Realm of the Goddess

by Sabina Khan

  We slept soundly through the night and awoke to the happy squeals of children running around. After a breakfast of bananas, our former captors waved us over to where they sat on their haunches looking at another drawing they had made in the sand. As Shiv and I joined them, we realized they were showing us the way to get to the temple. Apparently it was accessible only through a series of caves and tunnels. Then the drawings became quite graphic. We saw bodies that had been torn apart by enormous wild-looking creatures. At first I was confused but soon I realized what I was seeing. The passage to the temple was guarded and the bodies were those of others who had attempted to get there. Over the centuries numerous people must have tried to get to the temple and the sword. Even without tangible proof, there were always those who believed. The Sword of Knowledge, as Kali’s weapon was referred to in the many accounts I had read, was known to have many powers. One of those was the power to do away with evil and ignorance. This must have made it attractive to both good and bad people. After all, who wouldn’t want to have such glory?

  If the two men had intended to alarm us with their drawings, they had succeeded. But one look at Shiv and I knew that like me, nothing was going to deter him from trying. On the other hand, it was good that we knew what to expect. The last thing we needed was a surprise attack while we were in the caves.

  We gathered our meager belongings and followed the men back into the forest. We had no way of knowing just how far we were going, but we were grateful nonetheless for having personal guides. We ended up walking for about three hours with a break for some coconut water and mangoes. It was a nice change from the bananas we’d been eating since we got there. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be eating that particular fruit for a long time after we got back home.

  After that it wasn’t long before we came to a clearing. There, a few feet from the center, was a large rock covered in shrubs growing right out of it. The sides were also covered by greenery, and as far as I could see there was no entrance of any kind. Puzzled, I turned to the two men. They pointed to the rock and said something. I didn’t understand most of it, but one word was perfectly clear. Kali.

  Shiv and I went closer to the rock, looking for a way in. The vines of whatever plants were growing on top stretched all the way across the top and down the sides. I tugged at one of them but it was thick, with a diameter of about an inch. Unfortunately, upon touching it I realized it also had tiny, sharp thorns. I quickly let go of the vine and looked at my fingers. There were tiny puncture marks with blood dotting the tips. Other than a little stinging, I was fine.

  “You okay there, Callie?” Shiv asked. “Looks like the entrance is pretty well concealed. We’ll have to cut through.”

  I nodded, turning around to look at the two men. They hadn’t moved from where they’d been standing a few moments ago. When I gestured to them to come and help us, they shrank back. Clearly they had come as far as they were willing to go. I walked back over to them and Shiv followed. Since words were not an option for me, I communicated my deep gratitude by putting my arms around first one and then the other man. When I pulled away, the looks on their faces were priceless. They smiled, their embarrassment evident in their downcast eyes. I hoped they knew just how much they had helped. After a moment they began to retreat into the forest. I waved and then they were gone, swallowed up by the dense vegetation. We were on our own.

  “Okay, so I’m going to cut the vines. Hopefully there’s an opening in there somewhere.” Shiv pulled his dagger from the waistband of his jeans and walked purposefully toward the rock. I rummaged in the backpack for my Swiss Army knife. I watched as Shiv slashed a couple of the vines closest to him and then made his way down toward the ground. I started hacking away with my little blade in another spot. After a few minutes I turned to look at where Shiv was working. He had made a lot more headway than me, but there was still no trace of any sort of entrance. It was getting dark and I was worried that we would end up spending the night out here. It was frustrating because we were so close. We worked as fast as we could and then suddenly Shiv called out.

  “I found something.”

  I scampered over. Sure enough, there was an opening, still partially covered by thorny vines, but large for a person to squeeze through. I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, a break.

  “I’ll go first,” Shiv said, grabbing the backpack and pushing his way through the entrance. I followed as soon as he was fully inside. It was pitch black, and I was glad that Shiv still had a working flashlight. An added bonus was that my pendant began to glow as soon as I entered the cave. A pattern was clear. The skull pendant would glow and emit heat whenever I was in danger. Now it didn’t get warm, and the light was blue rather than red. Based on prior incidents, red was for those times when I was in mortal danger and blue for when I just needed some help. I counted my blessings for the handy little skull pendant. The light cast an eerie glow on the walls of the cave, bathing everything in a bluish hue. It also bounced around as I walked, making me feel slightly nauseated. I took it off, thinking it might be better to hold it by the string like a little lantern. But as soon as I dropped it from my fingers to let it dangle, the light went out. That was weird. I picked it back up. The light came back on. Shiv turned to me in confusion.

  “What are you doing?” he whispered, his voice echoing off the cave walls.

  “The pendant...watch this.” I demonstrated.

  “Huh...I guess it has to touch your skin to work.”

