Astrological Mythology The Meaning of ... - Mandhata Global

Vishnu, the preserver of the universe. Later, Manu started the Solar dynasty
of kings but he had no children. Wanting a son, he arranged for a sacrifice to
MJtra (the Sun god) and Varuna (the Water god). The officiating priest
mismanaged the performance and it resulted in the birth of a daughter Ila.
The two deities, however, changed her sex and she became a man called
Sudyumna. Under the malediction of Shiva, Sudyumna was again turned
into a woman and she married Budha from whom she gave birth to
Pururavas. Under the favor of Vishnu, she was once more changed to her
male form of Sudyumna and in time became the father of three sons.
Another version of the legend refers to Ila as the eldest son of Manu. His sex
was changed due to his trespassing on a grove sacred to Parvati, the consort
of Shiva. Thus Ila was made into a female. Upon the supplication and prayer
of Ila's friends, Shiva and Parvati conceded that he would be male one
month and female the next.
In the Sathapatha Brahmana, Ila is represented as arising from a sacrifice
which Manu performed with a view to beget an offspring. When Ila arose
from the sacrifice, she was so charming that the Sun god, Mitra, and Water
god, Varuna, both claimed her, but she remained faithful to the sacrificer
who produced her. Manu lived with her for a long time praying and fasting
to obtain an offspring. Finally, from her he succeeded in establishing a race
of Manus.
Ila's marriage with Mercury is a psycho-spiritual phenomenon. Intelligence,
which is pure subjectivity, requires a creative potential for its expression on
the material planes of existence. The Manus or human progenitors are
responsible for providing adequate facilities and opportunities for such
activities. In this process, however, Ila's several changes of sex are
significant. Ila, the offspring born as a joint benediction of the Sun (Mitra)
and Water (Varuna) is the life giving energy which operates in active as well
as passive aspects as the need arises. In marriage with Budha, the creative
counterpart has to be passive in nature. Pure consciousness to be fruitful
requires a placid environment. This is how thought produces pure awareness
in its unending motion allegorized as the beginning of the Lunar dynasty of
kings.
In the Rig Veda, Ila is described as food, refreshment or a libation of milk.
She is the goddess of speech, the earth or a cow. In yogic literature, Ila or Ida
is one of the three important channels (nadis) through which the vital air
travels from the base of the spine to the crown chakra, on whose unimpeded
flow depends the liberation of the mind. Vak (speech) is pcrsonfied through
Ida, who Blavatsky (SD Vol. II, p. 148) calls the female Logos that Brahma
created out of half of his body when he divided in two for furthering the