Why gamble on diwali?

Parvati and Shiv are believed to have played dice. But it is not an easy game, so why play at all? Because, if Shiv did not play, there would be no universe. The constant configuration, destruction and recreation of the cosmos are part of a continual process. Depending on whether what is in progress is Creation or Dissolution, Shiv performs either the Anand Tandav, dance of bliss, or the Rudra Tandav, dance of agitation. Meantime, the cosmic couple is either separated, or is coming back together in erotic reunion, in a cosmic flux.

Though it is Shiv who loses the game of dice most of the time, it is not failure on his part, for each attempt to become whole is a pilgrimage towards the original union, the Big Bang - although recreating the exact primordial circumstances that led to the first creative burst is difficult, with change being a constant. Divine Play is Cosmic Lila on a grand scale, where the grand illusion means there is no room for exactitudes.

Mythical accounts abound of how Parvati would pay nocturnal visits to her temples to play dice. One such story is set in Kathmandu, where Parvati as the deity Taleju, would play dice with King Jaya Prakash Malla. Whatever be the dynamics of the Shiv-Shakti relationship and extent of play, without their lila, there would be neither phenomenology nor ontology.


Gambling during Deepavali is considered auspicious, not the least because it emulates - however weakly - the cosmic interplay of Parvati and Shiv. It's not about winning or losing but how you play the game.