Once Shiva was preaching Saptarishi and His other disciples. Rishi Bhringi came to meet Shiva and asked, why its necessary to worship Parvati along with Him?
Shiva called Parvati and seated Her near Himself. He then enlightened everybody with the importance of female element in the world. He even said that He is incomplete without Shakti. The law of nature is the harmony between male and female and this world is made by the union of both.
Lesson for Rishi Bhringi
Bhringi rishi neglected the words of Shiva and still considered that males are superior over females. According to him, there was no need to worship Parvati if you were a devotee of Shiva.
After preaching, Saptarishi wished to circle around (Parikrama) Shiva and Parvati. Rishi Bhringi also did the same but he did parikrama of Shiva only. This was the act to prove that he don’t need the blessings of Parvati in his life. Parvati felt insulted but she didn’t react.
To impart more humiliation, rishi Bhringi requested to do parikrama one more time. Shiva and Parvati took Ardhanarishwar form. They wanted to prove that both Shiva and Shakti are the parts of single body and they should not be treated separate.
In the Ardhanarishwar form, it was impossible to do parikrama of any single body. But Bhringi rishi was clever. He became a fly and circle around Shiva in vertical direction. This way he proved that he won’t accept Parvati as worshipable.
Parvati understood that Bhringi is arrogant and he need to learn the importance of female element in the world. She blessed Bhringi with a boon of his desires to be away from all female elements.
She said, “You just proved that you don’t require the female element in your life. So I bless you that you will be left with male elements only and all the female elements will leave your life.”
With the effects of boon, all the 5 elements of nature (Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Sky) left the body of Bhringi and he got converted into pile of ash.
Our whole body is made by nature which is a female. She is our mother and if you can’t respect your mother, what’s the meaning of respecting God.
Bhringi learned the lesson and realized his mistake. He requested Parvati to give him one more chance of self improvement. Parvati recalled all the 5 elements and Bhringi got his body back.
