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

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protector, and omniscient observer [br]of the universe—

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was testing his wife’s patience.

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

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They maintained the equilibrium [br]between 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 [br]a divine 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 [br]to Shiva’s 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 [br]between these two formidable forces.

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

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Shiva had begun to belittle [br]his wife’s essential work—

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

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He believed that Brahma, [br]the Creator 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 [br]had merely smiled knowingly

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as Shiva dismissed [br]the things she nurtured.

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But upon His latest rebuke,

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she knew she had to prove [br]the importance of her work

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once and for all.

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She took flight from the world,

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

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

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enveloped the world in eerie silence.

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

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

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Hunger descended on humanity.

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Parents struggled to console [br]their starving children

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while their own stomachs rumbled.

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

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but withdrew and shrank [br]from 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 [br]bottomless and unbearable.

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As Shiva despaired [br]over the desolate Earth,

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He came to realize that [br]the material world

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could not be so easily dismissed.

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At her husband’s epiphany,

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the compassionate Parvati [br]could no longer stand by

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and watch her devotees wasting away.

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To walk among them [br]and 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 [br]to fill the 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 [br]who were 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 [br]is 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, [br]this powerful avatar makes it clear

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

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

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

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to the equilibrium of the Earth.