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Lord Shiva – primordial destroyer of evil,[br]slayer of demons, protector,

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and omniscient observer of the universe –[br]was testing his wife’s patience.

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Historically, the union between Shiva [br]and Parvati was a glorious one.

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They maintained the equilibrium between [br]thought and action

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on which the well-being [br]of the world depended.

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Without Parvati as the agent of energy, [br]growth, and transformation on earth,

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Shiva would become a detached observer, [br]and the world would remain static.

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But together, the two formed a divine [br]union known as Ardhanarishvara–

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a sacred combination

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which brought fertility and connection [br]to all living things.

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For these reasons, Parvati was worshipped[br]far and wide

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as the mother of the natural world–

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and the essential counterpart to Shiva’s [br]powers of raw creation.

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She oversaw humanity’s material comforts;

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and ensured that the earth’s inhabitants[br]were bonded to each other

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physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

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Yet a rift had grown between these [br]two formidable forces.

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While Parvati sustained daily life with [br]care and control,

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Shiva had begun to be-little his wife’s [br]essential work–

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and insisted on quarreling about [br]their roles in the universe.

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He believed that Brahma, the Creator [br]of the world,

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had conceived the material plane [br]purely for his own fancy.

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And therefore, all material things [br]were merely distractions called māyā–

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nothing but a cosmic illusion.

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For millennia Parvati had merely smiled [br]knowingly

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as Shiva dismissed the things she [br]nurtured.

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But upon His latest rebuke,

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she knew she had to prove the [br]importance of her work once and for all.

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She took flight from the world,

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withdrawing her half of the cosmic [br]energy that kept the earth turning.

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At her disappearance, a sudden, terrifying[br]and all-encompassing scarcity

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enveloped the world in eerie silence.

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Without Parvati, the land became dry [br]and barren.

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Rivers shrank and crops [br]shriveled in the fields.

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Hunger descended on humanity.

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Parents struggled to console their [br]starving children

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while their own stomachs rumbled.

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And with nothing to eat, people no longer[br]gathered over heaped bowls of rice,

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but withdrew and shrank from [br]the darkening world.

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To His shock and awe,

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Shiva also felt the profound emptiness[br]left by his wife’s absence.

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Despite His supreme power,

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He too realized that He was not immune[br]to the need for sustenance,

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and His yearning felt bottomless [br]and unbearable.

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As Shiva despaired over the desolate [br]earth,

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He came to realize that the material [br]world could not be so easily dismissed.

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At her husband’s epiphany,

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the compassionate Parvati could no longer[br]stand by

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and watch her devotees wasting away.

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To walk among them and [br]restore their health,

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she took the form of a new avatar,

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carrying a golden bowl of porridge [br]and armed with a jewel-encrusted ladle.

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As word of this hopeful figure spread,

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she was worshipped as Annapurna, [br]the Goddess of food.

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With the arrival of Annapurna, [br]the world blossomed anew.

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People rejoiced at fertility and food, [br]and communed together to give thanks.

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Some believe that Annapurna first appeared[br]in the sacred city of Kashi,

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or the Place of Freedom, [br]on the banks of the Ganges–

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where she opened a kitchen to fill the[br]bellies of the people

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until they could eat no more.

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But it was not only mere mortals who were [br]served at her feast.

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Humbled at the scenes of earthly pleasure[br]blooming all around him,

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Lord Shiva himself approached the goddess[br]with an empty bowl

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and begged for food and forgiveness.

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For this reason, the supreme deity is [br]sometimes portrayed as a poor beggar

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at the mercy of Annapurna;

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holding her golden bowl in her left hand,[br]while the right forms the abhaya mudra–

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a gesture of safety and assurance.

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With these symbols, this powerful avatar [br]makes it clear

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that the material world is anything [br]but an illusion.

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Rather, it is a cycle of life that must be[br]sustained–

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from the feeding of open mouths and [br]rumbling bellies,

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to the equilibrium of the earth.