In the beginning, there was nothing but dark. God was asleep. After millions of years being asleep, God sneezed and woke Themselves up from Their slumber. From the mucus, there came about Sakatimuna, the great cosmic snake. God, frightened by what They have created and the chaos of sudden heat and light expanding around Them, looked at the rainbow snake in amusement but also frightened by the glimmer of the snake’s skin! From God’s curiosity of the snake’s radiant light, the angel Gabriel came into existence.
“Who are you?” God asked Gabriel.
“I am Gabriel, your Majesty.”
“Majesty?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“And who is she?”
“She will be the heart of the world, my Majesty”
“Heart? But she frightens me.”
“Perhaps then, some time away from her would make you love her better, my Majesty” said Gabriel.
God thought this was good and said “And so it shall be.” Sakatimuna was taken out of God’s sight. With Gabriel as Their right hand, God learnt how to be God and God learnt how to be good and worked on the rest of the Universe.
While God worked on the rest of the Universe, Sakatimuna continued her slumber. In her slumber, Sakatimuna had vivid dreams of beings like her, but with fins and tails that would swim in blue.
In her sleep, she whispered “What is blue?”
These beings would grow legs then move from blue to red.
“What is red?”
Then from the red, these beings climbed up lengths of brown and Sakatimuna saw green! Some of these beings climbed even higher, grew wings and flew off into blue again! Sakatimuna slept for millions of years and during the course of her sleep, she saw from beginning to end and she came to learn of an emotion that would tug at her heart.
“S-s-s-s-sad. I’m sad,” would pass through her tongue while she continued to slumber.
God had finally finished creating not just the universe, but many universes and decided that it was time for Them to be reunited with Sakatimuna. Having separated Their essence into so many things, God was no longer They but He, much like Gabriel. God needed Sakatimuna again for He to become They once more. Gabriel was great company but it was now time for God to work on a project of existence he would lovingly call Bumi.
After millions of years being asleep, the many skins the cosmic snake had shed hardened into a shell. Sakatimuna was still fast asleep and having visions of what she understood to be called “apocalypse” when Gabriel’s radiant light awakened her. Her shock had caused four legs to appear out of the hardened shell and a head similar to that of hers popped out. When Gabriel saw the accidental creature that Sakatimuna found herself being awake on, he thought it was good and wise. He called it “Korma”. Korma’s shell was green in colour and this too Gabriel thought was good. He decided that Korma’s shell would be the colour of Bumi once God was done with its creation.
“What are you here for, Gabriel?” Sakatimuna asked.
“God asked for what has been owed for a long time coming, dear Saka.”
“And what is that my dear Gabriel?”
“Your heart, my love.”
“Ada hati.”
“Yes you have heart, my Saka.”
Sakatimuna still sleepy and unsure of Gabriel’s request went back to sleep. This time, she asked Korma if he could make space inside his shell for her, to be protected from the blinding radiant light of Gabriel. Korma, seeing that he was formed out of Sakatimuna’s skin, obliged to her request. Sakatimuna, haunted by her visions, cried through her continuing slumber. Korma, feeling suffocated by her tears, popped his head out, this time, never to go back into his shell again. For the next five hundred thousand years, Sakatimuna cried through her sleep. From the blue of her tears, all kind of creatures with fins and tails appeared, much like her dream. From that same blue, there would be flashes of red. Hot red boiling — this was Korma’s blood.
Having reprimanded by God for being unable to take back Sakatimuna’s heart, Gabriel appeared to Korma. Korma understood it was time for the creation of Bumi. For the greater good and for God, he had to let Sakatimuna go. Korma gave consent. Sakatimuna, however, was still fast asleep.
With the speed of light, Gabriel smashed open the top of Korma’s shell and ripped Sakatimuna out of him. The cosmic snake yelled in anguish and this yell would be eternally embedded into Bumi as the “rhythm” of life. Gabriel ripped her head to tail and her organs dropped everywhere into the sea of tears she had cried within Korma’s shell. Her organs, having reacted to Korma’s boiling blood would form “land” and on lands, the “soil” was tinted red with her blood. From “soil”, there were “trees” that were green like Korma and as the trees branched higher, there was “sky” and it was blue. Every vision of creation Sakatimuna had during her long slumber began to happen as she turned white to death. All that was left was Sakatimuna’s heart, still beating, in Gabriel’s hand.
Korma, whose head was now unable to pop back into into his shell, could not see what was happening but felt for the very first time what Sakatimuna had felt when she used to chant “s-s-s-sadness” during her long slumber. God finally appeared.
“Gabriel, fetch me the soil of Bumi.”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
God mixed soil with the heart of Sakatimuna. With this mixture, God breathed into it. With that, the first two “humans” were created. Though God could not be They again, the mixture allowed God to create both He and She.
“What are your names?” God asked the two humans before him.
“S-s-s-sad.” Both humans said with the unmistakable hiss of Sakatimuna’s tongue.
With that, the two humans plunged Bumi into darkness.
“Oh dear”, said Gabriel. “We forgot to remove the anguish of Saka’s heart. This will be something that they have to inherit.”
“I know that.” said God.
“What do we do now?”
“Erase their sadness. Put them in Eden. Eventually, they will learn of their inner sadness. With sadness, comes desire. With desire, comes creation.”
“We’ve been through this God. With desire also comes destruction.”
“With destruction, comes hope. And with hope, home is to be found.”
When God said “home”, Gabriel saw the movement of human beings for millions and millions of years. He saw sadness, he saw desire, he saw creation, he saw destruction and he saw hope. He saw every single vision that Sakatimuna saw during her long slumber, from start to finish. Gabriel, too, felt s-s-s-sad. But Gabriel also saw “home” at the end of it and felt that it was good. Really good.
“Alright then,” said Gabriel. “Let there be light?”
“Let there be light.”
