Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Parvathi angry, moves out of Kailash

After the defeat of Andhak at the combined hands of Ma Kali (when goddess Parvathi had to take the shape of Kali  to defeat Andhak who was otherwise not anywhere near getting defeated) and a form taken by Mahadev, there was again the problem of how to calm down Ma Kaali, who does not easily calm down and who, if she remains in her angry and violent form, can cause huge problems to the world as such. However, it is not easy for Mahadev to do so. He has already done so on 2 different occasions in the past, once by coming under her feet and once by taking the form of a child. However, he had warned Lord Brahma that this time, it would be difficult. He does try to calm her down, but she ignores these attempts and remains in the violent and angry Ma Kali form. Brahma tells Mahadev that he should take the Aghori form to calm her down, but Mahadev does not agree immediately to this, saying that she should be given another chance. In the meantime, Kaali wanders through the river Ganga (her own sister) wounding her because of the immense energy that she is carrying with her. Finally, Mahadev takes on the aghori form and manages to calm down Ma Kaali and brings her back into the form of Parvati.
On the other side are these couple of aghoris (with one of them being played by Sudesh Berry) who want to capture Ma Kaali or bring her under their influence for the immense energies and powers she has. They are disappointed that she has gone back to becoming goddess Parvathi but are reassured that she remains uneasy for now, this time the conversion to Goddess Parvathi has not seen so smooth as it used to be. Even Mahadev knows that this time the re-conversion has not been fully settled and worries about what will happen. And soon this is manifested when Parvathi comes back to Kailash and sees that Ganga was running the show over there in her absense. And when Ganga makes a comment about how she was taken by Mahadev in his hair, she gets very angry at Ganga and also tells Mahadev that he was not supporting her when she was being insulted and in fact took on the aghori form only to protect Ganga from the heat of Ma Kaali, not before. She she has decided to leave Kailash of her own free will and will come back only when she wants to, not otherwise. Everybody is very worried, but no one is able to persuade her otherwise and she leaves from there in an angry form.
Soon her leaving from there becomes known. The 2 aghoris are delighted since they are hoping to put her in a position where they can influence her and become very powerful. There were also 2 asuras who wanted to conquer her and make her their slave and come before her very arrogant, and are soon dispatched when she takes on another form (the 8th out of the 10 different energies that she has). In between she also comes across some ladies who are being harassed and asking her for health. She quickly kills their tormentors and gets angrier at what she sees are some of the injustices that are happening. She gets very angry when Indira appears before her and reminds her of her duties; telling him to quickly vanish from there if he knows what is good for him, and if her reminds her again of what her duties are, then he will get it.
However, in the end, in her Ma Kaali form, she does come under the influence of these aghoris who are also shown as ardent devotees, and who manage to control her. Now Mahadev has to come to do battle with them in order to get Kaali out of there and finally back to Parvathi form.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Andhak moves forward, Ram on the verge of his exile

As usual, the serial continues to ensure that it keeps on moving fast in the story and not letting people get bored (while so many stories continue to remain slow and start boring people who have so many alternatives nowadays). The 2 stories that have been ongoing right now are the story of Andhak and the story of Ram, and you would expect the story of Ram to be a bigger story, since it is also the story where the defeat of Ravan happens.
So, the story of Andhak is the story where this guy will be a great warrior, but evil in all ways. As Mahadev explained, Andhak was born when Mahadev's eyes were closed by Parvathi for a brief instant, and in that time, when there was darkness everywhere, Andhak was born. He was born blind and adopted by a passing king and his wife. However, soon after, the king had natural children and his affection for this blind boy started reducing. The boy was also taunted by his other half-brothers, who made fun of his blindness and did not give him any love or affection, which in turn further increased his evilness. All this while, Mahadev knew where this was leading.
Finally Andhak, when older was paid a visit by Narad Muni who was trying to set him on a path where he would be trying to tough prayer to Brahmadev, but Andhak took this seriously and started some intense prayers to Brahma, and finally Brahma had to come and be pleased with his prayers (after Andhak started sacrificing his body as a part of prayers). But the boons that Andhak took from Brahma showed that he was on the path of more evil, since he got a boon from Brahma to get extremely strong ear power, he could immediately understand everything that was going around due to his hearing. And then the other thing was that his death was made more difficult since it would only happen when he asked for sight, which Andhak thought could never happen. Soon after, he had a fight with his brothers where he defeated them and then imprisoned them and his parents and took over. Now, Mahadev met him, but he was stuck on going on the path he was taking.
On the other side, in Ayodhya, things were going fine. Ram had grown older and his father, king Dashrath, wanted to ensure that he finally placed Ram on the throne succession and was going to announce the same. However, this was not the right thing since the mission of Ram was to kill Ravan, and so every god wanted to ensure that Ram did not take the throne and instead setout on a mission where he could finally kill Ravan. So, since Manthra was there to sway Queen Kaikeyi, she finally managed to persuade the queen that the placing of Ram on the throne would ensure that her own son Bharath would not have any further power and she in turn would become a servant to Ram. Finally, after a lot of persuasion, the Queen decided to exercise the twin vows that the king owed to her. She finally went to the kind and told him what she wanted; he was shocked and tried to change her mind. She refused and said he could of course go back on his vows, but that was not possible; and when Ram got to know the reason for his father suffering, he said that he would do whatever Queen Kaikei wanted.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - The birth of a mighty evil warrior, Andhak

