“Sambara!” Kama roared

loud enough to shake

the nearby mountains, as

he stood in front of the gates

of the demon king’s excessively

opulent castle, bursting to the seams

with bloodthirsty men,

gluttonous riches, hedonistic women,

and weapons of every type of violence.

Sambara,

arrogantly disregarding Narada’s insight

of his own demise, grabbed

his otherworldly weapons and

ordered all of his basic infantry

to stand guard ready to attack. 

Standing on the palace tower

behind the climbing stone walls and

towers of his castle, Sambara yelled,

“Kama, you fool!

You think you are a hero,

but what kind of man

are you really?

What kind of man…

burns his own mother and

shames his father,

the great Sri Brahma?

What kind of man…

disturbs the great Shiva

in meditation and

allows himself to be killed

with just a single attack?

What kind of man…

wields the barbed fires of desire

and strikes the unaware?

What kind of man…

uses illusion taught by a mistress,

whose flirtatious pleas of affection

are unbecoming to you both?

Who in the three worlds…

would honor a lowly,

beguiling mistress like Mayavati

when surrounded by

the most desirous of women?

What kind of man are you…

to stand up to a true man

like me, the King of all around?”

Kamadeva’s anger and inner fire

erupted so powerfully,

it penetrated the ether.

Channeling the unrelenting powers

of Mayadevi’s devotion,

divine pleasures, beauty and

pure love, Kamadeva

in one swift motion,

strung his bow and

launched hundreds and thousands

of barbed arrows bursting

with the power of Maya.

And in a split second,

all of Sambara’s once towering walls,

bastions and battle ramparts exploded

into debris, limbs and blood-soiled refuse.

Screams of horror filled the air along with

the cries of mayhem, confusion and terror.

Kama did not plan to relent. 

Sambara, enraged,

did not hesitate to retaliate.

Thousands of thousands of

arrows launched into the air

from archers deeper within

the now crumbled walls.

But before they reached their apex,

Kama used his enchantments

taught to him by his guru,

his yogini, his Goddess,

his wife, his love and

in an instant,

incinerated every arrow into cinders,

making it rain soot and ash

on Sambara’s now choking men,

as if bringing down the purifying

fires of Shiva’s wrath. Kama

with his relentless might

gratified Shiva as he now

channeled his true power. 

Already frightened

by the power of Kama’s enchantments,

the demon Sambara summoned

the rest of his lieutenants,

battle commanders and Asuras.

“Kamadeva, if we do not wipe him

off the face of the universe,

will destroy everything we hold dear

and forever hold us captive.

Have no fear however…

we have always used disillusionment

and enchantment to subjugate

the mightiest of foes.

Let us show him who

is the strongest wielder of

enchantment and who

is the strongest of all men!”

His Asura’s roared,

with whispers and

the subtlest of tremors

of fear and hesitation 

Act 5.2

“My Battle Commanders and

Asuras who hold our weapons

of the illusion of desire,”

Sambara ordered in a bellow,

“go forth and use your power

to destroy Kama!”

Samabara’s forces

holding the nooses of desire,

attacked Kama immediately.

Kamadeva faltered.

The bonds immediately

made him sickly and

caused him to bleed, choke and

sputter out virulent poison.

In response,

the great Kamadeva prayed.

He prayed to his dear Rati and

her enchantments on him.

And with her unrelenting memory

of love, he used the spell of desire

to recreate his body anew

and break his bonds

with a mere flicker.

Kamadeva exploded

in strength and radiance,

like Valin who can only be

defeated by the great Lord Rama.

Like the Ashwin Twins

bursting with their prana.

And with his newfound strength,

he beat, incapacitated and

bonded Sambara’s infantry

with their own evil perverted inventions.

Sambara heard the report

of his men’s defeat and

bellowed in anger.

“This Kama is a pitiful fool!

My men who hold the

illusion of power, go and

prove your strength to me

and to the world!”

