Sati Khand - Story of Shiva , Sati, Brahma , Kama, Arundathi and Vashista

Lord Brahma narrated the following tale-
"A girl by the name of Sandhya manifested from my being. I was amazed by her heavenly beauty. Right then a divine entity appeared before me, whose beauty could not have been matched even by the deities. He was Kamadeva- the god of love. He influenced me to such an extent that I forgot that Sandhya was my daughter and got infatuated by her."
"When Rudra came to know about my lust for Sandhya, he admonished me and ridiculed about my character. I felt ashamed. But I also became jealous of Rudra. I decided to influence him with
the power of infatuation, but I was unsuccessful in my attempts. I remembered lord Vishnu and he tried to make me understand about the futility of my attempts, as according to him (Vishnu), Rudra was beyond the reach of any human emotions."
"But I instructed my son - Daksha to help in the procreation of a girl child from the womb of Ashwinivirini. Thus Sati was born. Sati later on became famous of Uma and got Rudra as her husband on account of her tremendous penance."
"Though Rudra was free from all kinds of attachment, but still he became so influenced by the desire for procreation that he married with Sati. He enjoyed a blissful married life for a very long time."
"Rudra father in law, Daksha in his arrogance started condemning his son in law -Rudra. Once, Daksha organised a grand yagya ceremony. He gave invitation to everybody except Rudra and Uma. Despite of Rudra's disinclination to allow Sati to go to her father's yagya, She insisted and ultimately she was successful in convincing Rudra, to allow her to go."
"When Sati reached there, she was not given respect by her father Daksha. Not only this, Daksha made fun of Rudra. Feeling dishonored, Sati gave up her life by jumping into the sacrificial fire."
"When Rudra got the news of Sati's death he became extremely furious. To take revenge, he created Veerbhadra from his locks of hair. Veerbhadra went to Daksha place and destroyed his oblation site. He severed Daksha's head. All the deities became afraid and prayed to Rudra, to have mercy. Rudra then brought back Daksha to life and helped him the accomplished of the still incomplete Yagya. The site where Sati had died later on became famous as Jwalamukhi devi."
"The same Sati in her next birth was born as Parvati to Himalaya. By her tremendous penance she again got lord Shiva as her husband.
After that lord Brahma told Narada about the manifestation of Kama, the god of love.

MANIFESTATION OF 'KAMA' WHO IS CURSED BY BRAHMA
"When I became infatuated by the divine beauty of Sandhya, my infatuation resulted into the manifestation of my another Manas-putra named Kamadeva. His beauty and qualities were incomparable. His manifestation not only inflicted me with lust, but also my other Manasputras became filled up with lust. Kamadeva made salutations to me and asked as to what was his name and purpose of being. I gave him the name 'Pushpavan' and instructed him to help in the process of procreation. I also blessed him that nobody would remain unaffected by his influence including myself and Vishnu."
After being named by lord Brahma as 'Pushpavan', Kamadeva was also given various names as Manmath, Kama, Madan etc by sages like Mareech, etc. They also said to him that he would be married to 'Rati' the daughter of Daksha.
Kamadeva himself was infatuated with the beauty of Sandhya. To test the authenticity of Brahma's boon, Kamadeva took out his five arrows and wanted to examine their power. The names of their arrows were Harshan, Rochan, Mohan, Shoshan and Maran.
These arrows had effect on all the people present there including lord Brahma and Sandhya. Getting affected by those arrows, fourty nine types of thoughts emerged in Brahma's mind. Similarly, flaws were clearly visible in Sandhya's behaviour.
Kamdeva became convinced of his powers and capabilities. But Dharma - the manasputra of Brahma was saddened by this event. He prayed to lord Shiva.
When Lord Shiva saw the condition of Brahma, he became amused and made fun of him and his Manasputras. Everybody was ashamed.
Due to his shame, Brahma perspired profusely. From his perspiration were created the Pitraganas. Similarly from the perspiration of Daksha Prajapati was created the most beautiful woman Rati.
Brahma was very angry with Kamadeva because of whom he was ridiculed by Shiva. He cursed him and said- "You would be charred to death by the arrow of Shiva."
Kamadeva became very scarred and said that he was only testing the authenticity of his boon and he had no other evil intention. He also requested Brahma, not to curse him.
Feeling Pity on him, Brahma consoled him that, although he would definitely get killed by the arrow of Shiva's sight, yet he would regain his physical body as soon as Shiva get's married. Lord Brahma then went to Brahmaloka.
Daksha requested Kamadeva to get married with his daughter Rati. Kamadeva was very pleased at this proposal. Both Kamadeva and Rati got married.