The serial continues to remain popular, and remains a fast paced serial (unlike many previous mythological serials that took a lot of time in progressing, and where you could not see the serial for a couple of days and not miss anything). Another specialty that the serial seems to have is the concept of always having 2 stories going on at the same time. So, while right now the serial had been focusing on the story of Ram for some time, with the story of Hanuman also being shown, the expectation was that the serial would continue to focus on the story of Ram and Hanuman. However, the serial sprung a surprise by showing another story in between, temporarily leaving the story of Ram aside.
The story of Jalandhar was about the story of a creation due to the release of energy from Mahadev's third eye, that could not be taken back, and which eventually converted into a baby, a baby born of the fierce energy of Mahadev's third eye. A similar story is being shown in the serial right now. So, at a time when the marriage of Lord Ram had happened and they were settled in Ayodhya, life was peaceful and there was nothing major going on to trouble Mahadev right now. So, the followers of Mahadev and Goddess Parvathi decide to have a game in Kailash, with the game between her and Mahadev, and she is reasonably confident that she will win the games.
However, near the end, something happens which changes the entire atmosphere. Parvathi covers the eyes of Mahadev in playfulness, and he immediately reacts in horror, since this will cause darkness to cover the entire land. Also, this also causes his third eye to open up in this darkness, and a drop emerges which eventually becomes a baby. This baby, since it is born in the time of darkness, is blind, but is also blessed with the powers of Mahadev since it also is an ansh of Mahadev (just like Jalandhar and Hanuman). However, as Mahadev explains to Parvathi, this baby, born with powers but born in darkness, is different from Jalandhar in the sense that they share great ambition, but this baby does not have the values that Jalandhar had. The baby, known as Andhak, will have great ambition, and will also be totally evil, without any redeeming features (in contrast, Mahadev had thought that Jalandhar could be a good king and leader to his subjects, but has nothing but horror when looking at Andhak).
As a result, and because Mahadev knows that eventually the confrontation of Andhak will be with Adishakti in the future, Mahadev turns totally silent and tells Parvathi that he is going away from there to meditate, and more worryingly for everybody who believes that there will be good with the continues positive energies that come from Mahadev, he is withdrawing all his energies into himself. Parvathi sends Lord Brahma to try and get Mahadev back, but he tells Brahma that he also knows what all is going to happen, and hence he refuses to come back.
On a different note, Hanuman was trying to get lessons from the sun god, who was trying to run away, but finally is taught by the sun god, who then requests him to always take care of Sugriva. So they show Hanuman doing that, but refuses to help Sugriva when he tells Hanuman to attack Bali.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Nobody can lift Shiv's bow at the Swayamvar

King Janak has announced the plan for the marriage of his daughter. He is holding a Swayamvar where any king who can pick up the heavy bow belonging to Mahadev and string it will be given his daughter in marriage. As expected, accepting such an invitation is a mark of pride for all kings, since all of them would want to display their pride and strength in front of other kings, and hence a number of kings from kingdoms all over India turn up. This also includes asura warriors. However, there are 2 exceptions shown in the serial - Ravana is not sent an invitation, and since Ram is not a king, but a prince, he is also not part of those participating. He infact is there as an observer, along with Lakshman, coming there with his guru, the sage Vishwamitra, to see the swayamvar.
Sita and Ram meet a couple of times in different circumstances, and the serial shows that they have an impact on each other, but each time Ram withdraws - he feels that he is a guest here, and it is not good manners for him to get acquainted in this manner with the princess, and also realizes that he is not going to be taking part in the Swayamvar.
And so the Swayamvar starts. Sita is unhappy to know that Ram is not there in the list of those who are taking part in the event. But over a period of time, all the proud kings who are sitting there on the thrones make their way to the huge bow, but are unable to make the slightest lift of it, what to talk of stringing it. When one of the mighty asura kings is not able to do so, some of the kings seated there decide to leave rather than suffer the embarrassment of showing themselves to be a failure in this event.
And then Ravana turns up. He criticizes the king for not inviting him to the event, especially because he was the greatest devotee of Mahadev and had even lifted the great Kailash mountain once, and also speaks a lot more in his pride about what he can do and so on. Everybody is looking on, since Ravana is shown to be somebody with a lot of pride and power both, and eventually when he tries to lift the bow, he is able to get it a few inches off the ground, but then fails.
At this, the king Janak criticizes everybody present, claiming that there is nobody present who has the pride to accomplish this task. This is like a red rag to Lakshman, who promptly gets up and says that this is an insult to his brother Ram, who is very much capable of doing tasks such as this, but he is not taking part in the event. Ravana even taunts Vishwamitra about how he is not taking care of the pride of his student Ram, since when he fails, it will be horrible for his pride. However, the sage claims that he is never wrong, and that Ram is very much capable of such a task. In the next episodes, the serial will show Ram indeed picking up the bow.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Ram currently with Rishi Vishwamitra

The serial keeps on gathering admirers, primarily because unlike other religious or mythological serials, it does not try to get into preaching mode or gets too loud or colorful. Seeing the serial, I am reminded of the first Mahabharta serial that used to come on TV ages ago, and which had captured a huge chunk of viewer attention (although viewers did not have too many choices that time). In the serial, the advice offered by the gods is not in a preaching mode, but instead is offered with an explanation and is topical (for example, right now the serial talks about people in a forest resisting a yagna in a forest, and is linked to the development needs of people in the forest; this can be questioned, but atleast there is an attempt to explain the reasons for the same and at the same time, makes sense). The other important item they show is that in the case of many asuras, they do not show them as pure evil, but try to give an explanation of what the asura was wanting, and why it is wrong.
Currently the serial is moving through the story of Ram in a fast mode (since the serial is about Mahadev, they cannot show the serial in an elongated stretch only about Ram). Due to the curse on Raja Dashrath when he killed Shravan by mistake, Dashrath is very hesitant about allowing Ram out of his sight, and the normal practise of the son of the king going to the ashram of the patron guru of the king was not done. However, finally Mahadev managed to use some sense of force to get Ram and Laxman out of the royal palace and into proper education and the use of arms; he got Rishi Vishramitra to go to the king and ask the king for help in ensuring that his yagnas take place without interruption by various asuras. When the king found out that the Rishi wanted his son, he was bound to refuse although he had already pledged to provide the Rishi whatever help he wanted. It was only when the Rishi got angry that Dashrath allowed Ram and Laxman to go with the Rishi to his ashram where they could get the required education.
There Ram and Laxman grew up and got the required education and training that they needed. Finally they were ready to confront Tarka, a warrior asura lady who had got gifts from the gods and was powerful. She and other asuras over there would prevent anybody from doing yagnas in the forest or otherwise exploit the forest; while the Rishi wanted to do a yagna over there. He asked Ram to kill Tarka when she appeared to stop the Rishi, although Ram was hesitant to kill a lady; at which point his Guru scolded him and then Parvathi appeared to tell him about his duty, and not to get into the concept of whether he should care whether the enemy is a lady or a man. Finally Ram is there when his Guru starts his Yagna, tells Tarka to back off so that she has a chance to withdraw without getting killed, but finally in the confrontation, he shoots an arrow in her chest and kills her.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Mahadev spares Ravan for now, after being reminded of fate

