Shiva and Savi
Shiva and Sati
Queen Prasuti had desire for a daughter. So Lord Brahma advised her and Daksha to meditate upon Goddess Adi-Parashakti. So they gave up their royal robes, put on the guise of ascetics, and sat in a forest, bearing the heat, cold, rain, and harsh winds. After a long time, Goddess Adi-Parashakti appeared to them in her visible form of a thousand hands, holding countless weapons, wearing ornaments like diamonds, gems, earrings, gold armor, a crown, and a red sari. After Daksha and Prasuti’s penance was over, Adi Parashakti asked them what they desired from her. Daksha asked the Goddess to take birth again as their daughter. The Goddess gave them their consent but also gave them a warning that if she is ever insulted, she will take up the same form and disown herself. Daksha and Prasuti agreed.
Daksha was a son of Brahma, and actually, it was Brahma’s design that the Goddess be born again. In bidding of Adi-Parashakti to take human birth, Brahma’s design was that she would please Shiva with her devotion and wed him, so that the world could understand the significance of masculine and feminine unity. However, Brahma did not tell Daksha and Prasuti any of this. Daksha and Prasuti already had twenty-three daughters. Thus, Adi Parashakti took human birth as the daughter of Daksha and Prasuti. They named their daughter Sati.
Even as a child, Sati adored the tales and legends associated with Shiva told by sage Narada, and she grew up as an ardent Shiva devotee. As she grew to womanhood, she began to dream about marrying Shiva. In fact, she could not conceive of marrying anyone else but him. Her father, however, was completely opposed to her marrying Shiva, because Shiva was a wild ascetic who lived in the Himalayas on Mount Kailash. Daksha wanted her daughter to marry a king. But, every proposal from valiant and rich kings that he brought to Sati only made her crave the Lord of Kailash.
To win the regard of the ascetic Shiva, the daughter of King Daksha forsook the luxuries of her father’s palace and retired to a forest to devote herself to austerities and the worship of Shiva. So rigorous were her penances that she gradually renounced food itself, at one stage subsisting on one leaf a day, and then giving up even that nourishment; this particular abstinence earned her the name Aparna. Her prayers finally bore fruit when, after testing her resolve, Shiva finally acceded to her wishes and consented to make her his bride.
An ecstatic Sati returned to her father’s home to await her bridegroom, but found her father less than elated by the turn of events. The wedding was, however, held in due course, and Sati made her home with Shiva in Kailash. But, Daksha was as an arrogant king, and he did not get on with his renunciative son-in-law and, basically, cut his daughter away from her natal family.
One day, Daksha organized a large horse sacrifice, and he invited all the gods and cosmic beings, but he did not invite Shiva. Sati learnt about the sacrifice and asked Shiva to go with her. When Shiva refused, Sati insisted upon going and was escorted by Shiva’s troops to her father’s kingdom. Daksha was very angry to see his daughter and yelled at her that she and her husband were not welcome. Sati was so insulted that she threw herself into the sacrificial fire.
When Shiva came upon the scene, he saw his wife’s immolated body and created from his third eye two terrible beings, Virabhadra and Badhrakali, and ordered them to destroy the sacrifice. Then he took Sati’s corpse in his arms and began roaming the world. He was so distressed that he forgot everything else but his sorrow. He even forgot his divine function of destruction. Vishnu realized that as long as Shiva held Sati in his arms, Shiva would not forget. Therefore, to restore the order, Vishnu cut Sati’s body into 51 body parts named Shakti Peeths. These body parts of the Goddess fell in difference parts of the world, and to protect these parts, Lord Shiva took the form of Bhairava.
According to some traditions, it is believed that an angry Shiva performed the fearsome and awe-inspiring Tandava dance with Sati’s charred body on his shoulders. During this dance, Sati’s body came apart and the pieces fell at different places on earth. According to another version, Shiva placed Sati’s body on his shoulder and ran about the world, crazed with grief. The Gods called upon the God Vishnu to restore Shiva to normalcy and calm. Vishnu used his Sudarshana Chakra to dismember Sati’s lifeless body, following which Shiva regained his equanimity. Both versions state that Sati’s body was thus dismembered into 51 pieces which fell on earth at various places. Several different listings of these 51 holy places, known as Shakti Peethas, are available; some of these places have become major centers of pilgrimage as they are held by the Goddess-oriented Shakta sect to be particularly holy. Besides 51 main Shakti peethas, some small peethas came into existence which are due to Sati’s fallen blood drops.
After the night of horror, Shiva, the all-forgiving, restored all those who were slain to life and granted them his blessings. Even the abusive and culpable Daksha was restored both to life and to kingship. His severed head was substituted for that of a goat. Having learned his lesson, Daksha spent his remaining years as a devotee of Shiva.
(Excerpted from Vayu and Vishnu Puranas)
