Kālo'smi yatna-kṣayakṛt pravṛddhaḥ

Stories about Time in Mahābhārata and two different characters named Yaśodā.

Chapter One: There are several versions of the myth that the cosmos is seen inside baby Kṛṣṇa's mouth. One version is that Mārkaṇḍeya, adrift in the deluge, was breathed into the baby's belly and saw the cosmos as if it hadn't been swept away. Another version is that when Kṛṣṇa yawned, Yaśodā saw the cosmos. A third version is that when Yaśodā heard that Kṛṣṇa had eaten dirt, she made him open his mouth, and saw the cosmos. This story is based on the fourth version, that Yaśodā suspected that Kṛṣṇa had eaten one of the modakas that was her naivedya for Gaṇapati, and she made him open his mouth.

Yaśodā had made twenty-one modakas as an offering to Gaṇapati. Now she counted only twenty, and there was Kṛṣṇa, sitting in front of the mūrti with his mouth pressed firmly shut. Who else but this Dāmodara, who gets into trouble unless she ties him up, would have consumed the modaka before it could be offered as intended? Our efforts come to nothing if Time, the cosmic form in Kṛṣṇa's mouth, arrives early to consume them.

Chapter Two: Mahābhārata states that Kapila Vāsudeva was born to Narācī in Kṛṣṇa's time, while Rāmāyaṇa narrates how Rāma's distant ancestor Sagara's sons discovered sanātana Kapila Vāsudeva underground. To resolve this plothole, I wrote a crossover story about time travel, including the characters of Dhundhumāra and Yaśodā, who is the daughter of Ancestors.

The title is Saṃskṛta, adapted from Bhagavad-Gītā, and means "I am Time, who destroys efforts, at maturity."

The image of Kṛṣṇa revealing the universe in his mouth is by metacrisis of India Forums, used with permission.

Cover Credit: @PriyaArshiSarun