Week 9 Storytelling: What the Water Taught Me

Arjuna was sitting on the damp ground next to a vast river. The breeze softly rippled the surface, distorting the fish and plants that were living quietly underneath. He sat quietly observing the sky, slowing growing darker as gray clouds approached. His own mind clouded as he looked back on his first year of exile. Sadness filled his heart as he thought of his brothers, who he had left behind.

He tried to push those sad and bitter feelings out of his heart and head. He closed his eyes and did his best to clear his mind and steady his breath. He heard a low humming, like a song coming from someplace far away. He opened his eyes. There was no one around him. All was still. Arjuna closed his eyes again and tried to meditate. Again a humming seemed to vibrate his mind, spreading an odd calm through him. Rather than try to find its source, Arjuna accepted the sweet sound and let it roll over him. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. He felt the need to bathe. Slowly, he removed his clothing and stepped into the lake, feeling at peace despite the water's chilled temperature.

Once submerged fully in the water, Arjuna opened his eyes and found that he could breathe as easily underwater as he could minutes ago on land. Somehow, this was no surprise to him. The radiating humming had become stronger than ever, keeping his mind and body at ease. He saw something move below him and swam towards it. As he approached it, the humming stopped abruptly. A girl emerged from the dark waters below. Her eyes seemed to glow, giving Arjuna the same sense of calm throughout his body. He tried to speak, but his words were inaudible in the depths of the water. 

Mermaid (Source)

"You don't need to speak here." Arjuna heard the voice in his head. Startled, he tried to speak again to the girl in front of him, but his lungs suddenly filled with water.

"Don't speak, human, just think," the voice spoke to him again.

"Who are you?" Arjuna thought, both to himself and the girl.

"My name is Ulupi, I am the princess of Naga, this netherworld which you now find yourself in. Who are you?" Her voice seemed calm yet strange, like no sound Arjuna had ever heard before.

"I am Arjuna. Why am I here?"

The girl looked back at him with blank eyes. She seemed to be thinking, though he heard no words. "Why do you think you are here?"

"I broke a promise of privacy to my brother and wife. As punishment, I have been exiled for twelve years. It has only been a year since then, and I am traveling to as many holy rivers as possible. Although I did not mean to bathe in this one, I felt drawn to it as if it was something I was supposed to do."

Light seemed to gleam down in patches as the clouds above began to pass, illuminating the dark waters. When the light shined, parts of the depths became visible and Arjuna could see in the distance tall, wave-like structures. The sunlight disappeared, and so did the life below.

"Perhaps," Ulupi's voice interrupted Arjuna's trance, "you would like to come down with me into the water." Her body, shaped like a human's from the waist up but covered in scales, seemed to shimmer and glow at the idea.

"I do not think that is what I am meant to do..." Arjuna meant to think to himself, but he knew Ulupi heard it, too.

"Your time in exile has not been spent as it should have been. You must continue on, travel further, journey wider. It is there that you will find happiness," she stated coolly.

A sense of dread overcame Arjuna at the thought of another eleven years away from his family and loved ones. The water seemed to darken around him. His mistake seemed so heavy on his heart that he did not't think he would be able to go on.

"Remember, Arjuna," Urupi seemed to brighten from within, "you will be united with your family again. Love will not be a stranger to you. But you must move forward to find it."

Suddenly, Arjuna couldn't breathe. He swam as fast as he could to the surface, but it seemed miles away. Water filled his lungs and he jerked forward.

He was on the riverbank and the clouds were still coming in to darken the sky. He looked around, astonished at what he had just experienced. Had it just been a vision? After a few moments, he smiled to himself and walked on.

 ~~

Author's Note: This story is based on Arjuna's character in Narayan's "The Mahabharata." After he and his brothers marry Draupadi, Arjuna breaks the rule of interrupting his wife when she was with his brother. As a result, he was exiled for twelve years. The story only says that he was meant to bathe in holy rivers, and meanwhile he married Urupi, the serpent princess, and Krishna's sister. I was immediately intrigued with what a serpent princess would be like, so I decided to elaborate on their meeting. After doing some research, I found that the story goes that Urupi fell madly in love with Arjuna while he was practicing a religious ritual. She essentially drugs him, drags him to her world under water, and says she will only let him go if he agrees to marry her. Well, that just seemed like a story I wasn't ready to get into. So, I decided to merely use the same characters and setting and create a fantasy-like encounter between the two of them. I have no idea where the concept of having them talk only with their minds came from, nor do I know if it adds or takes away from the story at all. I picked the image I did because I wanted her to be dark, but not in a scary or threatening way. I think this picture conveys that. 

Arjuna's Exile
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.