LOVE: To Infinity And Beyond

Reasons

Arjun rushed to the chamber where Krishna was staying. He didn't even know if Madhav was done with freshening up and changing. He just wanted, rather, needed to meet him. He had too many questions, and he just needed the answers to those... anyhow. His whole 'life' is seeming to be nothing more than a cover, a drama to cover up the real truth.

"Madhav", he called mildly, as he paused at the door. Krishna, who was facing the sunlit window, turned backwards towards him, and smiled-- his characteristic mysterious smile, even more mysterious. Arjun stepped in. Before Krishna could even try to pacify the burning fire of curiosity within him, he dropped the question. "Who am I?" Krishna continued to look calmly at him, but the smile vanished. Arjun's brows knitted in a frown.

"Okay... listen kids... If you want, you can nag a little less and go to Rukmini Mami, if you want to...", Krishnaa finally raised her hands in surrender to the antics of the two hyper-active kids. She can't send the hyper-active infant in her lap to Rukmini. Atleast, these two. Priu and Abhi hugged her and kissed on the tiny palms of baby Kirti and ran away.... They have studied enough, Krishnaa thought and smiled to herself, at the kids' restlessness. She kept a dozing off Kirti on the bed and guarded him with a few pillows, and moved towards the worship place in her chamber. 

Her eyes fell on the Ardhanareshwara idol at the centre of the worship place. Before she even knew what to think and what not to, an awkward vision appeared in front of her eyes from almost nowhere... A hand, most probably hers, touches a Shivling and it turns into Ardhanareshwara... Almost freaked out by the vision, she covered both her eyes with her palms. She opened her eyes after a moment, and that vision was gone. It felt like a quick dream, out of the void. Too quick to even realize what was happening. 

Krishna stood still. His face composed, but still holding an unknown shade of apprehension, as if he know that Arjun would ask this question... someday or the other. Or, maybe, he was waiting for this day and this question. As if, there was some secret he has been holding back for years, and now his opportunity has finally arrived to lessen his own pangs by revealing that to the right person. "I need the answer Madhav..." Arjun's voice heard almost like a desperate plea. Like, he would do about anything and everything, go to any length to fetch the answer to his question. Krishna's eyes moistened. He took Arjun's hands in his and finally spoke up, "Why me Paarth..? Ask your Mahadev... Come.." He gave his hands a slight pull, as they, almost spontaneously began walking towards Arjun's chamber. 

They reached the practice zone, and entered the adjacent worship room. To reach to the deity, they had to pass by an in-lying glassy pool of lotuses. All the worship rooms of the palace have this feature. This is, obviously, Krishnaa's idea. This, both, beautified the place and certainly supplied lotuses for pooja.. 

As Arjun passed by the water, suddenly his instincts asked him to looked down into the water, and he did. What he saw, nearly stilled his heart... The shadow in the water wasn't just his.. It was half of a female and half of male, who at all did not look like him, at least not in the shadow... ARDHANARESHWAR... The word rang in his mind.. The Nar and his Ardhangini.. That is what the word literally means. Suddenly, the whole mystery began to unravel inside his mind. 

Mahadev is the Adi Purush, and his Ardhangini is Adi Shakti. They have existed since before the beginning of time. Then, with their internal powers, Mahadev gave rise to Brahma and Vishnu. Brahma created the whole universe.. everything, and Vishnu or Narayan became the maintainer. But, time hadn't yet begun. Nothing could begin working in the absence of any form of ENERGY. Life was absent, any form of energy was absent. That was when, Brahma begged Mahadev to give the left half of him, the female part, as he needed energy to run the world.  Even Mahadev's own powers lied in Shakti, his female counterpart, the other half of his soul, the sole reason and energy behind his existence. Though, hesitant and grieved beyond expressions, They agreed for the sake of the creation. Adi Shakti got separated from Mahadev and they both became two singular entities. Adi ParaShakti's energy got infused into nature and gave rise to the energy within the five most important components of the world-- water, air, fire, soil/ earth and space; and also the driving force behind all life in the world... However, the Adi Purush almost lost himself at the immense loss of the other half of his own soul. Shiva took the Krodhagni avatar and roamed the world for aeons-- crushing evils, but in his own way of severe destruction. Brahma and Vishnu realized the need of a composite Tridev structure. But for that, they needed to calm down Mahadev, at first. Brahma decided to perform a trick. Firstly, he asked his son, the rule-creator of the world, Prajapati Daksh to pray to Adi Shakti and request the Goddess to take birth as his daughter, so that, born as a human, she can grown up and can be finally married off to Mahadev. By this, Mahadev's rage would be cooled off and he would join the Tridev. Daksh, a huge Mahadev devotee, readily agreed. Adi Shakti granted the boon, and took birth as Daksh's youngest daughter Sati to his wife Prasuti. But, something happened meanwhile. With an intention of bearing the whole brunt of Mahadev's rage, driven by his guilt, and in a desperate effort to bring Shiva back to his calm state by tying him in the bondage of Karma, Brahma began criticizing the Vedas. Mahadev, the Sarvavedagya, in his Krodhagni avatar, was obviously infuriated to such an extent that he cut off Brahma's fifth head with his trishul. This in turn infuriated Daksh, who became a dead enemy of Lord Shiva... The Shiva-Sati tale commenced afterwards. After, Sati's demise, Shiva spent 1000 years, waiting for her, in the form of an immortal human. He was an absolute mess when finally, due to Adi Shakti's reappearance and motivation, he finally came back to his real form.... 

Krishna kept his hand on Arjun's shoulder. Arjun nearly shivered as his trance broke. Tears welled up in his eyes. After the demise of his Ardhangini's human form, he almost lost himself. That was when he had decided to take a human birth, in order to reunite with her. He is Mahadev human avatar, Krishnaa-- Adi Shakti's and Krishna-- Vishnu's....