1.LORD MOUNTAIN AND HIS DAUGHTERS
Daksa, the son of Brahma, performed his great sacrifice in the age of Manu Caksusa. In a subsequent Manvantara when Manu Vaivasvata ruled, Daksa was reborn as a ksatriya, the son of the Ten Pracetasas. Siva had cursed Daksa by this rebirth on learning of his treatment of Sati and her consequent death.
Siva’s passionate grief for Sati was assuaged in the age of Manu Vaivasvata by the birth of Parvati, the daughter of Parvata, “the Mountain,” and his wife Mena, “the Woman.” Brahma had planned that the Great Goddess who had been born as Sati would be reborn as Parvati, the daughter of the Mountain. In the meanwhile, the gods had fallen on evil days. They had been unable to hold their own against a formidable demon called Taraka, “Star.” Taraka had practiced austerities as enormous as was his might. There lay the source of his power. He had approached Brahma, who granted to the ascetic demon the boon that he asked for. “If a son born of Siva becomes the commander-in-chief of an army and discharges weapons against me, let my death occur then”.
Before Parvati was to be born, Brahma prayed to Ratri, the goddess Night, who had emanated from his first. She alone was able to accomplish the great work Brahma had planned. Brahma praised the goddess Night, saying, “you are like lust itself to the sensuous, you are the play of those who are playful, the delusion of the mind, and you are Kalaratri, the Night of Demons, and the destroyer of all that exists”. Ratri was asked to aid the gods through the birth of Parvati. Ratri went to the Mountain King’s palace. As Ratri entered Mena’s fragrant, luxurious bedroom, night set in. Parvata and Mena had gone to bed. As Mena began to feel sleepy, the goddess Ratri entered her mouth. Slowly the goddess Night found her way into Mena’s womb and colored the embryo black. She remained in Mena’s womb till the time of delivery.
Parvati was born at midnight when the constellation Mrgasiras was in conjunction with the moon. The Goddess assumed her own form. Seeing the lovely faced one born of her own will, Parvata was perplexed and terrified by her radiance, and asked the Great Goddess, “Who are you? I do not know you, my child”. The Goddess showed herself to the Montain in her divine form of calmly fierce majesty and infinite wonder. Parvata praised her with a thousand names. She showed the gentle, gracious form of glory, and the Mountain knew that she was the embodiment of the Self of all, she was Prakrti, Siva, the highest bliss. She was the goddess Mahesvari, half of Siva’s body, Called Siva. She was all-prevading, endless, without division, but the seat of all distinctions. She was the highest sakti or power of Mahesvara, the Great Lord. Relying on her, the Great God created and destroyed the world. She was the best of creation in every category. With her alone, Siva attained his own bliss. Mahesvari was the Sakti ( the embodied power) of the Lord, but it was he who possessed sakti (power). The yogis who contemplate the real truth see their complete oneness. Those who seek liberation find refuge in Parvati, the highest Goddess, the self of all beings belonging to the self of Siva. Parvata would abide by his daughter’s wish and give the goddess in marriage to the Lord of Gods, to Siva, who has no beginning and is unborn.
Parvata felt there was neither god nor demon in the world equal to him, since the Mother of the World had been born to him as his daughter, and he rejoiced as he looked at the child shining in dark splendor. Parvata, the Lord Mountain, named his daughter Kali, the Black.
Sati’s mother, the daughter of sage Virana, was called Asikni, Night. Sati and Parvati were both darkly beautiful, like blue lotus flowers. But it was Ratri, the goddess Night, who entered the womb of Mena and painted the embryo black. Mena herself was a mind-born daughter of the Forefathers. She was to become the mother of two, or as others say three daughters. According to the Ramayana, Mena was the mother of two daughters, Ganga, the elder, and Uma (Parvati), the younger. The Vamana Purana knows three daughters of Mena or Parvata : Ragini, the Red, who was all red and dressed in red ; Kutila, the Curvaceous, with curly dark hair and wearing a white garland and white dress ; and Kali, the Black, also called Parvati, who was the youngest. The two elder girls practiced austerities, for each wanted to become the mother of Siva’s son; they were seen by the gods, and each girl was taken to the heaven of Brahma. Brahma found the austerities of neither adequate to make her fit to give birth to a son of Siva. The girls became angry and lost their tempers, particularly Kutila. There upon Brahma cursed them ; Ragini, born of the Mountain, became Sandhya, the red evening twilight, conjoined with the body of the Pleiades (Krttikas). Kutila, however, by the curse of Brahma was burnt and subsequently turned into water. In that form she would be able to bear Siva’s seed, through not to the end ; as a fast-flowing river she inundated the heaven of Brahma. When Mena saw that her two elder daughters, the red and the white, were lost to her, she prevented her black daughter Kali from practicing austerities, exclaiming: “Uma – do not (practice austerities).
The family of Parvati, in which the Great Goddess was incarnated as the daughter of Parvata, consisted of Mena, the Woman ; her father Parvata, the Mountain ; and her curvaceous sister Kutila, who in the heaven of Brahma turned into the overflowing celestial waters and became Ganga (the Ganges), the name by which she is called in the Ramayana. The other sister, Ragini – whose redness completed the triple color scheme of the three gunas – became absorbed in the constellation of the Krttikas, the Pleiades.
