I’m the host Narada Muni, and I’m a mythological character myself!
I have the gift of eternal life, and knowledge of the past, the present, and the future. I’m also the son of Brahma, the creator of the Universe. By profession, I’m a traveling musician and storyteller, so the way I’m doing my job is by podcast.
In every episode, I’ll bring you Stories from India from well known Indian Mythological epics like the Ramayan and Mahabharata, to folklore including the Panchatantra, Jataka Tales, Vikram and Betaal, Akbar and Birbal, Tenali Raman, and many other regional folk tales!
This is the introductory episode of the Stories from India podcast, where we talk about myths, legends, and folk tales from India.
I am your host – Narada Muni. I’m a traveling musician and a storyteller with the gift of all knowledge of the past, present, and future. So what better way to tell my stories than by podcast?
In this introductory episode, we’ll keep things short. So I’m just going to tell you a small story featuring ….. ME.
Yup, I’m a bonafide character from Indian mythos, I have the certificate of authenticity and everything. (Please believe me..)
So let’s get right down to it
I remember this as fresh as if it were yesterday, but it was actually several thousand years ago. I was curious about something. I’d just recently heard of Maya, a sanskrit word that means illusion, and I wanted to see a live example.
Naturally, I asked the people closest to me. And the people closest to me were part of the holy Trinity. Yup, that’s the company I keep. Brahma the creator who is also my father, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.
I didn’t want to ask Brahma because we were going through a bit of a phase then, him being angry with me for refusing to marry and all that – you know just some regular father-son disagreement.
I could have gone to Mt Kailas to ask Shiva, but just then I was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t want to teleport all the way there.
Instead, I asked Vishnu, who was my favorite.
Sure, I’d love to demonstrate, said Vishnu – but first won’t you fetch me a glass of water? my throat’s gone all dry.
You’re a god, I thought you don’t need water, I said and you can probably magick it, but whatever. I’ll get you some from the fridge.
Oh no, said Vishnu, I’d like water from that specific village over there. Go fetch it for me.
Seriously where did that village come from? It wasn’t there a moment ago.
Ok, ok, I’m going I said when Vishnu glared at me.
When I got to the village, I met a very charming girl there, we instantly fell for each other. We went on a few dates, our families met, then we got married (you can bet my Dad was happy).
I become a farmer, we had kids, and ours kids had kids. Life was good.
And yes…. I totally completely forgot about that glass of water.
One day as we were sitting by the fire, grandchildren on our knees(NOT named Vera Chuck and Dave), there was a massive thunderstorm. It was followed by a flood, and before I could do anything my whole family was washed away. I was completely helpless. I could do nothing to save them.
As I sat there weeping over all those memories of all that time I had spent with them, everything around me suddenly changed, like a curtain was being cast aside.
if you’ve seen the Avengers movies and if you remember the scene where Thanos uses the reality stone – that’s exactly what was going on here.
There was Vishnu standing right next to me and asking me for his glass of water.
In this demonstration of Maya I had experienced a whole lifetime in just an ordinary couple of minutes.
Such was the power of Vishnu’s Maya, even though I could have done with a gentler demonstration.
So let this story serve as a disclaimer. If some of my actions appear questionable in future episodes, remember that it is because I’ve had a traumatic past!
To be fair though, since I’d had knowledge of the future I should have foreseen what Vishnu was going to do and guarded myself against it. Exactly like Doctor Strange with the time stone.
I did make an immediate mental note to myself to definitely ask Shiva next time I needed something demonstrated…
That’s all I have on that story for this week.
Notes
A couple of quick notes.
The little quarrel I referred to between me and Dad, we’ll probably cover that in a later episode.
There are some slight parallels between this story and a few other demonstrations of power in myths and legends around the world. However, unlike most of those stories this one ends differently, in the sense that things aren’t reset completely – I never got to meet my wife and all those kids and grandkids again. How could I? They were all just part of the illusion.
Instead I came away amazed at Vishnu’s power.
Feedback?
Having lived for several thousands of years, its natural for my memory to be imperfect at times. So if you see any errors in my podcast, please point them out to me.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave a comment or a review on the site – its sfipodcast.com, the site is also linked in the show notes, and our twitter handle is @sfipodcast
I’d like to thank my family and friends – there are far too many to call out individually. everyone has shown incredible support ever since I announced that I’d be doing this podcast.
Next Week
Remember to tune in next week for the first full episode. If you subscribe you can be notified automatically when a new episode is available.
Next week’s episode is Unicorn Fish, and the creature feature is either a giant bird or a man with wings
See you next week
One thought on “Episode 0: Rock Star”
This is a brilliant idea for a podcast! I like the story, and the new style of presenting it. I am curious about the Narada and Brahma quarrel
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