Story of Shiv and Sati

Shiv is the parmeshwar of the entire universe. Many names are associated with Shiv such as Rudra, Mahakal, Mahadev, Maheshwar, Mahesh and list goes on. Rudra is the purn avatar of Shiv, who resides in Kailash, Ved and Purans describes birth and death of all gods, but no ved or purans every described birth or death of Sada Shiv.

Sati

Uma is the mother of all goddess in Hinduism; is also a better half of Shiv. many names are also associated with Uma such as Jagdamabe, Shakti, Sati, Parvati and list goes on. One day Daksh, prajapati of all creatures (Lord of all creatures), desired to have a daughter, thus did penance for years, afterwards Uma granted him a boon to be born as his daughter, Sati.

Marriage

Sati grew up to be the most beautiful woman in the universe. When Sati became mature, Narada for betterment of the world appeared to Sati and reminded that she should do penance to marry Shiv. Daksh wasn’t in agreeing with Sati for penance to marry Shiv, as a father Daksh was right for her daughter. Sati went to Himalays for penance; when penance continued for hundreds of years; Bhram, Vishnu and all other demi gods, went to Kailash and pleaded to Shiv to accept Sati as a wife.

Shiv refused for a marriage, cause for betterment of the world, Shiv is always indulged in a penance and he likes to stay away from worldly life and do yoga. Bhrama and Vishnu then reminded Shiv to marry for his bhakats; Shiv then agreed for a marraige, but put an agreement that he will only marry to person who doesn’t bother him when Shiv is doing penance for betterment of the world, supports him in every step and accepts Shiv’s word as final; and if she doesn’t believe his word, Shiv will abandon her.

Shiv arrived to Daksh’s house with his entire follower (gan); even though Daksh wasn’t ready to accept Shiv as son-in-law; but against his daughter’s will Daksh agreed for the marriage. Marriage ended on happy note, and it was a day of celebration for Shivaites.

Shiv salutation to Shri Ram and Sati’s exam

When Shri Ram was wondering in ‘Dandakaryana'(दण्डकारण्य) with Laxman after Raavan kidnapped Sitaji. At the same time Shiv and Sati were also passing by.  Shiv from the distance bowed to Shri Ram; which Sati questioned. Sati asked, “Shiv, you’re parmeshwar, so why do you bow down to the person who is saddened by loss of his wife”. Shiv explained to Sati that Shri Ram is avatar of Vishnu and there is no difference between Vishnu and Shiv. Sati impatience grew bigger; Shiv asked Sati, “If you couldn’t believe, then you can do your examination of Shri Ram”. Sati then took form of SitaJi and appeared to Shri Ram; and Shri Ram was able to figure out Sati’s true appearance in form of SitaJi, Shri Ram bowed to Sati and asked, “Where is Parmeshwar Shiv? and why are you alone in ‘Dandakaryana‘?” Sati couldn’t believe what just happened and returned back to Shiv.

When Sati returned back to Shiv, Shiv asked how did you examine Shri Ram; in reply Sati lied that, “I didn’t examine Shri Ram”. Parmeshwar figured out Sati is lying to him; Shiv kept his promise by abandoning Sati.

Sati’s desire to attend Daksh’s yagna

Sati’s father, Daksh, was performing yagna. Daksh invited all demi gods, all his daughters and son-in-laws; except Sati and Shiv. From Kailash, Sati saw people going to the yagna and she also desired to attend the yagna, but she wasn’t invited. Shiv already knew the outcome of the yagna; Shiv warned Sati against attending the yagna without invitation; in which Sati replied, “daughter doesn’t require invitation to visit her father”.

Sati with Nandi and others reached her father’s home. Upon reaching her father’s home, Sati saw all others gods with Vishnu and Bhrama are being respected, except Shiv. Shiv is parmeshwar and all yagna are offered to him. Sati approached Daksh; Daksh insulted Sati and Shiv. Sati couldn’t react to it and decided to end her life. With power of Yog, Sati created a fire, and ended her life by jumping into fire.

Shiv’s avatar: Virbhadra (वीरभद्र) and Bhadrakali (भद्रकाली)

Shiv became furious when found out Sati ended her life; Shiv released one of his hair string (जटा) in anger; and out came Virbhadra and Bhadrakali, Shiv asked them to kill everyone who is present at Yagna. Some left Yagna when Sati ended her life; but Vishnu was still present at the Yagna, because it is Vishnu’s duty to protect his devotees. Virbhadra and Vishnu had a great battle, Virbhadra fought bravely with Vishnu; at the end, Vishnu gets injured, and Vishnu returns to Vaikunth. Virbhadra cut of Daksh’s head and returns to Shiv.

All Yagna that starts must end, when Shiv’s anger calmed down, Bhrama and devta went to Kailash and pleaded Shiv to re-establish Daksh’s life, so Yagna can end peacefully. Shiv reached the spot of the Yagna; Shiv asked his followers to get the head of the goat, Shiv gives a life to Daksh; Shiv wanted to make an example out of Daksh by putting goat’s head; selfish and egoistic people always put themselves first. After Daksh came back to life, Daksh gives proper place to Shiv and Yagna completes peacefully.

51 Shakti Pith

After Yagna successfully completes, Shiv carried Sati’s burned body on his shoulder and roamed the earth for years. To put an end to the Shiv’s misery, Vishnu with his sudarshan chakra, cuts down Sati’s body in 51 parts and spread on the planet. And this 51 body parts became Shakti Peeth.

One of the famous and mysterious Shakti Peeth is located at Himachal Pradesh, India. This Shakti Peeth is also known as ‘Maa Jwala Devi Mandir’. In the temple, there is eternal flames that continues to burn for ages without any form to external energy. Akbar during his rule, tried to extinguish the flame, even channeled the water on the flame, but his efforts went in vain. During 70s a foreign company was appointed by Government of India to explore possibilities of big reservoirs of natural gas there. They worked for some years but left saying they could not find any gas.

Modern World

Stories of Shiv are endless; but some people in modern world consider Shiv as just a dev or demigod. Below picture is from gujarati swaminarayan sanstha BAPS. BAPS is continuing robbing people by forcefully asking for donation, and build lavish temple, but there ego is bigger than elephant.

BAPS has ideology that swaminarayan is supreme to all dev or god; now big question “Is swaminarayan even a god?” No Ved or Puran ever supports swaminarayan as a god. As you can see from the above picture that BAPS on their website listed Shiv as a “dev”. BAPS by listing other gods as a “dev”, they’re brainwashing younger generation. BAPS followers with their poker face will plead you to come to their temple, but by pleading they want your donation for the lavish lifestyles of their sadhus, which you can see here.

Everything that shines is not god, same story with BAPS; by building lavish temples don’t mean there is a god in their temple, spread this message to as many people as you can.