Rudra stands alone, the Only One,
None other stands, no Second One;
The Maker he, of all these worlds,
Controlling all with powers great,
He stands with each, Protector too,
And in the end he stands, Reducing all.
Shvetashvattara Upanishad
Chapter III Verse 2.

 

Rudra's appearances and births were, in the main, over. The ground pattern of his nativity had been laid out on the looms of Vedic and post-Vedic myth but a few more birth motifs were to embellish it as legend seized upon the growing concept of Rudra in Epic and Puranic times. The god at first appeared- and reappeared- if one is to accept his pre-Aryan existence, then took birth in ways that advanced his image and status.

Rudra also showed himself in two or three other ways. He chose to manifest, to incarnate and to reveal aspects of his divine personality while he indulged in leela, the traditional sport and pastime of the Hindu gods. Leela shows the gods in a playful mood. They put themselves and others in curious situations and as these unravel, the deity provides tantalizing glimpses of his nature and qualities.

Leela, Pastime of the Gods
There is an element of mystery in all divine leela which keeps us guessing even while we grasp what the god is trying to convey. The veil lifts but only partially. Leela is maya, the illusory nature of the world at play, providing lightning flashes of insight while the show is on.

Learning should be fun, or alternatively, spell-binding. The Hindu always knew this. The story is a powerful means of communicating the eternal verities and the story-play of leela was an established practice of the sages and celestials in their dealings with the universe.

Shiva's Puranic births are instances of his leela, a hint at his deepening mystery. The Skanda Purana tells how he was born of a drop of blood which oozed from Brahma's forehead as he wiped the sweat off his brow. The creator had been bending over a sacrificial fire, fanned into a blaze by self-glorification. It was a case of pride generating its own fall, for in a well-known myth, Brahma's fifth head is snipped off with the tip of Shiva's little finger.