Pārvatī Parīkshā

Bhagavān Śiva agreed to marry Pārvatī, but first he wished to test her. He sent the Saptarshis, who spoke ill of Nārada and of Śiva himself. Pārvatī rejected them. Śiva then came as an old brahmachārī (celibate student) with matted hair and spoke at length against Śiva while praising Bhagavān Vishṇu. Pārvatī defended Śiva with great force. When she turned to leave in anger, the brahmachārī showed himself as Śiva, and he said, “I am your servant.”

The test by the Saptarshis

Before going himself, Śiva sent the seven ṛshis, the Saptarshis, to test Pārvatī’s resolve at the place of her tapas (austerity). They tried to turn her away in two ways.

Speaking against Nārada. They told her that Nārada, who had first advised her to do tapas to win Śiva, was a troublemaker and not to be trusted. His advice about Śiva was bad advice.

Speaking against Śiva. They described Śiva in the worst terms. He was poor and naked, a wanderer with no home or family line, surrounded by frightening companions, with only a smear of ash in his hand. Such a husband would bring her nothing but shame. They said she should choose someone better suited.

Pārvatī answered at once and without wavering. She firmly explained that each seeming fault of Śiva was a sign of his supreme nature, and she told the ṛshis to go. She said she had placed Śiva in her heart with full understanding and would not be moved by any slander. The Saptarshis saw that her devotion was true, left, and reported to Śiva.

Śiva comes as a brahmachārī

Śiva himself then came to Pārvatī’s āśrama (hermitage) disguised as an old brahmachārī. He had matted locks (jaṭā) and looked venerable and austere. Pārvatī welcomed him with full hospitality and devotion. She gave him water, a seat and fruits, and every fitting welcome. Her friend Vijayā told the brahmachārī the whole account of Pārvatī’s tapas: who she was, why she was there and what she sought.

The brahmachārī listened with seeming interest.

The brahmachārī speaks against Śiva

The brahmachārī then began a long and sharp attack on Śiva. His speech, in Chapter 27, covers everything about Śiva’s looks and state that an ordinary worldly mind would dislike.

His appearance. He is digambara, not just lightly clothed but completely naked. He smears ash on his body. He wears skulls as ornaments and snakes round his neck. He carries a skull as his begging bowl.

His companions. His companions are bhūtas, pramatha-gaṇas and other beings of frightening look. He lives in the śmaśānas (cremation grounds).

His family and line. He has no family, no father, no mother and no known line. His gotra (family line) is not known. He has no home.

His character. He is a digambara (a naked wanderer), a bhikshu (beggar) and a skull-bearer. These, the brahmachārī said, are not marks of greatness but of one who has nothing.

Comparing him with Vishṇu. The brahmachārī then praised Vishṇu at length: his beautiful form, his divine ornaments, his consort Lakshmī, his eternal Vaikuṇṭha and his rule over the cosmos. Why, he asked, would Pārvatī choose the skull-bearer when she could choose Bhagavān Vishṇu, supreme and perfect in form and beauty?

Pārvatī’s anger and defence

As the brahmachārī went on, Pārvatī’s first calm gave way to growing anger. She was angry not at the blame laid on Śiva so much as at having to hear it. Her defence grew from calm explanation to passionate declaration. She answered each seeming fault with its true meaning:

• Digambara. The sky itself is Śiva’s garment. He who fills everything cannot be dressed in anything less than the endless cosmos.
• Bhasma (ash). The vibhūtis spoken of in the Vedas are what he carries. Ash is the sign of his true nature as the final reality, from which all else is burned away.
• His companions. His companions are the liberated. The bhūtas are not ghosts but freed ātmās, and he is Bhūtanātha, the master of the liberated.
• Śmaśāna. The cremation ground is saṃsāra itself. Śiva lives in it out of compassion for those who seek moksha.
• No gotra. How can the source of all gotras have a gotra? He who was before all creation has no line, because he is the ground of all lines.

On comparing Vishṇu with Śiva, Pārvatī named the great mistake. Vishṇu himself was born from Śiva and is sustained by Śiva. How could the one made be greater than the maker?

She said that she had chosen Śiva knowing well what the worldly mind would say of him, and that she was not deceived. She covered her ears and turned to go, saying she would not hear one more word against Śiva.

The revelation

As Pārvatī turned to leave, the brahmachārī caught her garment and stopped her. She turned, and the disguise fell away. Śiva showed himself in his true shining form.

Pārvatī stood in complete silence, speechless at what had happened.

Śiva said: “I am your servant. You have passed every test. You have shown that your devotion to me does not come from desire or from ignorance but from true knowledge, for you defended me with full understanding even when you believed I was not there and could not hear you. I accept you.”

Her tapas was complete and the test was passed.

The talk that followed

Pārvatī recovered from her wonder and spoke calmly. She asked Śiva to come to the house of Himavān and ask for her hand by the proper wedding rites, the dharma-vivāha. She insisted that Bhagavān Śiva, the supreme, should not pass over the forms of right human custom.

Śiva at first held back. Great beings, he said, do not beg for what is already theirs, and he needed no formal rites. Pārvatī pressed him, gently and firmly: for the sake of the world, and for what it would teach all people, the wedding had to be held in the right dharmic way. Śiva agreed.

Both then returned to their own homes.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 25 (the Saptarshis’ test)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 26 (Śiva arrives as a brahmachārī)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 27 (the brahmachārī’s speech against Śiva)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 27–28 (Pārvatī’s defence)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 28 (the revelation)
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 29 (the talk about the wedding rites)