The serial is moving towards the end of a Yuga, with a new Yuga going to happen soon. The focus of the serial right now is on Ravana and his misdeeds. Inspite of having been warned by Mahadev to do good and not do adharma, Ravan is on the path of trying to fly higher and higher. He goes to a place for getting some new powers, and there he meets Mandodari and falls for he. He proposes marriage to her, and her father and she both are very happy at this, since Ravana is such a powerful and great man. However, Mandodari had a bit of a shock, she agreed so quickly to the marriage since she was a devotee of Mahadev, and she always thought Ravan was the greatest devotee of Mahadev, but Ravana breaks that thought of her and tells her that he is no longer a devotee of Mahadev.
Ravan is out on his pushpak viman, which crash lands at a place, and he soon sees this yogini called Vedvati, and seeing her beauty, he wants to possess her. She quickly gets to know his background and history on the basis of her powers and scolds him for coming after her even though he has just recently got married. However, he does not listen and touches her hand. In the meantime Mahadev gets up in anger since he can see what is happening, and on the other hand, Lakshmiji is very disturbed at what is happening to Vedvati although Vishnu tells her that she cannot stop what is happening.
Vedvati tells Ravana that because of his touching her, when she had not wished it, she was now impure and there was no other alternative for her than to seek death. Ravana is mystified, and then suddenly Mahadev appears there. He tries to stop Vedvati, but she tells him that this is now her fate, with her being the reason for the death of Ravana, and converts herself to a pile of ashes. Mahadev starts shaking with fury with Ravana getting scared, and is in the process of throwing his Tridev when Narayana comes there with the other trimuti and their consorts, and stops him from doing so, reminding him that Ravana is his gate-keeper and he cannot disturb fate.
All attempt to mollify Mahadev, and then he relates the story. At some time in the past, there were 2 people, Jay and Vijay, who had stopped Brahma's sons from visiting Narayan, and they were cursed for this. Vishnuji gave them 2 alternatives where they could either be with him for 7 births of being his bhakata and then would be sent to earth, or they could be killed by Narayana three times in 3 births, and so was the story of Hiranakashyap, then Narayanan followed by Shishupal. Finally Mahadev tells Parvathi that if he had indeed killed Ravana, then he would be disturbing fate.
Finally, the family splits from Kailash. Karthikeyan is to go south, Ganesh to go west, Parvathi to go east. Mahadev would be born in the form of Hanuman. Narayana tells them that once Mahadev and Parvathi step down from Kailash, there it would be Yugantar, the birth of a new age. And so it happens. But in the meantime, Ravana is trying to determine from his grandfather as to who would be responsible for his death, but all he can find out is that the mother of the person who would kill him is Kaushalya.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Giving words of wisdom to Ravana, and marriage of Ganesh

It's always very interesting to see what is happening with respect to 2 different stories ongoing in the serial, and it is happening right now. There is the big story of the marriage of Ganesh that has to happen in the serial, and with the girls that he rescued from an asura when she was going to the ashram for his education along with Karthikeyan. So, when Mahadev and Parvathi were very happy that Ganesh and Karthikeyan were coming back from their education, at that time, the prajapati comes in with his daughter Riddhi and Siddhi and says that he wants their marriage with Ganesh. Both Mahadev and Parvathi are fine with this proposal but want to talk to Ganesh before they agree to the marriage.
At the same time there is a quest ongoing in Lanka. Ravan has stopped becoming a devotee of Mahadev over his refusal to come back from Lanka along with Ravan, and started on the route to adharm. He started mistreating humans and also asked his brother Kumbhkaran to assist him in the same. He wanted humans to build a huge new city for him, and in the end, gave them attractions to ensure that they were not scared of him anymore and did the work willingly. But when the things were done in the end, he wanted to get rid of them.
At this, when the asuras were attacking the humans, Mahadev left Kailash at the time of the marriage discussions to stop the attack on the humans. He reached there and stopped the first round of the asuras, and even stopped Kumbhkaran when she made an attack on the humans. In between he also encouraged the humans to not take anything lying down, and stand up for the rights, not just be willingly killed by the asuras, and showed by example.
And then finally Ravana came there to do the fighting, but then recognized that Mahadev was there in a human form, and Mahadev tool his real form. There was some discussion where Ravana taunted Mahadev about coming to Lanka, but not when Ravana wanted him to come. However, Mahadev gave him an education about the true respects of a devotee and how not to be arrogant, but Ravana did not really listen. Mahadev also told him he could be a very good leader, but in his current path, he is going down the wrong path and could lead to problems for himself and also for the asura clan.
He finally issues another warning to Ravana and then comes back from there, and then the wedding ceremony of Ganesh with Riddhi and Siddi took place (I was wondering whether they would show Ganesh getting married to both of them, since getting married to 2 ladies was a bit controverisla).

