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The story narrated in the film went like this: Narada, as usual, was
having fun. (Narada is a demigod with a divine position - that is, he
can communicate with man and with the gods as he pleases, and he serves
as an intermediary, but then he likes to have fun!) So he was
quarrelling with one of the goddesses, I no longer recall which one, and
he told her ... (Ah, yes! The quarrel was with Saraswati.) Saraswati
was telling him that knowledge is much greater than love (much greater
in that it is much more powerful than love), and he replied to her, 'You
don't know what you're talking about! (Mother laughs) Love is
much more powerful than knowledge.' So she challenged him, saying, 'Well
then, prove it to me.' - 'I shall prove it to you,' he replied. And the
whole story starts there. He began creating a whole imbroglio on earth
just to prove his point.
It was only a film story, but anyway, the goddesses, the three
wives of the Trimurti - that is, the consort of Brahma, the consort of
Vishnu and the consort of Shiva - joined forces (! ) and tried all kinds
of things to foil Narada. I no longer recall the details of the story
... Oh yes, the story begins like this: one of the three - I believe it
was Shiva's consort, Parvati (she was the worst one, by the way!) - was
doing her puja. Shiva was in meditation, and she began doing her puja in
front of him; she was using an oil lamp for the puja, and the lamp fell
down and burned her foot. She cried out because she had burned her
foot. So Shiva at once came out of his meditation and said to her, 'What
is it, Devi?' (laughter) She answered, 'I burned my foot!' Then Narada
said, 'Aren't you ashamed of what you have done? - to make Shiva come
out of his meditation simply because you have a little burn on your
foot, which cannot even hurt you since you are immortal!' She became
furious and snapped at him, 'Show me that it can be otherwise!' Narada
replied, 'I am going to show you what it is to really love one's husband
- you don't know anything about it!'
Then comes the story of Anusuya and her husband (who is truly a
husband ... a very good man, but well, not a god, after all!), who was
sleeping with his head resting upon Anusuya's knees. They had finished
their puja (both of them were worshippers of Shiva), and after their
puja he was resting, sleeping, with his head on Anusuya's knees.
Meanwhile, the gods had descended upon earth, particularly this Parvati, and they saw Anusuya like that. Then Parvati exclaimed, 'This is a good occasion!' Not very far away a cooking fire was burning. With her power, she sent the fire rolling down onto Anusuya's feet - which startled her because it hurt. It began to burn; not one cry, not one movement, nothing ... because she didn't want to awaken her husband. But she began invoking Shiva (Shiva was there). And because she invoked Shiva (it is lovely in the story), because she invoked Shiva, Shiva's foot began burning! (Mother laughs) Then Narada showed Shiva to Parvati: 'Look what you are doing; you are burning your husband's foot!' So Parvati made the opposite gesture and the fire was put out. That's how it went. page 216 , Mother's Agenda , volume 1 , 4th Nov. - 1958 |