Gift_1b

.chapter 1 continued

Rajan was in the prime of his manhood and his horoscope revealed a gentle soul, a lover of truth. When the great fortune wheel of the Zodiac turned in the heavens, the sun and the moon and benefic planets all positioned themselves in auspicious signs and mansions at the time of Rajan's birth. Sagittarius, the half-horse-half-man Centaur who bends the bow, was his sign rising, with Jupiter, the Guru planet of wisdom, in his ninth house of spiritual power. He was spiritually endowed and he loved the narrations of the Ramayana and the Puranas.

Although he was a good worker, being always ready to serve the wishes of the high priests for the good of all, his real nature was that of an easygoing daydreamer. Just give him a good book and a lazy day at the river, and he was the happiest boy in the universe.

All this commotion about quests and hikes into the Himalayas, and magical gems, and saving the world, well, it was really out of his line. As he often asked himself, Why me? And besides, this is the golden age of universal peace, so why all the concern? He would just ponder on that enigma for a while, and then he would lapse into another daydream.

Carry on, he thought, and the answers will come. After all, it came to his mind that nothing comes easy in this world, well, that's what he was always told.

Lighten up, thought Rajan to himself, this trip is long and weary enough without ruminating on a bunch of timeworn cliches.

"This dreary weather," said Rajan to Vikar. "Middle of summer and always a frigid nip in the air..."

Vikar nodded.

Rajan pulled his dark purple cloak about him. It was embroidered with golden threads and multicolored gems in a lion symbol of the Royalty. He pulled his hood in more snugly and adjusted his bow and quiver about his shoulder.

His chestnut brown hair curled around his high forehead and his boyish charm was accented by reddish cheeks and sky blue eyes appearing like two flashing thunder bolts clustered above a lofty mountain peak of red magnesium.

He fussed with his footwear, and he swore, "when this thing is all over, I pray that I may never don these cursed leather boots again. I understand that they be made from the leather of animals of natural death, but I dislike wearing skins that once covered my friends. I only wish to wear my teakwood sandals."

Actually, his innermost wish would be more in the line of snuggling up to some fireplace with a book.

He pulled out his purple embroidered pouch and loosened the tie strings. Light shot upward as he pulled apart the pleated opening. Looking down through the aperture, Rajan marvelled at the flaxen gem inside and then he dropped it out into his hand. It was the size of his fist and the surface teemed with many shining facets. Illumination spread all about it. It shined with luminous colors of purple and dark blue. The upper half was a deep Amethyst purple and the lower half was a dark Sapphire bluish hue.

Rajan closed his eyes and the stone probed deep in his mind to gather visions. He peeked under his eyelids and saw the purple half shine brighter than the blue half. Shutting his eyes he gathered wondrous visions as if he were a bird flying over a great cluster of gigantic lotus flowers. Gliding down, he scanned the lotus cluster at close range and saw the wondrous beauty of multi-petaled lotus flowers of blue, yellow, red and white tints.

Then one lotus transformed into a wonderful scene of a great forest of whitish champaka trees, with one towering fig tree in the middle, rising up like a pericarp in the whorl of a lotus.

Another lotus transformed into a vision of a colossal valley surrounded by circular granite mountain walls, and a single towering mountain peak standing in the middle, all appearing as a gargantuan cosmic wheel. Rajan could see thousands of monkeys playing in innumerous trees that surrounded the mountain, which looked like a great elephant tusk.

Another lotus metamorphosed into a huge mountain surrounded by other snowy mountains, resembling a whorl of white lotus petals surrounding a great pericarp rising high in the middle. Yet another lotus turned into a vision of two great towers surrounded by a mystic scenery of titanic snow-capped mountains.

The visions then departed and Rajan peeked again to see the lower blue part of the gem take a prominent tone. Then his visions came again, yet they were dark and a strange song of war chanting in the back of his mind and he saw many fearsome beasts with weapons raised and war cries blaring through their teeth. There was a great sound of battle, the clashing of metal, of men and beast dying and wild ululating cries filled the air when the slain fell to the earth.

