Kartikeya

Kartikeya was the son of Shiva and Uma. But he got lost when he was a bady and was found by six goddesses named the Krittikas. (The Krittikas are also nakshatras or stars identified with the Pleiades.) The six Krittikas fell in love with this beautiful child. But they started to fight amongst themselves.

“He is mine, I shall feed him,” said each one of them.
Kartikeya did not wish that a fight should break out amongst those who were to be his foster mothers. He therefore developed six heads with six mouths, so that each goddess could feed one mouths. Since that word shada means six and the word anana means face, another name for Kartikeya is Shadanana. And it was because he was brought up by the Krittikas that the boy came to have the name of Kartikeya. Amongst his other names were Kumara, Skanda, Guha and Mahasena.

When Kartikeya grew up, he was restored to Shiva and Uma. The gods appointed him the general of their army. Garuda was the king of the birds and he also carried Vishnu around. Garuda had a son who was a peacock. This peacock carried Kartikeya around.

Mura

“One of Vishnu’s names is Murari,” Pulastya told Narada.

“Why is Vishnu known as Murari?” asked Narada.

Many years ago, the sage Kashyapa had a son named Mura. This asura discovered that the demons generally tended to be beaten by the gods. He therefore decided to perform difficult tapasya so that he might become strong. For several years he prayed to Brahma. Brahma was finally pleased and agreed to grant Mura a boon.

“I wish the boon that if I touch a person in the battlefield, that person should immediately die, regardless of whether he is immortal or not. My hands should have this wonderful power,” said Mura.

Brahma granted him the boon.

Thanks to this amazing boon, Mura became invincible. No one could match him in battle. The demon attacked heaven and challenged Indra to a duel. Indra had no desire to fight with a person who possessed such amazing powers. But Mura told him, “You either have to fight with me or run away from heaven. There is no other option.”

Indra accordingly left heaven. He surrendered his elephant Airavata and his weapon vajra to Mura. With his wife and children, the king of the gods began to live in a city that he built for himself on the banks of the river Kalindi. The demons enjoyed the pleasures of heaven.

Mura once came to visit the earth and discovered king Raghu engaged in performing a yajna.

“Fight with me,” he ordered Raghu. “And if you cannot fight with me, stop performing the yajna. There is no need to worship the gods anymore. Don’t you know that they have been defeated ?”

The sage Vashishtha happened to be passing and he intervened. “Why are you trying to fight with mere humans?” he asked Mura. “They have already been defeated by you. You ought to fight with someone who is your equal. Otherwise where is the challenge? Why don’t you go and fight with Yama?”

Mura invaded Yama’s city, but Yama knew that the demon was invincible. Yama had no desire to get killed. He therefore climbed onto a buffalo and fled to Vishnu.

Vishnu heard about Yama’s woes and told him, “Go and send that demon to me. I will take care of him.”

Yama returned and met Mura. He told Mura that if he desired to be all-powerful, he ought really to fight with Vishnu. Vishnu was waiting for him on the shores of the ocean known as Kshiroda. It was there that Mura went.

“What do you want?” asked Vishnu. “Why have you come here?”

“I wish to fight with you,” replied Mura.

“But if you want to fight with me, why is your heart trembling so much?” Vishnu asked the demon. “Are you frightened? I cannot fight with a person whose heart trembles thus.”