The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2
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Satkaryavada<br />
606<br />
Daksha why he has excluded her husband,<br />
Daksha responds with a stream <strong>of</strong><br />
abuse, excoriating Shiva as worthless and<br />
despicable. Humiliated by these public<br />
insults, Sati commits suicide—in some<br />
versions, by leaping into the sacrificial fire,<br />
in others by withdrawing into yogic trance<br />
and giving up her life.<br />
Shiva, furious at what has happened,<br />
creates the fierce deity Virabhadra (or<br />
in some versions, Virabhadra and the<br />
fierce goddess Bhadrakali), and dispatches<br />
them to destroy Daksha’s sacrifice.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y gleefully carry out his command,<br />
scattering the guests and killing<br />
Daksha. <strong>The</strong> resulting carnage ends only<br />
when the assembled gods praise Shiva<br />
as the supreme deity. Daksha is eventually<br />
restored to life with the head <strong>of</strong> a<br />
goat, and he too repents his arrogance<br />
and worships Shiva. At Daksha’s request,<br />
Shiva agrees to remain at the sacrificial<br />
site forever and sanctify it. Shiva takes<br />
the form <strong>of</strong> a linga, the pillar-shaped<br />
object that is his symbolic form, and can<br />
still be seen at the Daksha Mahadev<br />
temple in the town <strong>of</strong> Kankhal.<br />
Although Shiva’s anger has been<br />
pacified by this worship, he is disconsolate<br />
at Sati’s death and wanders the<br />
earth carrying her body on his shoulders.<br />
In his grief, Shiva neglects his<br />
divine functions, and the world begins<br />
to fall into ruin. <strong>The</strong> gods, concerned<br />
over the world’s imminent destruction,<br />
go to the god Vishnu for help. Vishnu<br />
then follows behind Shiva and uses his<br />
razor-sharp discus to gradually cut away<br />
pieces <strong>of</strong> Sati’s body, until finally there is<br />
nothing left. When the body is completely<br />
gone, Shiva leaves for the mountains,<br />
where he remains absorbed in<br />
meditation until it is broken by Kama.<br />
Sati is reborn as the goddess Parvati and<br />
later remarries Shiva.<br />
<strong>The</strong> myth connected with the figure<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sati is important for several reasons.<br />
First, it provides the charter myth for the<br />
Shakti Pithas (“bench <strong>of</strong> the Goddess”),<br />
a network <strong>of</strong> sites sacred to the Goddess<br />
that spreads throughout the subcontinent.<br />
Each <strong>of</strong> these Shakti Pithas—<br />
in some lists there are fifty-one, and in<br />
others 108—marks the site where a part<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sati’s body fell to earth, taking form<br />
there as a different goddess. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
differing goddesses, spread all over the<br />
subcontinent, are thus seen as manifestations<br />
<strong>of</strong> this one primordial goddess,<br />
united by the symbolism <strong>of</strong> the human<br />
body. Aside from establishing this network,<br />
the myth has several other important<br />
messages: It graphically illustrates the<br />
supremacy <strong>of</strong> devotion (in this case, to<br />
Shiva) over the older sacrificial cult; it<br />
illustrates some <strong>of</strong> the tensions in the<br />
joint family, in which women feel the<br />
conflict <strong>of</strong> loyalty between their natal<br />
and their marital homes; and it is the<br />
charter myth for the Daksha Mahadev<br />
temple in the town <strong>of</strong> Kankhal, just<br />
south <strong>of</strong> the sacred city <strong>of</strong> Haridwar,<br />
where Daksha’s sacrifice is claimed to<br />
have taken place. See also pitha.<br />
Satkaryavada<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the three causal models in Indian<br />
philosophy, along with asatkaryavada<br />
and anekantavada. All three models seek<br />
to explain the relationship between causes<br />
and their effects in the everyday world,<br />
which has pr<strong>of</strong>ound implications for religious<br />
life. All the philosophical schools<br />
assume that if one understands the causal<br />
process correctly, and can manipulate it<br />
through one’s conscious actions, it is possible<br />
to gain final liberation <strong>of</strong> the soul<br />
(moksha). Thus, disagreements over different<br />
causal models are not merely academic<br />
disputes but are grounded in basically<br />
different assumptions about the nature <strong>of</strong><br />
things. <strong>The</strong> satkaryavada model assumes<br />
that effects preexist in their causes, which<br />
can thus be seen as transformations (real<br />
or apparent) <strong>of</strong> those causes. <strong>The</strong> classic<br />
example is the transformation <strong>of</strong> milk to<br />
curds, butter, and clarified butter.<br />
According to satkaryavada proponents,<br />
each <strong>of</strong> these effects was already present in<br />
the cause, and emerges from it through a<br />
natural transformation <strong>of</strong> that cause.<br />
This causal model tends to reduce the<br />
number <strong>of</strong> causes in the universe, since<br />
anything can be seen as a transformation<br />
<strong>of</strong> other things. Given these strong