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To awaken Shiva from his trance, all the beauty of this world took the form of a woman. Parvati is Nature, Prakriti, and from her union with the Eternal Purusha, a being is to be born who will defeat evil. Parvati is the soul of us all, human beings searching for God. He is destined to met Him and unite with Him. Yet for attaining Him, whom Kama's weapon cannot touch, in a fierce effort she has herself to become the bow, stretched to the extreme, and the arrow, solely pointed at Him. Although She is the great goddess, in order to take her right place on Shiva's lap She has to give up entirely what She was. What a paradox that for conquering the supreme Soul the divine Mother must throw herself into the fire of sacrifice! Even for Her, there is a price to pay, as it were. It is why this story had been called a "supreme fable": it reveals a great secret of human life and demonstrates the nature of action. The present monograph presents an episode of the life of the goddess as recounted by Kalidasa n his epic Kumarasambhava. The poet describes one of the greatest instruments used by ancient Indian seekers in their quest, the method of Tapasya, here undertaken by Parvati herself for the sake of love. Tapasya can be said to include three stage. Firstly, one clearly sees and comprehends that a sacrifice is necessary to achieve one's object. Secondly, one determines to give oneself in sacrifice: integral self-giving, concentration of the will, and gathering of all the different parts of the being around one's purpose are included in this stage. When this is achieved, the desired object is finally attained and the tapaswini or tapaswini experiences a feeling of renewed energy, inner fulfillment and harmony. He or she plunges into great depths of joy and ecstasy. This onograph is aimed at presenting this key-element in ancient Indian culture, and how it could be seen and described through the eyes of a great artist.