And with their massive,

unwieldly, blunt weapons,

they attacked the lone, fierce Kama.

Kama again faltered and

became weak, deep in delusion.

But Kamadeva can never be defeated,

this he knew…

Channeling the purest of powers,

the power of Mayavati’s austerities,

devotion and compassion,

he punched into the ground

so hard an earthquake

charged with Brahman,

the power of the Creator himself,

erupted and blasted Bhumi’s Earth,

shattering and crumbling his foes

with their own huge, blunt weapons. 

Sambara, his anger raging further,

resolved never to relent.

He called on his commanders

who were the masters of

the illusion of knowledge.

To them, Sambara proclaimed

“You are those that

we trust most of all.

Your witchcraft can subjugate

nations when the Asuras so desire.”

And on their roaring, raging chariots,

the masters of the illusion of knowledge

attacked the son of the once

mind-born son of Brahma.

Kama faltered, deluded and

confused by the bombarding sounds and

cycloning dirt caused by the raging chariots

now encircling him in the Chakra Vyuha,

a battle attack formation meant to surround,

emotionally devastate and

unrelentingly destroy

the strongest of foes.  

Everything Kama saw

became distorted and untrue.

He was worse than blind, but still,

he would never relent

in his Dharmic duty.

Kama wisely closed his eyes,

and in doing so,

remembered his Goddess Rati’s

invigorating and intoxicating laughter,

her beautiful sobs of compassion,

her pure cries of joy and

everything true in the world,

channeling through his divine,

blessed boon of a wife.

Filled with the true power of Maya,

he saw the pure Truth. And

with this sight, he fired thousands

of thousands of arrows from

his Maya-charged quiver,

each one hitting their target

with deadly precision.

Kamdeva, killing every villain in sight,

left the horses to flee,

dragging the lifeless chariots spilling

with blood, torn flesh, and

dead, dragging corpses. 

With his infantry and chariots

extinguished by Kamadeva’s power,

Sambara called on his

few remaining troops.

However, these battle-hardened

men were the strongest and

most unconquerable of them all.

“My men who wield

the illusion of space to

alienate, divide and

cripple our foes,

set forth and destroy Kama.

Only a few men can conquer you.”

Sambara ordered. 

The Asuras,

most adept in using Maya,

rained hundreds of

millions of arrows

from the top of Sambara’s

grand palace, the destination

for those that only care for

comforts, hedonism and

material desire.

The arrows traveled instantly and

penetrated Kama

with their blinding power

without allowing even a breath

for Kama to evade.

Kama once again faltered,

pin-cushioned with hundreds

of thousands of arrows.

He began to lose himself.

His eyes no longer worked and

the pain threatened to

consume him wholly.

He wisely and resolutely

tapped into the divine power

that he knew

could never be beaten.

And in his blinded form,

he meditated on the beautiful form

of Mayavati and his carnal desires

of her embraces, kisses and lovemaking,

and in doing so, was filled to the brim

with the unifying aspect of Maya,

of Shiva-Shakti, of Radha-Krshna,

the force that cannot be

broken or divided.

And in the intoxication and

exhilaration of this unity

with Maya, with his cherished Mayadevi,

and with every particle of the three worlds,

he tore open the sky and manifested

the destructive and purifying rain

of all eight elements.

And during this

downpour of destruction

resulting in desperate cries

from Sambara’s archers,

Garuda, Vishnu’s divine,

ever-loyal mount sailed down

from the sky, wings filling the sky

with the inevitability of

justice and fate. After

saluting his master’s son,

and impervious to all the elements,

Garuda devoured thousands and

thousands of the perverted warriors,

drunk off their own spells.

Under the rain of the elements,

Garuda, and Kama’s

own barbed arrows,

Sambara’s men and palace walls

began to crumble into

blood, guts, torn limbs and

red-stained debris. 

Sambara, now panicked,

called on his last Asuras,

champions in the illusion of time.

