MOHINĪ-MŪRTI BEHEADS THE RĀHU DEMON Whemanedeminserponerto supecon rdaliad etieradape euecie oum. woman—an incarnation of the Supreme Lord called Mohinī-mūrti—appeared before them.
All the demons were captivated by the young woman's beauty and became attracted to Her. The demons began fighting among themselves to possess the nectar, and then they selected this beautiful woman as a mediator to settle their quarrel.
Taking advantage of their weakness in this regard, Mohinī-mūrti got the demons to promise that whatever decision She might give, they would not reject it. When the demons made this promise, the beautiful Mohinī-mūrti had the demigods and demons sit in different lines so that She could distribute the nectar. She knew that the demons were quite unfit to drink the nectar. Therefore She cheated them and distributed all the nectar to the demigods. When the demons saw this cheating of Mohinī-mūrti, they remained silent. But one demon, Rāhu, dressed himself like a demigod and sat down in the line of the demigods, beside the sun and the moon.
When the Supreme Personality of Godhead understood how Rāhu was cheating, He immediately cut off the demon's head. Rāhu, however, had already tasted the nectar. Therefore, although his head had been severed from his body, the head remained alive. Because Rāhu's head had touched the nectar, it became immortal, and Brahmā accepted it as one of the planets. Since Rāhu is an eternal enemy of the moon and the sun, he always tries to attack them on the nights of the full moon and the dark moon.