The Story of Shiva and Sati

Swami Krishnananda
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bhagavata/bhagavata_4.html

One day, when Brahma was holding his audience, all the gods were seated, and
Shiva also was seated there. At that time, Daksha, who was also a progeny of
Brahma, entered the hall. In honor of his great entrance into the hall, all the gods
stood up in obeisance. But Shiva did not get up. He remained seated, minding
not the coming of Daksha. Incidentally, Sati, the daughter of Daksha, was
married to Shiva, so Shiva was Dakshas son-in-law. But Shiva showed utter
disregard for his father-in-law and did not rise from his seat when all others stood
up offering obeisance. This enraged Daksha, who stood with uplifted arms and
said, Oh, you gods! Please listen to what I am saying. Here is an idiotic fellow
seated in the audience of the gods. Shameless is he. He has no respect for
anybody. He wanders about half-naked and lives like a beggar. To him I gave my
daughter; what a mistake I have committed! Shame to those with him in this
audience! Daksha went on shouting like this for a long time, and all the gods
shut their ears because they could not hear all this. Shiva also heard all the
abuses poured upon him by Daksha, but he did not utter even one word. He just
walked out of the palace and returned to his abode in Kailasa, where he lived
with Sati.

One day, Sati observed the celestials travelling in some direction in their aerial
cars. She looked up and asked, Where are the gods going?

You dont know? asked one of the gods, How is it that you do not know? Your
own father is performing a glorious yajna, to which he has invited all the
celestials, and we are all going there. How is it that you, his daughter, do not
know? Sati was in great chagrin that an invitation had not been extended to
Shiva. She was disturbed that her father had ignored both her and Shiva, but as
he was her father she told Shiva, I want to go to my fathers yajna.

Lord Shiva said, It is not proper for you to go there.

Why? she asked.

Daksha does not like me. He has no regard for me, and therefore your going
there is not proper, replied Shiva.

But Sati said, No, he is my father.

He may be your father, but he hates me, so you should not go if I am not going. I
am not responsible for the consequences.
What consequences? I shall take care of myself, she told him.

I am telling you again, it is not good for you to go there. You will not gain
anything by it, and this adventure will not end in anyones happiness. I advise
you not to go.

No, I must go, she insisted.

I dont think I should send my attendants to take you there. It will be highly
improper for me, said Shiva.

I shall go with my own attendants! Sati collected all her attendants and
marched, under the impression that she, being the divine daughter of this great
Daksha, will be highly honored in the midst of all the gods.

With great expectations of glory before her, she went to the yajna and stood at
the gate. She expected someone to come and receive her, but nobody looked at
her. For fear of Daksha, no other god would utter a word. Of course, her mother
and associates came and hugged her but she rejected their greeting, perhaps
because her father was not concerned with her. She looked here and there.
What is happening? How is it that no one is receiving me? Sati thought. Then
she remembered the words of Shiva. I disregarded him, and came here. Now
neither can I stand here, nor can I go back to him shamefacedly. She expected
somebody to come. Nobody came. Time passed like this, and the yajna was
going on. The gods turned their backs to her. It was a very serious situation.
Sati stood up and loudly proclaimed in a ferocious language, Due to the
impropriety of this yajna, where the great master Shiva is not invited, it cannot be
called a divine sacrifice because the chief divinity itself is not present. Fie upon
you all gods! Shamelessly you have attended the yajna of this irresponsible
Daksha, whom I no longer regard as my father. Shiva is being disrespected. The
two words shi and va are sufficient to give salvation to people, and such a
divinity is being disregarded here. Is this a divine sacrifice? Are you gods? Have
you any sense? You did not invite Lord Shiva, and you come and sit here at the
feet of this terrible person whom I shamelessly called father. I am sorry that I
have been born to him.

Sati sat, with great sorrow burning her body. She sat in a state of yoga, invoked
agni from within herself, and the yoga within burned her. Flames came up and
consumed her. All were shocked. What is this that has happened? They had
nothing to say this way or that way. All were wondering what to do. There was
nothing that they could do, nothing that they could say. They were shocked,
nothing but shocked.
News reached Lord Shiva. He could have opened his third eye and burnt
Daksha, but he had something else in his mind. He pulled a hair from his head
and struck it on the ground. A fierce giant rose up. Order, master! said the giant.
Go and destroy the yajna of Daksha, said Shiva.

