We are very well into the festival of Navaratri where we celebrate the worship of Devi, the sacred feminine as the West calls her. There is an interesting sidelight to the worship during Navaratri. When Ishvara manifested Himself as Lord Shiva on earth, and the goddess was born as Parvati, the daughter of the Himalayas, there is an interesting story about how they met and decided to marry.
We are so used to men wooing women, but in this story quite the opposite happens. It was Parvati who decided to woo Shiva. She was helped by spring with the blossoming of flowers at this romantic time. Manmatha, the God of love, accompanied her and shot his arrow at Shiva but instead of falling in love, this only disturbed Shiva who was lost in meditation. He opened his third eye and Manmatha the God of love was reduced to ashes. So, Parvati realises that Shiva, the ascetic, is not going to be wooed by just love. So, she herself does a lot of tapas, spiritual disciplines and practices.
Shiva realises that here is a lady worthy of him, who will not be a disturbance to his tapas and meditation but someone who will be able to walk hand in hand with him on the path of tapas. So, what she could not win over by romance and love, she won over by tapas and spiritual discipline. That is how both of them decided to be partners in their manifestation on Earth.
I thought of highlighting this aspect at the time of Navaratri, when the goddess is worshipped in all her glory. Many people consider Shardiya Navaratri, that happens in September-October as the main one and this Chaitra Navaratri as second to that. There are two more Navaratris during the year but that is not very well known except to Devi upaasakas, the worshippers of Devi.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘺𝘢 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘺𝘢𝘧@𝘨𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
