Namaste, friends! Welcome to a new series on Chaturya – The Fourth State, where we plunge into the deeper wonders of Hindu sacred narratives. I’m K. Hari Kumar, bestselling author of Daiva, Naaga, Dakini, and Rakshasa. If you’ve followed my work, you know that the force driving every story I tell—from the fiercest Dakini to the oldest deity—is pure, primal energy. It is the Shakti.

And today, we begin a journey into one of the most powerful and transformative texts: the Devi Bhagavatam, or the Bhagavata of the Goddess. This Purana shifts the focus from the popular male trinity—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—and reveals the Primal Power that makes their very existence possible: the Divine Mother, Maha Shakti. If you want to understand the true force behind creation, preservation, and destruction, this is where you start.

This monumental new season, Season Two of Chaturya, is the start of our Devi Bhagavatam Tales. In this first episode, we uncover the secret of The Primordial Mother’s Call.

Watch the full episode on my Youtube Channel

How does Devi Bhagavatam Begin?

The Devi Bhagavatam is a comprehensive text, but the story begins not with a goddess, but with a question. A long, long time ago, a thousand great sages, led by the wise Saunaka, gathered in the sacred Naimisaranya forest. Fearing the chaos and darkness of the coming Kali Yuga, they approached the master storyteller, Suta Romaharshana, and asked him one thing: “What is the single, perfect path to liberation that even the Kali Yuga cannot corrupt?”

Suta’s answer forms the foundation of this entire epic. He told them that the source of all peace, virtue, and liberation lies in the Divine Mother. She is the Mahadevi, the Parashakti.

He presented the great paradox of existence: If Brahma is the Creator, he is born from the navel of Vishnu. But if Vishnuis the Preserver, he lies in mystic sleep—Yoga Nidra—on the serpent Ananta upon the vast cosmic ocean. The logical conclusion is stunning: the power that holds the water, sustains the serpent, and controls Vishnu’s sleep is the true absolute. Without Her, Shiva cannot destroy, Vishnu cannot preserve, and Brahma cannot create. She is the consciousness, the movement, the cosmic heartbeat that sets everything in motion.

My deep attachment to the concept of Parashakti comes from understanding that She is the kinetic energy that is the universe. Every story I write is simply tracing a thread of power back to this single, incandescent source.

The story Suta told the Rishis transports us back to a time before time, to the moment of Universal Dissolution, known as the Pralaya. All existence had been withdrawn into the great void. There was no light, no form, only the single, endless cosmic sea, the Ekarnava.

In the Beginning

Upon that dark, measureless water, rested the great God Vishnu. He is Narayana. The name itself, derived from nara (water or man) and ayana (resting place or path), means “one who rests on the waters” or “the ultimate refuge for mankind.” Yet, even this ultimate refuge was curled upon the endless coils of the serpent Ananta, deep in a contemplative sleep. He believed he was utterly alone.

But the stillness was a deception.

Suddenly, out of the incomprehensible darkness of the Ekarnava, a light began to bloom. It wasn’t the weak glow of a sun or a star; it was a pure, blinding, electric radiance—the overwhelming, dazzling colour of a million concentrated dawns. This light coalesced into the shape of a magnificent, divine woman, radiating a power that made Vishnu’s entire cosmic sleep tremor.

The Devi

Startled awake by this raw, primal energy, Vishnu rose and looked upon the vision. He was the Preserver, yet he was face-to-face with a female form whose beauty and, more importantly, whose power transcended everything he had ever conceived. She was smiling, radiating the essence of creation, maintenance, and destruction.

She was the absolute reality. She had called him from the void, challenging his very notion of ‘nothingness.’ And in that moment, the eternal cycle of creation was about to begin again.

And that is the awe-inspiring introduction to the greatest saga of the Divine Mother in the ancient lore. The tale of Parashakti is a journey into the ultimate power that created and sustains our world.

What does the Divine Mother say to Vishnu when she calls him from his sleep? How does She commission the next act of creation? Find out as the story unfolds in the upcoming Episode 2. If you liked this first step into the Devi Bhagavatam, please make sure you subscribe to my channel for regular explorations of Hindu sacred narratives.

 

Until then, stay enchanted. Namaste!