Men and the Goddess (S/S?)

[Guest guest]

thanks colin for your point of view !

 

dear members , our beloved colin is referring to the great story

of 'sati' in the shiva purana - this is the story of how sati

immolates herself in the sacrificial fire (yagna) conducted by her

father daksha to avenge the insult hurled at her husband, shiva.

 

please read....

 

Sati's father, King Daksha performed severe penance for 3000 years.

The pleased goddess manifested before him and promised to take birth

as his daughter Herself. When Sati or Gauri as she was named, grew

up, she performed intense penance to attain Shiva as her husband.

 

Daksha was not very happy at Sati's choice of husband. So Daksha did

not invite Shivja and Gauri (Sati) to a great Yagna (Spiritual

sacrifice) that he was about to perform. Sati, noting that all the

celestial vehicles were headed towards her father's place, felt

peeved at the fact that she had received no invitation. She insisted

on attending the function anyway, despite the disapproval of Shiva

 

When Sati entered her parental palace, her father Daksha ignored her.

To add insult to injury, Daksha proclaimed that his other daughters

and their husbands were finer and more distinguished than Sati and

Shiva and as such were more worthy of honour than Sati and Shiva.

 

The Goddess Sati approached the Sadas (The area of the site of

sacrifice where the main priests sit.) She thundered: "Let all those

who sit here give ear to the Mistress of the Universe. My husband,

the Lord of Lords has been insulted for no good reason. No fault

exists in Him. It is claimed in the Scriptures that those who steal

knowledge, those who betray a Teacher and those who defile the Lord

are great sinners and ought to be punished".

 

After uttering these words, the offended Goddess threw herself in the

glowing sacred fire. Daksha's Yagna had been desecrated. A

celebration turned into a funeral. The invitees disappeared afraid

that they could be avenged. Shivji was enraged on learning that his

wife had sacrificed herself. He created a being called Veerbhadra by

tearing a lock of his hair. Mighty Veerbhadra tore off King Daksha's

head and tossed it into the same sacrificial fire.

 

However because it was proclaimed that the Yagna should not be left

incomplete, the head of a sacrificial goat was placed on Daksha.

 

Lord Shiva was very sad at the death of Sati. He began to wander in

the three nether worlds carrying the dead body of Sati in his arms.

So violent was his stride that the universe began to tremble and

there was suffering everywhere. In order to break this attachment of

Shiva and to save the universe, Vishnu shot some arrows from his bow

and cut the corpse of Sati into fifty one pieces. The pieces fell in

51 different parts of the country. These are known as Shakti Pithas.

 

from the web

 

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now, members how would you interpret this story?

 

1) do you see here a glimpse of stree dharma where sati, the hindu

stree, immolates herself because she could not bear her husband shiva

being insulted?

 

2) also, was shiva justified in grieving for his loyal and faithful

wife? do you approve of his dance of destruction?

 

love