Aariv looked at the huge snake, he was surprised to see a mythological creature in reality. Although he felt a little overwhelmed by its size but still, he refused to believe that he was weaker than the snake.
"State your name mortal as I the great Naga Kaliya(Naga means snake) is about to grant you salvation." The snake said.
Aariv was searching his memory for information about this snake. He discovered a snake named Kaliya in ancient Hindu texts, in 3217 BC a Snake with the same name lived in the Yamuna river, and he poisoned the river with his breath.
Lord Krishna, the avatar of God Vishnu the preserver and protector, also lived on earth at that time. He found out about the snake and defeated it. The snaked had many wives who were worshippers of God Vishnu, so Lord Krishna took pity and didn't kill Kaliya. Later Kaliya left the river and no one knew where he went.
~I guess I found where he went,~ Aariv said to himself.
He looked at the big haughty snake, He had actually mistaken the snake for Shesha Naga/Nagaraja, King of all Nāgas and one of the primal beings of creation and also the servant of God Vishnu. It would have been problematic if it was him as Aariv wasn't sure he'd be able to fight a real god.
"My name is Aariv Maurya, I came here just to look around. No need to get rough and tough," Aariv said calmly and went back to studying the big structure.
Kaliya got angry for being ignored.
"Haha, a mere mortal dares to ignore me, I guess I'll have to teach you a lesson" Kaliya roared.
He whipped his tail towards Aariv's head but Aariv just tilted his head and dodged it. He was still examining the building.
"Wasn't being beaten by lord Krishna enough? do you want to die now?" Aariv mocked.
Aariv had a way of knowing how strong his enemy is by sensing the energy radiating from the enemy's body. Kailya was already old and was not a match for Aariv.
Not wanting to kill the relic of the past, Aariv radiated natural energy from his body using energy manipulation and since he was in the water he used Hydrokinesis(Water manipulation) to create a vortex.
As soon as Kaliya sensed the changes he felt danger, but before he could run away his body got sucked into the vortex and was getting closer Aariv.
When Kaliya's big body was near Aariv, Aariv went near and tapped his finger on one of his heads. He sent warm natural energy into his body and also showed the view of galaxies.
Kaliya was mesmerized by everything, he stopped resisting and calmed down. Aariv let him go and got back to the building.
It took a few minutes for Kaliya to stabilize and then he asked.
"Elder, Who are you?"
Aariv's eye twitched being called elder by a snake. He was about to reply but suddenly the big building started to emit eye-piercing golden light. Aariv quickly stepped back from it and looked at it.
Kaliya was bowing all his heads and not looking at the light. Aariv then felt like someone was coming from out of the light, he tried to measure its strength but wasn't able to.
After some time he saw a man's figure walking out of the light, he had a golden crown on his head and many other golden ornaments all over his body. even his clothes looked like they were made of gold.
"Oh mighty Nagaraja, this foolish worshipper apologizes disturbing you" Kaliya pleaded while bowing his heads.
Aariv was shocked hearing that, he didn't know what he should do, he was in front of the human embodiment of one of the primal beings of creation. He didn't know whether he should kneel or not, his pride told him not to, but he also knew that he was a lot weaker than him.
"I am Aa..." Aariv tried to introduce himself but was interrupted.
"I know who you are, I am Balrama. Follow me," Balrama said with no expression and started to go back.
Aariv quickly followed him while searching for the name Balrama.
According to Ancient texts, Balrama was the human incarnation of Nagaraja and also the brother of Lord Krishna. Aariv didn't want any more surprises so he decided to do a crash course on Hindu gods.
There were three main Hindu deities, known as the Trimurti, triad of the three gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Brahma is the first of the gods of the Trimurti: the creator.
The second god of the Trimurti is Vishnu, the Lord of Preservation and Sustenance.
The third deity of the Trimurti is Shiva, the destroyer and transformer. He is the slayer of demons and has authority over death, rebirth and immortality, all revered concepts in Hindu mythology. The worshippers of Shiva are called Shaivites, and they believe that he is the ultimate deity. His habitat is Mount Kailas, a real mountain in Tibet. He stays there in a perpetual state of meditation and accompanied by his wife. He represents the primal soul and the truth of reality and consciousness to his believers.
There were many more complex things but he decided to ignore them as it would literally boil his mind. There were so many gods and goddesses and many of them had different incarnations in different eras. They were omnipresent
Even all Trimurti were not the supreme gods. In ancient texts, Aariv found that there was a mention of Brahman.
Brahman was the central theme of almost all the Upanishads(ancient Sanskrit texts of spiritual teaching and ideas of Hinduism). Brahman is the indescribable, inexhaustible, omniscient, omnipresent, original, first, eternal and absolute principle who is without a beginning, without an end, who is hidden in all and who is the cause, source, material and effect of all creation known, unknown and yet to happen in the entire universe. All the gods and goddesses are His manifestations only. In his female aspect, He is known as Shakti, who as the Divine Universal Mother assists the whole creation to proceed through the process of evolution in her own mysterious ways.
For now, Aariv decided to only focus on the Trimurti. He was also thinking that if gods from Hindu mythology exist, then what about Greek, Egyptian, Norse and many more?
...
Aariv entered the golden light and kept on walking, he felt like he was walking inside a tunnel. Soon he came out of that light and was greeted by the most beautiful scene of his life.
He saw a huge golden palace made, surrounded by gardens full of trees and fountains. many peacocks and rabbits were roaming around. birds were flying and chirping. Although it looked like it was day time, he was still able to see the starry sky and it was not the same sky as he saw from earth. He could see many galaxies in the sky.
Aariv was awestruck by the scene.
"Welcome to my home, traveler from the future." A majestic yet humble voice resounded around. Hearing that voice all the animals started jumping with joy.
Aariv was not shocked by the voice but was shocked that his secret was known.
"Come," Balrama said as he headed to the palace.
Aariv followed him, the closer he got to the palace, the more mesmerized he felt. It really was made of gold. The palace was at least 300 meters high and 800 meters wide.
Soon, they came near a large door which opened on its own. Balrama walked in. When Aariv got in he looked at the man standing in front of him, he was looking at Aariv with a warm smile.
The man was wearing many gold ornaments and a big gold crown, the crown also had a peacock feather on it. Aariv had guessed that this was lord Krishna.
"Greetings Lord Krishna," Aariv said with a slight bow.
"Haha... stop with those formalities and come with me to the dinner hall, I have organized a feast in celebration of your visit," Krishna said.
Aariv was surprised with such hospitality, he nodded and followed Krishna.
They came to a large hall with a long table in the center.
"Haha... I guess you'd want to eat like you did in the future so I made this table," Krishna said.
...
By the end of the feast, Aariv stopped being reserved.
"Who knew the real Dwarka existed in a different dimension," Aariv said.
They were sitting in the garden, stroking fluffy rabbits.
"Well, it used to exist in the mortal world once, but then people started to get greedier and started to look at the city with ulterior motives, so I had no other choice," Krishna said.
"So you know everything about me right?" Aariv asked.
"Yes"
"And you omnipresent?"
"Yes," Krishna replied.
"Can you tell me if there were human civilizations before ours that died because of the universal war?" Aariv asked.
Aariv always wanted to know this, because the earth was 4.5 billion years old and humans only existed for 200,000 years. Then what about the remaining 4.4998 Billion years?