who accepts a child who was not carried by her womb, not breastfed by her and not raised by her throughout his entire childhood.
Paarvathi also displays a prominent motherhood skill by bringing forth unity amongst all her children. Siblings may disagree with each other in any matter, but they would all answer together in unison to the call of their loving mother. In another sense, she shows mothers how to integrate all the various talents and skills found in their children. It is the mother who knows her child the deepest; it is she who can recognize each and every talent that the child potentially possesses and it is she who encourages her child to fully develop and express all his/her different capabilities without any conflict.
Look at the child whom Paarvathi raises thenceforth. Skantha becomes a son so bold; bold enough to question Brahma and to punish Brahma for not being able to answer fundamental questions regarding his own profession as a creator. Not many mothers would bring up a child who would dare to question the elders regarding matters of empty rituals and of conducting rituals without understanding their core meanings. Skantha even makes Shiva his disciple and starts instructing his father about the deepest intricacies of the Vedas. When her son goes to battle against the demons, Paarvathi turns herself into a powerful spear called the ‘Vel’ and remains with Skantha throughout the battle to assure his victory.
Although she missed the initial joys of motherhood, Paarvathi definitely performs all her responsibilities as a wonderful mother for Skantha. She is so involved with her son’s growth that she makes Shiva look like an absentee parent who was only useful for Skantha’s birth. She is the integral pillar of success for any endeavour her son undertakes.