One of my favorite Alan Watts stories, which conveys the Hindu model of the universe as drama quite well: “For Whom Were You Weeping?”

"There is a story about a great sage, Narada, who came to Vishnu. Vishnu is one of the aspects of the godhead, Brahma. Brahma is usually the word given to the creator aspect, Vishnu to the preserving aspect, and Shiva to the destructive aspect.

When Narada came to Vishnu and said, 'What is the secret of your maya?' Vishnu took him and threw him into a pool.

The moment he fell under the water he was born as a princess in a very great family, and went through all the experiences of childhood as a little girl. She finally married a prince from another kingdom and went to live with him in his kingdom. They lived there in tremendous prosperity, with palaces and peacocks, but suddenly there was a war and their kingdom was attacked and utterly destroyed. The prince himself was killed in battle, and he was cremated. As a dutiful wife, the princess was about to throw herself weeping on to the funeral pyre and burn herself in an act of suttee or self-sacrifice.

But suddenly Narada woke to find himself being pulled out of the pool by his hair by Vishnu, who said, 'For whom were you weeping?'”

— Alan Watts