Bhandasura??

whenever we hear of stories of the divine feminine, there this great sense of unconquerable power. Frequently we see Brahma or Shiva giving a boon and getting in trouble because it empowers the demon who in turn comes backs and torments the Gods and Demi-Gods with his new found power. We also hear Shiva or Vishnu having to win a battle purely by tickery or deception.

But with the Goddess it is difficult to think of an example of a mistake, with the possible exception of Sita's desire for the golden deer. The goddess is always right, always direct and she never loses a battle.

We all know the story of Parvati trying to woo Shiva after Brahma bestows upon an asura a boon that he shall only be killed by the son of Shiva. While doing so, Kamadeva helps Parvati to bring Shiva out of his meditative trance so that he can see Parvati in her beatiful form and fall in love with her and start a family. In the process, Lord Shiva burns Kamadeva into ashes for disturbing him in his meditation.

Now the story that we know, Rati the wife of Kamadeva comes and pleads to Shiva and he gives her a boon that he will be restored to life in the Dwapar yug. But in this version of the story, the shiv gana to help rati bring the ashes of Kamadeva and make a statue of a man out of it and after Rati's pleading, he instills life into that statue and teaches him a mantra by which he can gain half the power of his adversary instantly and also gives him the boon to rule over all the worlds for 60,000 years. And since he sent him off saying, "Bhanda, bhanda", meaning nice nice... he was named Bhandasura. Now since he was born out of the wrath of Shiva, he had the Ugra swaroop and turned into a demon, "Bhandasura"...

Bhandasura attacked Indra and took over the heavens. Indra prayed to Tripura Sundari for 60000 years and she agreed to help him. She took her army and waged a war against Bhandasura. Now Tripura Sundari is also known as lalita meaning soft and beautiful. So Bhandasura laughed on her saying she is beautiful and soft and battle and war is not something that she should be doing.

The battle between Bhandasura and Tripura Sundari was most unusual. It wasn't a direct battle. Bhandasura created demons and Tripura Sundari created deities that destroyed the demons. Bhandasura created hiranyakashipu and she created prahlada and Narasimha. Bhandasura created Ravana and she created Rama. In fact the Vishnu's 10 incarnations "Dashavatara" are also known to be born from the 10 fingernails of the divine Tripura Sundari. Bhandasura created mahishasura and She created durga. The battle between Mahishasura and Durga has been beautifully described in the brahmana purana.

Then one of the generals of Bhandasura named Vishnukra used a yantra called the Jayavighna which takes away the will to be victorious from the armies of Tripura Sundari. The Generals of Tripura Sundari Manthini and Dhanapta informed this to Her and she just smiled. From her melodious smile was born Lord Ganesha, also known as the Vighneshwara. He weakened the force of the Jayavighna yantra and the armies got their strength back. Vishnukra slays Ganesha in this story using the Gaja astra and as a reward Tripura Sundari blesses Ganesha that he be prayed first in any puja henceforth.

Later in the story Vishnukra deploys the weapon called the trishna astra and the armies of Tripura Sundari become extremely thirsty. That's when Manthini suggests to call Sura Sindhu (The ocean of liquor) to quench the thirst of the entire army. This depicts that nothing in itself is negative or positive... even an element like liquor has been created by the divine and may have its own divine purpose at times...

Finally Tripura Sundari kills Bhanda and Rati, wife of Kamadeva or Bhanda pleads to her to restore his life. Because Kamadeva is the lord of desire and without him there would be no desire. So she in her infinite divinity and kindness restores the life back into Kamadeva in the Dwapara yuga.

The no. "3" is closely associated to Tripura Sundari. e.g. she is the icha shakti (will), gyana shakti(wisdom) and kriya shakti(action) in this entire eternity. Her other name is lalita which according to one script has 8 meanings: beauty, brilliance, manifestation, sweetness, infinity, energy, grace and generosity.