"Wake up."
"Elder brother, wake up!"
"Elder brother, please wake up!"
Varchaswa heard his sister Khyaati call him out repeatedly. But he wanted to sleep some more.
"Elder brother, please wake up. Today is your 16th Birthday. More importantly it is day for your coming-of-age ceremony. Mom and Dad are waiting with others. We have to perform the awakening ceremony at the designated auspicious time!"
It was the 7th day of Magha Month of Year 5047 as per the Lunar Calendar of Dwaarakaa Kingdom and Varchaswa's birthday. And the poor fellow had forgotten all about it.
For quite some time now, he had been having dreams akin to nightmares about an ancient battlefield where he fought a legendary battle against multiple enemies, destroying many of them before dying himself.
He could not understand whether it was just a dream or events of the past or glimpse of the future. Because of those dreams, he was not able to sleep properly at night. Last night, was no different.
Varchaswa, the Second Prince of the Dwaarakaa Kingdom was thus woken up by Khyaati, the one and only Princess of the Dwaarakaa Kingdom and his younger sister.
After waking up he took a bath, dressed up and walked out to greet his family and teachers. The group then went to the ancient temple, known as the Royal Ganapati Temple, together for the ceremony. A crowd followed them.
The citizens had high hopes from their Second Prince. After all, his awakening could lead to the rise of the declining Kingdom. Dwaarakaa was not a poor Kingdom. It had its own ancient Inheritance. However, it has been declining compared to the other Kingdoms and Empires of the Maanasa Continent; and Varchaswa's level of Awakening would determine its fate.
Varchaswa entered the temple with his family. The Temple Priests, commonly referred to as the Pandits, welcomed the Royal family and began the ceremony.
The Temple Deity 'Lord Ganapati' also known as 'Lord Ganesha', was worshipped first. Afterwards the prayers for other Gods and Deities were carried out. This was followed by various Tantric and Yogic rituals.
Next, Prasaadam including clothes, foods and other offerings were distributed amongst the crowd in the name of the Second Prince Varchaswa.
Finally, the awakening ceremony began.
Varchaswa was made to sit at the centre of eight Pandits whose positions coincided with the vertices of a Swaastika which was pre-drawn on the floor. After taking the positions, they began chanting Ancient Mantra meant to invoke the blessings of the Deities. This greatly changed the atmosphere.
The chanting of Mantra continued for a while after which Prince Varchaswa was asked to cut his right thumb slightly and pour a few drops of his blood into the sacred fire, which was lit inside a 3 dimensional 'Nava Durgaa Yantra', situated right at the centre of Swaastika. This was basically the process of the Ancient 'Yajna', also called as 'Yagya'.
The moment Prince Varchaswa put drops of his blood into the sacred fire, a purple lightning descended from the sky with a thunderous roar and hit Varchaswa. His mind went dizzy for a moment before memories came flooding in. These were the memories of his two previous lives.
The sudden influx of information in a short time made Varchaswa yell out in pain. His parents, the King and the Queen although very happy with his awakening, were worried about him being struck with lightning. The pain he was going through was clearly visible on his face. Due to the unexpected turn of events, as soon as the ceremony was completed, the Royal family quickly returned to the Palace.
Varchaswa's awakening soon created an uproar throughout the kingdom because the purple colour of the lightning made it clear that he awakened the Legendary Lightning Element.
This had an even greater significance. The awakening of the Legendary Lightning Element meant that Varchaswa had awakened the power of Lightning at a legendary level which also signified that he had received the blessing of the Deity Indra, the King of Svarga Loka!
Everyone who witnessed the event had the same thought - "Prince Varchaswa has been blessed by Indra!". Only Varchaswa knew the truth. He had received not one but multiple blessings from Deities. It wasn't just lightning that he had awakened to.
However, for Varchaswa, this was not the most important thing. The moment he received his memories, Varchaswa realized that he is in-fact a reincarnated Celestial Being, a forgotten Deity!
He recalled that he is 'Varchas', the son of Soma, also known as Chandra, the Moon Deity. Varchaswa had previously reincarnated as Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna and the spiritual grandson of Indra and nephew of Shree Krishna at the request of the Supreme Gods for the Mahaabhaarata War. Thus, his identity of Prince Varchaswa of Dwaarakaa was his 3rd birth and 2nd reincarnation or so he concluded.
Indra is the King of all the Celestial Deities residing in Svarga Loka, a Heavenly World whose only residents were Celestials, Demi-Gods, Divine Beings, Ancient Sages or Humans who had transcended and were just a step short of achieving Moksha, a higher form of Enlightenment, Nirvaana and Mukti. Such humans could be considered Immortals and Half-Immortals.
Hence Varchaswa was essentially the reincarnated Scion of Soma & Indra; a descendant of two mythological Deities who had ruled over the heavens since ancient times.
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Chapter End.