River of a Thousand Tales is a journey to the East and to the West, outward and inward, and beyond. Join the pilgrim as he encounters a sage by the sacred river in the Himalayas and is enlightened by the sage's parables and vignettes. These tales, at once simple, revealing, and inspiring, unveil mind and matter, nature and nurture, mindfulness and meditation, duties and rewards, life and death, the individual and the universal, the finite and the infinite. Author Rao Kolluru reflects on these tales in the context of environmental biology, public health, astrophysics, and related disciplines, and offers practical guidance for everything from business to wellness, all the while separating science from nonsense with irreverent humor.