Parvata the Mountain was as old as the rocks and the Rg Veda. There he was invoked together with the Waters, the Rivers, and Heaven and Earth, and with Indra, Savitr, and other gods. Beyond this, the Mountain formed an essential part in the cosmogony that has god Indra for its hero. In that myth, the Mountain was a figure that stood for the intangibly high ambience that enclosed the world, closed it off from spaces of shimmering light toward which its slopes were rising. The Mountain enclosed the world and closed off the infinite regions of light in the beyond above its impenetrable extent, the region of the sum before it ever shone on earth. When Indra cleft the Mountain, the light of heaven flowed down to earth. Parvata, the Mountain, keeping the light of heaven imprisoned, had been its guardian. In this respect Parvata, though inactive, was skin to Rudra, the archer, and to Krsanu, who by their actions intended to keep in its integrity the state ante principium, before creation. In the myth of Indra – which pervades the Rg Veda – the Uncreate was a pleroma of light closed off by the Mountain, and Indra brought it to the world. The pleroma of the Uncreate held the elixir and essence of Life : Soma, the elixir of life, and semen, the seed of life. Vrtra, the serpent, had lain coiled around the cosmic mountain. Vrtra was killed by Indra and fell to the bottom, into the abyss, when Indra shattered the mountain and released the streams to flow to the sea and freed the sun to shine in this world. But Indra’s first act of creation was not yet complete, for the sum became engulfed in darkness in the cave at rock bottom, whence it had to be liberated and let out to rise in the spring of the world. Parvata was the rock bottom in the depths as well as the dome on high, the firmament, the sky, that had kept imprisoned the light and waters of life.
In the creation myth of Indra, the figures of the Mountain and of Vrtra, the serpent coiled around it, correspond to those of Rudra and Krsanu, the archers. The Mountain was cleft, dead Vrtra fell to its bottom, becoming Ahi Budhnya, the Serpent of the Deep. The shining rivers of ligt and life flowed down from heaven to the earth, and their waters filled the ocean. The sun, having shown its face on high, had yet to be liberated from the cave deep in the mountain, where it had been kept imprisoned by demons. Now Dawn could come forth and the sun could rise and set going the world of time. Like Vrtra, the serpent, Rudra and Krsanu, too, failed to keep in its integrity the state ante principium, before creation. Their arrows could not arrest the flowing to earth of Soma, the elixir of life, and the semen that Prajapati shed into creation. They had been in the Uncreate, described as a region of ineffable light that Parvata and Vrtra had held unspent.
The precosmic power of the Mountain had to yield the streams of flowing light of which the celestial Ganga, who was also called Kutila, became the mythical image. Her sister Ragini, the “red,” Dawn or Twilight, had been her fellow prisoner. Her figure, of indistinct contour in this myth, became merged with the Pleiades, the Krttikas, stars fixed in the firmament – the Mountain – becoming visible at the waning of the red evening twilight. Though liberated from the rock or Mountain, neither of these two daughters of Parvata was deemed adequate in her austerities to qualify as the future, potential mother of Siva’s son, although in the mythical universe of Siva, Ganga as well as the Krttikas (Ragini) cooperated in the birth of Siva’s son.
The bond that was to be forged between Siva and Parvati links the Mountain, a figure of the precosmic state as imaged in the myth of Indra, with the cosmic presence of Siva. The third and youngest daughter of Lord Parvata was Parvati, the bride-to-be of Siva.
Within creation itself and in later Indian myth, the Mountain was seen rising from the center of the world into the regions where the gods are at home. Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain, carried the hierarchy of beings. Under the name of one of its peaks as cosmic axis, Mandara, the mountain functioned in the Churning of the Ocean.
The Mountain in the cosmos of Indian myth was the center of that cosmos ; on its heights in heaven dwelled the great gods, in cities, palaces, and caves, enlivened by the presence of lesser celestials who moved about at will or rested on its slopes. Siva dwelled in Kailasa and also favored Mount Mandara. These mythic sites on high, envisioned from the earth, were assigned to the north, to the Himalayan altitudes. Cosmically and symbolically, the north signified the region of the pole star. Mythically, the Himalayan region was its proxy on earth. The king of these mountains was Parvata. Parvataraja brought to his anthropomorphic representation his precosmic past. From him issued Ganga the celestial river, whose other name is Kutila, who flooded the heaven of Brahma. Thence she flowed on earth, vivifying and bringing into this world her significance from before creation ; when Parvata was forced open and had to let the flowing light from beyond into the inviolate and inexhaustible plenum, Parvata’s eldest daughter, Sandhya, the twilight or Dawn – the Father’s Daughter – merged with the Krttikas. It is natural that a daughter of the Mountain should merge with the Pleiades, for in creation the Mountain had its cosmic figure as the night sky, where the light from beyond was seen shining forth in the shape of stars.
Ganga, the elder daughter of Parvata, the Mountain, the stony dome of ancient heaven where in the world of later myth she flooded the heaven of Brahma, was to occupy the highest position on Siva’s body. For a long while he held her captive in his hair on her precipitous descent from heaven. Had Siva not supported her on his mighty head she would have crashed down to earth, shattered it, and flown into the netherworld. He sheltered her in the matted skeins of his hair, and let her flow on to fulfill her mission, flowing in heaven, on earth, and the nether world, thrice herself, Tripathaga, moving on her path. She is called Mandakani in heaven. Vegavati or Ganga on earth, Bhogavati in the netherworld.
She came from the apex of heaven to the moon, and flooded the heaven of Brahma. She came down from heaven into the netherworld in order to redeem the sixty thousand ruthless sons of King Sagara.
