This thought process was spurred be a conversation with a westerner-friend of mine. She wanted the mantram that Durvasa taught Kunthi Devi, the aunt of Krishna, and the mother of Karna, Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Their society would not give her a hard time for not being married to someone when she had a divine child. But the story is so different in India.
From close to the end of Dwapara Yuga, when Kunthi bore Karna, the sun of Surya (Sun) Deva, till today., our attitudes have been hard on mothers and children, outside the context of marriage. Else why would this aunt of Dharma Samsthapaka, Sri Krishna, abandon a baby in the river? When Yama granted Savithri (daughter of Asvapathi, wife of Satyavan) a boon of a hundred sons, and she pointed out that he was taking her husband’s life away, he restored her husband’s life rather than suggest that she marry again or have children out of wedlock.
In India, Karna, the son of Surya, had to fight for a place in the Kshatriya caste, because he was raised by Sutas, Adhirata and Radha. Yudhisthira and his brothers, the sons of Yama, Vayu, Indra and the Aswini (Ashwini) Twins, had to fight with the sons of human kings to establish their sovereignty. (It reminds me of another incident in the middle east.) I don’t think humans look too kindly on the sons of Gods.
Sugriva, the son of Surya, had to fight his brother Vali, the son of Indra, as Arjuna, the son of Indra had to fight Karna the son of Surya.
Finally all of them did bow to and serve, the sons of men Rama and Krishna!
As I write I wonder how my friend will come back on this matter. Even Samba, the son of Jambavathi (daughter of Jambavan) and Krishna, was instrumental in the destruction of the Yadavas. Narakasura was the son of Bhudevi and Varaha, an avataar of Vishnu.
It is true that women wish to carry the genes of spectacular men/beings and bear awesome sons, but their lives may not be easy in India or in the middle-east. It might be different in USA or Africa.
See Also Devas: Human or Divine?
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