A Celebration Of All Bonds That Matter

Saturday, August 9, is the festival of Raksha Bandhan, and, as ever, I find its deeper implications fascinating.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

The origin story goes that Indra, king of the celestials, had to fight big, bad Vritra, a powerful negative force who wanted to take over and rule the world. Indra, as the leader of the celestials, was duty-bound to fight him to protect the universe. He fought very hard, to the point of fighting just for survival, but kept being bested.

Rishi Dadhichi, an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, had a body suffused with extraordinary spiritual power that could manifest as physical strength. The gods asked him to surrender his body so that Indra could fashion a weapon from his bones. Dadhichi gladly did so and sat down to meditate on Lord Shiva, who, the belief goes, is the 'prana' or breath that keeps us alive, the only barrier between life and death. Rishi Dadhichi sent himself into samadhi, a state of deep concentration and inner withdrawal, through which he willed his breath to leave his body.