Kartikeya leaves Kailasa - The story and the mystery.

The story goes that there was a certain reward to be shared between Kartikeya and Ganesha. Shiva had to decide if the reward was to be shared or if it was to be given entirely to only one of his sons. There are many versions of this story, and some say that the reward was just a fruit, a magical fruit nonetheless, and other stories claim that the reward were two brides to be married to the two brothers. Anyways, Shiva determined a competition between the two brothers to help him choose. He asked them to circumnavigate the world, thrice, and return to Kailasa, to claim the prize. The brothers agreed to the competition.

Kartikeya went out, seated on the Peacock, his vaahana (= vehicle). He went about to complete the circumnavigation of the globe and completed three rounds and returned to Kailasa rapidly. Upon reaching Kailasa, Kartikeya found that Ganesha was seated comfortably, happy, and that he had already claimed the reward. On enquiry, he was told that Ganesha had moved, seated on his mushika (= mouse), that was his vaahana, and had merely done three rounds around Shiva and Parvati.

When asked for an explanation by Parvati, Ganesha had answered that, to him, his parents were his entire world. He had done what he thought was correct, and that he had gone around his parents, for they were the entire world. The answer had pleased Shiva and Parvati immensely, and they had given the entire reward to Ganesha, without waiting for Kartikeya's return.

The answer had angered Kartikeya. It implied that they had not valued the determination and hard work that he had put in while traveling around the entire world thrice. In anger, Kartikeya left Kailasa and traveled out of the Himalayas.

There is certainly an aspect of mystery about the exact nature of reward that was to have been shared between Kartikeya and Ganesha. One story reveals that it was supposed to have been a celestial mango given to Shiva by Narada when the latter visited Kailasa. The celestial nature of the mango was that it was a "fruit of knowledge" (= gnyana palam), coupled with excellent taste. 

Being young lads, the story goes, the desire to possess the entire fruit was competitive. An intriguing aspect of the competition is the immediate acceptance of the challenge posed by Shiva for the winner to be declared after knowing who circled the world and came back before the other. Perhaps, Shiva, had no other option but to accept Ganesha's intelligent maneuver in declaring that his parents were the world for him, and going around them, and thereby winning the mango-fruit. For, after all, wasn't it supposed to be the 'fruit of knowledge'? Who else could lay claim to it, other than the one with the sharper strategy?

The other mystery could be that it would have probably taken a tremendously longer time for Kartikeya to have gone around the world, and return to claim the mango-fruit. That was however not so, declares the Puranas. It is thus written that Kartikeya traveled on his celestial vaahana (= vehicle), the blue peacock, and returned in the "blink of an eye". 

This really intrigues me. If Kartikeya did return in the 'blink of an eye', it would have still taken Ganesha more time to actually walk around his parents. Anyhow, Kartikeya returned to Kailasa, understood that he had been outsmarted, and got angry. It is said thus, that there was perhaps inherent reason for Narada to visit Kailasa, and incite a family fight, and break up the happy household of Shiva and Parvati and cause the events in the future to begin to uphold all over the Indian Subcontinent.