Ardra, Star of Storms, Shiva in his fiercest form,
what wrath hath thee wrought?

Amidst the churning tumult of destruction,
from the eye of the exile one tear drops.

 

Here we must hear the story of Sati,
youngest daughter of Daksha Prajapati.

Sati loves and marries Lord Shiva
against her father’s wishes.

Daksha refuses to bless the wedding, and to prove it,
hosts the greatest yagna in history but shuns Shiva and Sati.

Shiva stays away, but passionate Sati attends nonetheless.
Unable to bear the insults offered by her father,

she self-immolates upon the sacred fire,
to the shock and horror of all the noble attendees.

But the horror has only just begun,
for when Shiva learns of his beloved’s fate,

an inconsolable rage arises from the deep,
and Shiva storms the ceremony,

sending gods and sages scrambling
in fear for their lives.

This is Rudra, Lord of Storms, ruler of Ardra,
the destructive one who weeps as he works.

And his raging tantrum is actually a rational response
to the loss of a beloved, the absence of a parent.

His tears fall to earth in the form of rudraksha beads,
the spiky seeds that help the living to remember death.

Remembering death, we learn to live well.
How precious every day, how delicate every connection.