A Passage from our forthcoming book on Lord Shiva (3) - Sati's encounter with a sage

~ ॐ नमः शिवाय ~
A Passage from our forthcoming book on Lord Shiva
Sati's encounter with a sage:

“I have waited for this for four hundred years. Come, take your seat” he said as he waved towards an extra deer skin lying right in front of him.
Sati felt as though she had known this man for all those four hundred years, and more. She settled down , comfortable both in body, and in mind.
He looked at her with a look that was full of the kindness of an elder and yet had a certain awe and respect of a child.
“Sati, do you know what brought you to this cave?” he asked
“no” , she replied.
“do you know what brought you to this world?” He asked a second question.
“what brought me to this world?”
“yes. It is the same one that wills both. Find one and the other you will know.” Said the sage mystically.
“What brings us to this world, our parents affections, their desire. We are all a fulfillment of love, a manifestation of togetherness” , she said with her eyes looking only at the deerskin snuggled below her, which had by now taken on the contours of her light frame on itself.
The sage smiled . “Ah, Desire, affections! I must appreciate your maturity, forthrightness, and etiquette. Spoken like a princess indeed. But this body as you know it, is just a shell.
It comes by procreation. But procreation is not the whole of creation!” “With each birth, a Higher power participates with procreation and thus comes creation. It is God who wills you on this earth.”
Here, have this Prasad, “ he said, taking a roasted walnut from the fire.
Sati took the walnut with her head bowed, and as she slipped it in her mouth it burst upon her palate with a wonderfully smoked essence. Just as her fourth sense ,the sense of taste got invoked,she started to feel as though the light mist in the cave was brushing against her.
This touch was divine .
“God?” she asked.
“Yes, God. Shiva, to be precise. It is Shiva who wills all things. But with you in particular, it is Shiva who desires. “
“So it is Siva who brought me to this cave?”
“Yes, the whole Universe, is His cave. Where he awaits your arrival by His hearth”
Sati looked around as though Shiva would be sitting in the corner of the cave , and asked
”so where is He?”
“This is the interesting thing” said the sage. “He awaits your arrival, but till you come, He doesn’t himself appear .”
“you mean..”
“ I mean God has not manifested Himself as yet , and it is thus that we await your arrival with the greatest earnest. Your birth signals that now the birthless one Himself is to arrive. So too you are the generatrix of all things, little mother”