Parvati’s committed devotion is but a paradigm of the inevitable union between male and female played on the immense plane of supreme divinity. She is the soul of us all searching for god, which is but destined to meet and unite with him.

Just as water and its flavor (rasa) can never exist apart, likewise Purusha and Prakriti never remain disassociated from each other.’ (Bhagavata Purana: 3.27.18)

Parvati’s committed devotion is but a paradigm of the inevitable union between male and female played on the immense plane of supreme divinity. She is the soul of us all searching for god, which is but destined to meet and unite with him.

Calling god ‘him’ does not denote that he is male or a gender bias. The union envisaged above can however happen only in terms comprehendible to us. Thus the supreme reality, attributeless and genderless, has to be brought down to the scale we can relate to. The Nirguna has to be conceived as Saguna. This is the highest we can reach, and it is sufficient, being the paramount goal of human life, this union of Purusha with Prakriti. For this Shiva, the formless, the infinite contemplating infinity, has to be brought out from his inner ecstasy, and indeed, all the beauty, need, and aspiration of this world has to take form (of Parvati) in order to take up its right place on the lap of god. The only requirement being pure and complete surrender, and indeed Shiva destroys only Kama, the desire polluting the devotee’s relationship with divinity, but never the devotee himself.

Om Namah Shivay.