Aditi- Hindu GodDeity"Mother of the Gods"

Mother of Gods and Demons

Aditi's name means "boundless," and in the Rigveda she embodies the infinite expanse of the sky, the cosmic womb from which the solar gods emerged. She is the wife of the sage Kashyapa, through whom she bore the Adityas: the solar deities who uphold cosmic order, among them Indra and Vishnu. But Kashyapa also fathered children through Aditi's sister Diti, and Diti's offspring were the Asuras, the demons. The eternal war between gods and demons was a family conflict from the start, two sisters' children locked in an enmity that would span the ages.

The Birth of Vamana

When the Asura king Bali conquered the three worlds through righteous austerities and drove the Adityas from heaven, Aditi was inconsolable. She turned to Vishnu in desperate prayer, and the great preserver agreed to be born as her son. He incarnated as Vamana, a dwarf Brahmin of unassuming appearance, and approached Bali's court during a grand sacrifice. Vamana asked for only three steps of land. Bali, amused by the humble request, agreed. Vamana expanded to cosmic proportions, covering heaven with one step and earth with the second. With no place left for the third, he pressed Bali down into the netherworld. The Adityas reclaimed their celestial thrones.

The Endless Sky

The Rigvedic poets invoke Aditi as the sky itself, boundless, encompassing, the space in which all things exist. She is called upon for liberation from sin, disease, and the bonds of mortality. Her sons uphold rita, cosmic law, maintaining the movements of sun and moon. In some hymns she is identified with the earth, with the cow who yields all sustenance, and even with all the gods at once.