The sixty thousand sons of Sagara were born to him by one of his two queens ; the other queen had only one son. After some time Sagara decided to undertake a horse sacrifice. The rite required that the consecrated horse be set free to roam at will. The land over which it wandered would form part of the king’s realm. At the end of the year horse was sacrificed and the king became a Cakravartin, or sovereign of the entire domain. As the rite progressed, God Indra, for his own ends, abducted the horse and took it into the earth. In vain did the sixty thousand sons who had accompanied the horse search for it. They went everywhere on earth, and then descended into the netherworld. After a long time they found the horse near the hermitage of sage Kapila. Ignoring the sage, the sons of Sagara quickly seized the horse. Angered, the sage opened his eyes, the fire of his tejas shot forth and burned to ashes the sixty thousand sons of King Sagara. They were found by Amsumat, the grandson of Sagara. He beseeched Rsi Kapila to grant that those whom his anger had destroyed would ascend to heaven. The sage promised that they would attain heaven when Ganga was brought from heaven to purify their ashes with her waters. This was beyond the power of the descendents of King Sagara until Bhagiratha, the grandson of Amsumat, by his asceticism and devotion to Siva, moved the Great God to agree to sustain Ganga, the daughter of the Mountain, during her fall. Siva caught the turbulent Ganga like a garland of pearls on his forehead. She who had thought by raging whirlpools to press Siva down into the netherworld could not find an outlet from the meshes of his hair, and floated on them like a flower. She at last reached the earth. Her waters flooded the ashes of the sons of Sagara. At last, the ancestors of Bhagiratha were redeemed. Ganga flowed into the seas and her waters filled the ocean.
Impetuous Ganga, “who was as beautiful as the rays of the moon,” not having been found capable by Brahma to bear the seed of Siva, insisted she was capable, that she would make the head of Siva bow down by her austerities. Brahma cursed her to become all water, and she inundated Brahma’s heaven. Though she wanted to bear Siva’s son, she resented her initial humiliation and wanted to show herself superior to Siva, who had the power to support her on his head and imprison her in his hair. She was violent in her turbulence. She would crush Siva so that pieces of his bones, like small bits of conch shells, would be mixed with her water and Nandin would have to search for them. She was intensely desirous of Siva, determined to hold him within her aquaeous body, having broken him up all together. But he caught and entrapped her in his hair. There, he carried her on his head like an ornament, or let her glide like a mermaid along the waves of his hair when he danced. “As beautiful as the rays of the moon,” she found herself close to the crescent moon that graced Siva’s brow. Its thin sickle showed it to be waning, for the gods had drunk its Soma nectar, leaving but this last part for the pitrs, the Manes, to drink. Ganga, released from Siva’s hair, found her way to the sons of Sagara, dead and burned to ashes. She purified them by her water, and they ascended to heaven. Death associations decorate Siva’s head.
Ganga’s purpose in descending into the netherworld had been achieved. She purified the dead and they ascended to heaven. This mission the sacred river Ganges fulfills to this day. Ganga went through all the levels of the cosmos and of inner experience. She wanted to bear Siva’s son, but she also wanted to crush Siva. Fierce and proud, this river goddess fulfilled her mission when first she flooded with her waves the ashes of the Sagara sons. From that time on her work never ceased. The water of the sacred river Ganges brings release to the dying who seek it, and she brings joy to the living. The Ganges is called “giver of release” (moksada) and “giver of joy” (bhogada). But she did not bring much joy to Parvati, who looked upon her as a rival. Ganga had never been in Siva. She came to Siva from on high ; he caught her on his head and kept her in his hair. She floated with his locks spreading through the cosmos when he danced in ecstasy. Her foam caressed his hair, her hands reached out to the crescent moon on whose nectar the Manes feed. Parvati frowned at her. Ganga took no notice of Parvati’s jealousy, which preoccupied the minds of poets and artists. She had a mission and temporarily had become Siva’s captive. She loved him destructively but could not harm him. Her desire to become the mother of Siva’s son was fulfilled by indirection, while Parvati did not bear the seed of Siva.
Parvati, the youngest daughter of the Mountain and of the “Woman” or Mena – whose nameis shared by Apsarases, seductive nymphs arisen from the spray of the cosmic ocean at its churning – from before her birth was destined for the surpassing task, beyond her control, which her sisters could not fulfill by themselves: to become the mother of Siva’s son. For this purpose the goddess Night, her starry eyes closed, had entered Mena’s womb and infused night’s darkness into the embryo. She enveloped the embryo with her darkness.
In this manner Brahma prepared the birth of Parvati so that the Lord might fulfill the purpose of Brahma. The Great Goddess cooperated with Brahma and entered her second incarnation as the daughter of the Mountain. She fixed herself in the mind of Lord Mountain when he made love with Mena, and Mena conceived. Brahma’s long-frustrated desire for the creation of mortal progeny through Siva was now superseded by a new urgency. Only a supergod born of Siva would be able to destroy the demon Taraka.
Parvati was a full incarnation of the Great Goddess. Previously, the Great Goddess had been incarnated in Sati, to win the love of Siva. Now she decided to be born as the daughter of the Mountain and Mena. She had taken this form in answer to the prayer of the gods that she again become the wife of Siva. The Great Goddess, the eternal Prakrti, remembered herself as Sati, who had cast off her body in anger at her father Daksa’s disrespect for Siva. Before her yoga fire engulfed her, however, Sati had told Daksa that she could be found at any time, any place, in every being ; there was nothing in the universe in which she could not be found. Yet Siva could not find her or peace anywhere. He made a garland of her bones. Like one who was not a god he wiled aloud; like a lover he spoke in a manner disordered by the pain of separation. Although the Supreme Lord by his power of illusion had taken upon himself madness and pain, yet he is really unaltered, undistressed, and unconquered. Through any change in form whatever he is untainted by maya ; what use has he for love and delusion ?
