The Story of Shiva, the Great God
By: Sister Nivedita
- Shiva's favorite places are wild and lonely places
- He doesn't appear to be a god, he dresses as a lowly traveler with matted hair and a begging bowl
- Constantly rapt in meditation
- His one true desire is to destroy the ignorance of souls and let light come
- He has infinite compassion, desiring to reveal the cause of sin and error to men so that they may overcome
- Only keeps devotees who call themselves masterless
- Rides on a shabby old bull rather than a horse or elephant
- Regards the lame and crooked and blind as his own - loneliness and deformity and poverty are passwords to his heart
- His third eye pierces to the heart of all hypocrisy and he can burn anything untrue to ash in a glance with it
(Shiva meditating; Image Source)
By: Sister Nivedita
- Duksha hates Shiva because Shiva would not bow to him, but in reality, he was protecting him, because it is a great curse when someone mightier than another bows at the weaker one's feet. Shiva thought he was respecting Duksha, but Duksha took it as a mighty insult
- Sati means being and existence, proving her goodness because "nothing really exists but goodness"
- Her heart was devoted to Shiva, but their love was forbidden by Duksha. However, at her swayamvara, Shiva wins her hand and Duksha has no choice
- Duksha exiles his daughter and Shiva takes her away
- Sati is angered when she finds out that her father is holding a feast and she and Shiva weren't invited. Shiva begs her not to go to him, but she does anyways
- After a mighty fight between Sati and Duksha, she drops dead
- Shiva's wrath burns and he wages war. He chooses not to kill Duksha, but to put a goat head on his human body.
- He caries Sati's body across the earth as Vishnu follows and breaks her body into pieces so he can have peace
- Sati is born again in Uma/Parvati
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