Story of Birth of Kartikeya
The miraculous thing about Shiva’s son Kartikeya was that he was born from a great experiment in which six living beings were given life in one body. Many such experiments have taken place in the past too, where two yogis lived in the same body. They spoke different languages and had different ways of existence. There’s a long story about how this happened.
Shiva and Shakti’s seed
Although Shiva is considered a symbol of masculinity, he had no children. According to one story, it is said that no woman could bear his seed in her womb. Due to this, he put his seed in a havan kund. Havan Kund does not necessarily mean a pool of fire. That is a ‘home pond’. Homa Kund was like a laboratory for the sages, where they used to generate many things. But another story says Parvati was cursed by Devi Rati so she cannot have any child in her womb. So Shiva and Shakti generated the seed by there Body powers that is Urjapunja. This urjapunja was so powerful that even Agnidev, Devi Ganga and Bhumi devi were unable to bear it. So it got passed on and on and fell in Saptarishi Asharam where Krittikas lived.
Kritikas held the seed of Shiva
From Homa Kund, six Krittikas bore the seed of Shiva in their wombs. These Krittikas were Apsaras or rather non-human beings. She was not from this earth and her ability was of a very high level. Therefore, these six Krittikas bore the seed of Shiva. She carried that seed in her womb for three and a half months, after which life began to take shape and six embryos developed. After this, Kritika felt that this seed was too hot for her and she could not hold it for any longer. Since these creations mainly traveled from one dimension to another, they had no sense of responsibility towards any particular part of the universe. Therefore, while leaving, she expelled these children from her womb. At that time they were a little more developed than seeds. Then she left.
Birth of Kartikeya
Parvati herself could not give birth to Shiva’s child, so she did not want to let it go in vain. He tried to create conditions for the development of these six underdeveloped children by wrapping them in lotus leaves. She could see that individually they had little chance of survival because they were not fully developed. But he felt that these six embryos had six wonderful qualities. Parvati thought, ‘If a man had all these qualities, how wonderful he would be.’ Using his tantric powers, he merged these six tiny embryos into one. He combined six living beings into one body, after which Kartikeya was born. Even today, Kartikeya is seen as ‘Arumuga’ or the six-faced deity. He was a man of amazing ability. At the age of 8, he became an invincible warrior.