We think of love stories as those that end in happily-ever-after. But thousands of years ago, in ancient India, love was understood in a different way—as one of the four aims of life, as a means for spiritual growth, as a celebration of the play of the Divine. As something profound, beautiful, and sometimes elusive.

The sacred texts of Hinduism are populated with astonishing stories of love between gods and goddesses, between mortals and celestial beings, between sages and saints and ordinary humans. Not just ancient lore, these iconic stories have come to define one of the oldest continuous living civilizations and cultures in the world.

This book takes more than 25 stories from the Itithaasa and Puranas, the epic literature of ancient India, as well as stories from history that exemplify the many different aspects and dimensions of love. These stories were transmitted over thousands of years until they became part of the memory of a people. These stories teach us how to find love, how to rise through love, and how to become better through love.

Here you will find

• Stories of the apsaras, the female spirits of the waters and the clouds, exquisite dancers as elegant as they are beautiful
• Stories of rishis and rishikas, the sage, wise ones who find their balance between asceticism and earthly pleasures
• Stories of kings and queens, scholars and forest dwellers, demons and deities
• Stories that traverse death and span different worlds
• Stories that may be bittersweet, joyous, humorous, and tragic—but all stories that point us to Dharma.

There may not always be a happily-ever-after—but there can always be a Dharmically-ever-after!