Library
Stories
The itihasa and the Puranas hold some of the oldest, best-loved stories ever told. We retell them plainly, keeping the heart of each one and making its meaning clear, and where a story carries a famous prayer, we set down the verses too.
Gajendra Moksha
The elephant king who let go
An elephant king, seized by a crocodile and worn down past the end of his own strength, lifts a lotus and calls out to the Supreme. The story is Hinduism's clearest picture of surrender, and of the Lord who comes running.
Read the storyBhagavata PuranaDhruva
The boy who became the fixed star
A small prince is told he has no place on his father's lap. He walks into the forest to find a place no one can take from him, and the search turns a hurt child into the steadiest point in the night sky.
Read the storyBhagavata PuranaPrahlad and Narasimha
Devotion that nothing could burn
A demon king wins a boon he thinks makes him immortal and demands to be worshipped as God. His own small son keeps singing the name of Lord Vishnu instead. The clash between them gives us Holi, and the fierce form of Lord Narasimha.
Read the storyPuranasMarkandeya
The boy who held on at the door of death
Promised only sixteen years of life, a young devotee of Lord Shiva meets death by clinging to the Shivling and refusing to let go. What he holds on to turns out to be stronger than the noose that comes for him.
Read the story