Virabhadrasana

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away lived a bloke named Daksha. Daksha was the son of Lord Brahma, who created Daksha from his right thumb, he wasn’t a pretty fellow, he was fat and had the head of an ibex-like creature. Shame, probably why he was a bit of an ass.

Daksha, was a very virile ibex-like dude, almost like the Zuma of Hinduism, he was large, was a “great” king and had between 24 and 89 daughters. Well, he was more like Steve Hoffmeyer then, because like Steve, nobody knows how many children there are.

One of Daksha’s daughters’ was Sati, whom was married to Lord Shiva to the immense ire of Daksha. See, Sati wanted one thing in life, she wanted to be married to Shiva, but Daksha forbade it because he saw Shiva as a dirty, roaming ascetic and he reviled Shiva’s cohort of goblins and ghouls. However, Sati disobeyed her Father and married Shiva anyway and found that he was a loving and doting husband.

Daksha organised a huge yaga (or ritual sacrifice) and intentionally avoided Shiva and Sati. Shiva discouraged his wife and told her not to go, because they were not invited. It seems though that Sati was a real daddy’s girl and the parental bond made her ignore all social etiquette and she went nonetheless. Daksha was a real douche and he snubbed her and insulted her in front of all the guests…big mistake on his part, we shall see later why this is my dear readers. She was a little on the dramatic side, our dear Sati, because she was unable to bear further insult, and ran into the Sacrificial fire and immolated herself. Like the roof the roof the roof is on fire right?!

Shiva, upon learning about the terrible incident wasn’t sad about his wife, no, our hero was furious and in his wrath invoked Virabhadra and Bhadrakali by plucking a lock of hair and thrashing it on the ground. I mean if you can rip out your own hair then you must be fuming, I pluck my eyebrows every now and again and that crap is painful. Alas, I digress, Shiva said to Virabhadra: "Lead my army against Daksha and destroy his sacrifice".

On this direction of Shiva, Virabhadra appeared with Shiva's ganas (or attendants) in the midst of Daksha's assembly like a storm and broke the sacrificial vessels, polluted the offerings, insulted the Brahmin priests, trampled on Indra, broke the staff of Yama and scattered the gods on every side. Angry bloke right?

Lord Vishnu could not let his devotee – Daksha be mortified by Virabhadra, so he got on his Garuda (like Garudasana, you know “eagle pose” nudge nudge wink wink) armed with his conch, discus and bow and arrows and rushed out to give battle to Virabhadra to the great joy of the sacred assembly of victims. They fought and fought, as the legends states, like two wild and mad elephants and all three worlds trembled with their movements! It was a long and drawn out battle that caused earth-quakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, landslides and storms and outbreaks of fire.

Seeing that they were evenly matched Vishnu decided to take his life once and for all by using his invincible Discus - Sudrasana - feared in all the worlds for its efficacy. So, twirling it around his right index finger, he let loose the mighty Sudarsana and it roared into the intervening space with such tremendous momentum and acceleration that it flew cleaving the air with incandescent jets of flame spouting off tangentially from its thousand revolving teeth. Seeing Vishnu's Discus approaching him thus, Virabhadra coolly opened his vast mouth and swallowed it at one gulp; and was none the worse for it.

Lord Vishnu was astonished at this miracle and was filled with admiration for Virabhadra. Instantly he flew to his side in great ecstasy and praised his erstwhile opponent thus:

" 0 Virabhadra Mahavira! There is none to equal you here nor in the seven worlds! None can now stop you from punishing the wicked Daksha. You were born of the body of Shiva himself to punish these evildoers; and I see that none can oppose you nor come in your way. Who is there to stand equal to you in might and strength, when my invincible discus-which is capable of powdering a diamond-hard mountain - has not made a scratch on you! It has disappeared into your body now, and seems as though it had never existed! It is a wonder how you swallowed this all-destructive and up to-now invincible discus as though it were a ball of sweet! There is none to oppose you now. you may punish Daksha to your heart's content. Daksha, the enemy of Lord Shiva, caused his own daughter to burn herself; and must certainly now meet his own doom.”

Brimming with anger, Virabhadra beheaded Daksha and marched along with his army to Mount Kailash to testify the completion of his assigned task.

So the point of me telling you this story… Virabhadra was one mean ass mo-fo, and his strength and skill should reflect every time you go into the asanas which bear his name.

You can visualise the story of Virabhadra and Daksha everytime you go into these poses, thusly:

Virabhadra's first aspect, (Vīrabhadrāsana I) is his arrival, with swords in both hands, thrusting his way up through the earth from below.

In his second aspect, (Vīrabhadrāsana II) he sights his opponent, Daksha.

And in his third aspect (Vīrabhadrāsana III), moving swiftly and precisely, he decapitates Daksha with his sword.

Namaste and be a bad ass Warrior!