aba sukha sōvata sōcu nahiṁ bhīkha māgi bhava khāhiṁ.
sahaja ēkākinha kē bhavana kabahum̐ ki nāri khaṭāhiṁ. 79.
Now he (Lord Shiva) sleeps peacefully without any regrets or worries (with reference
to what has been said in verse no. 8 herein above). He begs for food and eats the
whole mortal world as his meal (a reference to the fact that Lord Shiva is the God of
the Trinity who is responsible for conclusion of creation, being the patron god of
death).
Say, can a woman ever find a right place to live in the home of someone who
is inherently single and prefers to live alone, shunning all company? (Doha no. 79)
[Note—A similar narration is given in Shiva Puran, 2/3/25/50-51.
Refer also to “Parvati Mangal”, verse no. 50.
In Chaupai line no. 8 that precedes this Doha, the Sapta-rishis have told blatant
lies to Parvati about Shiva manauvering Sati’s death. Now they compound the lie by
saying that Shiva ‘sleeps peacefully without a worry in the world’, i.e. lives happily
once he has got rid of Sati. This is not the case at all as is clear when we read the text
from Chaupai line no. 7 that precedes Doha no. 76—to Chaupai line no. 2 that
precedes Doha no. 76 that clearly tell us that ever since Sati had died Shiva’s mind
and heart were uneasy because the Lord was tormented due to the sufferings of his
devotee. Here this ‘devotee’ is Sati and no one else. This is also proved when we read
how Sati had deeply regretted her mistake of assuming the form of Sita, the consort
of Lord Ram, a misdeed for which her husband Shiva had decided to leave her. Her
mind and heart were on the boil and she wished to die because living without having
respect and affection from her husband was unbearable for her, and life for her had
become a constant torment (refer: Baal Kand, Chaupai line nos. 1-4 that precede
Doha no. 58). She decided to die (refer: Doha no. 59 along with its preceding
Chaupai line nos. 1-8).
At the time of death, she had prayed to Lord Ram, the Supreme Being whom her
husband adored and worshipped, to let her serve Shiva even in her next birth, and it is
for this reason that she was born as Uma or Parvati, the daughter of the king of
mountains (refer: Ram Charit Manas, Baal Kand, Chaupai line nos. 5-6 that precede
Doha no. 65).
Earlier we have also read that it was she who had been stubborn to test the
integrity of Lord Ram inspite of her husband’s insistence not to do so (refer: Ram
Charit Manas, Baal Kand, Doha no. 51 along with its preceding Chaupai line nos. 6-
8). In the process she had committed two grave sins—one was to disbelieve her
husband (refer: Chaupai line no. 1 that precedes Doha no. 54), and the other was to
tell him lies (refer: Chaupai line nos. 1, 5 that precede Doha no. 56).
In other words, all the sufferings of Sati were her own doing, and Lord Shiva was
not the cause of any of them. There is no question therefore of Shiva being the cause
of Sati’s death as alleged by the Sapta-rishis.
In this new birth, Parvati had done severe Tapa out of her own free will to marry
Shiva; no one had forced her to do it, and when she had left her home to do Tapa she
was very happy and cheerful about it (refer: Ram Charit Manas, Baal Kand, from
Doha no. 72—to Chaupai line no. 1 that precedes Doha no. 73).
She was also aware that Shiva was the Lord who had always lived like an ascetic,
and he was indeed the patron deity of ascetics. She was also aware that Shiva was the
third God of the Trinity who was responsible for bringing about the conclusion or end
of whatever that is born or created. She was, after all, Shiva’s consort in her past life
as Sati, and therefore these facts were not hidden from her. But this does not mean
that Shiva was a fiend who would first get his wife killed by machinations, then go
around like a mad person begging for food and feeding his stomach with non-eatables
as implied by the Sapta-rishis when they derided Shiva by saying he “begs for food