Sati, first Spouse of Lord Shiva, An Incarnation of Adhya Shakti

Daughter of Prajapati Daksha 'Sati & daughter of Himalaya Raj

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'Sati', or Durga, First Spouse of Lord Shiva

Birth of Adhya Shakti as 'Sati' and Yajna of Daksha Prajapati

'Sati or Dakshayani', was the first wife of Lord Shiva. Prajapati Daksha ('Prajapati' means kingship in Sanskrit) was a great king and son of Lord Brahma. He created his son Daksha through his right thumb to rule over the World. 'Sati' was the sixteenth daughter of Prajapati Daksha and his wife Pasuti. So, she is also known as Dakshayani, implying daughter of 'Daksha'.

Lord Brahma prayed to Adhya Shakti or Yoga Maya (the eternal power of Lord Vishnu), to take birth in the home of his son Daksha for the welfare of the World as well as human beings. To grant the prayer of Lord Brahma, she incarnated as Daksha's daughter, in the form of Sati. As advised by Lord Brahma and other Gods, king Daksha offered her daughter Sati to Lord Shiva, as his wife. But, truth was, Daksha did not like Lord Shiva; he rather hated and ignored Lord Shiva, because of his nature of destruction. Lord Shiva is associated with the operation the natural properties of destruction called Tamo or Tamsi. He lives in cremation ground, applies pyre ash all over his body, he is poor, his only belongings are limited to a human skull bowl, hides of dead animals, some human skulls and bones, ox, ewer, pliers, and things of such sort. Lord Shiva stays with ghosts and spirits, poisonous snakes which are his ornaments, he smokes, drinks wine and so on. Daksha considered him as a cause of ominous and destruction, and hence, Daksha always repented his decision of offering his daughter to Lord Shiva. But, even the most significant matter was that, Daksha's father Lord Brahma originally had five heads, one of which was accidentally cut by Lord Shiva. So, Daksha believed that Shiva was the killer of Lord Brahma and he was convicted with the sin 'Brahma Hatya', killer of any Brahmin.

'Sati', take care as mother of everyone in Mount Kailash

On the other hand, Sati was happily staying with Lord Shiva in Mount Kailash. She adhered to Shiva's every condition gladly, like accepting acute poverty, living in cremation grounds with ghosts and spirits, and performing the role of mother in Kailash, where they both and their disciples lived. Lord Shiva was accompanied by a huge number of disciples and animals. He is also the Lord of Animals, so, he is known as 'Pashupati'. Sati took care of them all in Mount Kailash along with her husband Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is a great scholar, having a sea of knowledge in every aspect, such as, way of worshiping different gods and goddesses, medicines and body structure, Yoga and meditation etc. He shared all his knowledge with Sati and her second incarnation Parvati. This resulted in the origin of written scripts as Agama in Tantra. Furthermore, both Shiva and Sati or Parvati, exchanged their every bit and piece of knowledge with each other and those were scripted by their disciples, which could be found in various Tantric text books.

Sacrificing of Sati, in the fire of Yajna and according ritual of being Sati

Once,Daksha Prajapati (Son of Lord Brahma 'the Creator') performed a Yajna (a spiritual practice done with fire to offer different items to God), named Brihaspati Sarva (name of the spiritual practice), at Kankhal in Haridwar. He invited each and everyone from all over the world except Lord Shiva, as he is associated with destruction, stays in Shamshan (Cremation Ground, where human dead bodies are cremated), applies pyre ash over his body, and is sternly poor. When Daksha's daughter Sati, spouse of Lord Shiva, found out that everyone around the world was going to the Yajna of his father, she also decided to go and accordingly prayed to Lord Shiva. Shiva advised Sati against going there without getting an invitation. But Sati forced him to go, and Lord Shiva, unable to refuse Sati's repeated prayers, had to go to Daksha's place. When they reached the place where the Yajna was being performed, her father noticed Sati and started insulting her along with her husband Lord Shiva. When she felt humiliated at his father's place, she prayed to the fire of the Yajna to burn her down to ashes. As per her request, the fire burnt her down and she was dead. Afterwards, when a female entirely devotes herself towards serving her husband she is known by the name of 'Sati'.
The word 'Sati' is also used for those widows, who immolate themselves on their husband's funeral pyre. As an honor to her husband, she sacrifices herself in the burning pyre of her husband's dead body. There was a custom of 'Sati' in Hindu Iconography but it' is not to be done forcefully. If any widow wants to die along with her husband then only it could take place.

