Category: Cosmic Tales
Narrative, editorial astrology — stories that illuminate the sky.
The First Day: How Brahma Created the World
In the beginning there was the water. Endless, still, dark — not the darkness of the night after the day but the darkness before any light had been invented, the darkness that is the absence of the…
The Letter That Changed Everything: Krishna and Rukmini
Rukmini was the princess of Vidarbha, and she had heard about Krishna. In the way that information travels in a world of royal courts and travelling scholars and merchants who carry news with their…
The Demon Who Almost Touched Shiva: The Bhasmasura Story
Bhasmasura had performed severe austerities for years, accumulating the kind of merit that demands a reward. When Shiva appeared before him and asked what he wanted, he had his answer ready. The boon…
The First Meeting: Rama and Hanuman
Sugriva, the monkey king in exile, had watched from his hiding place on Mount Rishyamuka as two strangers approached through the forest. They were clearly not ordinary beings — their bearing was that…
The Handful of Puffed Rice: Krishna and Sudama
Sudama and Krishna had been students together under the sage Sandipani, in the years before Sudama’s life became what it became and before Krishna’s life became what it became. They had shared the…
When a Man Became King of Heaven: The Story of Nahusha
Indra had done something terrible: he had killed Vritra, who was a brahmin, and the killing of a brahmin is the gravest sin in the tradition. Never mind that Vritra was a demon and was terrorizing…
The General of the Gods: Kartikeya and the War with Tarakasura
Tarakasura’s boon was specific: he could only be killed by a son of Shiva. The logic was tactical — he had correctly calculated that Shiva, sealed in asceticism and grief after Sati’s death, would…
The Eagle Who Was Born for Freedom: The Story of Garuda
The story begins with a bet between sisters. Kadru and Vinata were both wives of the sage Kashyapa. Kadru was the mother of the serpents — the nagas, the divine snake beings who populate the…
Lotus and Ocean: Lakshmi and Vishnu’s Eternal Bond
She was born from the churning of the cosmic ocean. This should be understood in its full strangeness: the gods and demons had been pulling Vasuki back and forth around Mount Mandara, agitating the…
The First Song: Saraswati and the Birth of Knowledge
In the very beginning, when Brahma had just set the worlds in motion, there was a problem that had no name because names didn’t exist yet. The universe was full — full of matter and energy and the…