The River Empress, page 1
The River
Empress
Table of Contents
Title Page
The River Empress
Invocation to Goddess Lakshmi
Modern Interpretation of the Invocation
Preface
1 | Devi
2 | Woman
3 | Time
4 | Mistake
5 | Shiva
6 | Mature Soul
7 | Blood
8 | Repetition
9 | Bhairava
10 | Eternity
11 | Sacred Name
12 | Sacred Stone
13 | Narmada
14 | Ma
15 | Purification
16 | Empress
17 | Karma
18 | The Seventh Soul
19 | Dream World
20 | Fairy Tale
21 | Abandoned
22 | Tide
23 | Journey
24 | Destination
25 | Naga
26 | Rescued
27 | Fate
28 | Heavenly Will
29 | Temples
30 | Goddess
31 | Reckoning
32 | Retribution
33 | Child
34 | Princess
35 | Past Lives
36 | The Queen’s Lament
37 | Justice
38 | Throwaway
39 | Ordinary
40 | Fifteen
41 | Reward
42 | The King’s Lament
43 | Saviour
44 | Sixteen
45 | Granted
46 | Conformity
47 | Duck
48 | Realms
49 | The Guardian of Children
50 | Spouse
51 | Supplications
52 | Prayer
53 | Mistreatment
54 | Debt
55 | Firsts
56 | Second Chances
57 | Old Flame
58 | Virgin Goddess
59 | Pregnancy
60 | Fatherhood
61 | Neel Saraswati
62 | Pashupatinath
63 | Karmic Field
64 | Wombs
65 | Bliss
66 | Awakenings
67 | Seeds
68 | Shakti
69 | Yearning
70 | Karmic Seed
71 | Vine
72 | Father Time
73 | Soul Star
74 | Empress
75 | Healer
76 | Echolocation
77 | Futility
78 | Ages
79 | Brahma
80 | Infinite
Acknowledgments | Om Namah Shivaya. Jai Ma Kali.
About the Author
ALSO BY DIPA SANATANI
The Little Light: The Guardians of the Lore Book I
The Heart of Shiva: The Guardians of the Lore Book II
The Prophetess of Dharma: The Guardians of the Lore Book III
The Merchant of Stories
A Thousand Names
Illuminator
Oneness
THE RIVER EMPRESS
Copyright © 2025 by Dipa Sanatani
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by Singapore copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher TWINN SWAN.
ISBN Paperback: 978-981-94-2443-6
ISBN Hardcover: 978-981-94-2444-3
ISBN E-Book: 978-981-94-2442-9
The Book Cover is designed by Dipa Sanatani.
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Name(s): Sanatani, Dipa.
Title: The river empress / Dipa Sanatani.
Description: [Singapore] : Twinn Swan, [2025]
Identifier(s): ISBN 978-981-94-2444-3 (hardcover) | 978-981-94-2443-6 (paperback) | 978-981-94-2442-9 (ebook)
Subject(s): LCSH: Mystics—Fiction. | Spirituality—Fiction.
Classification: DDC S823—dc23
TWINN SWAN
Singapore
www.dipasanatani.com
Invocation to Goddess Lakshmi
श्रीसूक्तम्
ॐ हिरण्यवर्णाम हरिणीं सुवर्णरजतस्रजाम्।
ōṁ. hiraṇyavarṇāṁ hariṇīṁ suvarṇarajatasrajām.
चन्द्रां हिरण्मयीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो म आवह॥१॥
candrāṁ hiraṇmayīṁ lakṣmīṁ jātavēdō ma āvaha
तां म आवह जातवेदो लक्ष्मीमनपगामिनीम्।
tāṁ ma āvaha jātavēdō lakṣmīmanapagāminīm
यस्यां हिरण्यं विन्देयं गामश्वं पुरुषानहम्॥२॥
yasyāṁ hiraṇyaṁ vindēyaṁ gāmaśvaṁ puruṣānaham
अश्वपूर्वां रथमध्यां हस्तिनादप्रबोधिनीम्।
aśvapūrvāṁ rathamadhyāṁ hastinādaprabōdhinīm.
श्रियं देवीमुपह्वये श्रीर्मादेवी जुषताम्॥३॥
śriyaṁ dēvīmupahvayē śrīrmādēvīrjuṣatām
कांसोस्मितां हिरण्यप्राकारां आद्रां ज्वलन्तीं तृप्तां तर्पयन्तीम्।
kāṁ sōsmitāṁ hiraṇyaprākārāmārdrāṁ jvalantīṁ trptāṁ tarpayantīm.