Daksha Yagya Kund and Temple in Kankhal, Haridwar

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Destroying of Daksha Yajna by Birbhadra and Maha Kali and dance macabre of lord Shiva

When Lord Shiva came to know about this incident, he grew terribly angry and converted himself into a destroyer. He summoned Maha-Kali (name of the first incarnation of Adya-Shakti, with destructive nature) and revealed his Birbhadra (a furious Incarnation of Lord Shiva, again with destructive nature) form, complete with his jata (bunch of hair, entangled with each other). Both of them were dangerous and scary looking, and were made to destroy everything. Lord Shiva reached the Yajna site along with Maha-Kali and Birbhadra with their thousands of followers as Ghosts and Spirits and started destroying everything and killing mercilessly. They completely destroyed Daksha Yajna and isolated his head from body and offered it to fire. Finally, Lord Shiva came to the place where the Yajna was being performed. He carried the dead body of Sati over his shoulder and started his dance macabre. It caused huge destruction of the world. So, in order to save the world and the entire living being, Lord Vishnu used his Sudarshan Chakra (a weapon of Lord Vishnu,) to cut down Sati's body into pieces. Wherever a piece of the dead body of Sati had fallen, that place was considered as a Sati's Shakti Peeth. These holy places are very significant in Hinduism. When Lord Shiva realized that Sati's dead body is no more over his shoulder, his anger calmed down, he started feeling depressed and went back to Kailash, where he would always meditate.

Maha Kali and BirBhadra Destroying the Dakshya Yagya

Completing of Daksha Yajna and forgive by Shiva

Meanwhile, Creator Lord Brahma and other Gods grew anxious about the incomplete Yajna, because an incomplete Yajna always causes harm to the Universe. They all went to Lord Vishnu and prayed to do something to complete this Yajna. They all decided to go to Kailash and to pray to Lord Shiva to complete this Yajna. Answering to their urges, Shiva got ready to complete the Yajna. All Gods, including Lord Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma came to Daksha's Yajna place. Lord Shiva forgave Daksha and by the grace of Lord Shiva the Yajna was completed.

Tarakasura's boon given by Lord Brahma, rebirth of Adhya Shakti as Parvati, marriage with Shiva and killing of Tarakasura by Kartikeya

A demon named Tarakasura worshiped Lord Brahma and he was successful to get the boon, that no one would be able to kill him, except the son of Lord Shiva. Tarakasura knew that Shiva's wife Sati was no more and hence, there was no more chance of the birth of Shiva's son in future. After the accomplishment of this boon, he started to win over the World, the Heaven and the Hades and engaged in battles with Gods and different Prajapatis or kings.Thus he became the ruler of the entire Universe or three Worlds (Earth, Heaven, Hades). Now, all Gods in Heaven and kings or rulers of the World and Hades, were horror-struck and started staying in hidden places. They all went to Lord Brahma and Vishnu, and urged to solve this problem. They all decided to pray to Adhya Shakti to take rebirth. Moved by their repeated prayer, she became ready to take birth in the abode of Himalaya Raj or the King of Himalaya as her daughter Parvati. Through out her childhood, she only liked Shiva and started very hard spiritual practice. As she grew up, she continued with her spiritual practice even harder to get Shiva as her husband. Finally, Shiva was satisfied with her practice or sadhana and agreed to marry her. Afterwards, she gave birth to Kartikeya, whom the Gods offered the position of the General in their army. In the war Kartikeya killed demon Tarakasura and all Gods and Kings started living happily in their desired places.
Sati or Parvati, are thus the different incarnations of Adhya Shakti. In Hinduism, it is accepted that every woman is a form of her. She is in the form of Mother, in the form of Wife, in the form of Sister and so on.

Place where Lord Shiva and Parvati got married in 'Trijugi Narayan', The Holy Fire still burns

This above picture depicts the place where Shiva and Parvati got married, it is famous by the name of Trijugi Narayan, and it is near to Kedarnath Temple in Uttaranchal. Still the holy fire is burning where they both took the seven rounds of marriage as followed in Hindu customs.

