In the passages leading up to this section, Kama is instructed to go and use his arrows to tempt Shiva into falling for Parvati. She is said to be the reincarnation of his previous wife, who cast herself into a fire after her father disrespected Shiva. Furthermore, it was said that their child would be able to overcome a great evil. And so, for all these reasons, it was encouraged that Shiva should take Parvati as his wife. However, he had gone into meditation after the death of his wife and could not be roused out of it to take any interest in Parvati. So, Kama was sent to fix this. He showed up and, at first, not even Kama’s powerful arrows could interrupt Shiva - Not until Shiva was distracted by Parvati’s arrival to honor him. In that moment, Kama shot Shiva and he was overcome with desire from merely looking at her. In this moment, he realized the sudden change within himself was unnatural and looked around for the source of it, only to find Kama hidden nearby. The story from there goes as follows:

Nārada said:—
O Brahmā, the most fortunate one, what happened then? Be pleased to tell me that story that destroys our sins altogether.

Brahmā said:—
O dear one, hear the story of what happened thereafter. Out of love for me I shall recount Śiva’s sports that bring about joy. On seeing the dissipation of His courage, lord Śiva, the great Yogin, thought within Himself wondering much. Śiva said:— How is it that obstacles have cropped up while I am performing the great penance? Who can be that wicked person who has made my mind highly perturbed? With love I have described in bad taste another man’s woman. I have contravened rules of virtue and transgressed the bounds of the Vedas.

Brahmā said:—
After thinking like this, the great Yogin, the goal of the good, surveyed all round, his suspicion having been aroused. He saw Kāma stationed on His left side with his bow fully drawn and ready to discharge the arrow. Kāma was haughty and so was very senseless. O Nārada, on seeing Kāma in that attitude, instantaneously anger was aroused in lord Śiva, the supreme soul. O sage, standing high up in the air, holding the arrow and the bow, Kāma discharged his arrow, usually unerring on Śiva. The infallible weapon became futile on the great lord. The furious weapon calmed down in regard to the great soul, Śiva. Kāma was frightened when his weapon failed, Standing there and seeing lord Śiva, the conqueror of death in front, he trembled. O great sage, when his endeavour became futile, Kāma who was frightened much remembered Indra and all other gods.

O great sage, remembered by Kāma, Indra and other gods came there, bowed to and eulogised Śiva. When the gods eulogised thus, a great flame of fire sprang up from the third eye of the infuriated Śiva. That fire originating instantaneously from the eye in the middle of His forehead blazed with flames shooting up and resembling the fire of final dissolution in refulgence. After shooting up in the sky, it fell on the ground and rolled over the earth all round. Even before the gods had the time to say “Let him be forgiven, let him be excused” it reduced Kāma to ashes.

When the heroic Kāma was thus slain, the gods became miserable. In their agitation they lamented much and saying “O what has happened?” they cried aloud. With pallid face and limbs, the extremely agitated daughter of the king of mountains returned to her palace taking the maids along with her. Due to the misery on account of the death of her husband, Rati fell down unconscious, as if dead. When she regained consciousness after a while, Rati in her great agitation lamented loudly and said:—

Rati said:—
“What shall I do? Where can I go? What is it that the gods have done in making my husband a victim thus? They have called him here and destroyed him. O! O! O lord Kāma, dearer to me than my vital airs, O bestower of happiness, what has happened here? Ha, Ha, my dear, my dear!”

Brahmā said:—
Lamenting thus and crying out various piteous words she beat with her hands, kicked with her legs and plucked her hairs. O Nārada, on hearing her lamentation even the beasts and residents of the forest, nay all the immobile trees and bushes became miserable. In the meantime Indra and other gods remembered lord Śiva and consoled Rati saying as follows:—

The gods said:—
Take some ashes and preserve them. With effort check your fear. The lord will resuscitate your lover. You will regain your lover again. There is none who gives us happiness or misery. All enjoy and experience the fruit of what they do. In vain do you curse the gods.

Brahmā said:—
After consoling Rati thus, all the gods approached Śiva and propitiated Him. With great devotion they spoke these words to Him.

The gods said:—
O lord, O great god, favourably disposed to those who seek refuge in you, be pleased to listen to these well intended words of ours. O Śiva, be pleased to ponder over the action of Kāma. O lord Śiva, there is no tinge of selfishness in what Kāma has done. O lord, he had been induced to do so by all the gods harassed by the wicked Tāraka. O Śiva, please know that it is not otherwise. O lord, the chaste Rati is lonely and miserable now. O lord Śiva, she is in great lamentation, O bestower of everything, please console her. If you have finally disposed off Kāma, O Śiva, you are desirous of annihilating all the gods by means of your fury. On seeing the distress of Rati, the gods are almost doomed. Hence you must remove the distress of Rati.

Brahmā said:—
On hearing their words, lord Śiva was pleased. He said this to all the gods.

