A TIMELESS LOVE

A TIMELESS LOVE

The one person that Shiva loved meeting in this cosmic mind field, the one person whose memory He would not allow to fade even when they were not together, was, unchallengeably, His Woman. In a whole universe that had been projected by Him, She was the one being He loved immensely.
Parvati, His inseparable better-half.
Parvati, without whom, Shiva felt like ‘not Shiva’.
Parvati, without whom, Shiva didn’t feel anything at all.
Parvati, without whom, the Seers summarized, “He was Shava, a corpse.”
And without whom, as He Himself told Her once, ‘Nothing’, was actually possible.
And just as great an enigma as He was, so too was Parvati. It was She who was Sati, in a previous life. She it was, who was Shakti, the Goddess of power, in eternal wedlock with Shiva, making Him Shaktiman, the wielder of all the power there was in the Universe. She was always present in His presence. Even if that meant being reincarnated from one lifetime to another.

“But you are the Eternal One,” She looked up sweetly, continuing, “And me, I am just a mortal.”
“You are the Goddess of my life,” He answered. “And eternity is the promise we have made to live together in.”
“Ah, but I die as soon as I see you,” Sati teased.
For a flick of a moment, Shiva was quiet.
“What is it?” She asked. “Another vision in your third eye? What does our future hold? Is the Great Shiva scared of losing me? That too, even before He actually got me? Hahaha!”
“The future is here already, Sati, And my third eye tells me we are going to be married very soon,” Shiva continued. “I shall come and meet your father, Daksha, tomorrow itself, to ask for your hand to be given in mine, for a lifetime of wedded bliss.”
Where had this cosmic love story actually begun? Was there a starting point at all? Or had it been a timeless trance with no beginning and perhaps with no end?

She was always present in His presence; and yet there had been times when Shiva and Parvati were separated. Times, that constituted the nadir of Shiva’s life; the absolute pit of the universe itself. Shiva had looked to the skies from this pit and noted how an infinite canvas painted blue by His own hand, could turn melancholically into an equally infinite grey.
Thus it was, that whenever a lover looked to the skies in the anguish of a torn love, his cry would pierce straight into Shiva’s heart as a resonant and lethal arrow.  The same story happened across the sands of times, not only in deserts, but also in the mountains, the forests, across oceans and, as Shiva knew, sometimes, even beyond the planet.
With each story, He felt an immense upheaval, an immense empathy.
He had been the greatest Lover in the world.
Love was the essence of what they were; love was existence.
Love, it was, that was in the beginning, love, that sustained the present, and love it would be, in the end.
~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati
Available on Amazon E books
:https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( India)
and
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The centre of Shiva's world.

One day, Shiva told Sati , “It is said of me that I do not incarnate. And yet I can vouchsafe of your love that you are one who can make even Shiva manifest. That makes you an enchanting sorceress! The original Bhaktin  indeed!”
“Me, a sorceress! And what are you?” She asked “You, who have hypnotized the whole Universe, especially me.”
“I am Shiva, the yogi, ever immersed in Shiva, the tattva. And yet… and yet, so much in love with Tattva as Sati!” He smiled.

“Why do they call you a Brahmchari then?” Sati asked.

Shiva understood that this was not actually a casual question. He had come to realise Sati’s innate wisdoms, which were often expressed in Her innocent questions; the answers to which could benefit all spiritual-seekers.

“I told you, asana is only a seat for yoga, not yoga itself, so too the physical restraint of Brahmcharya, is only a seat for Brahm acharya, being established in Godhead.” He replied.

“Aha, I see, but then why do I feel so deeply in love with you, even deeper than my admiration of your spiritual Nature?” Sati persisted.

“In the beginning was the One.
And he thought, may I be two, may I be many.
To love and to be loved.
And so the universe came into being.”

“Ah, lovely,” said Sati.

“Yes. And an electrifying attraction happens in love.
A spiritual preceptor can also bedazzle you with one look.”

“Yes, for sure,” said Sati.
“Only later, you realise that love and spirituality run on the same current,” Shiva replied with mystic precision that was His paradoxical hallmark. “Life is still the One, playing with itself, discovering itself.”
“With many, many layers to its own gifts...” Sati thought dreamily.

Even His smile was profound. Everything about Him was the embodiment of wisdom. Sati noticed that there were traces of this wisdom even when He joked.

“Tell me you love me,” She said one day. “Prove it with your poems and poetic words.”

“Oh, but I do love you,” He said.“And it’s when you specifically ask me to say that I love you, I find myself speechless; such are your charms and magic,” Shiva laughed.

“Really?” Sati was pleased. “So go on, tell me more.”

“Before I met you, I had no wants. I was okay with everything that already was, but now…”
“Now?”
“Now it’s all changed, it’s all different”
“How?”
“Now you have become the centre of my Universe"

“Oh, really? But you are aloof for days on end…and I thought it’s me for whom you don’t have any time…”

“That’s only when some very technical thought comes to me. Then I can’t let go until I see it to its logical culmination,” He looked at Her.
“Yes, I know. I know, and I understand, Chintan,” She said.

“But then, when I see you, and I see us together in this world, it all takes on a whole new meaning! The world is such a great place to be, with you by my side. I never thought I would want anything so much as your company.”