Lord Shiva with Sati or Parvati

Lord Shiva and Sati or Parvati

The various names by which Lord Shiva is well-known among his devotees are Mahadev, Har, Shankar, Mahesh, Kapali, Rudra, Nilkanth and so on. He symbolises destructive force, and he is known to be a great sage characterized to possess certain passionate features. All the destructive activities that occur in this universe or living world are solely executed by Lord Shiva. He narrates the principle related to the mortality of living beings in an appropriate manner, so that it is properly executed. So we can conclude that Lord Shiva is very closely associated with any and everything that signifies death and destruction. Such things include dead body, burial ground, tobacco, alcohol, snake, poison etc. Lord Shiva is the root cause of death; in the form of Mahakal, he represents nothing but the termination of life. His appearance is similar to a sage; he applies the leftover ashes collected from pyre, he bears the moon on his forehead, his adornments are composed of bones, snakes, rudraksh etc. He resides in burial grounds and burning ghats, his most precious belongings are Trishul (a weapon having three sharp points), hide of dead animals, kamandal (a water carrier usually made of brass), a pair of tongs, human skull, damru (a musical instrument), chillam (a pipe used for smoking tobacco) etc. Mount Kailash, which is the residing place of Shiva, is nothing but a divine burial ground. In spite of these above mentioned facts, Shiva exercises control over both rhythm as well as cataclysm, which signifies the fact that Lord Shiva mends and breaks this universe under his sole authority.

His most significant source of power is his spouse Parvati,who by herself is an incarnation of Adhya Shakti Kali. He has two sons, namely, Kartika and Ganesha, and two daughters, who are Ashok Sundari and Manasa (Goddess of Snakes).

Even though Lord Shiva is a family man or householder, he prefers to reside in a burial ground; he is a sage, an ascetic. He is considered to be at the highest position among all ascetics. He had burnt down Kamadeva to ashes and was not at all affected by the arrow named Kusum Shar. He is gentle by nature and can be satisfied with very simple things. But contradictorily, he can also be very aggressive in his expressions. His extended family is composed of ghosts, spirits, demons, bullocks, snakes etc. As he is the lord of all sorts of animals, he is also known by the name of Pashupatinath (one who is the master of "pashu" or animal). His another name is Bhutnath (the king of ghosts) as he exercises control over all ghosts and spirits and other is Lord of all elements. In Hindi, 'Bhut' contains two meanings one is Ghost and other is element. Being their master, Lord Shiva always stays in the company of ghosts (bhuts), spirits, vampires, betals (a skeleton with certain special capabilities). At the same time, he is also the chief of all sorts of elements (Bhutas). Thus, the title Bhutnath given to him has dual significance. All the elements as well as living and non-living beings can equally feel the presence of Shiva or Shakti in them. Adhya Shakti Kali is his spouse, his life partner. The unified image of Shiva and Shakti is also known as Ardhanarishwara (an image portraying half of Shiva and half of Shakti). It is a common belief that the creation, sustenance and destruction of the universe is entirely dependent on Lord Shiva.

A brief description of the appearance Lord Shiva in his marriage procession

Lord Shiva was dressed in a very unique manner; he is fond of such elements that leaves others awestruck. Dressed in a peculiar manner, he started his journey towards the residence of King Himalaya along with his companions. He rode a bullock, had applied pyre ash on his body, and he bore five separate heads. His clothing consisted of tiger skin, elephant skin etc. Moreover, he wore ornaments made of bones, human skulls, chains made of rudraksh etc. In his hands he carried khappar, pinaka, trishul, damru, dhanush etc. Simultaneously, all his followers such as ghosts, spirits, betals etc. who were accompanying him were also dressed in scary get-ups. They were making strange noises, they moved like a maelstrom, their appearances was also very disgusting -some with malformed faces, some were limp, some blind, and some of them handicapped in a terrible manner. They were carrying dand, paash, mudgar, bones (all these are types of weapons). Some did not have any head, while others had multiple heads. Some did not have a hand, while others had hands set in an upside down manner. Some of them had multiple eyes set in their head, some had no eye at all, while some others even had only one eye. Some of them had so many ears, while others had none. Seeing such a scary marriage procession in progress, which was led by Shiva as the groom, Menaka, the wife of king Himalaya and mother of Parvati lost consciousness. She also refused to get her daughter Parvati married to Shiva. She even said insulting words to sage Narada, all the gods, hermits etc. and even wanted to kill herself along with her daughter.

In reality, the main reason behind such an appearance of Lord Shiva was to break the pride of Menaka, the mother of Parvati.