  We walked along the narrow passage, the walls cold and hard whenever we brushed up against them. The light from the pendant and the flashlight was enough to prevent us from slamming into the rock or each other as we carefully navigated the unexpected twists and turns. Eventually the passage widened, opening up into a fairly large chamber. I almost tripped over something as soon as we came out of the narrow part and shone my light on it. A scream escaped me as I looked in horror at a skull on the floor. Shiv shone his flashlight all around and we both gasped. There were more skulls and other assorted bones strewn all over the ground. I looked at the pendant. The light was still blue, not red. Hopefully this meant that no wild creatures were lying in wait to kill us and rip our limbs off. But something had killed all these people. I counted at least twelve skulls and didn’t bother with the other bones. I wondered who they’d been...these people who had dared to come in here, risking their lives. I couldn’t help thinking that this might very well be a trap, one set by Mahisha or his minions. They could have led us to believe that the locals were being helpful, when in fact they were leading us straight to our deaths. I could feel the paranoid thoughts threatening to take over, and right now, here in this dark cave, so close to my goal, I was not about to allow that to happen. So I took a deep breath and stood up straight.

  “Callie...come here and take a look at this,” Shiv called out. He was pointing his flashlight at something on the wall. I went over and pointed my pendant to the same spot. What I saw rendered me speechless. The entire wall was covered in drawings, scenes of battle alive with vibrant colors. They depicted the gods and goddesses of ancient lore in battle with the demons.

  “Who do you think did these, Shiv?” I asked breathlessly, stunned by the vivid details.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like this. It couldn’t be the locals...they were too afraid to come near.”

  “Well,” I said, running my fingers along the wall, “it must be really old, so maybe things were different back then.”

  “When we get back we’re going to have to ask the Elders about this,” Shiv said, walking alongside the wall until it ended and a new one began. I followed closely, shining my light just above his head.

  I realized that the drawings were divided into panels, each depicting a particular scene. Most of the stories they told were old, familiar ones from my childhood. Here was Brahma creating the world, populating it with plants, animals and insects. In a next panel he was giving them seven gifts: the sense of touch, taste, smell, sight
, hearing, the power to move and the power to reproduce. In another he was riding a lotus boat, enjoying the wonders of his own creation.

  I moved on, and now I was looking at a drawing of Brahma dividing himself and creating Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge. Together they created humans and endowed them with the seven gifts, plus an additional one, the power of reason.

  “This is so amazing,” I said, still unable to process what I was seeing. “I can’t believe this has been here for centuries and no one has discovered this place.”

  I walked ahead, stepping carefully over a skull. As I shone my light on the next panel I saw the Immortals granting boons to humans. The humans in turn worshipped them, made sacrifices to them, sometimes animals, sometimes young girls. I shuddered to think that there was a time when killing an innocent child was considered an act of worship.

  I moved on, and there was Mahisha begging to be made Immortal. Then he was depicted in all his wrath after his request was denied. He hadn’t always been the bad guy. He had spent years in prayer and meditation, all so that he could be granted a boon. In his eyes it must have been the Immortals’ arrogance that prevented them from giving him what he felt he deserved. The ultimate betrayal. I looked at the next few panels in horror as they told the story of Mahisha after he had turned into a demon. He had unleashed his massive army upon unsuspecting mortals, men, women and children alike. As his terrible deeds grew, so did his might.

  I turned a corner with Shiv close behind me now. Neither of us spoke. The panels on this wall told the story of the trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as they met to discuss the problem of Mahisha’s growing power. It told of the creation of Kali as she sprang forth from the fire poured from the mouths of the gods in anger. She was born with multiple arms, in each of which the gods put the weapons with which she would destroy Mahisha.

  I looked long and hard at the drawing. The goddess was glorious in her power and beauty. Her eyes blazed with purpose. She sat tall and erect on her lion as she rode into battle, ready to destroy evil, prepared to defend humanity. I continued down along the wall, watching as Kali fought valiantly against Mahisha and he escaped each of her attempts to destroy him, first by changing into a lion, then a man, then a buffalo. We had come to the last panel and stopped in front of it. As I studied it, I realized that this must be the only account of what had really happened in that battle. For centuries it had been believed that Kali had cut off the head of the buffalo-demon, as Mahisha was usually referred to. All the ancient religious texts and the stories that I’d heard as a child told the tale of Mahisha’s destruction at the hands of a most powerful goddess. This definitely shed a different light on things. It was all becoming clearer.

  “Callie, I think we should keep moving. Judging by the skulls, I think we’re lucky we’re still alive.” I couldn’t agree more.

  We kept moving. The chamber narrowed into another seemingly endless stretch of tunnel. When we finally reached the exit, it was dark. Thankfully, because the trees were not quite as dense as in other parts of the forest, the moonlight and the stars provided some light. It was enough to see the hill in the distance and the temple perched on top of it. A sudden burst of energy made us both run up to where steps had been carved into the hillside.

  “I can’t believe it’s held up so well,” Shiv said when we reached the top.

  I could only stare up at the spires rising majestically into the starlit sky.

  “I can’t believe they had the tools to do such intricate carvings such a long time ago,” I said, completely awestruck.

  As we walked up to the main entrance I saw the traditional mandala design on the floor, a square intersecting a circle. I knew that each point of intersection had a special significance. I vaguely remembered a story my dad had told me of how the mandala became so crucial to the design of the temple.

