These two apparently opposing situations had to be recoinciled. The only way
was to “purify Sati’s tainted body” so that she becomes acceptable to Shiva, and the
best medium to do so was to put her in the ‘fire’. It is interesting to note that this
“purifying by fire” is also carried out on Sita at the end of the war at Lanka—refer:
Ram Charit Manas, Lanka Kand, from Chaupai line no. 14 that precedes Doha no.
108—to Chanda line no. 6 that precedes Doha no. 109. Quite a coincidence indeed!
That is why Lord Shiva’s consort was called “Sati”—it was a traditional process in
ancient Indian society wherein a woman proved her chastity and loyalty to her
husband by buring herself in the cremation fire with her dead husband’s body. If she
resisted or abstained from doing so, more often than not she was scorned at and
castigated by the rest of the clan.]øı0. ∞Á„U Á’Áœ ŒÈÁπà ¬ ̋¡‚∑ȧ◊Ê⁄UË – •∑§ÕŸËÿ ŒÊL§Ÿ ŒÈπÈ ÷Ê⁄UËH 1H
caupā’ī.
ēhi bidhi dukhita prajēsakumārī. akathanīya dāruna dukhu bhārī. 1.
In the above narrated way, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati (i.e. Sati) suffered from
horrible grief and misery which cannot be described (because it was immense and
constantly tormenting her). (1)
’ËÃ¥ ‚¢’à ‚„U‚ ‚ÃÊ‚Ë – Ã¡Ë ‚◊ÊÁœ ‚¢÷È •Á’ŸÊ‚ËH 2H
bītēṁ sambata sahasa satāsī. tajī samādhi sambhu abināsī. 2.
Eighty-seven thousand Samvats (years) passed while the immortal (eternal and
imperishable—“Abinaashi”)^1 Shiva remained deeply submerged in the transcendental
state of consciousness known as Samadhi (or “meditative trance”).
At the end of this period, he woke up from this transcedental state of existence
to the realities of the gross world^2. (2)
[Note—^1 The word “Abinaashi” (•Á’ŸÊ‚Ë) literally means that which does not decay
and die, that which is eternal and imperishable. It also means immortal. Shiva is a
god, and from the perspective of creation he is ‘immortal’ in the sense that unlike the
rest of creation which perishes at the end of each Kaal (era; epoch), he remains
perpetual.
The time frame of 87,000 Samvats is not a joke. It’s a very long period of time
from human perspective. The gross body will naturally age and become feeble during
the course of this long time. But ascetics overcome this problem by immersing
themselves in Samadhi. It is believed that all physical functions of the body go into
hibernation mode during Samadhi, and that period when the ascetic remains in
Samadhi is not added to his physical age. Thus for instance, if an ascetic enters into
Samadhi when he is say 13 years old, and remains in Samadhi for say next 100 years,
then when he wakes up from Samadhi his age would still be 13 years. In other words,
the body will not grow old by 100 years for the entire period of Samadhi. This is why
our ancient sages, seers, hermits and ascetics could live for ‘thousands of years’.
This is the physical perspective. From the metaphysical angle however, the word
“Abinaashi’ refers to the soul, the Atma, the pure conscious ‘self’ of any living being,
which is eternal and imperishable by nature. Only those who are ‘self-realised’ know
this fact because they identify themselves with the Atma and not the physical body.
Shiva is the most enlightened and highly self-realised god in the entire pantheon of
gods—and therefore this epithet of being “Abinaashi” aptly applies to him.