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Time for the marriage of the children

As usual, the serial tries to run 2 stories at the same time. One story continues to deal with the continuation of Ravan having broken off from his worship of Mahadev, angry over the fact that no matter what he did, Mahadev refused to come with him to Lanka. And even when Mahadev finally agreed to come to Lanka, Ravan was finally thwarted in his mission through the presence of Ganesh, who took over holding of the lingam from Ravan, and then put the lingam on the ground, because of which the mission to go to Lanka was again prevented. This finally made him angry, since he blamed Mahadev for what Ganesh had done, and realized that Mahadev had no intention to go to Lanka. He of course never stopped to think that it was his arrogance which wanted him to be proclaimed as the biggest devotee of Mahadev, and that he would be able to take Mahadev from his home in Mount Kailash to Lanka.
He decided to become a very strong ruler, no longer constrained by devotion of Mahadev, and decided to demolish the golden temple that he had first built for Mahadev, and wanted to construct a totally new magnificent city. He was also realized of the boon that he had got from Brahmaji did not cover humans (he did not believe that humans could ever cause him any worry or be a cause for his death), and decided to punish humans. First of all, he got a number of humans to work for him through a system of punishment, but then Mahadev came there to stop him from doing that. Ravan was defiant, since he claimed that the boon from Brahma would prevent him from being conquered; Mahadev told him that a human only would be the one to kill him. Finally, when the construction of his city was over, he decided to kill all the human workers, and this time Mahadev came in the form of a normal human (although with very strong capabilities) to give strength to the humans in terms of their fighting capabilities.
On the other side, both the sons, Ganesh and Karthikeyan had been gone for a long time, gone to get their education. Both Mahadev and Parvathi had missed them for a long time, but now finally they were on their way back to Kailash. Also, Mahadev had mentioned that there was a time for their marriage, and they were just wondering who would be ideal wives for them, when one of the prajapatis came along with his 2 daughters for the marriage. The girls had been rescued by Ganesh when they were heading to the ashram for their education, being threatened by an asura, who was challenged by Ganesh and then killed, although the asura claimed that he would be revenged by his brother.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Ravan gets angry, no longer being a Shiv bhakt

So far the serial has shown Dashanan to be the most ardent devotee of Mahadev, and that is something that Dashanan wears like a matter of honor. He arrogantly claims that he is the best devotee of Mahadev and dismisses others, and behaves most arrogantly, and yet Mahadev is always striving to keep him on control and not lash out at him. The behavior of Dashanan can be very arrogant at times, especially when he is having a discussion with Nandi and mocking Nandi, insulting him. Finally Nandi gives him a curse, which was the one that lead to Hanuman causing such harm and destruction to Lanka just before the war in Ramayana.
Earlier, there was the case where Dashanan had created a magnificent palace for Mahadev (although Mahadev was not really interested in having a palace, since he considered the presence of nature next to him as the ultimate and did not want to be enclosed inside a building). In the end, Dashanan asked for a boon in which he asked for the palace with the assumption that Mahadev would also be in the palace and so would finally be moving to be in Lanka, along with Dashanan. However, Mahadev refused and so Dashanan was forced to leave from there along with the palace that he had constructed, but without the presence of Mahadev with him. He had taken the nature of a spoilt child by insisting that Mahadev come with him to Lanka, and felt that he could force Mahadev to come with him through all sorts of pressure. Mahadev refused again, and this time Dashanan tried to use his strength to pick up Kailash and try to take it with him, and then Mahadev put his foot on the ground and Kailash became so heavy that Dashanan had to put it down with his hand trapped underneath. Finally, through the display of his musical abilities, he was able to get his hand out, but had not given up his wishes. He was called to do a duty of using music for the propagation of the Vedas, and did so, and Mahadev had also given him a new name, Ravan, which Dashanan enthusiastically accepted. But, he again asked to get Mahadev to come with him to Lanka, and finally Mahadev accepted, putting himself inside a lingam and asking Ravan to take it with him to Lanka, but never letting the stone lingam touch the ground, since wherever the lingam came into contact with the ground, Mahadev would take up base over there.
Ravan set out on the trip, but Ganesh had given a vow to his mother that he would get Mahadev back, and he followed Ravan, trying to tempt him on the way. Finally he managed to get Ravan to drink some water which would force Ravan to attend to nature's call (the first time they are mentioning something like a bodily function on the serial) and he asked Ganesh to carry it till he was done, and Ganesh said that he would do so only till sunset; and when that happened, he set the lingam down with a lot of glee. When Ravan saw this, he wanted to pick up the lingam, but was not able to do so, since Mahadev told him that as per the condition, he would setup himself at the location, and that is how the Baijnath shrine near Kangra was setup.
Ravan was very angry at this, claiming that inspite of him being the most ardent devotee of Mahadev, he had been deceived, and henceforth he would no longer be a devotee of Mahadev, and would instead be the very powerful Ravan. Mahadev listens to him making these words.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Deb Mahadev - Indra does not become Devraj, position goes to Nahush