2.SIVA AND PARVATI
a.The Goddess Night
In the meanwhile, the demon Taraka oppressed the gods, laid waste the celestial world, and invaded the sky-high mountain. No one, no god, had been able to subdue Taraka, for he was a great ascetic and by his asceticism he had won the boon from Brahma : Taraka would be defeated by an infant seven days old ; but his slayer was not yet born. The slayer of Taraka was to be born as Siva’s son.
In due course the Great Goddess as Parvati was born from Mena ; she cried like any new born child. Although the little girl soon played with balls and dolls, the knowledge of her previous birth came to her.
Parvati had privileges of birth similar to those of Sati. In addition, she had all the knowledge of the world of the gods (who acted like human beings), which Sati had not acquired in her short life. The lineage of her family, however, was different from that of Sati’s. Daksa was a son of Brahma, the Creator, whereas Parvata’s original state lay far back, before the rule of the gods began and before the Asuras, the Titans, had become demons. One feature that these two incarnations of the Great Goddess had in common was the darkness that showed in their complexion, whichthey largely owed to the goddess Night, whose name Sati’s mother had borne and who, in person, had entered Mena’s womb. On her father’s side, Parvati was heir to the hardness of the mountain.
The goddess Night, who had enveloped with her darkness Parvati while yet unborn, was to play a vital role in Parvati’s relation with Siva. According to Brahma’s plan, Parvati would practice austerities in order to be united with Siva, and when united with him in marriage, the conjoint energies would be formidable. Even so, the destruction of the demon Taraka seemed improbable. The conjoint tapas of Siva and Parvati had to be made even stronger. With the help of Ratri, the goddess Night, their tapas would increase to a pitch of intensity at which their love making would create a son able to destroy Taraka. To this purpose the goddess Night was to interrupt the love making of Siva and Parvati by a quarrel between them. Siva would chide Parvati in jest on account of her dark color. Parvati would be annoyed and leave Siva to perform austerities in order to rid herself of her darkness. Siva, too, would practice tapas. After this interruption, heightening theirenergies, the son born of their union would destroy the demon Taraka.
Brahma instructed the goddess Night to work on the increase of sexual power of Siva and Parvati by two means : tapas and quarrel. Their amorous enjoyment interrupted, their frustrated desire would demand even more compellingly to be satisfied. The quarrel itself, having heightened their emotional tension, would itself require further tapas to be allayed. Then, with increased energy, their desire would bring together god and goddess in a union without compare from which their son, the victor over Taraka, would be born. In the plan of Brahma, the asceticism of the gods was meant to be subservient to their role as the future parents of the son who would save the world.
In order to make Siva engender a supergod, Brahma had to do more than merely command Siva, as he had done hitherto when he wanted Siva, the Great Yogi, to create mortals. Now, however, Brahma’s concern was the survival and creativity of the gods. Both were threatened by the demon Taraka. A new god was needed, more powerful than Taraka, more powerful than any god. He did not as yet exist and could be born only from the union of Siva and Parvati. Brahma’s purpose had changed : Siva should not procreate mortals but a supergod to defeat an invincible demon.
b.The Burning of Kama
In making his plan, Brahma took part in the lila of Siva, in which the gods seem to behave like mortals. He took into account that tapas or asceticism can be practiced to more than one purpose. Parvati and Siva practiced austerities (tapas). The austerities of Siva, the Lord of Yoga, led him, in samadhi, to the reality of his utter transcendency. The austerities, however, that Parvati would practice were not to lead to Samadhi, the abnegation of all outwardly directed activity and power. The strenuous discipline of will, though it was part of asceticism, was not the whole of yoga and stopped short of its end. For Parvati, austerities were the means for harnessing escalating power to her one purpose, winning Siva as her husband. By tapas anything could be won-beauty, fame, and wealth in the world of man and in the world of the gods – and Parvati was certain that “desired objects are obtained by asceticism and there is nothing impossible for an ascetic”. She would even consume her body by austerities, for she had no doubt that by practicing tapas she would fascinate Siva and draw him to her. She would win the love of the Great Yogi and become his wife.
Parvati grew up in her parents’ home and conquered the whole world by her beauty and intelligence. Rsi Narada read her palm and saw that one who was without father or mother, a naked yogi free from desire, would be her husband, a description obviously referring to Siva. None but Kama, the god of love, could bring about their union. Kama, who could bring down gods, sages, demons, and others by the side glances of a beautiful woman, should bring about the impossible and make Siva his victim. At that moment, Indra thought of Kama, who immediately with Rati, the goddess Lust, his wife, appeared before Indra, Charged by Indra with his nearly impossible mission, Kama, accompanied by Rati and by Vasanta (Spring), went to the hermitage of Siva in order to disturb and interfere with his unshakeable asceticism.
Kama, the god of love, entered a verdant grove on the mountain peak, where he found Siva seated in deep meditation in the hero posture on the coils of Vasuki, the king of the serpents of the netherworld, holding the serpent’s tail. Siva’s long, matted hair reached the ground, where a skull and a water vessel had been placed. Terrible serpents, coiled and with their hoods raised, adorned his hair, around his ears, and encircled his body like ornaments. A lion skin hung from his shoulders. His eyes were half closed in a face of indescribable beauty.
The serpents of Siva, conspicuous at all times around his body, were assembled more copiously and significantly than ever when Kama was about to attack Siva. In full excitement, their hoods raised, they coiled around his ears. They were breathing fire. Siva held in his hand the tail of Vasuki, on whose coils he was seated, in full mastery of the king of serpents of the netherworld, who served as his seat. The serpent, a multivalent symbol, poisonous and menacing, implying death and sex, protected Siva’s aloofness. He held the tail of the serpent king in his hand and used as ornaments the rest of the serpent brood. They encircled Siva and guarded him, as their ancestor Vrtra had lain coiled around the cosmos before creation, and as a serpent spreads its hood above the linga in uncounted representations of the present day.
