Shiva Parvati.... the legend 2

Many years later, Sati was reborn, this time as daughter of Himavan(King of Mountains) & Mena(an apsara). Her name in this birth was Uma. From childhood itself, Uma showed clear inclination of her love & respect for Shiva. As she grew up to be a radiantly beautiful lady, her love for Shiva kept growing as well. Her life revolved around the thoughts of Shiva. Since her parents too were devout worshippers of Shiva, Uma had all the support of her father this time & she prayed & performed many rituals to appease Shiva.

Shiva meanwhile was living the life of an ascetic for many many years, at Mount Kailash, mostly in meditation, very much away from any worldly pleasures. He was still in grief of losing Sati, whom he loved so much. He did not want to be disturbed at all & did not appreciate anyone coming upto him.
Meanwhile, Narada(the holy sage of the Gods who keep travelling between the three worlds), visited Himavan & when he saw Uma, he said, “ She is the one who was Sati in her previous birth, & because of her undying love for Shiva, she is destined to marry Him & be his wife forever. However, Shiva needs to be appeased through penance, worship & devotion.” He told Himavan & Mena to allow Uma to do rituals & tapas for Shiva.

Meanwhile, another story adds on. It is said that Diti, one of the wives of sage Kashyapa, started the Rakshak race. Kasyapa & Diti gave birth to Vajranga who married Varaangi & they gave birth to Taraka, the demon king. Taraka did several penances to please Brahma (who is known to give boons very easily…..& create all the chaos!!!!) & got two significant boons. One was that Taraka would be the most powerful person on Earth. Second was that Taraka could be killed only by a son born to Shiva. Now since Shiva, was mourning the death of his wife Sati & not interested in marriage again, Taraka was sure that no one could kill him. This made him ruthless & wicked. He did now allow anyone to do penance or sacrifices, so that no one could attain any boons. He would immediately ruin any ritual or penance or charity that anyone would dare to do. Only Shiva continued his meditations, as that worked in Taraka’s favour. Unable to bear such harassment & cruelty, all the Gods & Goddesses went to Lord Brahma, but nothing came out of it. Having given the boons, even Brahma was helpless.

Meanwhile, now with the support of her parents, Uma kept on visiting the place where Shiva sat to meditate & live as an ascetic. Since she was daughter of Himavan(the king of Mountains), & she regularly visited the mountains, where Shiva meditated, she was also named Parvati. She would clean up & beautify the place, serve Shiva with food & water & attend to anything that he may need. Her world just surrounded with thoughts of Shiva whom she started looking upon as her husband. She would pray & make offerings to the Divine asking for only one boon…to become the wife of Shiva & live happily with him. However, Shiva would not relent & pay almost no attention to Uma or her presence.

Side by side, Taraka’s cruelty kept increasing. All the Gods now met up & decided that somehow, they have to break Shiva’s meditation & get him to marry Parvati. Lord Indra (King of the Gods), instructed Kamdev(God of Love) to go to Parvati along with his wife Rati, to help Parvati woo Shiva.
“ Kamdev, you are the only one who can save the world from Taraka. You have to instill Love in Shiva, so that he marries Parvati & gives birth to a son, who is destined to kill Taraka”. Finally after years of patient wait, Divine had send help to Parvati. Her penance was showing results.