The Ever Ever After- and Marital Spats
Shiva and his bride went to Kailasa and lived happily for what seemed ever after. For a thousand years they were lost to the world engrossed in each other. Shiva himself had set the scene for this retreat into love and marriage. He resuscitated Kama and invited him to preside over his nuptials. Kama and Shiva were no longer sworn enemies.

Shiva and Parvati had a good marriage. Major adjustments were made in a spirit forgive that was as good as taken. She was his equal and companion and their quest was both inward into themselves and outward into the universe. She was also a partner him his work of cosmic destruction whenever the need arose. Although he tended to negate the Manifest and she was Maya-Shakti (Energy Manifest), they travelled together on a common path of agreement-except on the odd domestic occasion when they temporarily struck hostile stances. That was when they were at their human best- and worst.

It was a night of moonlit gold and starshone silver. Shiva and Parvati lay in each other's arms. Shiva teased her: You are a black snake coiled round the sandal tree of my fair body, the dark smudge on the silver-gold of a full moon. Your colour is beginning to bother me'.

He had touched a nerve. She pulled away and stood up, brows arched with flooding anger. 'You are like a spear stuck and twisting in my head. You call me dark, you who are tamas (darkness) personified. I feel stifled. I begged for you with penance and beggars are always insulted. I am leaving.

Shiva tried to retrieve the situation. 'I spoke in jest, you misunderstood me. You know I love you. I beg pardon with folded hands'. And he held her feet. Parvati supurned him and would not calm down. Shiva spoke harshyly: you are hard, like the mountain that fathered you; your mind is clouded like a Himalayan peak. I cannot get through to you, dense as a Himalayan forest. As for you nature, it twists like the rivers that wind down these slopes. You are wholly Himalayan.'

They were intent on wounding each other. She had the last word. You speak with a split and double tongue like the serpents that twine round you, your heart is barren and dry like the ashes that cover your body and you are as heavy and dull as the bull you ride. She left, asking Nandi to guard Shiva, to see that no other woman came anywhere near him while she was away. I will return, fair as gold and then this man will follow me like a shadow. I will make him pay for this insult.

The demon Adi, son of Andhaka, who Shiva had killed, had been waiting to avenge his father's death. This was an ideal opportunity. He had acquired the power to change his form at will, but this also made him vulnerable. He could only be killed when he used it. Adi got past Nandi as a snake, then assumed the form of Parvati. 'You are back? Asked Shiva surprised and delighted. I changed my mind- I couldn't do without you, said Adi-Parvati. Awarnig bell sounded in Shiva's head and he was watchful. It was unlike her to give up so easily. He looked for the familiar marks on her body and found them missing and even as they made love, he destroyed the demon.

Meanwhile Vavu, the wide-god, had given Parvati the news that a woman had been with Shiva. Right there, from her side, born of her anger and of her sense of betrayal, a lion sprang out, jaws wide open, ready to devour. Her penance had also come to an end. Brahma appeared and blessed her with a golden complexion. She also wanted to be inseparable from Shiva. You will be half his body, no less, he said. Then a woman, blue dark and lustrous, also arose from her side. Mounting the lion, she rode into the Vindhya mountains, intent on killing the two demons, Shumbha and nishumba. Gauri, the fair one, returned to kailasa.

A simple quarrel grew into separation followed by manifestation, Kali, with a divine and ordained purpose the whole episode was engineered. Else, Parvati would not have left Shiva's side. The dark forces of her anger had to take shape as a lion-riding Devi, created to kill two demons no make could destroy. The gods squabble with a purpose, never plain and rarely simple. Gauri, golden and shining, came home to Shiva and Kali, dark with menace,rode out to kill on an upsurge of wrath- her lion, her vehicle.