“My forces who wield the illusionary,

all-powerful spells of time, set forth

and destroy Kama’s consciousness.

If you succeed, he will

forever remain weak,

brittle, and crippled!”

The mages and false sages,

world renowned wizards

that currently enchant the entirety

of Sambara’s dominion, began

to cast on Kamadeva from the safety

of their king’s throne room.

Kama still outside of

the crumbled debris of

what was once Sambara’s castle,

faltered and began to

lose his resolve, like a man

losing his virtue when

losing sight of Dharma.

His mind split and fragmented.

His reality closed in on itself.

The fires of his heart

nearly extinguished.

He cried out in soul

shattering sorrow. 

He lost everything he knew-

his father and creator,

Brahma, the Prajapatis,

Sandhya, Shiva and Parvati,

his brother Vasanta,

the fires of creation and joy,

everything.

All was blank.

And with this, Kama fell

to his knees almost consumed

with grief, anxiety, fear, and

the deepest of darkness,

feeling completely

unraveled and unmade.

He was almost undone…

Sambara began

to laugh hysterically,

steadfast in his belief

that no one can defeat

the illusion of time.

Kama was in complete

darkness and completely lost.

But in the darkness,

he found one bright,

brilliantly illuminating gem

deep in his chest, still

radiating with power.

And upon activating this gem

with his prana, mind and soul,

he found the loving and

ever-enduring memory of

his Goddess Rati,

the personification of beauty.

His soul exploded back to life

with the power of

the one true sound.

He heard the songs

of worship and prayer,

of devotion and commitment,

of Shiva and Shakti,

of eternity and infinity,

and of Dharma in his

universe-spanning form.

And with the power of Maya,

Dharma, Shiva, Parvati and his

beloved and divine Rati

coursing through every channel

of his now restored

mind, body and soul,

he wiped Sambara’s mages

from existence in a blink of an eye,

never to return to this plane again.

And in same instant,

he was in front of Sambara,

ready to unleash his unrelenting will

and his unconquerable power.

The demon, drunk

off of his own illusion,

stood up confidently,

towering Kama

with his all pervasive might.

Sambara then burst out

in mocking and derisive laughter!

Act 5.3

“Kama,

you pathetic weak fool,

you who dances

far behind the veil of Maya.

With such a weakness,

you will never be the strongest!”

Sambara,

invoking the enchanted mantra

in calculated, precise form,

summoned a sword that spanned

dozens of meters, radiating

with such powers that would

burn a mere human’s eyes.

“With my strength, talent,

sacrifice and subjugation of Maya,

I was granted this boon,

a Brahmastra, the most powerful,

destructive and inevitable of weapons,

created and blessed by Brahma himself!

It is impossible for me to be defeated.

You have already been beaten

by your own disillusionment.”

Kama did not flinch.

Sambara,

thinking Kama was frozen in fear,

bellowed in victorious laughter.

“Kama! You fool!

Why do you not flee

from such a man like me

with your fate so inevitable?” 

Kama smiled,

knowing of the truth

that resided deep

in his beloved’s heart.

He threw his bow and

perpetually-manifesting quiver

on the floor, the sound of

metal and wood insultingly

clanging and ringing

off the throne room ornaments.

He smirked at Sambara’s

insulted visage,

beaming with hate. 

He remembered

back to his first painful birth,

filled with power, fire,

pain and divine creation.

He remembered back

to his first death in the audience

and service of Shiva and Parvati,

and the commitment he made

to his noble and cherished Rati,

the truest form of beauty.

He remembered

his now father and mother

and his longing for them.

He remembered

the great Mayadevi, his Rati,

his Lakshmi and his Shakti.

He remembered

nothing else but love.

And it was this true love

that began to fill his soul,

no, the entire land with divine

transcendental power.

His near celestial, radiating body

began to transform into an

even more enlightened,

divine form -

almost as divine as his

Rati’s purest laugh. His aura

began to consume all of

Sambara’s surrounding filth and

transfigure it into the purest and

highest form of Vishnu,

the center, wielder and designer

of all and all that is not

and not yet.