The story of Jalandhar came to an end finally in his confrontation with Mahadev. The battle was never really a battle with the power of Mahadev always keeping Jalandhar on the backfoot. In addition, in the meeting that Jalandhar had with Parvathi where she was his captive, she told him that when she saw him again, he would be nearing his end, and Jalandhar was amused as to how she would ever be able to come out this illusory place. However she tells him that she is not killing him right now, and this is her favor to him just like he believed that he had done her a favor when he was in a rage after the death of Vrinda and was ready to strike down Parvathi.
So, in the battle with Mahadev, finally Parvathi decides to break her captivity and starts using her powers. These powers let her break the illusion that was keeping her hidden from everybody else and she soon enters the battlefield and Jalandhar is astounded to see her there. He could not believe that the powers that he thought would control his enemies could be so easily broken, and by this time Mahadev had struck him with a powerful blow that struck him a mortal wound, one from which he would not recover. After that, there was  some discussion where Jalandhar discussed about why Shiva was not there for him when Jalandhar needed him on occasions, and Mahadev told him that he was there for him every time, all the times when somebody went to help Jalandhar, it was on the basis of something that Mahadev had done.
After this, the end came peacefully. After some more moral statements by Mahadev, Jalandhar was converted back into the ball of fire from which he came, and was absorbed back into Mahadev's third eye, and that was the end of the story of Jalandhar. The lasting issue from that was the curse which Vrinda had put on Narayan for deceiving her.
After this, the position of the ruler of the 3 worlds was again open, and so was the position of that of lord of the devas. Indra was there, but he knew that this time, there was a lot of resentment against him for what he had done; the birth of Jalandhar was because he had provoked Lord Shiva and Jalandhar's wanting revenge against the devas was also because Indra had killed his mother, and this was what was provoking the rage in him; and as a result, whenever Indra wanted help against Jalandhar from the trimurti, he was reminded of his deeds and hence this time he himself refused to ask for the title of lord of the devas, and finally one of the rishis suggested the name of Nahush to be the king of the devas; and whatever training he required, it would be given to him over time so that he would be able to do as required.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Narayan deceived Vrinda

The final confrontation between Jalandhar and Mahadev is coming to a head. The use of a magical weapon by Jalandhar in a quest to reduce the powers of Mahadev has succeeded. Jalandhar was told that Adishakti was the source behind the powers of Mahadev, and that she had not fully remembered her past, and as a result, if she could be prevented from fully regaining her memory, then the power of Mahadev would be reduced. So Jalandhar decides to use the magical weapon against Parvathi and takes her into a illusionary world where nobody can come and get her. When he gets Shukracharya over there, his guru is astounded at what he has done and realizes that the only way to get Mahadev to cool down is by returning Parvathi. However, Jalandhar prevents from doing so, and also tells him that he is right now behaving as a devotee of Mahadev rather than as the guru of the asuras. Shukracharya reminds him of his past, and moves away from him, a sort of break, since he is no longer listening to what Shukracharya has to say.
When Jalandhar gets back to his palace, he finds that Vrinda is also cut up with him, not speaking properly to him. He tells her that all this was being done for her, and although she tells him that all of this was being done for their future, she is afraid of what all he is doing. She also implored him to be there for the final prayer session, where the prayer session will make him immortal and nobody can defeat him. However, even though he tells her that he will return, she is not sure whether he will be there or not.
In the battle, Karthikeyan is astounded that Ymaraj will fight on the side of Jalandhar against Mahadev and decides to fight against him. Yamraj mocks him, and then with this breath, knocks down all the other people on the battlefield, but is not able to have any impact on Karthikeyan. Finally Karthikeyan defeats Yamraj and  pierces his skin with his weapon.
Ganesh is trying to wake up his father, and when Mahadev gets to know that Jalandhar has taken away Parvathi, he is incredibly angry with lava flowing everywhere and the world is again in danger. The others are worried about this, but Narayan promises that Parvathi will take care of this, and she does so, in her world, by pouring water on a statue representing Mahadev, thus cooling off his anger.
When Vrinda is on the stage of doing the final prayer in her palace, she sees Jalandhar coming there, and she is very happy. He does the prayer along with her, and when she is about to apply the tilak on his forehead, she realizes that there is a sudden dissipation of energy and that the person in front of her is not Jalandhar, and this act causes the protection shield against Jalandhar to fail. There was deceit, and she will curse Narayan for appearing in the form of Jalandhar, but he is Lord Vishnu and will overcome all such curses.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Vritrasur is dead, killed by Lord Indira

The main mission of the battle right now is to kill Vritrasur, since he has become an unbeatable force. Given the boon given to him by Brahma, where he cannot be killed by any weapon made out of metal, wood, or mud, he has converted himself into a force that is defeating and killing the Devas. Indira knows that if this continues, the battle will be over and he will lose his throne, and that too even without Jalandhar coming into the battlefield. So, Indira knows the battle can only be won if a weapon is manufactured using the ashes of sage Dhatichi, and he is itching for this to happen.
The events happen exactly this way, with the sage going into a cave and taking death willingly. His body is converted into ashes, and Indira directs Vishwakarma to convert those into weapons which will be used for the killing. Once the weapon is made, Indira comes to Mahadev to see who will actually use the weapon on the asura Vritrasur, since for that, somebody needs to come close to him and actually strike him with that weapon.
Mahadev calls his son Karthikeyan for this task, saying that Karthikeyan will do the actual battle with Vritrasur, while it will be Indira's task to actually use the weapon. So Karthikeyan steps into the battle, and Jalandhar is very surprised as to how the Devas are actually having a child lead them, and is more and more convinced that using Vritrasur was a master-stroke, since he cannot be defeated. He has forgotten that there can be loopholes in any boon and has started believing that the asura leader is invincible and will win the battle.
On the other hand, when Vritrasur converts himself into a cloud that starts throwing arrows, Karthikeyan is able to show his prowess and stop any of those arrows from causing any further damage. In fact, he is able to show a lot of capabilities, and it is at such a time when he is in battle with Vritrasur and the asura is busy, Indira sees his chance and uses the weapon on the asura from the back. The asura falls down, and Jalandhar is very angry. However, the battle is over the day, and it is not only Jalandhar who is angry, Karthikeyan is also very angry about this attack by Indira that was done from behind the back. Indira on the other hand does not care, since he has manged to get the asura killed.
Now, Jalandhar is curious about how the weapon was constructed, and is shocked to hear that a sage gave up his life willingly, and that too because of the devotion of the sage to his guru. He does not know about Mahadev and starts learning about Mahadev and his capabilities.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Jalandhar and army attack Devas, attack by Vritrasur very powerful

