Romantic love has captured the imagination of many a mind. The desire to love and to be loved is universal.
Litterateurs, film makers and artists celebrate the undying nature of love. The common man is fascinated with the idea of eternal love in which even death cannot separate from his love interest.
Yet if one wants to translate the wish into reality, one has to be prepared to overcome all odds. It requires the person to be supremely dedicated, earnest and patient to realise this dream.
The story of the divine couple, Shiva and Parvathi, who overcame all obstacles in order to come together can prove to be a guiding force for people hoping to find true love.
Shiva married Dakshayini, the daughter of the mighty king Daksha, quite against the wishes of her father. Daksha was thoroughly disgusted with his ascetic son-in law whom he freely referred to as a beggar.
It so happened that he chose to conduct a mighty Yagna without inviting Shiva. Dakshayini decided to overlook this as a lapse by her father and persuaded Shiva, much against his wishes, to accompany her to the Yajna.
Daksha insulted Shiva to the point of driving his daughter to commit suicide out of sheer shame. Shiva went berserk at the loss of his beloved wife and took to severe austerity.
Dakshayini could not bear to see the detachment of her soul mate and reincarnated herself as Parvathi and tried to woo her husband through her devotion and penance. Though Shiva was aware of her janma rahasya he decided to test the love and devotion of his spouse.
He appeared as a disheveled tramp in front of the lovely maiden and dissuaded her from enticing Shiva into marriage.
In the process of discouraging Parvathi, the tramp uttered the most disrespectable and uncouth words to put Shiva in bad light. Parvathi found this conversation distasteful but maintained a stoic silence for a while before dismissing the tramp for bantering.
Parvathi had passed the ultimate test of love and devotion across Janmas. Shiva was pleased with Parvathi and married her.
This story of eternal love just goes to prove that genuine souls who are in love with each other may be faced with any number of impediments, misunderstandings and sometimes even death. Yet if they are steadfast in their love, they can overcome all odds and can become one with their soulmates in the true sense of the word!