  I tried to remember the details. It was something to do with Shiva sweating in the midst of a fierce battle. A drop of his sweat fell on the ground and from it sprang a tremendous demon that proceeded to destroy everything in its path. To stop him, several gods had to join forces. In fact, once they had overcome him, they had to sit on different parts of his body so that he could not rise again. This became the basis of the belief that a temple had to be constructed in a particular way so as not to allow any evil to enter.

  Nice theory, I thought. Clearly it didn’t work so well or there wouldn’t be demons running amok right now.

  We looked up at the ornate arched double doors. We tried to open them but they wouldn’t budge. There was no lock or anything, so I wasn’t sure what was keeping them closed. I looked around for any hidden latches but found nothing. I tried to channel the Relic Hunter, one of my mom’s guilty pleasures. She would have found a way to get in by now.

  “Shiv,” I called out over my shoulder, “I’m going to look at the carvings again and see if there’s some sort of a clue there.”

  “Okay, Callie,” Shiv replied, walking away. “I’m going to check for another way in. The front can’t be the only entrance.” I barely caught the last of his words as disappeared around the back.

  I turned my attention to the carvings. They seemed ordinary, typical of any Kali temple around the world. They depicted Kali on her lion, with a snake wrapped around one of her six arms. Further down the wall she was surrounded by the Immortals who had created her. Then a series of depictions as each of the gods gave her a gift: the lotus, the bow and arrows, the trident, the thunderbolt, the discus and finally...the sword. I looked at the sword with a longing that started deep in my gut and blossomed. If only I could get my hands on that sword, all my problems would be solved. I had to get in somehow. Not knowing what else to do, I kept staring intently at the carvings, hoping to glean some information by osmosis. I must have stared at them too long, because suddenly I thought I saw something move. I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear my vision. I looked at the carving again. Nothing had changed. I was looking at Kali with the snake around her arm when it happened again. This time I was sure of it. The snake had blinked. That was what had caught my attention earlier. I stood frozen in front of the carving. Was I finally losing my mind? Not that a snake with blinking eyes was the strangest thing I’d encountered recently.

  “Shiv,” I called out, sounding only slightly panicked. “I think you should come here...now.”

  He must have heard the panic in my voice threatening to take over, because he was at my side in a flash.

  “What happened, Callie?” he asked breathlessly.

  “Look at the carving...right there.” I had to know if I’d really seen the snake blink at me or if I was stark, raving mad.

  “What am I looking at, Callie?” He looked at me, then back at the carving. “It’s Kali and her weapons and...oh my god...did that snake just blink at me?”

  I smiled. I was still sane. “Phew, I was worried there for a moment...thought I was losing it. So you saw it too?”

  “Umm, yes, Callie, it’s kind of hard to miss that. What do you think it is?”

  “I don’t know...maybe it’s watching us...Wait, Shiv, I don’t remember much about snakes from my parents. The only thing I do remember is that Manasa, the snake goddess, was supposed to be the daughter of Lord Shiva. Is that true? Hmm...but what did she have to do with Kali?” I mused, absentmindedly stroking the carving.

  Suddenly we heard a rumble, quiet at first, then becoming louder. I couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from, but then I realized it was coming from inside the temple.

  “What was that, Shiv?”

  “I don’t know, but there’s definitely something inside.”

  The rumbling stopped. We still had no way of getting in. I turned my attention back to Kali and the snake on her arm. I laid my hand on the cool stone surface and waited. Nothing. I wasn’t really sure what I expected to happen. Maybe a way in would have been nice. I figured if the snake was guarding the temple, then maybe it would let me in. I was an avatar of Kali, after all. Still nothing
. A thought occurred to me. I looked closer at the etching of Kali to confirm. Yes, she was wearing the skull pendant around her neck. I put my hand on it. Again nothing. I was about to remove my hand when I felt a strange sensation. A slight tingling, almost imperceptible, but definitely there. I felt my own pendant getting warm.

  “Callie, your pendant...it’s glowing,” Shiv said softly. I looked down at it and saw the soft amber light emanating from it.

  “I feel something, Shiv. I think...” Before I could finish speaking, there was another loud rumble. This time it sounded like thunder, but really close to us. I kept my hand on Kali’s pendant and when I looked at the snake on her arm it was glowing too.

  I turned to look at Shiv, but he had walked up to the double doors at the entrance and was staring at them.

  “Callie...” he called out. “The doors are open. Hurry up, I don’t know how long they’ll stay that way.”

  I was afraid to take off my hand, but I had to take the chance. I ran over to the doors and we both entered at the same time. As soon as we crossed the threshold into the cool darkness, the doors closed with a loud bang that echoed throughout the interior of the cavernous temple. It seemed to be a great deal bigger than it looked from outside. I had a brief moment of panic when I realized we might not have a way of getting out, but that soon passed when my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

  Chapter Eighteen

  As I entered the temple, the cool darkness enveloped me, offering a welcome relief from the hot, humid air outside. Beautifully carved relief panels adorned the walls. I walked toward the inner sanctum that housed the statue of Kali. No matter how many times I had been to these temples, it never got old. The sense of awe was always there, humility that people thousands of years ago created such beauty by hand without the help of any modern technology.