With the fierce retinue of Rudra, this giant called Veerabhadra rushed to the
sacrificial area of Daksha, and when this fierce onrush of militant demoniacal
forces entered the yajna, the ritviks, the priests performing the yajna, were
frightened. They immediately invoked a force into the fire, by which they created
a counterforce which rose up by the millions and attacked Rudras retinue. There
was a tussle between the two forces, but suddenly Veerabhadra overcame all the
opposition and severed the head of Daksha.

Rudra came to know all this. He was mad with rage. He ran, holding the body of
Sati, and rolled all over like a crazy person, as if he was dancing the final
Tandava of destruction before him. The whole world was terrified because
nobody knew what he was going to do. He would not stand in one place. He ran
from place to place the whole creation, as it were holding Satis body, and he
looked as if he was inebriated and had lost his sense. He was conscious only of
Satis dead body, and was moving fiercely like a whirlwind, like a tornado, like a
tempest.

All the gods were frightened, and went to Lord Vishnu: Please do something.
Everything is in danger. He is not going to leave this body; and what he will do
finally, nobody knows. Then Sri Vishnu, Narayana, released his sudarshana
chakra, which sliced Satis body into little pieces; and because of the ravaging
movement of Shiva, the pieces were scattered and fell in seven different places.
It is believed that all the spots where parts of this body fell are sakti sthalas, and
even today they are worshipped in various parts in this country.

Then the gods, including Brahma, went to Shiva. Vishnu greeted Shiva and said,
Calm down. Please pardon this man Daksha. His behavior was due to
ignorance, and you should not punish an ignorant person. Calm down. Bless him.
Let him be allowed to continue his yajna. After all, he is a foolish person, and are
you going to be so enraged at the foolishness of this man?

Then Lord Shiva calmed down. But how could the yajna continue when Dakshas
head had gone? So a goats head was brought and fixed on Daksha, and he was
enlivened to the person that he was. He immediately realized his mistake and
prostrated sashtanga namaskaram before Lord Shiva, and chanted the Rudra
mantra, Namakam and Chamakam. Some people humorously say the mantra
was made by uttering words cha me, cha me, because goats make that sound!
The yajna was completed. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva blessed the yajna, and
everything went on well.
VOCABULARY
Shiva
One of the principal Hindu deities, worshiped as the destroyer and restorer of worlds and in
numerous other forms. Shiva is often conceived as a member of the triad also including Brahma
and Vishnu.

Sati
A Hindu goddess of marital felicity and longevity. An aspect of Devi, Dakshayani is the first
consort of Shiva, the second being Parvati, the reincarnation of Sati herself.
In Hindu legend, both Sati and Parvati successively play the role of bringing Shiva away from
ascetic isolation into creative participation in the world. The act of Sati, in which a Hindu widow
immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre as a final and consummate act of loyalty and
devotion, is patterned after the deed committed by this goddess to uphold the honor of her
husband.

Daksha
According to Hindu legend, Daksha is one of the sons of Lord Brahma. Brahma, after creating the
ten Manas Putras, created Daksha, Dharama, Kamadeva and Agni from his right thumb, chest,
heart and eye-brows respectively. Besides his noble birth, Daksa was a great king. Pictures show
him as a rotund and obese man with a stocky body, protruding belly, and muscular with the head
of an ibex-like creature with spiral horns.

Kailasa
According to Hinduism, Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ignorance and illusion, resides at the summit
of a legendary mountain named Kails, where he sits in a state of perpetual meditation along with
his wife Parvati.
According to Charles Allen, one description in the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its
four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. It is a pillar of the world and is located
at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus.

Yajna
Yajna is an ancient ritual of offering and sublimating the havana smagri (herbal preparations) in
the fire. The sublime meaning of the word yajna is derived from the Sanskrit verb yaj, which has a
three-fold meaning of worship of deities (devapujana), unity (sagatikaraa) and charity (dna).
An essential element is the ritual fire the divine Agni into which oblations are poured, as
everything that is offered into the fire is believed to reach God.

