[Note—This is a prelude of things to come. Shiva has not completely abandoned Sati;
he has decided to have no relationships with Sati “in the present body”. This is
because she has polluted her body by assuming the form of Sita, and she has
committed the sin of telling lies with this body. But at the same time, she is otherwise
immaculate. So what is the practical solution? The answer is this: Sati should first
discard this body and take another birth, or ‘her soul should live this tainted body and
enter a new fresh one’ so that Shiva can accept her.
Remember: it is the gross body that becomes tainted by worldly corruptions, but
the ‘soul’ always remains pure and immaculate. This is the lesson of this verse. A
person’s sins and the body which commits these sins are to be punished, but not the
‘person himself’. Incredulous it seems, but it is the truth—for the true identity of the
person is not his or her gross body, but the Atma, the soul, which is absolutely
immaculate and eternal. The Atma remains above the mundane deeds done by the
gross body, and is never involved in grossness.
It is when a person overlooks the voice of the Atma, known as the “voice of
conscience; the inner voice”, that he or she commits sins. Even in the case of Sati this
has been true. Her Atma, her “inner voice”, had warned her not to disbelieve Lord
Shiva, but she had overlooked it—refer: Ram Charit Manas, Baal Kand, Chaupai line
nos. 3-4 that precede Doha no. 51. Had she paid heed to the voice of her
“conscience”, she would not have had to suffer now.
So, this was the guidance Shiva got from Lord Ram. ‘He should abandon Sati in
her present form, but should accept her when her Atma takes a new form or assumes
a fresh new body, which in practical terms means to take a new birth.’
We shall read a little while later that eventually this is what has happened. Sati
burnt her corrupted body in the sacrificial fire of her father Daksha, and at that time
had prayed to the creator to give her another birth where she can be accepted by Lord
Shiva once again. Hence, she took birth in the household of Giriraj, the king of
mountains, as Parvati. She did severe penance and was accepted by Shiva as his
divine consort once again.
Sati’s Atma, i.e. her pure conscious soul which was her “true self”, remained the
same; it was the gross body that changed. It was like a person discarding dirty
clothes, taking a bath, and then doning fresh new clothes.]•‚ Á’øÊÁ⁄U ‚¢∑§L§ ◊ÁÃœË⁄UÊ – ø‹ ÷flŸ ‚ÈÁ◊⁄Uà ⁄UÉÊÈ’Ë⁄UÊH 3H
asa bicāri saṅkaru matidhīrā. calē bhavana sumirata raghubīrā. 3.
Deciding thus, Lord Shankar (Shiva), who is very wise and patient, started on his
journey for his abode (on Mt. Kailash), all the while remembering Lord Ram
(“Raghubir”) on the way. (3)
[Note—Shiva was going to his abode at Mt. Kailash from sage Agastya’s hermitage
when this episode of Sati took place. So he had waited under the shadow of a banayan
tree till Sati came back to him after testing Lord Ram. Now that things have taken a
nasty turn and it became clear to him that he has to neglect the presence of Sati
henceforth, he got up to move onwards to his abode in Kailash. For all practical
purposes, Shiva considered himself alone hereafter.
That is why he kept his mind submerged in the thoughts of Lord Ram which
amounts to him remaining engrossed in meditating upon the Lord even as his physical
body was moving towards his hermitage.]