पद्मेस्थितां पद्मवर्णां तामिहोपह्वयेश्रियम्॥४॥
padmē sthitāṁ padmavarṇāṁ tāmihōpahvayē śriyam
Modern Interpretation of the Invocation
O Goddess Lakshmi,
dwelling in the lotus,
remove poverty from our homes
and fill our lives with abundance.
May your auspicious presence
bring us happiness,
prosperity and fulfillment
in all our endeavours.
Grant us wisdom, knowledge, and discrimination,
so that we may use our wealth wisely
and for the benefit of all.
May you be ever present in our homes,
bringing us joy, prosperity, and spiritual enlightenment.
-Sri Suktam Verses 1-4
Preface
THE INSPIRATION FOR this work of prose-poetry began with an imaginative fusion of two Korean shamanic sacred stories: the historical tales of Princess Bari and Samsin Halmeoni. From this seed, a far-reaching odyssey blossomed, leading me to expand my journey into the diverse and profound world of karma and its relationship to the samsaric cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Life and death, when viewed through this lens, are a perpetual wheel where we reap what we sow. In this cycle, souls find themselves ‘bound’ to repeating the same patterns over and over again across a continuum of lifetimes. After spending numerous years contemplating and reflecting on the theology of karma, I chose, in this particular book, to focus on the woman's role in the karmic cycle, especially as expressed through the veneration and worship of the Divine Feminine.
The Mother Goddess is a powerful archetype that has persisted in human spirituality, continuing to endure despite age-old attempts to negate, downplay and diminish Her strength and presence. She, the Divine Mother, perpetuates Her legacy, even in the face of systematic efforts to oppress, marginalise and, in many cases, even erase and eradicate Her.
While the theology embedded in The River Empress is primarily rooted in Hinduism, this book is a deliberate mosaic, carefully pieced together from the myriad expressions of Mother Goddess worship I encountered over many years of research. The result is a unique synthesis—a new myth, if you will—that honours its diverse sources and captures the contemporary essence of the Divine Feminine.
As you embark on the journey of The River Empress, I invite you to approach the story with an open mind. May you find, in these pages of prose-poetry, a bridge between the ancient and the modern that echoes the sacred mysteries which shape our understanding of life, death, rebirth... and the uncharted vastness of the great beyond.
Om Namah Shivaya. Jai Ma Kali.
1
Devi
MY STORY EMBODIES THE very saga of all existence.
It is a tale woven from the threads of time itself, where each breath whispers of both creation and destruction.
In this story, life and death are not opposites, but collaborators in the grand tapestry of existence.
I was born, yes.
I will die, yes.
The in-between, however, remained mine.
I am Devi and this is my story.
It is the story of Life... but also of Death.
My story speaks of the fragile beauty of being and becoming, where every moment is a microcosm within the macrocosm.
My narrative unfolds in the space between heartbeats, where Shiva and Shakti, life and death, unite in an eternal embrace.
I know, better than anyone, that the child you carry in your womb was only recently a corpse.
Your womb, a hidden garden, nurtures not a pristine beginning, but a karmic revol
Your body, a living library, now holds the key to a powerful secret.
Life and death are neither opposites nor adversaries, but rather, two sides of the same coin.
It is their balance that creates the rich texture of experience that defines the cyclical journey through the ephemeral and the eternal.
I am Devi and this is my story.
It is the story of Death... but also of Life.
2
Woman
I HAD COME TO UNDERSTAND, from the sheer number of times I had incarnated as a mortal woman, that despite the outward appearance of life and death, Time did not flow forward fearlessly.
Time, rather, endlessly and cyclically repeated, recreated and recycled itself.
Time is a ceaseless, spiralling dance, unfolding within the vast expanse of the Cosmic Womb, where the Naga, the immortal serpent, repeatedly coils around itself—turning, twisting, and circumambulating.
The serpent’s coils are spirals, each involution carrying the weight of all that had come before while stretching towards what is yet to be.
Here, beginnings and endings dissolve into one another, indistinguishable in their essence.
The Naga’s movements weave the fabric of existence, each loop a lifetime, each circumambulation, an incarnation.
It is a dance of infinite recurrence, where every motion holds the echoes of creation and dissolution, and every moment is both ancient and new.
The serpent’s endless embrace is both the cradle and the grave, a restless reminder that existence is not linear, but layered.
Time bends back on itself like a river rushing to return to the sea, carrying within it the memories of countless lifetimes... leaving behind only a faint ripple on the still surface of what was, what is and what will be.
In the sacred Cosmic Womb of eternity, time does not flow forward. It folds.
The Naga, a guardian deity of ancient power, whose very existence is entwined with the tapestry of time, lays dormant at the bottom of the sea, waiting, ever so patiently, for the tide to turn, and the river to rise once again.