Sambara,

seeing all that he held dear,

everything he fought so hard

to make his, panicked

as his possessions, pride and ego

began to vanish into radiating energy

capable of creating a galaxy of stars.

Sambara bellowed in sky-cracking

anger and terror. In his ego-drunk rage,

Sambara attacked Kamadeva

with his entire might,

with everything in him

behind his blow, even the small,

pitiful slivers of soul he still held

solely by the grace of Lord Vishnu.

Just the movement of the blade

made the air crack.

And with a booming thunder

that could have even made Indra,

the king of kings, chief of the celestials,

servant to the celestials, wielder of

storm and thunder, fume with jealousy. 

Sambara struck his

terrifyingly ferocious foe.

And on impact, the entire palace,

every gilded wall, every stone and

ounce of gold in the throne room

exploded from the celestial,

cosmic attack of Brahma’s inevitable will.

Feeling the impact and believing,

no, knowing deep down that

he was true, ever victorious

and ever unconquerable,

Sambara began to laugh in joy,

smothered by the cloud of rubble,

dust and ignorance around him.

His laughs boomed into the air,

and with no walls and

ceiling to contain them,

shocked the entire land in fear. 

His laughs turned into

choking cries of desperation

when he saw the still glowing,

divine, inevitable form of Kamadeva

standing, unscathed. Kamadeva,

in complete control of his power,

again made the land pure. 

“What? What is this?

This is impossible?

What kind of force can supercede

the powers of Brahma and Shiva?!”

Sambara tried to pull back

his Brahmastra again

for a second blow,

but it was securely fashioned

into Kama’s outstretched grip,

his face deep in meditation,

absolutely uninhibited by the ego.

Kamadeva opened his

eyes in his trance,

all his bodies now filled

with the true power of Rati,

of her love and

of her devotion,

perpetually sustaining Kama’s strength,

resolve and absolute Dharmic power.

Kama’s time had come. 

And in pure defiance,

intoxication, and divine purpose,

Kama responded,

“Love, you pitiful excuse for life.” 

Then, Kamadeva,

conqueror and wielder of all,

first and foremost devotee

of his Goddess Rati,

broke Sambara’s Brahmastra

in one hand resulting in time itself

standing still in fright and shock.

Looking into Sambara’s terrified eyes,

Kama commanded,

“Tell my fathers I said…‘I’ll see you soon.’”

He then took the

broken edge of the Brahmastra and

pierced it into the last slivers of

Sambara’s soul,

in the plane of existence

where the ego has no place,

not even in Sambara’s.

And with the prayers

to his Goddess and

the powers of soul, love, of

Brahma and of lord Vishnu

given to him by his blessed

and cherished Mayavati,

Sambara burst into bright

blue flame, bright enough to even

wake Brahma from his trance.

And in a blink, Sambara,

the most disillusioned demon King

forever tainting this land,

ceased to exist, leaving only puffs

of smoke now already purifying itself.

Kama dropped the remains

of the Brahmastra.

He left his divine bow and

his perennial quiver of

barbed arrows. 

Without a thought,

in the next instant,

he was besides his Rati,

embracing her

deeply in victory,

devotion and

unconquerable love.

That beloved couple,

the personification of true love,

deeply embraced and

joined each other,

feeling their energies

in the highest of forms

vibrating off each other,

into each other.

Mayavati cosmically caressed,

kissed and cared for Kamadeva,

her hero, her lord, her everything.

And after a yugas of union

that would rival that of

Shiva and Parvati,

deep in divine bliss,

peace and intoxication

that resonated across

the cosmic universe,

Rati asked her Kamadeva,

“Kama, can you recount your story

on how your defeated

the demon king Sambara?

My Kama, what

was it that truly happened?”

He kissed her forehead

and answered her,

“We happened, my love.”