Sanatan Dharma

Shalva, avenging his friend Shishupala, attacks Dwaraka with Saubha—a flying city given by Shiva. After days of aerial warfare and illusions designed to deceive Krishna, including a false image of his captive father, Krishna destroys both Shalva and his flying fortress, demonstrating that truth always defeats illusion.

When Arjuna falls in love with Krishna's sister Subhadra, there's a problem: Balarama wants her married to Duryodhana. Krishna secretly arranges an elopement, helping Arjuna abduct the willing Subhadra during a festival. He then persuades the furious Balarama that this match is far better than alliance with the Kauravas.

When Narada gives Krishna a celestial parijata flower that he gives to Rukmini, Satyabhama is jealous. To appease her, Krishna travels to heaven and uproots the entire divine tree. When Indra tries to stop him, Krishna easily defeats the king of gods and brings the tree to plant in Satyabhama's garden.

Sage Dadichi gives his own bones to create the weapon needed to defeat the demon Vritra, demonstrating the highest karma yoga—complete detachment from body and life.

After his wife dies because the nearest hospital was 70km around a mountain, Dashrath Manjhi spends 22 years carving a road through solid rock with just a hammer and chisel—karma yoga in action.

King Janaka demonstrates karma yoga by ruling his kingdom with complete engagement yet total detachment. He teaches sage Yajnavalkya that one can be fully in the world without being bound by it.

The fire god Agni needs to consume the Khandava forest to cure his divine indigestion, but Indra keeps extinguishing the flames. Agni gives Krishna and Arjuna divine weapons in exchange for their help. Together, they hold off Indra's attacks long enough for the forest to burn completely—a battle that establishes their legendary partnership.

After Kansa's death, his father-in-law Jarasandha attacks Mathura seventeen times seeking revenge. Rather than continue endless warfare, Krishna leads the Yadavas to build Dwaraka on the western coast. Years later, Krishna enables Bhima to kill Jarasandha in single combat by revealing the secret of how the king can be defeated—by tearing him in half.

The gopis of Vrindavan loved Krishna so completely that they abandoned all duties when he called. Their devotion surpassed all scholarship—when Uddhava came to teach them philosophy, he realized their love achieved what his learning could not. Pure devotion itself is the path.

19th-century priest Ramakrishna's desperate longing for God led to direct visions of Kali. He then practiced every spiritual path—Vedanta, Tantra, Islam, Christianity—and found they all led to the same divine reality. His God-intoxicated life demonstrated that devotion is not technique but transforming love.

Parashurama's interactions with heroes of later ages - recognizing Rama of Ayodhya, teaching Bhishma and Drona, and the tragic curse upon his beloved student Karna.

Abandoned while pregnant, Sindhutai Sapkal gave birth alone in a cowshed. Instead of despair, she began adopting abandoned children. Over 50 years, she has mothered more than 1,400 orphans—embodying karma yoga in its purest form.

Child devotee Prahlad refuses to stop worshipping Vishnu despite his demon-king father's persecution. His faith survives every torture, and Vishnu finally manifests as Narasimha to destroy Hiranyakashipu. Prahlad's devotion is so pure he asks forgiveness for his murderous father.

Low-caste Shabari waits decades for Rama, daily preparing berries and cleaning her ashram. When he finally arrives, she offers berries she has tasted to ensure their sweetness—a ritual violation that Rama accepts with joy, declaring her love more purifying than any ceremony.

The demon Pralambasura disguised as a cowherd boy tries to kidnap Balarama, not knowing that his captive is Shesha incarnate, and is killed by a single blow of Balarama's fist.

Born with eight bodily deformities, twelve-year-old Ashtavakra enters Janaka's court to save his father and is mocked by scholars. He silences them by pointing out that they—judging by skin—are mere 'leather merchants.' His teachings to Janaka became the radical Ashtavakra Gita: you are already free.

Five-year-old Dhruva, humiliated by his stepmother and ignored by his father, enters the forest to find Vishnu through meditation. His six-month tapas is so intense that Vishnu appears. Transformed by the vision, Dhruva asks only to always remember God—and becomes the Pole Star, eternally fixed.

Mumbai cigarette seller Nisargadatta Maharaj became one of the twentieth century's most direct teachers of non-duality. With no education or ashram, he taught from a tiny room: 'You are not what you think you are.' His book 'I Am That' showed that liberation requires no special setting—just seeing what you actually are.

Shiva's eternal meditation on Mount Kailash represents the deepest dhyana yoga teaching: pure consciousness, witnessing all without being touched. When desire-god Kamadeva tries to disturb him, he's burned by Shiva's third eye—showing that awareness itself dissolves attachment.

Sage Patanjali systematized meditation in 196 sutras, defining yoga as 'cessation of mental fluctuations.' His eight-limbed path—from ethics through posture, breath, and concentration to absorption—provides a complete technology of consciousness still practiced worldwide after twenty-two centuries.