Kama went right into Siva through his ears, and Siva’s Samadhi vanished. But Siva exercised his yoga power and was again in Samadhi, while Kama, affected by Siva’s yoga power, left Siva’s body, stationed himself outside, and discharged his flower arrow at Siva’s heart. A great flame of fire blazed from the third eye of the infuriated Siva and burned Kama to ashes. The flame of fire in the shape of a mare entered the ocean and began to consume the water. Rati, in distress, smeared Kama’s ashes all over her body. She wanted to kill herself. While Siva consoled her by saying that Kama would be born again, he also rejoiced that Kama had been reduced to ashes, for desire (kama) leads to hell, from lust is born anger, from anger is born delusion, and because of delusion asceticism is destroyed.
Siva remained in his mountain retreat for many years, practicising austerities. When he came to the city Osadhiprastha, situated within the kingdom of Parvata, the latter, on hearing of Siva’s arrival, went to render homage to Siva. The Mountain King took with him his lovely daughter, exquisitely dressed. On their way through the forest they met the disconsolate Rati, who told her story. Parvata shuddered, whereas Rati’s lament made Parvati see clearly that death was preferable to a life of pain and frustration. These, however, could be overcome by practicing austerities, and she resolved to obtain Siva by her asceticism.
Siva was absorbed in meditation when Parvata-Raja arrived, offering flowers, fruits, and his daughter to serve the Lord. Siva saw Parvati in her great beauty. Regaining control over his nascent passion and closing his eyes, he meditated on himself, the ultimate reality. Parvata, though doubtful, requested Siva’s permission to come daily and serve the Lord. Siva broke his meditation. Opening his eyes he asked Parvata not to bring his daughter with him. What use was a woman to him, an ascetic, a yogi?. Parvati, undaunted, addressed the Great Yogi: “Siva, you practice arduous austerity because you have the energy to do so. That energy is Prakrti, the cause of all action. How can the Great Lord of the linga exist without Prakrti?” Siva was delighted by Parvati’s words and replied, “I destroy Prakrti by great austerities ; in my ultimate reality I am without Prakrti.” Siva’s words made Parvati smile inwardly, and she said, “Everything, at all times, is held together by Prakrti. What you hear, what you eat, what you see, and what you are all the activity of Prakrti. O Lord, if you are greater than Prakrti, why do you practice austerities here on this mountain?” Parvati, not wanting to argue with the Lord of ascetics and stating emphatically, “I am Prakrti and you are Purusa,” added that it was only through Prakrti that Siva had qualities and form. Without her Siva was without attributes and unable to perform any activity. If he were really superior to Prakrti, he need not fear being near her. Moreover, her nearness would only stimulate and strengthen his yogic power of aloofness.
Siva as well as Parvati was adept in the art of yoga. In their meeting they showed the effect of its solitary practice. Their nearness, more over, and her beauty were welcome obstacles that increased their tapas and also their tejas. It was the intention of Brahma to make Siva desire Parvati, and to see to it that Parvati should make her future husband become the father of their son. This would have been an obvious demand had Siva been any man or god. To induce, however, the Lord of Yoga to behave like natural man tantamount to making him abandon what he essentially was.
Parvati words voiced the Samkhya viewpoint, whereas Siva upheld the Vedanta point of view. While Siva and Parvati were engrossed in their universe of discourse, Brahma assured the besieged gods that Taraka would be destroyed. Brahma himself, having given Taraka the boon of a qualified invulnerability, could not destroy him. Siva’s cooperation was essential. If there were a son born of Siva, he alone could kill Taraka. Brahma was certain that Siva would marry Parvati ; the gods would then have to ensure the descent of Siva’s semen into Parvati. Parvati alone is capable of making Siva, who controls his semen upward, let his semen flow downward. No other woman would be capable of this. There was no time to be lost now for the gods to make Siva desire Parvati as his wife.
The battle between Siva, the ascetic, and Kama, fought in a sudden spring in the Himalayan mountains, continued within Siva himself, whom Kama had entered for a moment only. There, within the Great Yogi, the pendulum between self-control and desire kept swinging, the tremors of the one, the pull of the other, impeding, reinforcing, reciprocally acting on each other. They left unmoved the transcendental reality of Siva.
Kama had entered the world of Siva from the universe of Brahma. Kama had been the first effective power in the chain of creation. Rudra, the ascetic, the Wild Hunter, though obstructing the act of creation / procreation which is one in the Father, in his capacity of or identity with Agni had prepared the seed for the Father. Though antagonistic to the uncontrolled outpouring or spontaneous generosity of the Creator, Rudra had prompted it. Rudra and the Father represented first principles. Only tenuously were they conceived anthropomorphically. Their actions were mythical symbols that adumbrated and clarified the relation of the absolute, or Uncreate, to the creation. The Wild God who was from the beginning had to be “born” in order to take possession of the cosmos. His cosmos became the scene of “the divine play of the Great God which protects the world”.