Śiva said:—
O gods, O sages, all of you listen attentively to my words. What has happened, thanks to my fury, cannot be altered. The lord Kāma, the husband of Rati, shall remain bodiless till Viṣṇu incarnates as Kṛṣṇa on the earth and marries Rukmiṇī. Kṛṣṇa will beget Kāma in Rukmiṇī when he goes to Dvārakā25 and begins to procreate children. His name will certainly be Pradyumna. The demon Sambara will abduct the boy at the time of his very birth. After abducting the boy, the great demon, Śambara, will throw him in the sea. The foolish fellow will take him for dead and will return to his city. O Rati, you shall stay in his city till then. There alone you will get back your husband Pradyumna. Kāma in the name of Pradyumna will regain his wife after killing Śambara in a battle. O gods, he will be happy thereafter. After taking all the valuable properties of Śambara, O gods, he will go to the city again along with her. These words of mine are true.

Brahmā said—
On hearing these words of Śiva, the gods heaved a sigh of relief. Joining their palms in reverence and bowing to Him they said:— This town, associated with Lord Kṛṣṇa, is situated in Kathiawar.

The gods said:—
“O great god, lord of the gods, O lord, the ocean of mercy, please resuscitate Kāma quickly. O Śiva, save the life of Ratī.”

Brahmā said:—
On hearing these words of the gods, great God became delighted. The lord of all, the ocean of mercy, spoke again.

Śiva said:—
O gods, I am delighted. I shall resuscitate Kāma within myself. He will be one of my Gaṇas and will sport about always. O gods, this story should not be narrated in the presence of any one. All of you return to your abodes. I shall destroy all miseries.

Brahmā said:—
After saying this Rudra vanished even as the gods were eulogising Him. The gods became delighted and free from mental suspense. O sage, abiding by the directions of Śiva and consoling Rati by means of the conciliatory words of Śiva, the gods returned to their respective places. O excellent sage, then Rati, the wife of Kāma went to the city and waited for the time mentioned by Siva.

--- Shiva Purana 19:1 - 52, J. L. Shastri Translation

In this passage, we see an interesting story about the nature of desire and the conversation such things have with the will of the divine. There are many who focus on different parts of this story and use it to talk about the idea of overcoming “sin” or in achieving states of purity above the average human experience. This is something that we see as valued in many religions, including in Orphism and in Gnosticism, both of which put an emphasis on giving up worldly pleasures in order to achieve a higher state of enlightenment. It is through the incredible power of the divine - Particularly of Shiva’s divine fury - that we can completely destroy such worldly desires.

But, in addition to this interpretation, we can also see the story of the dangers of indulging too much in the divine and in forgetting the place of something like desire in our world. It is, after all, the will of the other gods that Kama did what he did and his destruction led, through the mourning of his wife, to the misery of the whole world.

Overall, this story speaks a lot to the same kinds of values and discussions we see with a god like Dionysus, who is known for his association with many material and earthly desires and whose veneration of those things was not only sacred, but was explicitly demanded by him in the mythology, to the point that he would seek retribution on those who tried to deny his devotees his worship. But likewise, we also have many stories that talk about the overindulgence of these things and the pitfalls that humanity can face without some degree of self-control. Desire, like many aspects of human life, is necessary and many of the ancient texts tell us that we are meant to indulge in some capacity in these things, but there is a time and a place for it and we must learn to work with the complexity of our duty to the divine.

I bring you the following questions to think about for today's discussion.
These are just things to get the discussion started and you can feel free to explore other ideas or thoughts if you have them:

• The god Kama is a representation of things like love, but can also be seen as a sort of manifestation of worldly desires in general and his role in the Hindu mythology is almost something of a tempting spirit, although without being seen as a strictly malevolent entity. In what ways does this god relate to our understanding of GrecoRoman gods like Eros? How are they the same? How are they different? What kinds of values can we understand each of their respective cultures having based on how those gods are regarded?
• What stories do we have in other traditions that also talk about things like temptation, desire or indulgence? What gods feature prominently in those stories? Do we see overlap in aspects or features of certain gods in this story with those other ones? How might this relate to the way people of Alexander the Great’s time saw the relationship between Shiva and Dionysus? How do you think synchronicities like this might help or hinder someone’s understanding of a particular practice outside of their own?
• As mentioned, many people look at this myth not as a story about the values of indulgence, but rather as a victory for Shiva in overcoming impurity. How does one or the other interpretation of these texts talk about the values of the person reading them that way? What do the conflicting interpretations say about how we read ancient texts and understand them? Do one of these interpretations speak more to you personally, or do you find yourself getting something entirely different from the text? How might historical context or alternative translations change how we interact with this text?

I encourage you to pick something that you usually consider an indulgence or a non-necessity that you can give up for a period of time - Can be a day, can be a couple days. Whatever feels right for you - and spend some time not engaging with that thing. Spend some time thinking about how this experience of giving something up makes you feel - Does giving up that thing improve your life? Does it make you sad or frustrated that you can’t have it? Does it make you appreciate the thing more? If you end up feeling good about having that thing in your life, spend some time focusing on the gratitude that you feel for it and offer your gratitude to the deity most connected with it, if that is relevant to you. If it’s something that you feel you’re better off without, taking some time to thank the gods who brought it to you for the time you had with it and come up with a plan to remove it from your life.