the Supreme Being, whom her husband Shiva claims Ram to be, to know who had
abducted his wife Sita, and to make matter worse he is not expected to wail and
lament like an ordinary helpless man the way Ram was doing.
So she wanted to test the veracity of Shiva’s statement. Shiva decided that this
doubt in her mind is like cancer and it would be ruinous for her spiritual well-being,
and therefore it is better to nip the bud at the earliest. So he gave her permission, but
with a caveat to be careful and remain within limits of righteousness.
Sati’s intellect and wisdom had been eclipsed by Maya (delusions), so she
could not think properly. She disguised herself as Sita and stood on the way in the
direction Lord Ram was moving ahead in the forest, in the hope that the Lord would
not recognize her and think that he has found Sita. This would prove to her that Ram
did not know anything, and he was like an ordinary man.
When Lord Ram saw her on the path, the Lord paid his respects to her and
asked politely where her husband Lord Shiva was, and what was she doing alone in
this dense forest. She should better go back to her husband and say his respects to
him. Sati was stunned and completely taken aback.
Sati regretted her misdemeanors and her foolishness. She came back to where
Shiva was meditating under a tree while she was gone. Shiva knew everything that
was enacted by Sati, and he was very peeved that she had taken the form of Sita, the
revered wife of Lord Ram whom Lord Shiva worships as his God. For Shiva, Sita was
like his mother, and to imagine that his wife would assume the form of his mother
was too much for Shiva to digest. He decided that now onwards he will have nothing
to do with Sati in this body—because she had assumed the form of Sita.
So Lord Shiva went quietly back to his abode at Mt. Kailash, without talking
to Sati any further, and immersed himself in deep meditation on Lord Ram. Eighty-
seven Samvats (centuries) passed. When Shiva woke up from his meditative trance,
Sati came to offer her respects to him, but Shiva gave her a seat in the front of him
instead of by his side as he usually used to do on earlier occasions. Shiva had
mentally abandoned Sati, but since she was immaculate otherwise he did not
physically left her.
This seating alarmed Sati, and inspite of her repeated requests Shiva did not
divulge the reason. Sati was very sad, and she knew that without Shiva’s love her life
was meaningless.
Meanwhile, her father, Dakshaprajapti, held a fire sacrifice, and he invited all
the Gods to attend it, except Shiva with whom he nurtured some ill-will. When Sati
saw the Gods going through the sky in their decorated chariots, she asked Shiva the
reason. The Lord told her everything. Sati then insisted that she be allowed to go to
attend her father’s fire sacrifice. Shiva told her that since he was not invited by
Daksha, it will not be in order for her to go there as it would invite scorn and insult.
Showing her stubborn nature for the second time, she insisted that she will go. So
Shiva thought that it is the proper time to get rid of Sati in the physical form also as
she had become too arrogant and there was no hope of ever rectifying her.
He allowed her to go. At her father’s place, things became nasty. She was
neither welcome nor would anyone show any respect to her. Like Shiva had predicted,
she was ridiculed and made into a laughing stock. The things came to a head when
she discovered that during the actual rituals of the sacrifice, no offering was being
made to Shiva who was supposed to the ‘Maha-Deva’, the Great God. She found that
all the other Gods, even the most inconsequential minor ones, were proudly accepting
gifts and sneering at her!
kiana
(Kiana)
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