Assuming for the sake of his devotee the role of god in the sembalance of man, the bearer of the seed and the yogi were one and the same, acting in a conceptually consistent, though logically conflicting, manner. A primary task of the yogi is the subduing of lust. Without desire, however, no conquest of desire can be undertaken. It is the stuff that yoga consumes. Hence its power. Siva is both the Lord of Yoga and the destroyer of Kama. Siva the yogi presupposes Siva as Kama, the latter controlled by while sustaining the former. “Throughout the Puranas, the meaning of the conquest of Kama by Siva is undercut by qualifying episodes and even complete reversals : Siva burns Kama but is nevertheless sexually aroused ; Siva burns Kama only to revive him in a more powerful form ; …… and, the final Hindu complication, Siva is Kama.” The dialogue between Siva and Parvati was provoked by Kama, the emissary of Indra. He was sent from the universe of Brahma to set going Siva’s play. Kama was doubly present in the play that had the seduction of Siva by Parvati for its theme : once within Siva himself, whom he entered if only for a moment through his ears, and again when he attacked Siva from outside. In fact, once burnt to ashes and bodiless, Kama became omnipresent, existing “in the minds of all embodied creatures.”
The discourse of Siva and Parvati, on the other hand, allowed the minds of those embodied creatures, who are Siva’s devotees, to participate in the divine play as if the Great Gods were human. Siva staged his play out of concern for his devotees, making them see in a vivid drama the coherent roles of the male and female protagonists who in reality are Purusa and Prakrti. Parvati herself tole it to Siva, who at that moment was not in a mood to listen.
Parvati knew her own mind. Her determination was as firm as the Mountain, her father. Besides, she had the seductiveness of “woman,” her mother, who shared her name Mena with Apsarases. The beautiful princess Parvati became a yogini in order to win by her austerities Siva as her husband, so that their son would be born as the slayer of the hitherto invincible demon Taraka. Parvati was free from the failings of Sati, who had shown herself vacillating as well as obstinate, when against Siva’s counsel she went uninvited to Daksa’s sacrifice. Sati was also faint of heart ; she had doubted Siva’s ability to shelter her from passing clouds. Worse than that, she doubted Siva’s word in the episode with Rama. Nothing could make Parvati swerve from her path of asceticism. Her mind was set, with Siva in her heart. By her asceticism she would move Siva more surely than by her beauty or intelligence. Her austerities would lead Siva away from his asceticism ; he would marry her and beget a son on her. She was firm in her paradoxical purpose. In vain did Mena attempt to dissuade her daughter from leaving the palace and going into the wilderness to subject herself to ascetic rigors. Fasting, Parvati stood in the summer near blazing fires ; during winter she remained in icy water, meditating on Siva. The universe and the gods were scorched by her austerities. Visnu and the gods went to Siva, imploring him to marry Parvati and free the gods from the misery that Taraka caused them. Lord Siva should accept Parvati’s hand in marriage. Siva, rising from his trance, answered : “If the goddess Parvati, the most beautiful lady, were to be accepted by me, she will be able to resuscitate Kama on account of the marriage. Then all the gods, sages and ascetics will become lusty and incompetent in the great path of Yoga”. Still, though Siva considered marriage a great fetter, he decided to marry Parvati for the sake of begetting a son. He had drunk poison for the sake of the gods, and would not disappoint them now. Siva played his role of prospective bridegroom to perfection rather than leave room for doubt about his love for Parvati. He himself was in the thrall of his maya, and took refuge in his assurance of serving his devotees and furthering the welfare of the gods.
He was swayed by Parvati, drawn to her as an ascetic and excited by her as a woman. Siva decided to test Parvati’s resolution, the intensity of her asceticism, the clarity of her mind, the purity of her devotion, and her knowledge of himself.
The fire of her asceticism had made all living beings shudder, so Indra sent the seven rsis to Parvati. The seven sages told her that if she was attempting to have Lord Siva as her husband, she meant to obtain the unattainable : the passionless ascetic whose fire had consumed Kama. The sages tried to dissuade her from her resolve to win by extreme asceticism Siva as her husband. They wanted to discourage her by describing the Great Yogi as “naked, ferocious, Dweller of the cremation grounds, the carrier of skulls, a hermit, statue-like in action, a begger, mad, fond of collecting ugly and terrible things, and inauspiciousness incarnate ….. He is the wearer of a necklace of gory heads, adorning Himself with terribly hissing snakes, . . . moving about with his ferocious attendants”. Did she think of gratifying sexual desires or getting any happiness with Siva in this and the other world ? Parvati replied that they did not know the Great God. The disparagement by the rsis only strengthened her resolve.
Happy with the result of their test, the seven sages went to Siva. Taking his seat on an antelope skin, Siva was pleased to hear of the successful visit of the sages with Parvati. Straight away the seven sages called on the Mountain King and Mena, for, Parvati having stood the test, Lord Siva had asked for the hand of their daughter. The Mountain King should now give his daughter in marriage to Siva in order to save the world. Parvata was overcome by emotion ; Mena, however, was less certain about the wisdom of giving her daughter in marriage to Siva, whose only qualification, if it were one, was his asceticism.
