Shloka 12
रुद्रसर्गः (नीललोहितः), अष्टनाम-स्थान-परिवारः, श्री-नारायणयोः अभेदव्याप्तिः
एवंप्रकारो रुद्रो ऽसौ सतीं भार्याम् अविन्दत दक्षकोपाच् च तत्याज सा सती स्वं कलेवरम्
evaṃprakāro rudro 'sau satīṃ bhāryām avindata dakṣakopāc ca tatyāja sā satī svaṃ kalevaram
Thus was Rudra in that mode of being: he obtained Satī as his wife; yet, because of Dakṣa’s wrath, Satī abandoned her own body.
Sage Parāśara (narrating to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Account of Rudra’s marriage to Satī and the consequence of Dakṣa’s wrath.
Teaching: Historical
Quality: revealing
Concept: Ritual pride and offense (aparādha) fractures dharmic order; Satī’s self-abandonment dramatizes the intolerability of adharma toward the divine.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Avoid spiritual arrogance and sectarian contempt; prioritize humility and reverence over mere ritual display.
Vishishtadvaita: Dharma is upheld through right relationship to the divine; social-ritual structures must remain oriented to genuine devotion.
FAQs
It marks the moral and cosmic consequence of sacrificial pride and hostility—Satī’s self-renunciation becomes the turning point that exposes the fragility of yajña when divorced from reverence and dharma.
Parāśara narrates it as a creation-era episode where personality, wrath, and ritual authority collide—showing how cosmic functions (like Rudra’s) are not subordinate to social pride, and how disorder arises when dharma is violated.
Even when the verse centers on Rudra and Satī, the Vishnu Purana frames such events within Vishnu’s overarching sovereignty—where all deities and their narratives operate inside the larger preservation of cosmic law and order.