IndraÕs Net
Told for Children
If you go just about halfway around the world, you come to a country called India. In India, there are many, many religions. The oldest of these is Hindu. In the Hindu religion, there are many, many Gods. ThereÕs Brahman, the creator God, and Shiva, the destroyer God. There is Ganesh, who has the body of a man and the head of an elephant. Ganesh is the god of new beginnings. And there is Hanuman, the monkey god. Hanuman is a bit of a trickster, but he's very brave.
But the God IÕm going to talk about today is Indra. He is the god of weather. He holds a thunderbolt in his hand. Now, one thing you have to know about the country of India is that it has a dry season and a wet season, called the monsoon season. In the dry season, which lasts for many months, there is no rain at all, and everything dries up. All the lakes and streams go dry, and the earth dries up and gets as hard as cement, so that nothing will grow in it. Not even grass. All the plants turn brown and shrivel up. But during the monsoon season, gradually all the lakes and streams fill up. And the earth softens, and everything slowly comes back to life. All the plants come up again and flower and bear fruit. If the rains donÕt come on time, there is a terrible drought and famine, and the animals starve. And if the monsoon rains go on too long, there are floods, and the houses and crops are washed away. So, you see, it is very important that the rains come just on time and last just long enough to make everything grow again. But not too long, or there will be floods.
Now, since Indra is in charge of all of this, he is a very important god indeed. Indra knows that heÕs important. And itÕs best to be nice to him.
One day, Indra was thinking about how important he is, and he decided that he wanted a great monument built for him. So he called together the finest architects in the land and asked them to build him a monument that would show just how important he is. What they decided to make was a great net. The net was much like a fishermanÕs net, like you see along the shore. Strings knotted together at the corners, with open squares in between. Only, instead of using string for the net, they used silk, spun as finer than the strands of a spider web.
They net they made was so big that it spread throughout the whole universe. Through all of the heavens and the stars and the galaxies and planets, connecting everything. And it was so big that it even spread through all of time, from before the world began to the end of time Š for thousands and millions of years. This web connects all of time and all of space.
And the architects didnÕt stop there. At every corner of IndraÕs immense net, they placed a polished, sparkling jewel. Each gem is so shiny that it reflects every other gem, like a great hall of mirrors. And each jewel reflects everything that is in the universe, and everything that ever was and everything that ever will be.
Now one secret of IndraÕs web is that everything that was or is or will be is one of those gems. So at one corner of the web, you might find a ladybug. At the next corner, maybe a dinosaur. And so on and on.
This means that even the simplest thing reflects the entire universe. Take a dandelion, for example. If you look deeply into it, you can see the original ocean that gave birth to all life. You can see the first plants that bore seed, and all the plants and all the seeds in between. You can see the seed from which this dandelion grew. You can see the earth, where its roots are. And the worms that make tunnels in the earth. And you can see the rain that has watered it, and the sun that shines on it. And you can see the moon and all the stars. All this right there in one little dandelion. And you can see all of the seeds it will make and all of the plants that will come after it. And you can even see your own face reflected in it.
But the greatest secret is that every person is also one of the jewels of IndraÕs web. You and you and me. Each one of us. And if we look deep inside ourselves, we can see the whole universe reflected. Everything that is or was or ever will be. ItÕs all right there, inside each one of us. Take a look and see!