Sati, Shiva's first wife, once told Shiva that she wanted to test Ram and did not believe him to be Vishnu's incarnation. Shiva warned her not to do so but for Sati it was a bit difficult to blindly listen to this advice of her husband, Lord Shiva.
One fine day Sati decided to test Ram and thus with her magical powers she changed herself to Sita, and then went to Ram; Ram, Lakshman and Sita(Sati in Sita's form) started to walk, Sita was walking ahead of Ram. It was then that Ram understood that lady cannot be his wife, as Sita never walked ahead of Ram and always followed him.
Ram knowing all this said “Devi, where is Mahadev?” Sati felt ashamed and ran away from there, when she reached Kailash; she didn’t mention all this to Shiva, for she was well aware of his anger. Shiva being the almighty knew all this and asked her did you test Ram, she replied “no, you had told, me not to do so, how could I disobey you, I just went there and took his blessings.
Shiva knew that she was lying but preferred to keep quiet. Since Sati had lied to him he was hurt and went into deep meditation, he decided to disown Sati for she had taken Sita’s form and Sita belonged to Ram. When Sati came to know about this, she felt sorry and she didn’t find it worthy to live anymore. Sati asked Shiva to tell the story of universe, this time, unlike other times he gave her seat in front of him and not beside him. She saw a chariots flying and asked them where they were going, the people replied they were all going over to yagnya and that Daksha had invited them. Everyone was invited except Shiva. Daksha was Sati’s father and he disliked Shiva. Sati asked Shiva’s permission to go there, Shiva warned her but in the end agreed he sent Nandi and others with her. There Sati was hurt to her husband’s insult and she knew that her husband had disowned her, this insult in maternal homemade Sati pray to Lord Agni, she no longer desired to live and henceforth her prayer was fulfilled.
In todays’ relationship we expect our partners to trust and believe us without explaining the cause and reason behind it, we usually take things for granted thinking that I have been this person for so long he or she would understand me, well, and do we understand ourselves? The irony is we are still discovering our own true selves and expect others to understand us, just like Shiva thought it would be enough for Sati not to go out and test his testimony about Ram.
Was Sati wrong when she went out to test Ram? Was it her curiosity that lead her to test Ram or was she indeed testifying the verdict of her husband? Even if she didn’t blindly believe her husband was she wrong? Who are the ones we believe blindly maybe those who earn it, had Shiva earned that trust of his wife she might not have taken Sita’s form.
Do we change as people who we are within when we get into the shoes of some character? Did Sati really belong to Ram just because she had taken Sita’s form? A girl may turn a lady and then may be a mother but will she cease to be who she is individually? Is her only identity that of being someone’s daughter or someone’s wife or that of being a mother? Will she always belong to someone? When will she just be an individual?
How many relationships break simply because of lies and why do we lie? Because we fear that we might loose the one we love because of our silly deeds. Had this thought of loosing that someone so dear come before we did something objectionable, would the situation still be the same? Had Sati lied to him if Shiva had been more considerate?