Jalandhar has been talking about a fight between them and the Asuras for some time now, in order that they get back more power. Ever since Indira killed Jalandhar's mother, Jalandhar had sworn revenge on the killer. This anger attracted the Asura guru, since he could see this anger and power being a way to get revenge on devas for the poor condition of the Asuras. He trained Jalandhar, and when he could see that Jalandhar was older and much more powerful, he finally told him that the murderer was Indira. Jalandhar caught Indira and told him that he would defeat him properly in battle, and set out to prepare for this battle. As a first part of this, he sought to become the leader of the Asuras and defeated a challenger.
Now that he was the king of the Asuras, he sought to get some respect and money for the Asuras and found that the Asuras had no money; and then he was told that the Devas had cheated the Asuras during the time of the Manthan since the Devas had taken the gems and the nectar that was found from the sea. He sent a missive to Indira for getting the gems back, but Indira refused. In the meantime, he was sure that Indira would refuse and had already started preparing the army for the battle. However, he had to face a brief setback when Indira caused his messenger to change sides, and attack him with a weapon that would cause him to sink. He however managed to get back to a proper health through a proper care, care done through a female Vaid.
And for this preparation, the Asura Vritrasur, who was in deep sleep (or rather unconscious) was finally brought back to the live state and prepared to start the battle. In the meantime, Narada, Brahma and Narayana visited Mahadev and told him about Jalandhar; Mahadev was conscious of Jalandhar, but refused to do anything for the moment. First, he did not consider any action of Jalandhar so far wrong, and as for Indira, he had no sympathy for what happened to Indira because he could see that Indira had done too many wrong actions over the past. And of course, since Jalandhar had arisen from his own energy, he refused to take any action until goddess Parvathi was back and had recovered her memory, which might make it somewhat late since there was still no time available as to when she would recover all her memory.
Now, the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev had been known to give a large number of boons to people which caused problems sometime, specially the boons which gave special powers to Asuras. So, for example, Vritrasur had been given a boon that he could not be killed normally with weapons made of steel and wood, but there was an exception that was pointed out. He could be killed with the bones of Rishi Dhatich, but for that the Rishi would have to give up his life, which he volunteers to do. Indira is happy with this.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Shivji in next mode of getting memory back to Parvathi, doing his Tandav

As happens in the serial, there are 2 stories ongoing. Both these stories are taking a fair amount of time, with many episodes gone by already. One story deals with the memory loss of Parvathi where she goes back to before she was attracted to Mahadev and has no recollection of her marriage, her sons, no memory at all. In fact, they show her as seeing Mahadev in his form, and she cannot recollect who he is. On the other side is the story of Jalandhar, who has become the lord of the Asuras, and what he is doing in order to get his revenge on the Devas and on Indira.
Slowly, step by step, Mahadev is taking Goddess Parvathi through the steps needed for her to get her memory back. This is a multi-level course, whereby both Mahadev and Parvathi have to do a number of stages for her to get her memory back. So far the quest has been successful, in the sense that the initial stages have been reached, and they have managed to get there. However, things are getting more complicated. There is a blockage caused in one of the stages, where Avidya's Daitya Apasmar is stopping her. He is responsible for this current problem, but he cannot be killed since that will mean the loss of memories; instead he needs to be controlled. When Mahadev reaches him, he denies any support, and so the viewers are shown the Tandav dance of Mahadev.
On the other hand, Jalandhar has taken over control of the Asuras, and when this is objected to, he defeats the Asura who objected, and when he is struck by a weapon, the wound quickly heals. Now, Jalandhar is doing an inventory of the riches of the Asura kingdom, and is told that there is no money available. On further investigation, he is told that the Devas tricked the Asuras during the Samundra Manthan, and took all the gems leaving nothing for the Asuras. Jalandhar sends a messenger to Indira asking for the return of the gems to the Samundra dev, from where Jalandhar will take those gems.
Indira denies this, and reminds the messenger that he was humiliated by Jalandhar, and instead hands him a weapon that would render Jalandhar unconscious. Jalandhar manages to prevent this attack, but is still stuck by the weapon and starts sinking into unconsciousness. He calls for the vaidya for help, and finds that Kalnemi's daughter Vrinda has come as the Vaidya. Jalandhar is now sinking while she is trying to help him and finally she does manage to get him out of this illness.
Jalandhar is getting ready again, and Shukracharya is now trying to persuade him to get married, since this marriage will help in protecting him.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Mahadev testing Parvathi, Jalandhar growing up

As usual, there are typically 2 stories ongoing in the serial right now. One of the stories deals with the amnesia that Parvathi has suffered because of which she has no recollection of her marriage to Mahadev and the children she has. At the same time, there is another story that deals with the emergence of Jalandhar, who was formed out of the emergence of the fire from Shiva's third eye during the short battle he had with Indira (obviously when the third eye opened, there was no chance for Lord Indira and he begged for his forgiveness). Jalandhar was adopted by Matsakanya (since he was born in the water) under the case of the Lord of the Sea, Samudra Dev. He grew up to be a young boy, although it was clear to Lord Indra that here was another power who could threaten his kingdom. So Indira came to challenge the young Jalandhar, but it soon became clear that no amount of threatening Jalandhar could scare him. Finally Indra launched his weapon against Jalandhar, at which Matsyakanya got in the way of the weapon and died due to the impact of the weapon. Before dying, she implored him to get into the safety of the waters, and when Jalandhar came out of the water again, he could see that his mother had died, something which made him very angry.
On the other side, there was the growing quest to get the memory of Parvathi back, an effort on which her husband and the sons were fully involved. Mahadev had already warned that this will be a tough effort and will take hard work from everyone, and Narayanan had told her parents that it was only Mahadev and her sons who could bring back her memory, not anybody else. So Mahadev started an effort to get Parvathi to dig into her feelings and see what she could remember. When Parvathi was heading to offer prayers to Narayanan, Mahadev appeared in front of her in the form of a sadhu and asked her a series of tough questions in the form of her feelings, questions which confused her and also made her almost angry to some extent. This continued and then she returned back to the palace, confused by these questions.
After this, Mahadev came to her parents and told them not to try to help her clear any of her questions, that she has to get answers on her own. Ganesh was dispatched to the palace to talk to her, and he talked about his guru who was very learned and who would help her get questions. This started a back and forth where Parvathi was ready to take Mahadev as a guru, but wanted him to come to the palace to provide her instructions; while Shiva told Ganesh to firmly deny that, that Mahadev would not come to the palace, that she was expected to come to the forest. The idea was that Parvathi had to go through a series of steps to demonstrate various qualities, at the end of which she would be more susceptible to ideas and thoughts, at which time Mahadev would be able to provide her answers.
On the other side, with Jalandhar, the guru of the Asuras, had seen the young Jalandhar as a very powerful personality who would be able to provide a lot of help to the Asuras in their fight with the gods, and for this purpose, he acted as a friend to Jalandhar, which made Jalandhar go along with him, even ignoring the advise of Samudra Deva. As Jalandhar grew up, his anger was channeled into providing him important training which would help him become even more powerful, a weapon even ready to challenge the might of Mahadev.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Mahadev and Narayan fight in patal-lok after Narayan forgets everything