Their mission fulfilled, the sages went to their home, and Siva longed to meet Parvati again. Again he wanted to test her. Approaching her, he took the appearance of an old ascetic and expressed his astonishment of seeing so beautiful a girl engaged in austerities in a forest. Light seemed to emanate from him. Parvati told him about her seemingly hopeless quest. In spite of her austerities she had not attained what she desired, and she was just about to enter the fire when the old brahmin arrived. She could not wait, and threw herself into the fire, which instantly became like sandal paste. Impressed and smiling, the old brahmin wanted to hear the whole story. Parvati told him that she had sought to attain Siva by mind, by speech, and by action ; she knew her object was very difficult to attain. The old brahmin advised Parvati to dismiss Siva from her mind. He knew him, the naked, ash-smeared, serpent-wreathed ascetic, the skull-bearer who married Sati, who killed herself. Parvati should not throw herself away on Siva, a homeless loner, whose birth was unknown and who was surrounded by ghosts and ghouts. He was completely unsuitable for her. Parvati agreed with the old brahmin’s words. They were true : they described some of Siva’s forms that he adopted in his divine play. Did the old brahmin mean to denigrate Siva ? Exasperated, Parvati was about to leave when the old brahmin assumed the beautiful shape of the Lord Siva in which Parvati had meditated on him ; he clasped his beloved. She addressed him, the lord of gods, as her husband, for she knew her father would accept him. Then Siva, laughing lovingly, praised Parvati as the great power of illusion, the primordial nature, and she declared herself as his devotee, his wife always in every birth. At the same time Parvati appreciated Siva’s different sports, while he remained intent upon himself, the Ultimate Reality. Siva allowed himself to be seduced into marriage by Parvati’s beauty, her mind, her asceticism, but more than these by her infallible understanding of himself in the macabre horror in which he clad his transcendence. The tests were Siva’s key to their wedding chamber.
She returned to her parents, who received her with joy. Parvata celebrated the return of his daughter by the distribution of gifts and the recitation of hymns. Then he went to the river Ganges for a bath.
Meanwhile, Siva had assumed the appearance of a dancer. He was dressed in red, and carried a horn in his left hand and a drum in his right. He danced with great expertise and sang very charming songs. He blew the horn and played on the drum. It was an exquisite performance. People came crowding into the palace. They all were enraptured and became ecstatic. Parvati swooned from a vision of Siva, his three eyes shining, his body smeared with ashes, wearing a serpent as his sacred thread and a garland of bones, and carrying his trident and all the other symbols. It was the unfathomable, ascetic god whom she desired. Siva granted her the boon to be her husband. Then the vision vanished, while the dancing beggar continued his performance. Mena, delighted by his enchanting dance, offered him jewels in golden bowls. The dancer refused them. Instead, he asked for Parvati and started to dance and sing again. Mena was surprised and angry. In the meantime, Parvata returned from the Ganges and heard what had happened. Everyone wanted to drive out the dancer, but none could touch him who was like a great fire, shining and brilliant. Then the dancer showed his power to Parvata : he stood before Parvata in the shape of Visnu and changed into Brahma ; he turned into the radiance of Siva and Parvati. Then Parvata saw these shapes become a mass of splendor, undefinable in its formless expanse. And once more the medicant begged for Parvati as alms. He accepted nothing else, and vanished. Himavat and Mena realized that it was Siva who had been there and had now gone home. Though he had chosen the shape of a beggar, Siva danced before Mena a dance of enchantment. It swayed Parvati. Swooning, she saw the Great God who had come to her in his frightening beauty to ask her to be his bride. The vision vanished, but indeed the dancing beggar asked for Parvati’s hand. When Parvata and all the others wanted to drive out the dancing beggar, he stood before Parvata as Visnu, changed into Brahma, changed into Siva with Parvati herself, and then dissolved into sheer radiance. Siva’s wizardry touched those on different levels of readiness for him, delighting Mena by the beggar’s dance, while Parvati swooned on recognizing Siva in his macabre, ascetic shape. He enlightened Parvata by showing himself in his threefold divinity, his triple aspect of nameless light.
In order to win Parvata’s consent to the marriage, but to have that consent given with reservations, the gods requested Siva to visit Parvata and to make disparaging remarks about himself. Once more Siva appeared in disguise. Looking like a Vaisnava Brahmin, a matchmaker, Siva appeared in disguise. Looking like a Vaisnava Brahmin, a matchmaker, Siva went to the Lord of Mountains. None but Parvata recognized the god in his disguise. The matchmaker told her parents that he had heard of the possibility of Parvata giving his daughter to Siva in marriage. He wanted Parvata, saying that Siva has no support, no connections ; is a begger, ill-shaped, without qualities ; dwells in cremation grounds, look like a snake catcher ; is a yogi, naked, smeared with ashes, his matted hair unkempt ; he is without pedigree, has a bad character, is ill-tempered ; nobody knows his age, and he lacks good judgment. The Brahmin stopped, and Siva, calm, the player in various divine sports, went to his own home.
Mena was disconsolaaate. She went into her “boudoir”, took off her necklace and lay on the floor sobbing. In the meanwhile Siva, longing for Parvati, summoned the seven sages and sent them to Lord Mountain. The sages told the Mountain that Siva was the father of the universe and Parvati its mother. Hence, Parvati should be given to Siva, the Supreme Spirit. The seven rsis spoke the truth. Siva and Parvati are the figures of Purusa and Prakrti, the eternal principles of creation. “Siva is the wife of Siv in every birth”. When the seven sages left, the Mountain sent out a letter of betrothal to Siva, and the wedding invitations. All the mountains and rivers came to the wedding. The gods sent Rsi Narada ahead. He arrived at the thousand pillared palace of the Mountain King. It had been built by Visvakarman, the creator per artem. Great was Narada’s surprise when he saw his own image made by Visvakarman. Narada was somewhat mystified, but, on entering the marriage hall, he was bewildered. Had Siva, seated on his bull and surrounded by his ganas arrived already for the wedding ? Had the gods, led by Visnu, also arrived, and the sages and the other celestials ? Narada could not believe that he had been duped by the magic of Visvakarman, who had made these true likeness of celestial realities. By the illusion that the portraits in his palace caused, the Mountain King subtly and gracefully had taken his revenge on Indra, who long ago had clipped the wings of the mountains and deprived them of their ability to fly. Now the Mountain King showed Indra and the gods that wings were, so to say, superfluous. The gods were present in effigy ; they had come to the Mountain even before they had started out in the marriage procession of Siva. The Mountain King, aided by Visvakarman, had taken his creative revenge on Indra, who had deprived the mountains of their power to fly.
