In this article you are going to be aware of how Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati become lovers and get married.
Their lover story has two parts.
The FIRST ONE is:
Shiva’s union with Goddess Sati.
And the SECOND ONE is:
Shiva’s union with Goddess Parvati.
I’ll walk you through both of these stories and will let you know how they meet and unite in each of these different incarnations of Shakti.
Let’s get strated:
The Love Story of Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati
The root of this story has to do with Lord Brahma, who is known as the God of creation in Hindu Mythology.
The story takes place as follows:
Brahma is unable to produce females for procreation so he starts to penance to please Shiva.
After several thousand divine years pass, Shiva gets pleased with Brahma’s penance, appears before him in the form of Ardhanarishvara, and asks what he wants.
Brahma told his problem to Shiva and then he detaches his left half “Shakti” to help him.
Shakti asked Lord Brahma what he wants, and Brahma tells her the problem he is facing.
Shakti then happily gives him the boon of creating women through his mind, who will have the ability to produce offspring.
See what happens next:
Brahma requests Shakti to incarnate on earth as the daughter of his son Daksha (pronounced as /dəksh/).
Shakti agrees to his benign request, vanishes from the spot and later she incarnates as the daughter of the King Daksha.
Now, this is how Sati sees Shiva:
The way Sati sees Shiva when he wanders in the mountains.
Sati attracts toward him like a magnet, falls in love with him, and wants to marry him.
However, Sati’s father Daksha doesn’t like her choice.
The reason is:
He doesn’t like Lord Shiva because he wanders naked, applies ash on his body, dances and frequents on crematorium.
He tries to impede Sati but she doesn’t listen to him because she is in DEEP LOVE.
Later she lefts her home and becomes Shiva’s wife.
Daksha decided to organize a Yagna (pronounced as /yəg-yə/ to teach both Shiva and Sati a lesson.
He invited all kinds of beings of the universe including gods, goddesses, and Devas.
But he doesn’t invite Shiva and Sati.
Sati gets to know about her father’s Grand Yagna and wants to go.
Shiva says to her, “You have not been invited. So you should not go”.
Sati says, ” The Yagna is conducted in my father’s house, so there’s no question of being invited. It may be an oversight.”
Sati doesn’t listen to Shiva and went off to the Yagna.
Right after Goddess Sati visits the Yagna her father says, “Why you have come? You have not been invited”.
Sati says, “Why are you not inviting Shiva? He is also your son-in-law and all the gods and devas respect him then why are you doing this so?”
Daksh says…
“I will not invite a man who wanders naked, smears ash on his body, dances on crematorium, has no home, who has ghosts and snakes as his companion”.
Sati gets very upset and angry.
She leaps into the Yagna fire and immolates heself.
Shiva loses sati due to her father’s cruel behaviour.
And as a consequence, this ignites tremendous anger and grief in Lord Shiva.
The uncontrollable righteous anger makes Shiva take the form of Virabhadra (a fierce form of Lord Shiva) and beheads King Daksha.
Virabhadra is Killing Daksha | Source: Pinterest
But this incident paves a way for another love story of Shiva.
Here’s what happens next:
The Love Story of Shiva and Parvati
After Goddess Sati’s death, she reincarnates as the daughter (Parvati) of the King Himavat.
Similar to Sati, she is a great devotee of Shiva from her childhood and she also desires to get Shiva as her husband.
But Shiva is not interested in her to be her lover.
He is deep in meditation and forgets all the material realities of the outside world.
Goddess Parvati oblates all kinds of things including flowers to Lord Shiva but nothing had worked to stir the mind of Shiva.
So she decided to get help from Kamdeva, the god of Kama (pronounced as /kaam/) or Desire.
Kama has the ability to stir lust in anyone’s mind with the help of his Bow.
In vein, Kama shoots an arrow to Shiva but that arrow failed to stir lust in Shiva’s mind.
Shiva comes back from his meditative state, opens his third eye, and burns Kama to ashes.
Shiva Burns Kama to Ashes | Source: Wikimedia
Parvati gets terrified…
But still she is not giving up her perseverance.
She thinks about what to do next and decides to invoke Shiva through penance and devotion (not in a cunning way like Kama does).
Hence, she starts to perform Tapasya (Penance) to increase the heat in her body.
SIDE NOTE: Tapasya has come from the word Tap (pronounced as /təp/), which means heat. And Tapasya means “to produce heat”.
She gives up all her luxuries, her shiny garments as well as foods.
She only eats leaves and later she gives up that too.
She performs Tapasya by standing on one leg in a snow-covered land surrounded by fire.
This act produces a tremendous amount of heat in her body that Shiva starts to feel her presence and eventually comes back from his meditative state.
Shiva appears before her and asks what boon she wants.
She says that she wants to get Shiva as her husband.
Shiva agrees to her proposal.
Then he asks Parvati, “Are you sure that you want to marry a homeless mendicant, who wanders from place to place”?
Goddess Parvati says, “Yes”.
Shiva then asks her again, “Don’t you want a more worthy, rich, and a stronger husband”?
Parvati says, “No”.
Lord Shiva fails to distract and dissuade her.
Parvati says to Shiva, “You’ll have to come to my home to ask for my hands from the father”.
Lord Shiva agrees to her request.
He took his bull with his entourage and goes to the King Himavat’s palace.
He asked for Parvati’s hands from her father and he happily agrees.
Eventually, the marriage happens and Parvati goes with Lord Shiva to his adobe Kailash.
This is the love story of Lord Shiva.
He lost his Shakti “SATI” as his first wife.
And reunited with his Shakti in her next incarnation as “PARVATI”.
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