The Story Of Lord Shiva’s Marriage With Parvati

(Kiana) #1

2 All ordinary living beings have one head. Since the whole world had begun to toe
the line of Kaamdeo by becoming passionate, lustful, immodest and indulgent, those who
were elderly in the society and still managed to retain their sense of thought and wisdom
began to ponder as to why Kaamdeo was still so angry, and why was he carrying a raised
bow with a mounted arrow when he has already conquered the entire world? It meant that
some formidable enemy of Kaamdeo was still to be conquered by him. The “two heads”
is simply a metaphoric way of saying that the still-unconquered enemy of Kaamdeo is
certainly not an ordinary member of the world; he must be an ‘extra-ordinary person like
someone having two heads’.
Subtly this points fingers to Lord Shiva because till this point of time, Kaamdeo has
not conquered Shiva, and sure enough Lord Shiva is definitely super-human and extra-
ordinary even amongst the pantheon of gods. ]


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dōhā.


jē sajīva jaga acara cara nāri puruṣa asa nāma.
tē nija nija marajāda taji bha'ē sakala basa kāma. 84.


All the inhabitants of this living world—where they could move or could not move
(such as the animals and the plants respectively), and who could be categorised as the
ones who were ‘males’ and ones who were ‘females’—all of them came under the
grip of Kaamdeo. As a result, they abandoned self-restraint and propriety, became
immodest and indulgent in sensual pleasures and comforts. (Doha no. 84)
[Note—Kaamdeo, in Indian literary tradition, refers to a personification of such
negative traits in a person’s character as being passionate, lustful, laschivious and
promiscuous. The whole living world, whether it is the plant kingdom or the animal
kingdom, is divided into two primary segments—the male and the female. In the
scheme of things devised by the Creator, a union between the male and the female
helpes to keep the wheel of creation rolling forward without intervention of the
Creator every now and then. This devise freed the Creator from unnecessarily
worrying about creating newer members to fill the gap in the world when its older
members died. The Creator, in other words, made this gigantic machine of creation
‘self sustaining’.
In order to give effect to his grand plan to perpetuate his creation, the Creator
created “Kaamdeo”, i.e. a mutual attraction between the male and the female, which
resulted in their union or conjunction, which in turn helped in procreation.
In order to keep things under control and maintain the ecological balance of
Mother Nature, this Kaamdeo was also subject to certain rules and laws as applied to
other gods created by the supreme Creator. Till this point everything ran in an orderly
fashion in accordance to the laws established by the creator Brahma to regulate and
govern life in this world.
But the situation drastically changed when the same creator Brahma and all other
gods needed the help of Kaamdeo to enforce marriage upon Shiva who was steadfast
in his vows of remaining a reclusive hermit submerged in meditation instead of
marrying and raising a family. As we have read, this need arose due to the ascendance
of the demon Taarkaasur who was making life hell for the gods (refer: Chaupai line
nos. 5-8 that precedes Doha no. 82).
Special occasions require special actions and provisions of law. So, the gods and
the creator Brahma were forced to give extra special powers and authority to

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