Siva, having received Parvata’s letter and accepted its contents, invited all the gods to Kailasa before he started on his wedding procession. The seven mothers undertook the rite of the decoration of Siva for his wedding. His usual attire became his wedding ornaments. The moon became the bridegroom’s crown, his third eye became the beautiful tilaka on the forehead. The serpents around his ears became earrings studded with jewels, and the serpents on other parts of his body changed into the ornaments of the respective parts ; all were studded with gems. The ashes became sandal paste and other unguents ; the elephant hide became beautiful cloth. The elephant hide in a particular lent itself to becoming a suitable garment for this occasion. It had belonged to an elephant demon whom Siva had slain. Gajasura, the demon, was a voluptuary, and since he had not controlled his senses, he became evil. Siva pierced him with his trident. Pierced, he asked for a boon, which Siva granted. Siva should wear the hide of the demon, purified by the fire of his trident. Scorched by the flames of asceticism, the hide did not burn. Dressed for his wedding, Siva had a beautiful appearance extremely difficult to attain. Starting out for the palace of Lord Mountain, “Siva appeared to be completely over powered by Kama like an ordinary man”.
The marriage procession of Siva was nearing the palace of the Mountain King. Mena was anxious to see the bridegroom. She stood on the terrace, and Siva took delight in seeing her watching the procession, for he meant to delude her. The procession was arranged in groups. At the head came the handsome Gandharvas, richly dressed, riding in their vehicles with flags and banners. Groups of heavenly nymphs accompanied them. When Mena saw manigriva, the lord of Yaksas, she took him to be Siva. She was told that he was only an attendant of Siva, and when the next god surrounded by his retinue came within her sight, twice as splendid as Manigriva, she was similarly mistaken. Thirteen times more Mena was taken in by the escalating splendor of each following god with his retinue. Her happiness and pride increased, became almost unbearable, until Narada announced the arrival of Siva. He was preceded and surrounded by his ganas of wondrous shapes ; and by bhutas and pretas, elementals and ghosts who dispelled the proud anticipation of Mena. Some had the form of wind murmuring through the banners. Their innumerable host showed, as was their wont, all the deformities one could think of. When Mena saw Siva in their midst, she trembled. Seated on his bull, he had five faces, three eyes, ashes smeared all over his body ; the crescent moon in his matted hair, ten hands with the skull in one of them ; he wore the hides of a tiger and an elephant and held his bow in one hand, his trident in another. He had an odd number of eyes, and was misshapen and untidy.
Alarmed, trembling, and buttered with grief, Mena fell to the ground. When she awakened from her swoon she bewailed her fate and that of Parvati. The reward of her daughter’s austerities was painful to look at ; Mena wanted to cut off her head and run away. The words of the sages failed to console her. The Mountain King explained to her that Siva had many names and many forms. Did she not recollect an earlier deception (as the dancing beggar) ? Mena did not listen. She threatened to give up her life if the Mountain decided to give their daughter to Siva. Parvati told her disconsolate mother that she had wooed Siva by mind, word, and action, and her mother could do as she liked. Mena, gnashing her teeth, seized Parvati and beat her. She threatened to poison her or throw her in a well. Mena caused ranting when at last she was made to understand that Siva had many forms, both hideous and handsome, but she agreed to give her daughter to him only if he took on a lovely appearance. Siva showed himself in his divine, compassionate beauty.
Parvata and Mena started the marriage rites. Siva had to declare his lineage. He was silent. Narada, knowing the reason, with his mind fixed on Siva began to play on the uma. The Mountain asked Narada to stop playing at this important moment. Narada stopped playing and told the Mountain that even Visnu, Brahma, and the other gods did not know Siva’s lineage or family. Siva was the formless Supreme Brahman ; he was without attributes. According to his own wish he had qualities, a body and many names. Even a wise man does not know him. The Mountain listened with delight, and Narada continued : Nada, the primordial sound, is the lineage of Siva, and Siva is identical with Nada. It was for this reason, Narada said, that he played on his lute when Parvata asked to be told Siva’s lineage. This explanation of the mystery of Siva satisfied the Mountain, for Nada, primordial sound, is the basic momentum or “substance” from which the world is made. It is the prototype of sound, and the condition necessary for creation to take place. Akasa, ether or space, the first element of manifestation, has sound for its quality.
Now the Mountain King and the guests at the wedding knew that the lord of the three worlds was seen by them face to face. Parvata gave his daughter Parvati in marriage to Siva. During the wedding rites, as the bridal pair were circumambulating the sacred fire, Brahma, the main priest, kept staring at Parvati’s feet. The same weakness had overcome him at Sati’s wedding. This time the spilled drops of semen did not turn into threatening clouds of doom ; instead, thousands of sages arose from them, the Valakhilyas. They greeted Brahma, their father, and went to the mountain Gandhamadana. Siva, angered at first at Brahma’s incontinence, assured him that he had nothing to fear. Siva was benignly contemptuous rather than murderous, as he had been at the same occurrence during Sati’s wedding, when he had said that having killed the Creator he himself would create all living things, or he would create another Creator. He had come to terms with the mechanism of Brahma’s sexuality, which was lacking in the emotional, erotic overtones that Kama’s arrows had released in Siva’s heart.
After the wedding, the time had come for Rati to bring Siva the ashes of Kama. Siva glanced at them with compassion, and Kama, as beautiful as before and wielding bow and arrows, emerged from the ashes. Siva with Parvati returned to his mountain home.
