KILLING OF SHUMBA AND NISHUMBA

Once upon a time there lived two demon brothers Shumba and Nishumba who had the ambition to rule the world and treat all the people as their servant. They wanted to acquire power. In order to fulfill their aim, they prayed to Lord Brahma with utter devotion. Pleased with their false show of sincerity Lord Brahma granted them a boon. The boon made them almost invincible as they were given the power that no one other than a woman would be able to kill them. Both Shumba and Nishumba were pleased on receiving it as they felt that no woman was so strong as to kill both of them. Blessed with the boon both the brothers started creating havoc in the universe. They tormented all the living creatures, terrorized the people and even forced the Saints and the Brahmins to worship them if they wanted to live.

Terror and fear enveloped the entire universe and both the brothers grew arrogant and more powerful because of the boon they had received. Even the other Gods were unable to stop them and felt helpless. All the Gods became worried and started thinking of a way to defeat both Shumba and Nishumba. As all the Gods were discussing about their plans, Goddess Parvati saw all of them. She listened to their stories about the injustice and cruelty of both the demon brothers on the whole world and how they had become arrogant. Maa Parvati became furious on hearing about such unashamed display of power by Shumba and Nishumba and decided to teach them a lesson. She assured all other Gods that their concern will be taken care of. With her powerful and divine energies, she created another Goddess from her own being called “Kaushiki”. Kaushiki was ravishingly beautiful and there was an aura and charm around her personality. Soon word spread about her beauty and reached Shumba and Nishumba. They were excited on hearing about the description of Kaushiki from their followers and so each of them sent a marriage proposal to her.

On receiving the proposal Kaushiki replied that she had taken a vow to marry the person who was able to defeat her in a battle with their army. Shumba and Nishumba were pleased on hearing this as they felt that they could easily defeat Kaushiki and then marry her. They thought the battle as a formality and so sent their army along with the generals to defeat her and bring her to them. But Kaushiki being an avatar of Maa Durga was very powerful and strong. She defeated the huge army of Shumba and Nishumba single handedly with ease. She then challenged Shumba and Nishumba to come and fight with her to marry her.

Shumba and Nishumba were shocked and angry on hearing that Kaushiki had wiped out their army. They decided to take their revenge and so went to the battlefield where Kaushiki was waiting for them. As both the demon brothers as well as Kaushiki were very powerful, a fierce and tough battle ensued between them. Shumba and Nishumba used their cunning strategies to defeat Kaushiki but each of the time Kaushiki was able to control them. Finally in order to kill the brothers, Kaushiki decided to enhance her powers. She used the energies or the Shakti of seven Gods who came to assist her in the battle. Theses energies fought a fierce battle and killed Nishumba. Shumba now grew frightened and knew that this woman was not an ordinary woman. Knowing that his end was near, he infuriated Kaushiki by saying that she was not as powerful as him and had to take the help of seven other Gods to kill his brother. Hearing this Kaushiki said that the time has come to show you who is more powerful. She eventually merged the energies of all the Gods into herself and killed Shumba. Thus she preached the message of victory of goodness over evil and helped to restore peace, harmony and love in the world once again.

Learning from the story

This story teaches us about the power of Maa Durga. It presents a twin facet to Maa Durga’s personality both as the stunningly beautiful and charming Goddess as well as the deadly Goddess who wipes out all the evil forces. It preaches us the message that no matter how much powerful and strong you are but if you use that power for illegitimate and deceitful purposes, ultimately you will have to pay for your misdeeds by being defeated or killed. This story also teaches us that we should never under estimate our opponent in a battle or a competition. We should not be over-confident about our supremacy but instead should analyse the opponent and develop the strategies to counter him/her.

Shumba and Nishumba under estimated the power of a woman to defeat them both when they received the boon and when Kaushiki invited them for a battle. They had grown blind with arrogance and superiority because of which they had to pay the price in the end.

The moral of this story is that we should live a simple, humble and a peaceful life. Even if we acquire the status, resources and power in the society, we should use it for productive purposes and to help the mankind rather than create destruction, terror and hatred with the misuse of our power and position. Only when you help and care for others can you think of receiving the same treatment in return.