Parvati/is

Shiva og Parvati með sonum sínum (seint á 18. öld)

Drottinn Shiva er holdgervingur Heilags Anda, Drottins ástarinnar, sem með snúningsdansi sínum fjarlægir fáfræði og andkærleikaöfl. Verk Shiva kristallast í heimi formsins í gegnum Shakti hans, eða kvenlega hliðstæðu, sem birtist í ýmsum myndum.

Sem Parvati („Dóttir fjallsins“), dóttir guðsins Himalaja, er hún góðhjartað og blíð móðir og eiginkona. Samband hennar við Shiva er frumgerð hins fullkomna hjónabands. Hún er falleg og elskuleg kona og er oft sýnd með Shiva í heimilisatriðum eða sitjandi við hlið hans í samræðum. Shiva og Parvati eru stundum sýnd með syni sínum Skandha. Skandha er einnig þekkt sem Karttikeya, stríðsguðinn, og er í einni Upanishad tengd vitringsguðinum sem við köllum Sanat Kumara.

Samkvæmt hindúa goðafræði, þegar hin yndislega Parvati gat ekki unnið ást Shiva, lagði hún til hliðar skartgripi sína, klæddist einsetumannsklæðum og fór upp á fjall til að hugleiða Shiva og iðka útlægni. Eftir að hafa tileinkað sér líf konu sinnar sem hafði afneitað dóttur sinni um tíma, þá samþykkti Shiva hana loksins sem eiginkonu sína.

Hindúar trúa því að Shiva búi á tindi Kailasfjalls. Hann er þar sýndur bæði sem einhleypur asketi og með Shakti sínum, Parvati. John Snelling segir frá því í bók sinni „The Sacred Mountain“ hvernig Parvati átti þátt í uppruna þriðja auga Shiva:

Legend describes [Parvati] playfully covering her Lord’s eyes as he sat in meditation on a peak of Himalaya. Instantly all light and life were extinguished in the universe until, out of compassion for all beings, the god opened his third eye, which blazed like a new sun. So intense was its blazing that it scorched the mountains and forests of [the Himalayas] to oblivion. Only when he saw that the daughter of the mountain was properly contrite did he relent and restore her father [who is the mountain] to his former estate.

This legend shows Shiva as the Destroyer. The opening of his third eye represents the opening of the eye of knowledge that destroys ignorance. Swami Karapatri explains:

The frontal eye, the eye of fire, is the eye of higher perception. It looks mainly inward. When directed outward, it burns all that appears before it. It is from a glance of this third eye that ... the gods and all created beings are destroyed at each of the periodical destructions of the universe.

Some artistic representations of Shiva show him as half-man and half-woman. According to legend, Shiva was determined that there be no separation between himself and his shakti, and he therefore decreed that his right side be Shiva and his left be Parvati.

Shiva says:

Unto Parvati, then, I commend you, for she, my consort, has much to teach you. And when you have learned from her, go then to Durga! Go then to Kali! Go then to each and every manifestation of the Divine Mother, for you cannot learn too much from these incarnations of the Divine Mother and others, beloved.

For it is the Divine Mother who bears the sword, who places it in your hand, and it is the Divine Mother who teaches you how to triumph in all things in the Matter cosmos, over every detail of life and of the larger concerns of solar systems and lifewaves abiding on this earth.

See also

Shiva

Durga

Kali

Sources

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 34, no. 62, December 1, 1991.

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and Their Retreats, s.v. “Shiva, Parvati, Durga and Kali.”