Chapter 3 - Śiva dissuades Satī from attendance at Dakṣa-Yajña

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Maitreya said:

1. A long time elapsed while the son-in-law (Śiva) and the father-in-law (Dakṣa), continued their lasting enmity to each other.

2. When Dakṣa was installed as the chief of all Lords of creation by Brahmā, the highest of gods, he felt puffed up with pride (An additional factor to exclude Rudra from sacrifice).

3. Having performed the Vājapeya sacrifice, and disregarded Īśvara and others who were thoroughly proficient in Brahma-Vidyā, he (Dakṣa) began the best of sacrifices, called Bṛhaspatisava (as the Śruti enjoins this sacrifice, after the performance of the Vājapeya).

4. In that sacrifice, all Brāhmaṇa sages, heavenly sages, Pitṛs (and other) divinities were welcomed with auspicious formalities. Their wives, along with their husbands, were given auspicious reception (Those divinities, whose wives attended, were thus worshipped again).

5. Goddess Satī, the daughter of Dakṣa, came to know about the grand festival of her father’s sacrifice, from the talks of the heavenly beings, while they were passing through the sky.

6-7. She saw that beautiful women of demi-god tribes (e.g. Gandharvas, Yakṣas) of rolling eyes, clad in rich garments, and wearing padakas (a gold ornament) round their necks, and burnished ear-rings, going with their husbands, in heavenly cars, from all directions. Seeing them flying past her own mansion, she in her eagerness, spoke to her consort, god Bhūtapati (the protector of all beings).

Satī said:

8. “It is reported that the great sacrificial festival of your father-in-law, Prajāpati Dakṣa, has now commenced. Oh beautiful Lord, let us go there, if you so desire, as these gods are also going thither.

9. My sisters, desirous of seeing their kith and kin, will certainly go there with their husbands. I wish to receive along with you, the presents which will be offered by my parents.

10. Oh Śiva, really I am eagerly longing to see there_> my sisters worthy of their husbands, my aunts and my mother whose heart is full of (lit. wet with) affection, and the greatest of the sacrifices being conducted by leading sages (or the flag or sacrificial post of the sacrifice raised by great sages).

11. Oh unborn Lord! This wonderful universe consisting of three guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas), appears created in you by your own Māyā.^[1] (Hence you have no curiosity to go). I am, however, a poor woman who do not know your real nature. I, therefore, strongly desire to see my native place.

12. Oh birthless Lord, look at those other women (in no way related to Dakṣa), richly adorned, going with their husbands in crowds. Oh Śitikaṇṭha the sky looks beautiful by the movements of their aerial cars white like sweet warbling swans (Kalahaṃsas).

13. Oh great God, how can the body (including mind) of a daughter remain unmoved, after hearing about a festival in the father’s house? Even though uninvited, people go to the houses of their friends, their husbands (masters), their preceptor and parents. (The formality of invitation is superfluous in these cases).

14. Oh immortal Lord! Be gracious unto me. You are compassionate. You should really grant me this desire. I have been located in half of your person by you who possess perfect wisdom. Do this favour as entreated by me, to you.”

The Sage said:

15. Thus earnestly entreated by his beloved wife, Śiva, who was so affectionate to his friends and relatives, was (painfully) reminded of the shaft-like bitter words, cutting to the quick, which Dakṣa spoke to him in the presence of (other) progenitors of the universe. He, however, replied to her with a smile.

The Lord Śiva said:

16. Oh charming lady, you have put it nicely when you said that people go to their relatives, even though they are not invited. But that is only when their vision (outlook) is not prejudiced by their powerful ego about the body being the ātman, and by their wrath (against such a visitor).

17. Learning, penance, wealth, beautiful personality, youth and (high) pedigree are good qualities in the case of the good, but are like a curse to the most wicked. When these attributes destroy the memory and knowledge of the wicked, they increase only the arrogance, as these wicked people cannot realize the glory of the great.

18. One should never go to the house of such persons, of unsteady minds, regarding them as relatives—persons who look upon the visitors (to their house), with crooked mentality, with frowning eye-brows and angry eyes (looks).

19. A person whose body is (deeply) wounded with arrows of the enemies, does not feel the tortures to that extent, as he who is cut to the quick by the harsh words of his own relatives of crooked minds. For the former can (at least) get sleep, but the latter suffers day and night, with a tormented heart.

20. Oh beautiful lady (of charming eyebrows), I do certainly agree that you are the most beloved of all the daughters of Dakṣa (the Lord of created beings) of eminent rank. You will not however receive (proper) attention or respect from your father, because of your relations with me, whom he hates intensely.

21. At the sight of the prosperity (glory, possession of siddhis) of great persons who stand (unconcerned) like a witness to the minds of jīva (i.e. are devoid of ahaṃkāra—ego), his heart is boiling with jealousy, and his senses are over-anxious for gratification. But being incapable of attaining to their eminent position easily, he hates them intensely as the Asuras hated Hari.

22. Oh slender-waisted lady, the mutual exchange of respects, viz. going forth to receive, expressing modesty, paying obeisance is properly done by the wise bhāgavatas (devotees of the Lord) only. They do it all mentally to the Supreme Person Vāsudeva, who abides in the heart of all, but not to him who regards the Soul and the body as identical (and expects the external observance of formalities directed to his body).

23. The absolutely pure sattva (heart or the attribute called sattva) is designated as Vāsudeva; for it is in the sattva that Supreme Man Vāsudeva is manifested (and realized) in his real (unveiled) form. It is in the sattva (absolutely pure mind) that I pay obeisance^[2] to him who is beyond sense perception.

24. Therefore, Oh beautiful lady, you should not see Dakṣa and his followers—even though Dakṣa is your father, the protector of your body, Dakṣa is my enemy. When I went to attend the sacrifice performed by the Prajāpatis, he expressed his hatred, by using abusive language to me, even though I was innocent (not at fault at all).

25. If you go there ignoring my advice, ṇo good will betide you thereby. When a person of well-established reputation suffers insult from his relatives, the indignity leads immediately to his death.^[3]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Militant Vaiṣṇava commentators like Bhāgavata Candrikā, Padaratnāvalī refuse to give the credit of creation to Śiva. Instead of taking aja (unborn) as a vocative addressed to Śiva, they take ajātma-māyayā as one compound and interpret: ‘The universe that is created by the unborn Lord Viṣṇu by his Māyā’. According to them, Śiva being a great Yogin, has the direct perception of the universe and hence no curiosity to see the festival of Dakṣa’s sacrifice.

[2]:

v.l. manasā—deeply meditate upon him in mind.—Bhāvāratha Dīpikā

[3]:

Cf sambhāvitasya cākīrtir maraṇādatiricyate / Bhagavad Gītā 2.34