Shadow Realm

In this bonus episode, get a dive deep into the rich mythology that inspired 'Shadow Realm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya visits Hamid in the police station to see if he holds the key to understanding the ominous black flowers, but will he figure it out in time to protect Saara? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya and Saara try to take a tranquil row boat ride in Golden State Park, but Arya can’t get the mark of Vishnu out of his mind, and it turns out danger isn’t far behind them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya's desperate search for answers pushes him to break the rules of his power. Will it be worth it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya comforts Saara at the hospital while they wait to hear about Taa's condition. Overcome with guilt, Saara confides in Arya that what happened today wasn't the first sign of danger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya cheers Saara on as she runs Bay to Breakers, but with every mile she runs, Arya gets closer to the start of a dangerous journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want a refresher on Season 1 of Shadow Realm before jumping into Arya's newest journey? Listen to this quick recap of the last season from the show's creator Reenita Malhotra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya's journey continues on 9/26. Will he overcome the divine's challenges or lose himself and his loved ones to the space between order and chaos? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arya has changed, seemingly overnight, as he returns to school the next day. He stands up to his bullies, no longer afraid or affected by their taunting. Pa is astounded at his son’s maturity, especially as they prepare to remove Ma from life support. Arya knows she is at peace in the backwaters, but Pa feels only emptiness and sadness. Arya knows what his father needs – deep medicine that lives i...

With a new understanding of the power of the Ramayana, Arya finds closure as he says goodbye to his new friends in the Wild Woods and prepares to go home. He finds himself back in his home in San Francisco where he returns the Ramayana to its rightful place in Ma’s prayer room. As he lays in bed that night, he is at peace with whatever the next day will bring, knowing that the Ramayana will guide...

With Ravana defeated, Arya goes to visit the Medicine Woman one last time. He realizes it is Ma as her True Self. As they talk, many things become clear. The reason for his journey to the backwaters wasn’t to find Deep Medicine but to see his Ma, not as a helpless woman on life support, but here guiding him. The Deep Medicine he sought, was in the Ramayana the whole time. Just as Arya was key to t...

In a final fight, Arya comes face to face with the demon king, Ravana. Its’ 10 menacing heads manifest as demons from Arya’s life, and one appears as a mirror image of Arya himself. Shocked and confused, Arya is momentarily stunned. The demon continues to terrorize Arya as he stares at the Rakshasas-filled reflection of himself. But for the first time, the voices don’t phase him. Arya finally unde...

At first light, Arya and the vanaras begin their descent to the dark side. They reach the place where Arya has to plavang — jump, leap and fly, to get to the Ramayana. He is terrified but with the Rakshasas closing in he doesn’t have a choice. He digs deep into his being, seeking energy from Brahman Shakti, and before his own eyes, he is transformed into a powerful warrior. He leaps and soars from...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Shadow Realm podcast to introduce you to my other podcast, True Fiction Project which is a podcast that explores the origins of fiction. This episode interview is with Dr. Kanniks Kannikeswaran, the composer and conductor of the Shadow Realm soundtrack. He is an internationally renowned music composer, educator, and scholar known for his sustained contribution...

Arya wakes to find his friends, the vanaras, surrounding him. There is an army of monkeys with them, ready to fight the Rakshasas and save the Ramayana before it is destroyed, erasing the history that good ever existed. Arya and Chimpu form a Shakespearean plan inspired by Macbeth to distract the Rakshasas while Arya sneaks into the canyon to retrieve the book. Knowing the Rakshasas are blinded by...

Arya was sure that he had failed his quest when he watched the Ramayana fall into the vast darkness. However, when Rishiji appears, Arya learns that all hope is not lost. Rishiji leads Arya into the sky and shows him a deep canyon filled with Rakshasas and much to Arya’s surprise, he sees the Ramayana intact perched on Ravana’s throne. With Rishiji’s instructions and the vanaras help, Arya may sti...

Arya is stumbling through the dark forest trying to find his friends, having just escaped the sinister vines that threatened to silence him. The moonlight reveals a silhouetted image of the Medicine Woman but her words are interrupted by an avalanche of rakshasas barrelling down a hillside towards Arya. He is outnumbered. With only a single arrow left, Arya aims and fires the asthra. The rakshasas...

Arya wanders through the Coconut Grove looking for the non-medicinal plant as instructed by Medicine Woman. A beautiful spotted deer appears and Arya begins to follow it, thinking it has lost its mother. Arya follows it further and further into the dark forest and realizes too late that the fawn is a shape-shifting rakshasa sent by Ravana to stop his quest of saving the Ramayana. When the spell fi...

Upon reaching the edge of the forest, Arya and his friends find themselves surrounded by a series of waterfalls. The sun glistens off the water and they see a woman standing near the edge of the stream. It’s the Medicine Woman. Arya is drawn magnetically towards her as if they have met before, though he can’t seem to place where or how. Arya is convinced she can read his mind because she knows so...

The aftermath of Arya’s recklessness leaves the vanaras homeless and Pandu badly burned. His wounds need Deep Medicine that is made by a mysterious Medicine Woman who lives further South on the outskirts of the Dark Side of the forest. Her exact location is unknown and dangerous. Desperate to help, Arya looks to the Ramayana to try to find the way. Using his imagination, he is able to interpret th...

With his new weapon in hand, Arya is eager to fight but soon learns he may not be as ready as he thinks. While walking through the forest helping the vanaras search for food, Arya and his friends meet the hideous and evil Baalachorni. As she begins to threaten to harm a baby vanar, Arya becomes angry and retaliates. His reckless actions create devastating consequences to the innocent vanaras aroun...

Rishiji appears once more to instruct Arya in the ancient customs and history of their world. For many years, Rishiji and the vanaras have waited for a descendant of the Arya race to come and protect the Wild Woods from Ravana’s plot to erase their history. A detail in Arya’s family lineage confirms their prophecy and his name reveals his role in the Wild Woods’ fight against evil. His arrival is...

Arya’s head spins with what he just heard: Ravana is alive? It can’t be! From the time he was a young boy, he had read stories of this demon’s defeat in the Ramayana. Yet the vanara tribe who have been threatened to near extinction and Rishiji, the wise sage he met earlier in the Wild Woods, all confirm it as the truth. For years, Ravana lay dormant but since his return, he has been seeking to des...

Arya discovers that he has landed in the Wild Woods, the mythical jungles described in the Ramayana. But how this came to be, is a mystery to him. Soon after Arya arrives, he meets a forest hermit known as the Rishiji, who speaks in riddles. He sets Arya forward on a journey through the Wild Woods to accomplish urgent tasks before he can go home to heal his sick mother. Before parting, the Rishiji...

Unable to sleep, Arya is startled when his bed begins to violently shake and the floorboards tilt and crack. Arya is used to earthquakes but this was no ordinary quake. Suddenly, a large fault opens in the middle of his room and he can’t resist the strong magnetic force that keeps pulling him further and further into a black unfamiliar abyss. Arya finds himself in a beautiful yet completely unfami...