Sadhguru: Long time ago, there was a young maiden in South India.
Southern-most tip of India, she aspired to hold Shiva’s hand, not his feet.
She’s a proud woman, she wanted to hold his hand, as a wife.
She said, “If at all, if I marry, it’s only him.”
If you have big desires, you also have to make yourself capable, otherwise, desires can be very frustrating.
So she started working towards making herself capable, to be suitable, to draw that man.
Her austerities crossed all levels of sanity, and she remained absolutely focused upon him.
Every moment, just on it.
So it stirred up Shiva’s compassion and love, so he started making his journey to South India.
But all the other gods conspired. They did not want him to have a South Indian wife (Laughter).
They played many tricks to stop him.
She set up this deadline, “If I am not married to him by sunrise, on this day, I am going to leave my body.”
And Shiva came to know of this and was hurrying down.
Then the other gods thought, “If he gets married here, he may not go back up there,
he may start living in South India.” So they conspired to create a false sense of sunlight.
When light came up, Shiva thought, “Oh, sun came up and I could not meet the deadline.”
He was close, and he thought, “It’s over,” and he turned back. So she left her body, standing.
Even today she stands there as Kanyakumaari. There is a shrine at the very tip of this country.
So he turned back, and he felt very disappointed with himself that he could not meet up to her devotion.
So little despondent, frustrated with himself that didn’t make it in time,
he started walking back, and he needed a place to sit and work out his despondency.
So he climbed up this mountain, and at the peak of this mountain, he sat.
We don’t know how long, but because wherever Shiva stepped and spent a little bit of time,
people called that place as Kailash, so they called this “Kailash of the South”.
In its height, in its color, probably in its magnitude, it may not be comparable to the Kailash
in the Himalayas, but in its potency and its beauty, and in its sacredness, it is not any less.