1
00:00:08,159 --> 00:00:13,699
Lord Shiva––primordial destroyer of evil,
slayer of demons,

2
00:00:13,699 --> 00:00:19,969
protector, and omniscient observer of the 
universe––was testing his wife’s patience.

3
00:00:19,969 --> 00:00:25,284
Historically, the union between Shiva 
and Parvati was a glorious one.

4
00:00:25,284 --> 00:00:29,004
They maintained the equilibrium between 
thought and action

5
00:00:29,004 --> 00:00:31,865
on which the well-being 
of the world depended.

6
00:00:31,865 --> 00:00:37,525
Without Parvati as the agent of energy, 
growth, and transformation on earth,

7
00:00:37,525 --> 00:00:42,914
Shiva would become a detached observer, 
and the world would remain static.

8
00:00:42,914 --> 00:00:48,092
But together, the two formed a divine 
union known as Ardhanarishvara––

9
00:00:48,092 --> 00:00:49,842
a sacred combination

10
00:00:49,842 --> 00:00:54,121
which brought fertility and connection 
to all living things.

11
00:00:54,121 --> 00:00:57,781
For these reasons, Parvati was worshipped
far and wide

12
00:00:57,781 --> 00:00:59,992
as the mother of the natural world––

13
00:00:59,992 --> 00:01:04,768
and the essential counterpart to Shiva’s 
powers of raw creation.

14
00:01:04,768 --> 00:01:07,948
She oversaw humanity’s material comforts;

15
00:01:07,948 --> 00:01:12,176
and ensured that the earth’s inhabitants
were bonded to each other

16
00:01:12,176 --> 00:01:15,120
physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

17
00:01:15,682 --> 00:01:19,886
Yet a rift had grown between these 
two formidable forces.

18
00:01:19,886 --> 00:01:24,497
While Parvati sustained daily life with 
care and control,

19
00:01:24,497 --> 00:01:28,497
Shiva had begun to be-little his wife’s 
essential work––

20
00:01:28,497 --> 00:01:32,497
and insisted on quarreling about 
their roles in the universe.

21
00:01:32,497 --> 00:01:35,417
He believed that Brahma, the Creator 
of the world,

22
00:01:35,417 --> 00:01:40,106
had conceived the material plane 
purely for his own fancy.

23
00:01:40,106 --> 00:01:44,766
And therefore, all material things 
were merely distractions called māyā––

24
00:01:44,766 --> 00:01:47,416
nothing but a cosmic illusion.

25
00:01:47,416 --> 00:01:51,076
For millennia Parvati had merely smiled 
knowingly

26
00:01:51,076 --> 00:01:54,196
as Shiva dismissed the things she 
nurtured.

27
00:01:54,196 --> 00:01:56,186
But upon His latest rebuke,

28
00:01:56,186 --> 00:02:01,051
she knew she had to prove the 
importance of her work once and for all.

29
00:02:01,051 --> 00:02:03,281
She took flight from the world,

30
00:02:03,281 --> 00:02:07,537
withdrawing her half of the cosmic 
energy that kept the earth turning.

31
00:02:07,537 --> 00:02:13,177
At her disappearance, a sudden, terrifying
and all-encompassing scarcity

32
00:02:13,177 --> 00:02:16,238
enveloped the world in eerie silence.

33
00:02:16,238 --> 00:02:19,798
Without Parvati, the land became dry 
and barren.

34
00:02:19,798 --> 00:02:22,720
Rivers shrank and crops 
shriveled in the fields.

35
00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,160
Hunger descended on humanity.

36
00:02:25,161 --> 00:02:28,261
Parents struggled to console their 
starving children

37
00:02:28,261 --> 00:02:30,171
while their own stomachs rumbled.

38
00:02:30,171 --> 00:02:34,498
With nothing to eat, people no longer
gathered over heaped bowls of rice,

39
00:02:34,498 --> 00:02:37,808
but withdrew and shrank from 
the darkening world.

40
00:02:37,808 --> 00:02:39,538
To His shock and awe,

41
00:02:39,538 --> 00:02:44,746
Shiva also felt the profound emptiness
left by his wife’s absence.

42
00:02:44,746 --> 00:02:46,896
Despite His supreme power,

43
00:02:46,896 --> 00:02:51,183
He too realized that He was not immune
to the need for sustenance,

44
00:02:51,183 --> 00:02:54,924
and His yearning felt bottomless 
and unbearable.

45
00:02:54,924 --> 00:02:57,804
As Shiva despaired over the desolate 
earth,

46
00:02:57,804 --> 00:03:03,294
He came to realize that the material 
world could not be so easily dismissed.

47
00:03:03,294 --> 00:03:05,063
At her husband’s epiphany,

48
00:03:05,063 --> 00:03:08,262
the compassionate Parvati could no longer
stand by

49
00:03:08,262 --> 00:03:11,122
and watch her devotees wasting away.

50
00:03:11,122 --> 00:03:13,702
To walk among them and 
restore their health,

51
00:03:13,702 --> 00:03:16,432
she took the form of a new avatar,

52
00:03:16,432 --> 00:03:22,155
carrying a golden bowl of porridge 
and armed with a jewel-encrusted ladle.

53
00:03:22,155 --> 00:03:24,905
As word of this hopeful figure spread,

54
00:03:24,905 --> 00:03:29,189
she was worshipped as Annapurna, 
the Goddess of food.

55
00:03:29,189 --> 00:03:33,610
With the arrival of Annapurna, 
the world blossomed anew.

56
00:03:33,610 --> 00:03:39,000
People rejoiced at fertility and food, 
and communed together to give thanks.

57
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,629
Some believe that Annapurna first appeared
in the sacred city of Kashi,

58
00:03:43,629 --> 00:03:46,729
or the Place of Freedom, 
on the banks of the Ganges––

59
00:03:46,729 --> 00:03:50,034
where she opened a kitchen to fill the
bellies of the people

60
00:03:50,034 --> 00:03:52,124
until they could eat no more.

61
00:03:52,124 --> 00:03:56,124
But it was not only mere mortals who were 
served at her feast.

62
00:03:56,124 --> 00:04:00,733
Humbled at the scenes of earthly pleasure
blooming all around him,

63
00:04:00,733 --> 00:04:04,733
Lord Shiva himself approached the goddess
with an empty bowl

64
00:04:04,733 --> 00:04:07,393
and begged for food and forgiveness.

65
00:04:07,393 --> 00:04:12,013
For this reason, the supreme deity is 
sometimes portrayed as a poor beggar

66
00:04:12,013 --> 00:04:14,143
at the mercy of Annapurna;

67
00:04:14,143 --> 00:04:19,406
holding her golden bowl in her left hand,
while the right forms the abhaya mudra––

68
00:04:19,406 --> 00:04:22,296
a gesture of safety and assurance.

69
00:04:22,296 --> 00:04:26,180
With these symbols, this powerful avatar 
makes it clear

70
00:04:26,180 --> 00:04:29,830
that the material world is anything 
but an illusion.

71
00:04:29,830 --> 00:04:33,010
Rather, it is a cycle of life that must be
sustained––

72
00:04:33,010 --> 00:04:36,320
from the feeding of open mouths and 
rumbling bellies,

73
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,520
to the equilibrium of the earth.