Goddess Sati and Goddess Parvati's journey to unite with Lord Shiva

As per the Shiva Puran,Goddess Sati and Lord Shiva resided at Mount Kailash. Mount Kailash is a holy part of the Himalayan mountain ranges which was rule by a king named Himvat and his wife Mena. When Goddess Sati and Lord Shiva were married, Mena was Sati's caretaker.Mena and Himavat were like parental figures to Sati,the wife of Shiva. Whenever Sati sported in the mountains, Mena and Himavat used to take care of her. Mena regarded Sati as her own daughter, so much that Sati started manifesting that she should be born as a blood daughter to Himvat and Mena in the next birth.

Furthering the story as per the Shand Puran,post Sati's death, Shiva stayed away from Sati for 21 manvantras,post these stated 21 manvantras,Goddess Parvati took birth. Goddess Shakti took multiple births to be with Lord Shiva,and in her last 21st birth she prayed to take form as Lord Daksh's daughter,Sati across lifetimes in the form of either the elder or younger daughter. Post the 21 manvantras, Lord Shiva realises that Parvati is his consort and since childhood,he has been guided towards the fact that Shiva and Shakti have to unite. Thus, all the demi-gods,rishimunis go to Lord Himavat to advice him that Parvati should tie the knot with Shiva. At the time, when Parvati was being convinced by these demi gods, she quickly got convinced toward the fact that how Lord Shiva is her divine counterpart. This urged Parvati to go and conduct her dedications to Lord Shiva, without any greed and wants, in the form of offerings of fruits to Lord Shiva post his meditation sessions for his consumption, also, when Lord Shiva felt the heat, Parvati waved the fan for him to beat the heat and comfort him. Lord Shiva was quietly noticing these silent offerings of Parvati. Therefore,Lord Shiva put Goddess Parvati to test in order to check whether she had an ego as equal to Goddess Shakti; because Goddess Shakti self immolated herself due to the fact that,she gave into her father's sacrifice, demanding that her husband be acknowledged. When that did not happen, she jumped into a fire born of righteous anger. To avoid the similar situation to Goddess Shakti, Lord Shiva questions Goddess Parvati's intentions to which he clarifies saying that " I am least interested in your efforts,why do you bother to persuade me". To this Goddess Parvati replies saying, "Until the time Shiva and Shakti do not emerge as one, Shiva and Parvati will not be happy."

Alongside this story,there was a parallel story running in the background. The devils (Rakshas) were troubling the Gods(Devtas) and one of devils that stood out in this story was Tarakasur. Now,Tarakasur took birth on the premise that only Lord Shiva's son can kill him.Unaware of the fact that Goddess Parvati has already taken birth as a form of Goddess Shakti,made Tarakasur take advantage of the situation,started a whole rampage of wringing his arms and swore to kill all the asuras, charging against them and killing a billion of them even as he ran. Thus, Goddess Parvati convinced Lord Shiva to get married to her, birth a son and destroy Tarakasur to stop these killings.

Let us unravel Goddess Parvati's side of the story. Mena,Himvat's wife,goes with her sisters to Swet Deep,is a water body,the place where Lord Vishnu resides. In the same premises, there was an other God that resided there named Sanak who looked like a 5 year old child. Lord Sanak was ignored by Mena and her sisters when they go to visit the Swet Deep,the island of Lord Vishnu in the Ocean of Milk. This angered Sanak as everybody in the assembly stood up and bowed to them except for the three sisters. He yelled out saying, “Even though you are the daughters of the Pitrs, you still show such disrespect! Everyone bowed to us except for you. You sisters are foolish, ignorant, and don’t have any wisdom. Thus, I curse you that you will be forced to leave Swarga and will be born on Earth as humans,” cursed Sanak. The three sisters get petrified and request Sanak to forgive them, so Sanak changes his mind and gives them a blessing instead that the oldest of all will become the wife of Himavat. Parvati will be their daughter. The second daughter Dhanya will be a Yogini and the wife of Janaka. Sita will be their daughter. The youngest daughter Kalavati will become the wife of Vrishbhanu Gopa. Radha will be their daughter. Mena's daughter, Parvati will become the wife of Shiva. Dhanya, her daughter Sita will be the wife of Rama. And Kalavati,her daughter Radha shall be a companion of Krishna.

Further, Sanak kumar, the Lord who cursed Mena, got a premonition that a big war was going to occur in which the Gods will lose the battle, hence he takes an oath to fight this war and make the Gods win, to which Sanak kumar takes a rebirth to become Parvati's son,Karttikeya.

Circling back to Goddess Parvati and her performed austerities to convince Lord Shiva to accept her as his wife included her to follow a strict regime of range of austerities performed by the Goddess. On seeing all of this, the Demi Gods get surprised that no male God has been performed for such austerities that Goddess Parvati has undertaken for Lord Shiva. The prayer that Goddess Parvati undertakes is solely for the fact that if Shiva and Shakti come together,and merge as one,the whole world will benefit, rather than it been seen as her ulterior motives. The Demi Gods question Parvati on why is she undertaking the arduous struggle for Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is intimated of this austerity performed by Goddess Parvati and he decides to question Parvati and thus, questions her that "Why are you leaving sandalwood and putting on a mud mask", "I am an Aghori, I wear tiger's skin", this exasperates Parvati and thus, she readies herself to jump into the fire, immediately Shiva stops Parvati and asks her to be his consort. This became the moment Shiva and Parvati come into unison.