A Tale of Devotion

Good moral stories have the ability to inculcate strong values in children and influence us to do good and just deeds.There are innumerable anecdotes in Hindu mythology which have been passed on  generation after generation for ages together to guide us in the right path.To me,these are not myths as one would think but true stories of unflinching devotion.I came across one such story recently and wanted to share it with you'll.

Pushpadanda and Maliavan,two ganas of Lord Shiva began to fight about who was superior in serving the Lord.  At one point, they cursed each other to be born as a spider and an elephant.  Maliavan was born as a spider and Pushpadanda as an elephant. 

Both the spider and elephant began to worship a Shiva Lingam under a Jambu tree to attain salvation.The spider noticed that the leaves from the Jambu tree were falling on the Lingam and was feeling sad that it did not have the ability to construct a shrine for the Lord.Then the spider realised that it could weave a web  above the Lingam and began weaving.

The elephant came to worship the Lingam and was surprised to see that there were no leaves around.On seeing the spider web,the elephant became angry because the web was weaved by the spider's mouth,thereby undermining the sanctity of the place.The elephant cleared the web with it's trunk and did abishekam for the Lingam with water.

The same incident repeated for several days as the spider had no clue that it was the elephant which  was destroying it's web.One day,it saw the elephant clearing the web and was angered.The spider entered the elephants trunk and stung repeatedly.The elephant,unable to bear the pain began to hit it's trunk on the wall.Both the elephant and spider died there.

The Lord was moved to see such deep devotion and gave moksha to the elephant.However,the spider who had tried to kill the elephant had to be reborn to atone it's sins.The spider was reborn as Kochengat Cholan,a great king of the Chola Dynasty .The King constructed the Sri Akhilandeswari Sametha Jambukeshwarar Temple for the lingam under the jambu tree and various other temples.But,

he remembered his previous birth and built the temples in such way that elephants cannot enter the sanctorum of the Lord.

Sources :

http://www.thiruvanaikavaltemple.tnhrce.in/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kocengannan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambukeswarar_Temple,_Thiruvanaikaval
https://rajamala.wordpress.com/tag/elephant-and-spider-story/