Karttikeya

There was a god who was born to go first. He was not made to walk behind anyone, or to wait for anyone. His name was Karttikeya, and he was the god of war, the fastest of all the gods.

Karttikeya was the son of Shiva and Parvati. He was the god of war and the commander of the whole army of heaven. He had many names. In the north of India he was called Skanda. In the south he was Murugan, the god of youth and victory. Hindu legend says he came into the world with one mission, to destroy the demon Tarakasura, whom no one else could defeat.

He was a strong young man with bright eyes and a sacred spear in his hand. His whole life was speed, and his fame rested on crossing the line first. His mount was one of the finest in heaven, a peacock named Mayura. It was the bird with the most dazzling feathers, and no wings in all the heavens were spread with more pride.

Then one day his father, Shiva, set a test. He placed a sacred mango before his two sons. The prize would go to whoever first traveled around the whole universe. This is a Hindu legend, recorded in the Shivarahasya Purana and in many other Puranas. It is told as legend, not as a recorded event of history.

Karttikeya did not hesitate for a second. The test might have been made for him, for no one in the world was faster than the god of war. He leapt onto the peacock's back and shot away.

The wind roared in his ears. Stars slid past like silver rain. Below him, great bands of galaxies coiled and glowed, one after another. He flew over burning suns, through the cold dark between the stars, and over places in the sky where no one had ever set foot. The whole vast universe spread out beneath the peacock's wings, and he raced through it, a god born to fly.

When he had circled all of heaven and earth, he turned back with a heart full of pride. He had gone faster than anyone could imagine. He landed, ready to take the sacred mango.

But the mango was no longer there.

His younger brother, Ganesha, stood beside their parents with the mango in his hand. In the legend, Ganesha had not flown anywhere. He had only walked around his parents, and said that his parents were his whole universe. And so he had won.

Karttikeya's first feeling was anger. A warrior's pride was wounded. He had truly circled the universe and seen with his own eyes what no one else had seen. Yet the one who reached the finish first was the one who had never left the doorstep.

Then he stopped short, in a very small silence.

He looked at his parents standing there, Shiva and Parvati. He looked at his brother, who had never gone a single step away from them. And slowly, he began to understand.

What he had seen while flying around the universe was truly magnificent. The stars, the galaxies, the endless light. But Ganesha had seen those same things without moving, because he saw them in his parents' eyes. A whole universe, held inside his own home.

That was the moment Karttikeya grew up. A warrior who can fly around the universe is strong. A warrior who flies around the universe, comes home, and knows what matters most is stronger still. The hardest battle is not fought on a battlefield. It lies within, where a warrior learns to set down some of his pride and see what truly matters.

This god of war set foot on the land of Vietnam long ago. The Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang keeps a statue of Skanda, another name for Karttikeya. The statue dates from the 7th to the 8th century. The Cham are a people of south-central Vietnam whose ancestors lived in the ancient kingdom of Champa. The Cham of that time worshiped Shiva, and they carved the whole family of gods into stone, among them this young god of war.

The god stands in a still posture. He has stood there for more than a thousand years beside the Hàn River. The Cham artisan who carved him must have understood one thing: the greatest victory of a warrior is the battle he wins within himself.

Karttikeya circled the whole universe. But the most important thing he found, he found at home.