Metamorphosis

The Kirtimukha is symbolic of our thoughtless pursuit of worldly possessions and pleasures, and has been placed prominently in places of worship to remind us: “Until you recognize the existence of this avaricious nature in you and conquer over it, your spiritual quest can not even begin.”

The Kirtimukha is a personification of ‘glory’ aka pride, arrogance, in short, ego. It serves as a reminder to everybody that ego is essentially self destructive. Ego sustains itself by consuming everything in the person it whom it resides.

It has been said To represent the cosmic fire that periodically cleanses the world, or to be the emblem of Sun and Death, the pair that generates and destroys everything in the world. The name Kala-Makara indicates that it may be Time, the great destroyer.

The Kirtimukha mask is present in all of us. Spiritual aspirants are reminded of this stark reality and warned about its hidden power by the Kirtimukha image present everywhere in the temples. Kirtimukha is thus a threshold guardian to maturity, to the deepening of wisdom. In Dharmic cosmology, the asuras (demons) are cousins of the gods, and are created from the same cosmic material. They are demonic however, because they identify the Self with the body. All their power is perverted in finding ways to satisfy their material consciousness. I shall call you Face of Glory, ‘Kirttimukha’, and you shall shine above the doors to all my temples. No one who refuses to honor and worship you will come ever to knowledge of me.

The oldest is the myth of Rahu. Like Grasa, Rahu means “devourer,” and both names are identified with the great devourer, Time. This story is told in the Mahabharata and in the Brhatsamhita. Long ago, the gods arranged with their enemies, the demons, for their help in churning the oceans. The churning of the waters would produce the nectar of the gods, amrita, which would make whomever drank it immortal.

This was to be divided between the gods and the demons. After the churning, however, the demons carried off the amrita themselves.

They quarreled among themselves, each wanting more than the others. Finally, they entrusted it to the god Vishnu for division, but Vishnu took the cup of amrita and gave it all to the gods. The demon Rahu assumed the shape of a god in order to get a drink, and he succeeded. Vishnu recognized him, however, and struck off Rahu’s head before the amrita could pass through his throat. Having drunk the nectar of immortality, however, the head of Rahu could not die. Ever since, it has flown through the sky, trying to drink again from the cup of immortality This cup is the moon. Every now and then Rahu catches up to the cup and devours it. It is then that we have an eclipse of the moon. But there is nothing beyond Rahu’s neck, so the moon soon passes through and reappears in the night sky The head of Rahu then chases after it again, causing an endless cycle of eclipses.

In other story, the demon king Jalandhara wished to humiliate the god Shiva and sent Rahu to demand that Shiva send Jalandhara his bride, Parvati. Shiva’s answer was to emit a burst of energy from his ajna chakra that power spot between his eyebrows that is so often marked with a daub of color or a third eye. The energy manifested itself as a lion-headed monster with a lolling tongue, “eyes like lightning,” hair standing on end, and an emaciated body, the very spirit of hunger, which immediately threatened to devour Rahu. Rahu threw himself upon the mercy of Shiva. Shiva extended his protection, but this left a problem, for the new monster had nothing to devour. What, it asked the Lord Shiva, should it now eat? Shivas solution—since he could not annihilate what he had created—was to tell it to eat itself. This the monster readily did, devouring as much of itself as it could reach, all the way to its neck, so that only the face remained.

Rahu the eclipse demon of India. Detail of a painting by Indoneian artist I.M Sidigriya. According to one set of myth, rahu drank the amrita, the liquire of immortality. His head was struck off, but because it had drunk of amrita he could not die. Ever since, it circles the sky trying to drink from cup of amrita, which is the moon. When it catches up with the moon, there is a linar eclipse. But the eclipse soon ends, because the moon passes out through the neck. The head of Rahu became the kirtimukha. In other legends Rahu was the catalyst by which kirtimukha was formed. Photograph Donald F.Trombino, F.R.A.S, Davis Memorial Solar Observatory.

In Sanskrit the spread of a word is designated as mukha-karnaparampara, “succession from mouth to ear,” and the expression mukhara, literally “having a face/mouth,” is used to describe resonant thunder or a loud voice because it was believed that the atmosphere has five faces: four faces in the four directions surrounding a face in the center. This view correlates with the concept that the sky is the region where kirti, in the form of the sound voice, blows like wind in all directions. Shiva named the Hunger Kirtimukha, the immortal face of glory. Shiva, who is Constant Awareness, wants you to be aware of the real nature of the universe, to accept it. To live in the world, is to be aware of that constant hunger, and as always, Shiva or Awakended Consciousness is the only way in which you can transcend it.