As I breathe in stardust, I rise above the clouds and go into the realm of the space gods. The aliens freak me out, no doubt, but there is a subtlety to their being. They are somehow a combination of multiplicities and go wherever their job takes them. I wonder what happens on their jobs, I mean, they don’t look like anything because of their indescribability.
I decide it is now time to swim up to the moon and take a look out onto my destination and take a wide eyed glance at a glorious, wonderfully yellow-orange sun. There now, it is time to take a lap in this pool of the Sol System and I breathe in some stardust, the fuel for such travels, and just… let go.
After infinity meets zero and becomes one, I find that I no longer exist. I cannot because the sun must have been too hot and would have burnt me right to the bone and beyond. But then, how could I think, I thought to myself. My thought meant I could think and therefore, “I Thought, And So, I Was”!!!
I decided to take the long, scenic route back home and swam toward Hermes who seemed to be in a real rush. The days seemed long and it was hot and sometimes so cold that it was difficult to tell whether it was too hot or too cold. I bid him adieu and left him to his jobs as I reached back for another gasp of the beautiful stardust. He could figure out whatever he was feeling, surely.
Ahead of my path, as I had now resumed swimming, onward to Venus, the smells had turned pungent. The odour was too strong to tolerate.. it was like vinegar and vodka had a baby and set it on fire , trying to then put the fire out with kerosene and acid. I started hallucinating, seeing things too wild and too colorful to behold or tolerate and decided that this experience was too much and without wasting another breathe, I took some more of that irresistible stardust.
The blue planet lay ahead as I swam across the beaches and partied and did what the locals did and felt emotions and more emotions and more and more till i was made of emotions so much so that others’ emotions gave me emotions and those emotions gave others emotions. These were too many emotions and I learnt of someone else, another local called Yahweh but others called him Ishwar or Allah or some other name oh it was so confusing. I found him anyway, don’t remember his name, it wasn’t important. He found me, I found him, I was at peace and I was finally in a position to go back to my lap.
After a breather of stardust, that beautiful vixen, I jumped into the sea of nothingness and dust in the average direction of the War God, Ares. On reaching Mars, I only saw red and decided to force myself to land to take some rest and surprisingly managed to do so because on reaching the planet bathed in Red, I saw that there was nothing alive. All was red, dread and dead. The poles were icy cold too and I realised that my break in the lap may have cost me and I shattered apart into countless pieces, the size of a fraction of an atom to the size of a small being possessing my own gravity.
I realised that I must have reached the asteroid belt now because seeing Ares is never a good idea. I met a little Prince on a Little Asteroid, numbered B-612 and a King in an ermine coat, of a whole lot more and some other oddballs and a strange being known as Replikon. The asteroid belt gave me an idea of anything being possible. From the tiniest to the largest, the all got together and became singular belt of beings and particles and lives in this solar system and that was just.. marvellous.
Suddenly, I found myself taking in some more stardust and I continued further. I discovered the Romans back on Lil’Blue were right. I was finally meeting Optimus Maximus and he was looking pleased. The disloyal husband, sure, but the father of heroes and ever the subject of every story. I also met Brihaspati, a wonderful sage, the counsellor of gods. I adored and idolized both but Brihaspati left a greater impact on me, I had never before seen such force as his Curse against Mercury, the son of the Stars and the Moon. I guess that is why he never knew what he was feeling, maybe.
I decided Jupiter was quite an ominous guy so I went back into the swim I had begun to enjoy and with another breathe of stardust, I landed on the beautiful rings of Shani. He was a sad person, though everyone could see he was the most beautiful of them all. The sun always burnt too bright so it was difficult for the twilight, his wife to remain chaste, after all, all the inhabitants loved her beautiful phenomenon. Her shadow Chhaya took care of her children while she was away philandering with penance. The sun didn’t know any better and Shani, his son was burnt in Chhaya’s womb and was born black. Right then, the bright brilliant father hated his son and questioned his fatherhood and the son retaliated by cursing and said you too will be blackened and experience what happens when no one can see you. The Eclipse was born and then, Shani who had been born in the womb of a Shiva devotee, took to calling Shiva and under the grace of the Mahadev, the misunderstanding between father and son was cleared and Shiva granted Saturn, the God of Time, Shani the son of the Twilight’s shadow, the power to distribute rewards and punishment to people as justice.
This fulfilling tale with the Bholenath reminded me of the Stardust I then breathed as I went onward to the silent planet, Caelus. Prajapati did everything the opposite way. I guess that’s expected from the Planet which Rules Aquarius. I mean, who would have expected him to position his feet and head at the sun in the same day everyday? Hershel just needs a friend. There were too many twists and turns in his life, he was afflicted by himself after all, he was himself. He had an exceptionally intelligent suicidal mind, he was a pervert and he was rebellious and he was a tantric and he was a freedom fighter. His affliction on himself led him to seek passion, so he seeked free love. He seeked freedom and he seeked more, and more, and more. Prajapati was the Lord of the Creatures and was identified with Creation itself. The third highest of the varnas did after all, come from him too.
After this revelation. I took off on to Neptune. Swimming with the naiads would be fun after all. Varun was a really cool guy. He’s the Guardian Deity of the Western Direction, which makes sense seeing as how he might be the father of Creation. Jupiter’s alter ego made Varun restructure the primordial cosmos after defeating the dragon Vritra. When it rained, after all, it did finally pour enough to create a planet filled with water.
With rta and rhythm and logos finally one, some more stardust and a some more freestyling later I reached the House of Taurus. The hard working, practical and moral being. This was the final goal after all wasn’t it? The swim was nearing its end, and I was about to wake from my stardust infused swim.
I saw the call of the stars and I saw the call of the vastness of space beyond me. Infinity was being beheld as a massive expression of so vast it couldn’t be contained and therefore, was now out there, ready to be explored. The vastness beckoned so hard, what lays beyond this beautiful Soul System? I felt embraced by my experience and I let it go. I woke up again and saw stardust in my hand. I took a whiff and swam back, all the way to Earth, my home. Back to the place I live. Back to the place I feel. Back to the world I exist in, after all, a lifetime itself can last till infinity meets zero and finally… becomes one with itself.
Water of the Skies 