Shiva, as a deity, dominates Hinduism owing to his ambivalent character as the Vedic god Rudra and as God Shiva, ‘the auspicious one’. Nevertheless, his manifestations of his character typified an aspect of him. When in Rigveda he was prayed for help to save from disaster because he was believed to be powerful and the originator, during the course of the Vedic period, he was worshipped among the other prominent deities who control different circles of human interests.
Lord Shiva is worshipped by devotees in various manifestations and one of the prominent ones is as the loving companion of Parvati, where he wanted her to be an ascetic when he had devoted himself to life of austerity. Shiv Parvati marriage is a typical example of conjugal love, portraying and sanctifying human marriage.
Shiv Parvati Story
After the loss of his first consort, Sati, who is also an aspect of Shakti. Lord Shiva was completely lost and withdrawn, and he restricted himself to a cave on the Mount Kailash, where he went into deep meditation. That was the time when Tarakasura, who after severe and long ‘tapa’ (a kind of austere spiritual practice) had attained a boon from God Shiva that his death can happen only at the hands of Shiva’s son.
Tarakasura who became powerful and invulnerable attacked the earth and the heaven and conquered everything. His misdeeds and sins knew no bounds for he knew that Shiva is not going to marry again after Sati sacrificing her life in the Daksha’s ‘yagagni’ (sacrificial fire). And as a result, he would not be killed by Shiva’s son. It was believed that other gods approached Shiva who could do nothing in the absence of Goddess Shakti.
This however led the gods to request Goddess Shakti for help who agreed to take the birth of Parvati as King Himavat’s and Queen Mena’s daughter so that she could marry Lord Shiva again. Shortly Parvati was born and she grew to become a beautiful woman. At that time, Sage Narada visited Himavat’s kingdom and said that Parvati would marry Shiva when time comes.
Parvati was always found lost in her thoughts about Shiva and she also had a dream worshipping the Lord. When Shiva went to a cave in Gangavatarana perform penance, King Himavat and Parvati visited to worship him. This led Shiva to allow Parvati to serve him and she did with complete devotion by cleaning the place, garlanding with flowers and offering fruits. God Shiva never came out of meditation; instead, he went deeper into it. Years passed, Tarakasura become more powerful and intolerable.
It was time to make Shiva and Parvati love each other and Indra, the king of heaven, sent Kama, the god of love to create desire in Shiva. Kama, who saw Parvati offering flowers to Shiva, shot an arrow fragrant flowers at Shiva, who opened his eyes. The Lord saw beautiful Parvati and fell in love with her, but he quickly came out of it and saw Kama standing at the far end. He was furious and burned Kama into ashes by opening his third eye on the forehead.
In the meantime, Lord Shiva went back to his place in Kailash and Parvati, who despite trying so hard to win Shiva’s attention, left her father’s kingdom to lead an ascetic life worshipping God Shiva. She spent years living in extreme ascetics. Over the time, she pushed herself beyond physical, as well as mental endurance. Her strictest asceticism was so intense that it equaled Lord Shiva’s. She still kept praying Lord Shiva and her ‘tapasya’ (austerity) caused much energy and heat and it made all gods panicked and uncomfortable. The energy and heat intensified and it made Lord Shiva come out of his meditation. Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and other gods went to Lord Shiva to convince him to marry Parvati and bring an end to the severe ‘tapasya’. Shiva decided to test Parvati and visited her disguised as a Brahmin.
He asked her why she is wasting her life for one who uses an animal’s skin to cover him and ash to smear on his body. Thus, he kept on insulting the Lord until Parvati lost her patience and revealed that she is the reincarnation of Sati and without her Shiva is incomplete. This pleased Shiva and he regained his form and expressed his desire to marry Parvati.
The marriage was a grand celebration conducted at the Himavat’s kingdom and it was attended by all the gods and goddesses, sages, saptarishis, ganas, and others. The Shiv Parvati story is much revered in Hindu texts and scriptures.
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