Its serpentine dance forever remains an intricate tapestry woven from the threads of all that ever was, all that is, and all that will ever be.
3
Time
TIME IS A WISE OLD serpent swallowing its own tail.
The ancient serpent, the Naga, repeats and reasserts itself in an endless coil.
It is a living embodiment of the wisdom that every action ripples across the cosmos, eventually finding its way back to its source.
The spiral serpent which has taken up residence within you does not move forward.
He is the coiled one.
His karmic coil deepens, its head forever swallowing its tail in a closed loop of lived and relived moments.
The Naga’s existence dates back to the forgotten archival past, when the seeds of your karma were first sown.
This cyclical phenomenon continually
resurfaces and reaffirms its presence,
its roots delving deeply into
the primordial seeds
you planted in your karmic past.
This perpetual return, a manifestation of the intricate tapestry of karma, circulates itself through the entire fabric of time and space, connecting the present moment to the very first knotted threads of your soul’s incarnation.
Karma serves as a constant reminder of the interconnectedness of all beings: past, present and future.
Karma, our old and long-lost friend, is the unborn phoenix rising from the ashes of the past.
Even as your old life rebirths itself from the funeral pyre, it carries the coils of countless lifetimes, each iteration a testament to the immutable law of cause and effect that governs and underpins the universe.
No, my dear... You will not gain this wisdom with age for Time is a wise old serpent swallowing its own tail.
4
Mistake
DO NOT MAKE THE SAME mistake again.
Do not stumble into the same shadow twice, for each mistake and misstep repeatedly etches itself into the tendrils of time.
Do not allow, under any and all circumstances, for Time to repeat and re-repeat itself as though it were an endless and eternal loom.
Déjà vu is not your friend. Do not trust it.
Do not cast unwanted seeds into the dark soil of your being and becoming.
Do not begin anything new for all beginnings lead only to endings.
To falter again and again is to weave the same knotted thread into the tapestry, tightening the bondage that binds you only to what has already been.
The cycle does not rise against you. It rises from within you. It is an ancient tide, set into a state of perpetual motion lifetimes ago.
Let its recurrence be your reminder that not all that returns must be relived.
Some things come again only so they may, at long last, finally be released.
Om Shanti. Peace.
5
Shiva
SHIVA, IN HIS FIERCE and ferocious form as Kala Bhairava, embodies the truth that in the time before Time, the end was always the beginning and the beginning was always the end.
Time itself bows before him for he sees the karmic knots that still tether you to this cyclical dance of existence where death leads only to a rebirth.
Breathe. Breathe deeply. Pray to Bhairava, seek his bounty and break the deep trench of the karmic cycle of time once and for all.
Kala Bhairava, the wrathful embodiment of annihilation, knows that every dissolution births a new genesis, and every origin carries, within it, the seed of its own extinction.
In this eternal paradox, creation and destruction dance as serpentine guardians. They are the gatekeepers of the cosmic balance where souls await rebirth.
Think of all that you have accumulated and amassed in the in-between.
Embedded in your soul is a silent, growing archive etched into the very fabric of Time itself.
Kala Bhairava dances on the edge of existence, his footsteps echoing through the corridors of ages yet to be.
Kala Bhairava is the guardian of the threshold, challenging all who dare to approach him to shed their limitations and dive deeply into the depths of their own divinity.
For in his realm, time is not a tyrant but a playmate, and eternity is not a distant dream, but the very essence of his being.
6
Mature Soul
I SAT IN FRONT OF THE shrine of Shiva.
I was no longer young, but I was not yet old.
I was trapped in the in-between. I was neither here nor there.
The Time that had been allocated for my earthly incarnation was finally in the midst of reaching its long overdue maturity.
A hard-won self-realisation settled upon me.
I had waited lifetimes for this opportune moment of my soul’s ripening.
My becoming a Mature Soul brought not comfort, but a profound and unsettling weariness of the nature of Time itself.
Is a human being eternally trapped in an endless loop destined to repeat the same mistakes ad infinitum?
Each lifetime, each human incarnation, though uniquely lived and experienced, echoed the same themes of love and loss, of joy and grief and of creation and destruction.
Was there no freedom from Time itself?
7
Blood
Each monthly bleed I lived through was a sign and a remembrance that a human life is forged and fashioned in the vessel of a woman’s body.
Each monthly bleed, which caused me an agonising amount of physical, emotional and mental pain, was perhaps a potential life denied the day of its birth.
The truth is: the one who takes birth is one day destined to taste death.
Must I mourn the absence of the children I never had?
8
Repetition
MY MIND FELT LIKE A vast and echoing prison constructed not of walls, but of moments and memories.
I began to search for a way to break free from the relentless repetition of Time itself.
