Parvati

There was a special article on Parvati in this month's Yoga Journal magazine. And as an aside on the magazine itself, I have to say I really didn't like that magazine when I first subscribed about 5 years ago. It was the time I learned to love yoga, realize it's potential and its healing nature, and thereby decided to teach. I was in graduate school and figured "I love yoga" so I might as well read the magazine. But since I was so new to the practice and all that it encompasses, I suppose I wasn't ready for "all of it", as in, the literature. I thought it was super boring and bladdy blah blah.

Now, fast forward to today. I pretty much can't get enough of yoga vedanta and literature. My favorite magazine is Yoga Chicago, beautifully created by editor Sharon Steffensen, and my first yoga true yoga teacher. The magazine is amazing, and worth looking up at www.yogachicago.com. I miss it...I've been in NC now for about a month and a half and well, I guess I miss a lot of stuff from home. At the same time, I know I'm in the right place. Listened to my heart and thereby followed my dharma...pretty sure I can't go wrong. But it's hard.

What was the title of this post again? Right. So back to Parvati. It can be pretty confusing learning the Hindu deities. I started about a year and a half ago at 7 Centers (www.7centers.com) and continued after I went back to Chicago for about a year at the Chicago Sivananda Vedanta Center (www.sivananda.org/chicago). Even when chanting their names I wasn't so sure which wife of Shiva they were, or which incarnate of Shiva for that matter, yet the devotional practice was quite strong. Now I'm beginning to put the pieces together...

Parvati was Shiva's second wife. She's actually a reincarnate of his first wife, Sati, who he mourned up until Parvati won him over. When she finally did, they married and went to spend thousands of years in wedded bliss aka "love play" (ha)...which of course birthed tantra. The beginnings of which are introduced in the Vijnana Bhairava tantra. It also happens to be the work that has peaked my interest above all others. Something about it speaks to me, and it's actually one of the agamas or esoteric tantric texts. It begins with Parvati asking Shiva how to attain the ultimate state. Shiva responds that the deepest most pure meditative practices are really done while eating, drinking, making love. The latter being that which gives tantra a silo-ed rap... about crazy sex. It's a lot of things, including a deeply spiritual/physical connection through sex. That doesn't suck. :)

The two are known for their strong, independent union. Parvati is a strong woman who aims to reunite the masculine and the feminine, urging them to live together in harmony, both being true to their natures yet coexisting and even benefiting from that life together. If left alone, the masculine will live alone in its world of ideas, detached from the feeling state (abava). Parvati supports the benefits of balance in the world and amongst relationships. She also fashioned Ganesha (my favorite!) when Shiva said he didn't want to start a family. Ha! Awesome. (PS her other son is Kartikeya, another name I've chanted for years and finally know what it means:) So she's strong and powerful in the feminine, and acts upon it, showing the rest of us to be assertive. She encourages it for the betterment of everyone. Nobody needs an imbalance of yin/yang I mean come ON.

What she stands for speaks to me at this stage in my life. Moving into the military life, it's stereotypically assumed that the masculine energy is pretty taught in the relationship, and for us that's true. While in Chicago I noted much more of my feminine energy muddled with my own masculine to balance it out. And now, here, I see my feminine holding strong in order to be balanced by his masculine, as opposed to my own internally. It's a beautiful thing, really. Shows to me that still, in this spiritually-forward society and my own spiritually independent self, we can really share in balancing out relationships. And I'm very thankful to mine for that.

And to Parvati of course. Or shall I say to Yoga Journal for finally teaching me something about the deities? Thanks to all, it's all part of the message that's coming my way...word.