SANDHYA DOES PENANCE AND GETS BOON FROM SHIVA
Sandhya was very ashamed of herself. For the atonement of her sin she decided to do penance. She went to Chandrabhaga mountain and commenced her tremendous penance.
Lord Brahma then instructed Vashishtha to go to her in disguise and help in getting her initiated. He went to Chandrabhaga mountain in the guise of a brahmin and gave the mantra - OM NAMAH SHANKARAYA OM to her and also told her the methods of doing worship, then he returned back.
After sage Vashishtha who was disguised as brahmin went away. Sandhaya did penance as per his instructions. After the passing of one Chaturyuga, she had a darshan of lord Shiva.
Shiva being pleased by her devotion asked her to demand anything. Sandhya said-
"Nobody should have lust towards the member of his own clan. There should be no virtuous and chaste woman greater then me in this whole world. Anybody other than my husband who looks at me with evil intentions become an impotent man."
Lord Shiva blessed her by saying- 'Evamastu!'
Lord Shiva then categorised the life-span of a man into four parts - childhood, adolescence, youth and old age. He than told her that it was written in her destiny to die by burning. He also advised her to go and surrender her body in the sacrificial fire of the yagya, performed by Medhatithi. "Before jumping into the sacrificial fire, just remember anybody, whom you want as your husband, and your wish would be fulfilled in your next birth, when you would take birth as a daughter of Daksha Prajapati. Your father Daksha Prajapati would marry his 27 twenty daughter to Moon, but the moon would have affection only towards Rohini and rest of his wives would be neglected by him. For this reason he would be cursed by Daksha. All the deities would take your refuge."
After blessing Sandhya in the way lord Shiva went back to Kailash mountain.

SANDHYA BORN AS ARUNDHATI AND MARRIES SAGE VASHISHTHA
When lord Shiva went away. Sandhya got up and went to the place where Medhatithi was performing his yagya. She made a mental resolution to have that brahmin as her husband, who in reality was Vashishtha and then entered into the sacrificial fire. The fire of the yagya burnt her body and carried it ti the solar-system, where it was divided by the sun-god into three parts and established in his chariot. The names of these three parts were Pratah-Sandhya, Madhyanha-Sandhya and Sayam-Sandhya. Sandhya‘s vital force was absorbed by lord Shiva.
When the yagya ended, the sages were surprised to see the presence of a girl, who was radiating like gold in the sacrificial fire. They took out that girl child from that yagya-kunda. The sages then brought up that girl with love and affection. She was named Arundhati.
When she attained the age of five, Brahma Vishnu and Mahesg arrived and married her with Vashishtha. Arundhati enjoyed a happy life and became famous for her chastity.
Brahma told Narada that since the day he was humiliated by Shiva, he had grudges against him and wanted to take revenge. "I wanted to subdue the arrogance of Shiva by proving it to him that even he could be binded by attachment. I asked Daksha and sages like Mareech as to how this feat could be achieved. As a result 'Rati' and 'Kama' manifested. I instructed Kama to influence Shiva by his powers. Kama agreed but requested me to create a suitably divine women for Shiva. Myself and Daksha became worried and during that time we exhaled fragrant air through our nostrils, which resulted into the creation of spring season. The spring season was looking divinely beautiful in her physical form. I handed over her to Kama and thus all the three of them
(spring season, Kama and Rati) went to influence lord Shiva who was in his deep state of meditation.