Mythological serials tend to be researched and show a number of episodes which most people do not know. For example, even shows such as the Mahabharta and the Ramayana would show such episodes that people would not know about, or sometimes show an episode that people would find controversial (I remember in the Sagar Art's Ramayana, there was a specific episode dealing with snakes covering both Ram and Lakshman, which was so controversial that Ramanand Sagar appeared on the show and tried to explain to the viewers about how this particular sequence appeared in one of the scriptures and the script was taken from there).
In the last few episodes, the serial was showing a fight between Narayan and Mahadev, something that most people would find very strange and controversial - after all, along with Brahma, Narayan and Mahadev are the supreme beings in the universe and work with each other to ensure that the universe continues to prosper rather than fighting with each other.
This specific case came about because of Narayan wanting to make sure he fulfils the wishes of his devotees. In this case, the problem emerged when the father of Lakshmiji, Samudra, told Lakshmiji that he feared there was going to be some trouble, since his other daughters were praying to Narayan and Narayan is also very devoted to his devotees, caring for them and for their wishes. Lakshmiji comes back and is very disturbed, questioning Narayan about who is in his mind, who does he think about. Nararayan tells her honestly that he thinks about his devotees and also about Lakshmiji, something that makes her even more angry (after all, she said that you should be thinking only about me and not about anybody else).
However, when Narayanan learns that these sisters are on the verge of committing suicide, he appears there, and when they ask that he forgets his past and his powers and only stay with them, he agrees. There is now separation between Lakshmiji and Narayanan, something that hurts the entire universe and Mahadev is very disturbed. Finally when Lakshmiji comes there for help, he first tells her off about doubting Narayanan although she knows about his attachment to his followers and then goes off to Patal-lok to meet Narayanan.
There, they have a long battle with Mahadev defeating Narayanan everytime, but he is still not getting back his memory. Years have gone by, but this battle is still ongoing. Then Ganesh appears to meet Vishnu, and then tries to ensure that he gets his memory back. He also convinces the sisters to release Vishnu from the promise, and then Narayanan gets back his memory and the battle comes to an end.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Finally Bhavan is given to Ravan, and preparations for the wedding

For some time now, the serial has been gathering more and more praise, for the way that story moves, for the depiction by the actors, and by the excellent music that plays through the serial. The serial keeps on also not only focusing on the mythology, but also on educating people about their rights and responsibilities, and in a fairly modern way rather than try to use older standards about roles.
So, the story focuses on 2 parts - one story focuses on the effort by Dashanan to build a grand house for his lord (even though the story has made it clear that Mahadev is not really interested in building a house, something that is outside of nature and which might ensure that wild animals and birds leave the place). The rest of the family however sees the need for a house and goddess Parvati has been pushing for a house for some time.
Dashanan was however not getting approval for the same from Mahadev and hence had not got a chance to come to Kailash to start the construction. But in the end, when Karthikeyan and Ganesh met Dashanan, they liked the model that he had made, seemingly a very well designed building. Finally they reach Kailash, but before they can start, there is a need to do a puja for the same, and there Dashanan is pushed to ask for a boon.
To the surprise of all, Ravan asks for the Bhavan as his boon and after some discussion, Parvathi realizes that she was pushing for this too much, and then decides to hand over the Bhavan to Ravan. But when Dashanan asks for Mahadev and his family to also come in the Bhavan, Mahadev tells him that he had only asked for the Bhavan and not for the family. So, Ravan realizes that his choice was bad, and he has to go back with the house but without Mahadev. He finally realizes that it was not to be, that Mahadev can only live in Kailash or in the shamsham, even though he did know the importance of bhasm.
And then preparations have started for the marriage of Ashok Sundari, with the rituals not being drawn out as they would be in other serials. In a couple of episodes, the serial will show the marriage and also show the presence of asurs trying to kill her husband, since her husband is slated to murder one of them.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Mahadev out to teach Kuber not to be so proud of his wealth