~ From the book
  SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. Part 2. (Humesha)
  Available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS

Parvati goes to the forest for Tapasya

THE QUEEN

The forest was buzzing with spirits that dwelled in it, spirits which were mysteriously connected and seemed omnipresent. Peering piercingly on anyone or anything that entered, without them being aware, from where exactly they were being looked at: but nevertheless feeling a burn on the nape of their necks. It had its tongue and ears too, this magical forest, and the word passed on from one tongue to another, “ She is coming, the maid of the mountains, she is coming, to become the mistress of the jungle”
It began with the sensitive birds tweeting and shrieking loudly in their shrill pitch. Not to be left behind, the mischievous baboons also started shrieking, jumping wildly from one tree to another, in exaggerated exuberance. The much ‘calmer in contrast’ deers, looked up from the green grounds, their beautiful big eyes inspecting the whole landscape fervently , as if to spot a family member, another of their tribe.“Ah yes, there she is, the doe eyed princess from Himalayas, scion of mighty Himavat Himself, pretty daughter of the most gracious Queen, Mena Rani”
“ What a divine time!” said the langurs. The langurs prided themselves to have been granted a boon of being associated with all divine humans.
“Yes it will be the return of the Divine period” spoke peepla, the wise old peepal tree .
“Return of the divine?” asked the chimpanzees
“Sati” replied peepla with a monosyllable, and shuddered his mighty shoulders, to release thousands of leaves, as if to confer timeless blessing to the forest ground.
Everyone was excited, from the tiny squirrels who couldn’t stop their teeth from incessant chattering, to the Huge elephants, who were behaving like little children about to see their mother after a long gap.

Even the sulking wild tiger was smiling, displaying a fine array of pearl like teeth matched by equally sharp paws, which he held up to his own face and smirked in self appreciation,
“ I am ready for you Parvati, my Master from time immemorial, Master of the king of the jungle Himself, The one and Only who can ride even me , as a mere vehicle” he whispered, “ What do these meek folk know about the back that is needed to carry a Goddess” he beamed at his own fabulous physique.

“Hss hsss, what a stupid and vain animal” Hissed the snakes to each other, “ What does a tiger know about love and longing, loyalty and lifelong association like we snakes do? What does this feline fool know about the secret songs and Hymns that the Mother sang to us as Sati Ragini, he is just a driver, whereas we are co passengers! It is to us , as Shiva’s beloveds, that she sang, to exchange places with: to us it was, that Sati said she was envious – if only she could be the one wrapped around Shiva’s neck in embrace! hsss hsss. And now she comes again!”

“ Not long ago,” thought Peepla to Himself, “ He was here, in our midst as Pasupati, and now, here she is, in our midst, as His Queen.”
“Hahaha Peepla, you old fool” laughed his best friend Vrikshavrata, “ Not long you say? Don’t gauge everything by tree years. It has been more than a thousand years since Rudra was here as Pasupati, and Sati was our Pasupatinathini”


~ From the book  SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. Part 2. (Humesha)
  Available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS
Parvati art by Pieter Weltevrede

WHEN DURGA- THE GREAT MOTHER, BECAME A DAUGHTER

Once, Brahmaji went all the way to the Himalayas to meet their King Himavat.
"To what do i owe this great honour of your visit to my house?" asked the humble King.
“ King Himavat, you do know that after Sati's death, Shiva has left Kailash and already shifted to an unknown part in your mountains. He is already your guest. You are the greatest host, known for your immaculate hospitality,You cherish the ideal of Atithi devo bhava; in this case, the guest is literally God Himself! You have already provided venue to Shiva, and now…” said Brahma, closing in unto Himavat. “Your providing a venue to the great Goddess, shall actually provide the immaculate inception of Herself!”
“My Lord! I do not know what to say. Your harbingering today is too much for a simple mortal like me to digest.”

“Ah, yes. But you shall be assisted in this by your own spouse, Mena.”Smiled Brahma

“Mena?”

“Yes, you may not know, but Mena is the greatest yogini of Durga even from her past life. It is she who will have to invoke Durga to be born as her own daughter, just as I, standing on one leg in deep tapasya for a thousand years, invoked Shiva.”

“A thousand years…?”
“Perhaps even more, Himavat! But you know what… when God Himself becomes your child, when God Herself sits and plays on your lap, each moment is the bliss of a lifetime…”

“Mena is the yogini of Durga from a past life? Hers will be the lap for the Goddess to play?”

“Yes!” Brahma beamed. “Such is the magic of the child in a god; the lap of a parent is a delight!
 A communion of high merit for both!”

Even while Brahma was foretelling the future to Himavat, Queen Mena heard a voice in her Dhyana,   “Arise, O Yogini! You have prayed to me in the deepest solitude for more than five hundred years. You have not been bothered about hunger, nor have you let the changing seasons, the blistering sun, the thundering rains, or the biting cold affect you in any way. Not once have your lips stopped chanting, ‘Aum Aim Hreem Kleem Chamundaye Vichaye Namah.’ So ask, O Devi, what do you want?”

“Aum Aim Hreem Kleem Chamundaye Vichaye Namah,” repeated Mena.

“I know,” said Durga, pleased. “I heard you. Now ask for your boon, Yogini!”

“Aum Chamundaye Vichaye Namah. I want the great Durga to take birth on this earth, to save Mother Nature from the plundering it is being subjected to by vain and mindless men with large egos; I want you, the great Mother, to be born as my daughter.”

“Tat Astu! So be it!” smiled Durga widely. “I am the universal Devi, but you, Mena, are the Devi of my own heart. You, shall be my Ma, always.”

And so it was, that the great boon was secured from Durga: The boon of Her manifesting on earth, which would then secure all of life from vandals.”



~ From SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. part 2.
By Shail Gulhati
Available on amazon https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( India)
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( USA )