He once took an offense at me in the heavenly court of Brahma, the creator,
and ever since that time he has been insulting me^2. [And this is why he has not sent an
invitation to either me or you.] (3)
[Note—^1 When a religious function is underway in a person’s father’s home, there is
no harm in going and attending it. So, primarily Sati’s request was okay. But the
problem was that her father harboured severe ill-will with Sati’s husband, Lord Shiva.
Going uninvited to someone’s place irrespective of who he or she is, and how closely
he or she is related, is sure to invite rebuke, insult, scorn and ridicule. Sati did not
think of this. The fact of the matter is that she was so overcome by the powerful
forces of Maya that she had lost wisdom to judge what is good and what is bad.
This error of judgement and inability to think wisely and intelligently as to what
is good and what is not is at the root cause of all her miseries in the first place. It is
this lack of wisdom which prevailed upon her her to test the authenticity of Lord Ram
by disguising herself as the Lord’s wife without thinking of the consequences of such
an action, and it was the same lack of wisdom that later on made her tell lies to her
husband. And now it is the same lack of wisdom that prevented her from
understanding that it is highly improper to go to someone’s place without a proper
invitation, especially when that person keeps ill-will with one’s closest kin, and for a
wife her husband is obviously the closest relation.
Sati forgot that if she did go uninvited to her father’s place it would send a strong
signal to all those present there that she did not bother about the insult that has been
cast upon her husband, Lord Shiva. And this wrong signal would boomerang upon
her as the entire community of gods and goddesses assembled there would ridicule
her and treat her with contempt as someone who has no respect for her husband. It
would result in all her self-respect, dignity and honour being sent for a toss. As the
events unfolded, this is exactly what has happened—refer: Ram Charit Manas, Baal
Kand, Doha no. 63 along with its preceding Chaupai line nos. 1-8.
2 This episode of Daksha taking offence at Shiva’s behaviour is narrated in
Srimad Bhagwat Maha Puran, Skandha no. 4, Canto no. 2, verse nos. 4-33. Briefly it
is as follows—
Once, the creator Braham had organised a fire sacrifice in which all the gods and
semi-gods as well as the all the sons of Brahma who were assigned the task of
propagating this creation were invited. Both Shiva and Daksha were invited too. It so
happened that when Daksha entered the venue, all other gods got up to show their
respects to him, but Lord Shiva kept sitting. This is because Daksha was not even a
senior god, and was merely a “Prajapati” (caretaker of Brahma’s creation). But those
who are of a low mentality and are full of ego think themselves to be too big or
higher in stature than they actually are. So, Daksha took offence at Shiva’s behaviour.
Daksha was so haughty that he immediately rebuked Shiva and told the latter that
he would excommunicate him from his society and avenge his insult by not inviting
Shiva to participate and accept any offerings during any fire sacrifice that Daksha
would organise in his kingdom. Shiva is an exemplarily self-restrained and highly
dispassionate Lord God as he is an ascetic of the highest order, and so it did not
matter to him whether or not Daksha insulted him, or did not invite him to a fire
sacrifice, or didn’t offer Shiva his share of the sacrificial offerings.
The question is ‘why did Daksha take special offence at Shiva when Brahma and
Vishnu too had not got up as he entered the venue’? The answer is this—‘Daksha’s
daughter Sati was married to Shiva, and therefore the latter was his son-in-law.
Daksha took special umbrage at Shiva because he treated Shiva’s showing
indifference to him as an insult inflicted upon his dignity and stature by his son-in-
law. Daksha forgot, in his misplaced sense of false importance and ego, that Shiva
was one of the almight gods of the Trinity and not merely his son-in-law. The other
two senior gods, i.e. Brahma and Vishnu, were not related to Daksha as was Shiva,
and this was the reason why he was especially very angry with Shiva.
kiana
(Kiana)
#1