A lot of times I find that studying a scripture and attempting to decipher them to be as daunting as solving a puzzle! One such attempt was to unravel the mystery of death of Madhu and Kaithabha
The story goes as this it was the time of apocalypse or pralaya as Indian scriptures knows it. All three worlds were submerged in waters and lord MahaVishnu was in yoganidra, deep annihilating sleep. Two demons Madhu and Kaitabha originate from his earwax and grow in power and seek to threaten brahma and hide his Vedas. In sheer despair brahma appeals to yogamaya to leave Vishnu(which will awaken him) and she takes pity on Brahma and leaves Vishnu. Vishnuawakes fully charged to kill the demons and the fight continues for 5000 years. In the end Vishnu seeks the help of yogamaya to create the illusion of invincibility in them and then praises them saying “I am impressed with your combat skills ask for a boon and I shall grant it. ” They laugh at him and say in return ” you ask for a boon we are greater then you and we shall grant it” Vishnu siezes the moment and asks them to die in combat. They see the whole world deluged in waters of pralaya and ask for a place which is dry. Vishnu expands his loins to give them the dry spot and they have no choice but to get killed. Having killed Madhu Vishnu gets the name madhu sudhana
Taking the story a little deeper, lets understand who this madhu kaitabha are. Madhu means honey and keeta means insect. Madhu keeta is honey bee , Madhu kaita is “of a honey bee” Madhukaitabha is “like that of a honey bee” What is the nature of honey bee. It accumulates material (honey) without understanding the deeper purpose of it’s life. Similarly the human life is spent on amassing wealth without seeking higher knowledge (the part where they threaten to take vedas away and drown it) . The Illusion(Maya ) has to leave the shuddha satva (vishnu) and only then we all awake from the spiritual dormancy and kill this desire to accumulate.
Kaalakshepam... 