Every travelers sight to behold

This story is dedicated to the part of us which is a child forever.

The story features in an era, millions of years ago. A date, that ages back even before the first human ‘Lord Manu’ was born. The world was filled with trees, animals, rivers and everything that the nature could offer about. The ecology was evolving. The lions ate the goats, the goats ate the grass, the crows ate the lions. Creatures of beasts and beauties lived along. ‘Kashi’, the Mountain was the King of the creatures.

Yes. You read it right. This was the time when, the Mountains were the Royals.

The mighty mountain was the main destination where all creatures gathered around. It was the place where the meetings of the beasts and beauties were held. It was full of life. A perfect sync of the flora and fauna. With its unique power to fly, the enormous winged ‘Kashi’ ensured that it sustained the lives of the creatures living on it. The mountain knew the requirements of its subjects and its subjects never missed an opportunity to praise their lord.

The Saptarishis’ and Lord Indra (the King of the God’s) were pleased with the mutual existence of life on Earth and specifically felt satisfied with Kashi’s rule. They created more mountains.

Days and years passed by, under the able rule of Kashi. Parallelly, Kashi’s dynasty also grew large. They flew around and they were all over the world. 

Kashi was turning old and split his vast dynasty amongst his lineage to rule the area they covered. As it happens in the Kali yuga today, not every mountain had the caring nature of Kashi. Each mountain started to boast off their ability, their might and waged war against one another. They became arrogant and concentrated on showcasing their power. Thus, the subjects were forgotten.

The very own spectacle of nature, the Mountains, started creating ruckus. They killed the animals, dried the rivers and uprooted the trees to show the might. It was all going beyond control. Kashi couldn’t do anything. Lord Brahma, was furious seeing the destruction, that one of his creation was forging on many of his other marvel creations. He decided to destroy the mountains.

Kashi couldn’t bear to think of the fate of his dynasty. He prayed Lord Indra to stop Lord Brahma from destroying his clan. He offered to sacrifice his wings.

Lord Indra was moved by Kashi’s penance. He contemplated a plan to save the mountains. On the D-day, when Lord Brahma descended to Earth to destroy the mountains, Lord Indra casted a counter-spell to cover the mountains. Lord Brahma however, cast his spell and shattered it. The wings of every mountain on Earth was gone. The travel of the mountains was shunted. They became immovable. They stayed motionless across the world. Lord Indra had smartly played his part.

Lord Indra by saving the mountains from destruction, fulfilled his promise made to Kashi. On the other hand, he let Lord Brahma to destroy the wings which was the sole source of the Mountains arrogance.

Kashi thanked Lord Indra for his mercy and all the mountains realized their mistake. They pleaded to Lord Brahma to return their wings.

Lord Brahma blessed the mountains and said in Brahmese (his language) “Thatho thin ah na travelaoe. Leve, Huma nu paka varu. Nu travelaoe suare partu”.  Saying that Lord Brahma disappeared. 

Lord Brahma’s words loosely translated in English denotes that “You may not be able to travel henceforth, but there will be a clan in the next era called Human. They will travel around and they will see you. You will be a pleasure to watch from a distance. You will be an indispensable eyesight as part of their travels. You will be worshiped and be drawn by every child born and revered as a masterpiece.”

This, is the magnificent story of how the mighty mountains became motionless, yet they being an integral sight of every traveler. Think of a long distance travel without them, it feels deserted.

For every mountain out there,

Beholding a moment of every journey of mine.

Divya Venkatesan.