Agni
Agni is one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire, the messenger of the
gods, the acceptor of sacrifice. Agni is in everyone's hearth; he is the vital spark of life, and so a
part of him is in all living things; he is the fire that consumes food in peoples' stomachs, as well as
the fire that consumes the offerings to the gods. He is the fire of the sun, in the lightening bolt,
and in the smoke column that holds up the heavens. The stars are sparks from his flame. He was
so important to the ancient Indians that 200 hymns in the Rig Veda are addressed to him, and
eight of its ten books begin with praises dedicated to him.

Rudra
Shiva is one of the great gods of Hinduism and perhaps more than any other attests to the
complexity of the religious culture of South Asia. The name Shiva is not yet in use in the Rig
Veda, but an ambiguous deity called Rudra appears, who shares many traits with the god who is
later more commonly referred to as Shiva, The Auspicious One. In fact, Shiva is known and
referred to by many different names, each reflecting different sides of his character, such as
akara, ambhu, Bhava, and Paupati. In classical Hindu mythology, Rudra is represented as
one of the three aspects of the Hindu trinity (Trimurti): Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver,
and Rudra the destroyer. This indicates that Rudras ambiguous character remained, but from a
Saiva religious perspective, Shiva is the Great Lord (Mahevara) who encompasses this trinity
and simultaneously transcends it. In historical development the early deity Rudra becomes the
later great god Shiva.

Veerabhadra
According to Hindu mythology Veerabhadra was a super being created by the wrath of Rudra
(Shiva), when he stepped in to destroy the Yajna (fire sacrifice) of Daksha, after his daughter
Dakshayani (Sati) - consort of Shiva, self-immolated in yajna fire. Along with him was created, his
consort Bhadrakali, from the wrath of Devi.

Ritviks
Priest

Tandava
A divine dance performed by the Hindu god Shiva. Shiva's Tandava is described as a vigorous
dance that is the source of the cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution. While the Rudra
Tandava depicts his violent nature, first as the creator and later as the destroyer of the universe,
even of death itself; the Ananda Tandava depicts him as enjoying. Shiva as Nataraja (lit. "Lord of
dance") is considered the supreme lord of dance.

Sri Vishnu, Narayana

Venerated as the Supreme Being in Vaishnavism. He is also known as Vishnu and Hari and is
venerated as Purushottama or Supreme Purusha in Hindu sacred texts such as the Bhagavad
Gita, the Vedas and the Puranas.
Narayana is the name of the Supreme God in his infinite all pervading form. He is the Supreme
Purusha of Purusha Sukta. The Puranas present a seemingly divergent, but accurate description
of Narayana (as an Enlightened Supreme Being).

Sudarshana
The Sudarshana Chakra is a spinning, disk-like super weapon with 108 serrated edges used by
the Hindu god Vishnu. The Sudarshana Chakra is portrayed on the right rear hand of the four
hands of Vishnu, who also holds a Shankha (a conch shell) in his left fore hand, a Gada (mace) in
his left rear hand, and a Padma (lotus bud) in his right fore hand.
According to the Puranas, Sudarshana Chakra is used for the ultimate destruction of an enemy.
The depiction of Vishnu with Sudarshana Chakra also means that Vishnu is the keeper-owner of
the celestial bodies and heavens.

Sakti sthalas
Temples to Sati (or Sakti).

Sashtanga namaskaram
The Sashatanga is where one lies down flat on the stomach with eight limbs touching the
ground. The eight limbs are chest, head, hands, feet, knees, body, mind, and speech. This
namaskaram is generally done by men. Traditionally, women do only panchanga namaskaram.

Rudra mantra, Namakam and Chamakam

This is a prayer that has two parts; Namakam and Chamakam each with eleven sections. While
Namakam is a prayer to Rudra to forget about his avenging fierce, fearful and horrendous form
and turn himself into a peaceful form and do good to us, Chamakam on the other hand lists out
the blessings to be got from a prayer to Rudra and prays Him to regulate and bless our life for a
moment forgetting his anger.