Reading Notes: Divine Beings Part A

• Oh my gosh, the beginning of this was brutal!  It starts off with the story of Jatayu, the great bird-man that helped Rama find Sita by attacking Ravana while he tries to steal Sita and then staying alive until Rama reaches him to tell him who kidnapped Sita.  His backstory is so sad though!  He and his brother were flying around one day until they happened too close to the path of the sun god, who was being driven by their father (not really sure how a humanoid god has two bird-men as children, but I digress).  Their father knew that if he swerved to avoid his sons, the world would be thrown out of order, so he had to stay the course.  Sampati, Jatayu's older brother, saw what was going to happen, and to protect his younger brother, he flew in front of Jatayu and took the brunt of the force.  He fell to earth and his wings burned up, and he was never able to fly again.  Jatayu searched for his brother, but they never saw each other again.  I almost cried this story was so sad!  I just hope that when they died they met each other again.  And the father too, how he must have felt!  So sad :(
• Apparently, Jatayu also met Rama's father?  He helped the king confront a god who was giving the kingdom a famine for some unexplained reason.  Maybe he was bored?  Who knows, but anyway, that was when Jatayu pledged himself to help Rama's family for as long as he lived and why he was obliged to protect Sita later on.
• The next being, Nandi, started off human, but his devotion to Shiva led the god to turn him into a divine bull.
• Nandi guarded Shiva's home and was intensely loyal.  Once when Shiva was drinking poison to save the world (the other gods were churning the waters of the sea for amrita), Nandi drank the poison that fell from Shiva's lips and because he was so devoted to Shiva, he was also granted immunity from the poison.
• I found it interesting that Nandi's father wished for a child from Shiva and then basically devoted the child to Shiva.  Later, the boy is visited by sages who say he doesn't have long to live but then because he continually prayed to Shiva he became immortal.  I wonder what happens to the father though.  He's never mentioned again, but I bet he'd be pretty proud of his son.
• Nandi is also marginally involved in the Ramayana!  Ravana tries to go see Shiva but is turned away by Nandi.  He insults Nandi and calls him a monkey.  Enraged, Nandi curses Ravana to be defeated by an army of monkeys, which comes true when Hanuman and his army takes Lanka.  I think it's so cool that so many things relate back to the epics we read!

Jatayu fighting Ravana.  Web Source.

Bibliography:  Divine Beings.  Reading Guide.