The first ray of the sun touched Vasu's face. He got up from the seat and tried to recall the last night. "I have to go home, I'll not quite so easily." He jumped out from the bus and started inspecting the place. Finding no clue of hope, he looked at the rising sun, the universal energy giver. Suddenly, Vastav noticed the worn out patch of skin on both his knees. "What happened to my knees, I can't bend nor can walk. "Vastav started sluggishly as if 500 lbs. weight is tied to his left leg.
As he walked, his whole body vibrated abnormally. He showed o signs belonging to a good, noble, cultured family. His looks was worse even than a roadside mad with stinky psyche. In other words, Vastav was driven to the brink of madness.
The wound in the head was deep and there was a huge loss of blood, but miraculously it got healed. Vastav walked on for his destination energized by a strong smell of metal, which led him to a house. "There is something inside the house which can build up my worn-out cells, I can sense it."
As he was wondering how to get in, a stationery shop caught his attention. Vastav broke into the shop and forcefully took out a chocolate bar from one of the bottles in the shower case. A hubbub of excited spectators rushed into the shop. Vastav didn't got time to escape and found himself gheraoed by a huge mass. Vastav noticed the red coal burning eyes approaching him. "Are they all dead, why are they staring at me?
Is it that, when I was in the metal boat that night, the whole world got destroyed and I was sheltered there to survive the fatal blow of nature.
Whatever, I have entered the land of deaths and have to reach my destination, overcome the fear they are entrusting on me." As Vastav was sensing the seriousness of the situation, parallelly his vision took him a few hours back….. The scene of the naked Jain Tirthankar. Realizing the deep secret of life... Vastav…..a Brahmin by birth…..freed himself of his only possession…..his shame.
"Om, Gurudeveya Namah", with a trembling and unshattering voice, Vasu took off his pant and freed himself from all his worldly possessions totally.
The awestruck crowd moved back and Vasu walked on…..totally naked, with the pant on his left arm…..still chewing the chocolate like a child.
"What was that? Ufff,a mad, a magician , a sadhu or a wiccan…..Guwahati is really mysterious." "I was totally numb, couldn't move my body". "I too." "Me too."
Babbling like mads, the crowd dispersed. Vastav put on his pant back, started moving in an unknown terrain but a known destination... home, home… ..the sweet home.
Vastav forgot the metallic smell which was attracting him towards it. Suddenly he stared at his right palm, had a deep look at his ring finger.
"Oh! I left my rings on the boat. The Burmese ruby embedded in a astadhatu ring, the pearl, the blue moonstone and the...…and the....copper ring. Yes, the smell was of copper." Vastav closed his eyes, took a deep breath. He visualised a copper plate with a plateful honey in it left for several days.
"How can I find the source, it can recover the deficiency my psyche had these days."
With the rising sun, Vastav's instinct started working at peak to recover the physical damage. Vastav's consciousness was standing on the horizon which was beyond space and time interval. Vastav looked at the rising sun. A jet of fast flowing photons entered his eyes and created blurred images on the retina energising his broken confidence.
"I need to find out a safe place where I can find my identity but I am not able to concentrate on a particular thing."
With an ocean full of thoughts gushing inside, Vasu moved on. The human mind being so inquisitive is inclined to each and everything that looks different. Sometimes it leads us to trouble and sometimes leads to our goal.
Vastav too encountered the mind hide and seek, surmounted it at times but was not able to master it completely. A half-constructed house stood on the left side of the road. Vastav felt a peaceful atmosphere and entered the gate.
He saw two man in traditional lungi and each wearing a small white cap, busy in cleaning an open area. They saw Vasu entering the gate but continued working Vastav went to the backside of the campus and sat on the ground. He took three deep breaths and started focusing on the sun. Unknowingly but instinctively, Vasu put his first step in Sadhana….. Trataka …..the practice of still gazing….a mystical practice to have control over the third eye. But it needs years of deep meditation, Tyaga (sacrifice) and demand of the cosmic power. Vasu's body stood still like an ivory statue .His eyelids became heavier and heavier and finally closed.
He felt the flow of cosmic energy top of the head passing through the spine upto his big toes. How long he remained in the meditation posture, he didn't know. Unable to bear the extreme heat inside, Vasu opened his eyes and faced backward to the sun and he saw his shadow in front of him. He stared at his shadow for a long time and noticed some peculiar coloured sparkles at some particular points. Vasu picked up some stones and placed them on the coloured sparkles. They were 7 in a line from the top of the head to the button of the spine. As the shadow changes its position along with the sun, Vasu aligns himself and the stones in the same position.
"My body has gained it's lost rhythm." Vasu closed his eyes for an instant, felt the 7 sparkling points and his shadow merging into one and submerging into himself. With the new valour he gained, he left the place in search of his lost physical rhythm…..The honeyed copper plate.
As Vasu left the place, the mike in the half constructed house vibrated….
"Allah hu Akbar" ﷲ
What a riddle of life!!!... No bias at His place.