The serial keeps on showing a new face of Mahadev to the viewers. Traditionally the image of Mahadev has been that of the angry Lord Shiva, the destroyer; out of the trinity of The Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu), and the Destroyer (Shiva). So, the image that most people have of Lord Shiva is that of a person doing the tandav dance, the one who went on a rampage after Sati died and so on. The serial is showing a difference face to Lord Shiva, showing a great god who counsels patience and the good things in life in terms of spirituality and how to be good, the one who teaches people how to live their lives, and so on. The anger from the God is hardly ever shown, and even in some cases, the serial also shows that even the actions of the trinity (including himself) were also something that was already supposed to happen - for example, when Mahadev cuts off the head of Ganesha, it was because of a curse that was laid on him when he killed the sun god some time back (although he brought back the sun god to life soon after that).
Right now, the serial is showing a small conflict in Kailash where Goddess Parvathi wants Lord Shiva to be more responsible to his family, and at least, build a small house in Kailash. He does not believe in such a concept, since he feels that you stay away from nature when you do, that you get to enjoy all the seasons when you live out in the world. However, his wife and even his children do not really get the same sort of feeling that he does.
One of the lessons that Mahadev talks about is about the one that Kuber should be getting. God Kuber was given a boon where he would take care of all the money in the world, and instead he understand that to mean that all that money was his, and he got very proud of all the money that he was holding. Further, he grew to be a big miser, always looking to see where his money could be getting spent, and how to get free work done without spending his money for it. So when Raavan (his brother) comes there, he figures out that he can get Raavan to do some re-building of his house without spending his own money on that.
At this time, Mahadev comes there in the form of a Yogi and manages to tantalize Kuber with the thought that people don't know how rich and mighty he is, and he should do a big party where he provides food to a large number of people. When he goes to Mahadev's house, he is uncomfortable with inviting all the inhabitants since that would mean a lot of food. He settles for the compromise of inviting Ganesh, but with a condition that Ganesh would be served first. When Ganesh reaches there, many of you would know what happened next. Ganesh's hunger is not satisfied with all the food that has been cooked, and he starts to eat away all the riches kept there, the house and is in danger of eating Kuber before Mahadev steps in.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - The presence of Ravan in the show

Ravan is typically shown in any show about the Ramayana, or any other story about Lord Rama. But a number of people forget that Ravan was a very devout Shiv bhakt, and so it is natural than any story about Lord Shiva will show the presence of Ravan. And so the story of Mahadev is starting to show Ravan.
In the meantime, the story also shows the interaction between Mahadev and Goddess Parvathi. There was a lot of trouble in the relationship since the conflict between Karthikeyan and Ganesha was ongoing (there was even a race between them to see who could make rounds of the earth 3 times faster, and even though Karthikeyan though he could win the race easily, Ganesh took the more clever route and did 3 rounds of his parents rather than what Karthikeyan did, and since doing a round of parents was equivalent to doing a round of the world, Ganesh was deemed to be superior).
After this, both Karthikeyan and Ganesh had left Kailash, and Parvathi appealed to Mahadev to get them back. Mahadev had stated that both of them need some time, and he cannot do anything right away, which made Goddess Parvathi very angry and she told Mahadev that he also need not come to Kailash till the children are back. However, soon after, Lord Vishnu counseled Karthikeyan and finally peace was back in Kailash, but there still remains some amount of tension in Kailash since Goddess Parvathi continues to believe that Mahadev has not recognized that he now has a family and behave accordingly, and that he still continue to lead a life of detachment.
On the other side, Ravan is doing a penance to Lord Brahma, and the power of his penance is shaking God Indira's abode. He says that he will do something about it, although he is warned that he really cannot do much about what Ravan wants. He tries, and then gets the wind god to try, but they are not able to shake the prayers being done by Ravan. They go running to Lord Brahma to get him not to give any special blessing to Ravan, but Lord Brahma tells Indira that he has not really done anything that was good, his acts were bad by themselves, and he should not cast aspersions on the trinity about what they are doing.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - The birth of Vinayak and how he got an elephant head

This week saw the story of Ganesh Ji, the god with the head of an elephant, who is also known by the name of Vinayak. Ganesh Ji is known as the god who is invoked when something new is about to be started, and is said to have a mouse as his mount. Out of the sons of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi (Karthikeyan and Ganesh), Ganesh Ji is the one who is more well known and prayed towards in North India while Karthikeyan (in the name of Murugan) is more known in the southern part of India and has more temples dedicated to him.
The sons of Lord Shiva came into this world with a purpose, with Karthikeyan coming into the world to defeat a demon who had created huge turmoil in the world and had also conquered heaven, driving Lord Indra out of his kingdom. Kathikeyan was born, and became a warrior who defeated the demon (although in the meantime, there was also the presence of Goddess Durga and Kali also shown, when Parvathi turned into these ferocious goddesses in order to defeat evil).
And then there came a time when Lord Shiva left Kailash for some time and this was a period of time when the world was slowly coming apart, a general sense of depression and anarchy was prevailing in the world. And so it was prophesied that it was a new child of Shiva and Parvathi that would make things better in this world, but Goddess Parvathi was not sure about. And then one day Parvathi created a model in the form of a boy and when she is resting, her powers lead to the actual creation of a young boy who is very powerful. He is named Vinayak.
However, Vinayak is arrogant and also very dedicated to his mother, and so when his mother is doing a prayer, she tells Vinayak to not let anybody inside. When Lord Shiva arrives there, Vinayak does not let him come inside, and a fight breaks out where Vinayak defeats Indra, Nandi and others. Lord Shiva arrives there  and warns Vinayak that he is being very arrogant, but Vinayak challenges him to a fight and then actually starts an attack. Finally Mahadev uses his trishul and beheaded Vinayak at the exact same instance that Parvathi arrives from inside, but she is unable to prevent this from happening.
She gets very angry and asks Shiva to restore Vinayak in exactly the same form (she first tried to restore him herself and then remembered that if Mahadev killed somebody, no one else could revive him). He refuses, and he also knows that he had been cursed by the sage Kashyap earlier when Mahadev had killed the sun god that Mahadev would also kill his son sometime. Parvathi takes on a massive form and threatens that she will kill the entire earth unless her son is restored, and Mahadev asks Nandi and Indra to get a replacement head, but from somebody or some animal that will volunteer for the same. Finally a head is taken from an elephant (one that had received a boon for the same earlier) and Parvathi calms down, and is very apologetic for what she had done.