Sati and Shiva's Sport

Narada said

Father, you know everything and have spoken well. We have heard the wonderful, auspicious deeds of Shiva and Shivaa and the whole account of the marriage, which destroys every kind of delusion, grants supreme knowledge and makes one a reservoir of all that is auspicious. Yet I still want to hear of Shiva and Shivaa's conduct. Out of your unmatched compassion, tell me.

Brahma replied

It is right that you wish to hear of the compassionate one. You have urged me to describe Shiva's pastimes. He married Devi Sati, Daksha's daughter and mother of the three worlds, and went to his own residence. Hear what he did cheerfully after that. With his ganas, Hara reached his delightful abode and lovingly got down from the bull there. Extremely happy, Shiva followed the world's norms. Having Dakshayani and being home, Virupaksha let Nandi and the other ganas out of the mountain cave. The lord, an ocean of compassion, followed ordinary custom and said pleasantly to Nandi and the others: "Ganas, leave my presence at once, but remember me lovingly in your minds. You will not come to me until I remember you." Vamadeva said this to Nandi and his other ganas, and those immensely forceful, valiant ones went off in various directions.

Ishvara was left with the radiant one, and in private, very happy, he played with Dakshayani. Sometimes he picked lovely wildflowers, made a garland and put it round Sati's neck in place of a necklace. Sometimes when she was looking at herself in a mirror, Hara stood behind her and saw his own face in it. Sometimes he played with her earrings, took them off, cleaned them himself and put them back. Sometimes Vrishadhvaja painted her feet fire-red, making her naturally red feet redder still. He whispered into her ears things that cannot be said before many, and watched her face. He never went far, and if he went he came straight back. While she was thinking of something, he came from behind and covered her eyes. He used his maya and vanished; when she was frightened and flustered he would suddenly embrace her. He drew lines with musk on her like bees, adjusted her ornaments, took off and replaced her bracelets, bangles and rings, and teased her with affectionate remarks. Sometimes Pramathadhipa grew senseless with desire and spoke endearing words to his beloved. Shankara gathered lotuses and other beautiful flowers and lovingly decked her limbs with ornaments made of them. Maheshvara, kind to devotees, played with Sati in all the lovely groves of the mountains. He went nowhere without her and did nothing without her; without her Shankara had not the least peace. He spent a long time in the groves of Kailasa.

Then he went to the Himalayan slopes and of his own will remembered Smara. As soon as Kama came into Shankara's presence, Vasanta entered too and, at the lord's command, spread his powers everywhere. All trees were in flower and creepers in bloom; lotuses opened in the water with bees humming round them. The beautiful Malaya breeze blew, bearing the fragrant, intoxicating scent of flowers. Palasha flowers shone like the evening crescent moon. The trees rejoiced and bore flowers, Kama's weapons. Dazzling lotuses opened in the lakes. The wind-god's face seemed to cause delusion. Golden nagakeshara flowers bloomed near Shankara like Madana's banners. In those ancient times the breeze was sweet with clove creepers and deluded those whose minds were full of desire. Divine notes drifted through mango trees whose leaves were like flames, as if, at Madana's urging, they had become couches for his arrows. Spotless flowers lay in the water as if on beds of kusha grass, like the minds of sages in which the supreme light has become manifest. As soon as the ice met the sun's rays it melted into water like a heart. The moon was clear of mist like a radiant woman with her beloved. At that time, on that excellent spot of earth, Mahadeva easily played with Sati for a very long time in groves and by rivers. Dakshayani was as radiant as he, and without her Hara could not find peace even for an instant. She gave pleasure to his mind in love and entered his limbs as if drinking him in. Her whole body was adorned with garlands he had made himself, which gave her fresh delights. Hara glanced at her with smiling eyes and talked with her, and her husband instructed Girija in matters of the atman. He stayed there drinking the nectar of her moon-like face and never wavered from the slender-limbed one in many ways, general and particular. Like a great bull elephant bound and unable to move, he was bound to the fragrance of her lotus face, her beauty, her gracious ways and her qualities. So with Daksha's daughter Mahesha played every day in the groves and plains of the Himalayas, and while he did, twenty-five years in the gods' reckoning passed.