The Holocaust
Virabhadra and Kali set off with their armies of destruction. They arrived beating drums, blowing conches and playing music. It was a celebration of victory to come. The gods fled at the first attack- only the guardians of the quarters held out, protecting the sacrificial hall. But Virabhadra himself stormed the doors, felling and killing whoever stood in his way. The sacrifice, in the form of a deer, fled, but was beheaded mid-air by Virabhadra. He chipped a piece off Saraswati's nose, and Aditi's too.

The sage Bhrigu summouned the fierce ribhus, a class of fierce spirits, with an incantation. Bhrigu was felled and his moustache plucked out. Pushan had his teeth pulled out, because he had laughed when Shiva was being cursed and Nandi gouged out an eye of Bhaga because he had winked in sly approval. The women were molested, the sacrifical pit defiled. All limits were crossed of both propriety and decency.

Daksha was cowering behind the sacrificial altar. Virabhadra dragged him out, held him by his jowls, kicked him in the chest, twisted his head off and threw it into the fire as a final act of desecration. The great sacrificer had become fuel for his own defiled sacrifice.

Brahma, sitting in his world, Satyaloka, was full of sorrow. He decided to see Vishnu- he had to do something for his son. Vishnu felt that they should all go to Kailasa, crave Shiva's pardon and ask him to restore the sacrifice and revive the dead.

Order Restored
They journeyed to Kailasa and came to where Shiva was sitting under the tree of percipience, shaded by the wisdom of its leafy canopy. Dakshinamurti, teacher and yogi, was guiding and instructing, discussing matters of knowledge and enlightenment.

The gods praised Shiva and begged for mercy. Daksha was restored to life but with a goat's head. The dead were revived and with Daksha completely converted to Shiva worship, the sacrifice was resumed and completed. The domestic ritualist had been overpowered and the Vedas, freed from sectarian clutches, had been reinstated. The mystery and innocence of early human perceptions of godhead remained in place, inviolate, while new methods of knowledge and discernment went ahead unhampered by bigotry. Shiva was an enigma and would remain one. But he was not, therefore, to be lightly dismissed by man or god.