Suddenly the vision turned to that of a stunning lustrous cave, full of mammoth crystals shining in colors of purple, blue, green and red. A stunning aura emanated from the cave, a light that captivated his mind. Then the visions ceased and he opened his eyes and saw that the gem returned to it's normal hue.

Amazed, he returned it to his pouch and pulled the tie strings and looped the cord around his neck again. He knew the gem held many mysterious powers. This was only a glimpse of the potencies lying within the gem. The high priests suggested many things without directly divulging what the full powers were. He knew that many wonders were in store for them, waiting to be unveiled by the gem.

He glanced over at Vikar and could tell by the monkey's pensive mood, that he somehow knew that Rajan had seen things wondrous, but he said nothing. Maybe he surmised the gem's powers, maybe he also saw. A stealth of silence hung as Vikar felt the quintessence of the stone and was still.

Rajan sat on the stone slab and he grew sullen and complained, "I'm weary Vikar, we've been walking for many days. And what I wouldn't do for some nice fried curd, and all we've had is wild roots and berries."

"But back at the castle, you always told me that roots and berries were the healthiest food in the world!"

As soon as this reminder left Vikar's lips ... so then did his eyes blink several times as Rajan raised an eyebrow scornfully as he slowly digested the words.

Vikar coughed and suddenly looked away from the searing glance of Rajan's eyes. He feared that a discordant note had been struck in the conversation and he scratched imaginary fleas so as to distract the penetrating glare of his friend. This trick always won immediate sympathy from Rajan, who forgot the comment and withdrew his chiding glance.

Vikar whistled a sigh of relief between clinched teeth ... and subdued an apish grin by tightening his lips over his gums. But Rajan did not fail to notice a brazen mirth dancing around inside his friend's eyes ... and despite the color rising in his cheeks, he decided to drop it at that. They both smiled a banner of peace and twinkled their eyes in surrender.

Rajan then sighed and looked upward and spoke as if addressing the sky, "Oh evil and dark age of Kali! So devoid of mercy! Your essence seems to be personified within this place. The Vedas say that when the Kali age comes into it's full strength, that men will shrink to pigmy size and live the span of a mere twenty years, and cows will appear as small as goats. Kings will degrade to the level of roguish thieves and the people will flee to the hills for their dear lives. Strength alone will determine Dharmic truth and what is just, and buying and selling will be marked with deceit.

People will be slow and dull-witted, and will be ever ravished with hunger and always searching the drought plagued land for food. They will stop at nothing to fill their bellies, even they will eat their own kin. The country will be raided by vagabonds whose only concerns will be to eat anything and anybody and satisfy their base desires.

The rain will refuse to fall, and yet the sky will ever be filled with masses of clouds and flashing lightning and thunder."

Rajan lifted his eyes to the sky again and exclaimed, "Alas! Has the description of the clouds come to pass already?

Say ... Vikar, wouldn't it be nice if the golden age just went on and on? You know, why does it have to stop at 10,000 years? It would be great if the Kings and everybody just stayed faithful to the codes of Dharma and this golden age just goes on and on, until the end of time!"

Vikar laughed at his wishful thinking. "No, Rajan!" he quipped. "Unfortunately, the modes of ignorance and passion will perpetually nag the living beings without allowing a continuous peace within this material world. The fourth age of Kali will surely come again, as on schedule. That is the nature of time. Kala-cakra, the wheel of time, is always revolving and spending our lives. But yet, there is a way to climb beyond the walls of time, and one can do it for hundreds of years or one can do it forever..."

Vikar sunk into a deep reverie and his eyes sparked like arani wood igniting the sacrificial flame, and he chanted these hallowed verses:

Some who know the Supreme Brahman,

attain that Supreme

by passing away from the world

during the influence of the fiery God,

in the light,

at an auspicious moment of the day,

during the fortnight

of the waxing moon,

or during the six months

when the sun travels in the north.

The mystic who passes away

from this world

during the smoke,

the night,

the fortnight of the waning moon,

or the six months

when the sun passes to the south,

reaches the moon planet

but again comes back.

That topmost planet of mine

is not illumined

by the sun or moon,

nor by fire or electricity.

Those who reach it

never return to this material world.

As Vikar spoke these verses of the Vedic script, his eyes shone with inner light.

* * *

to continue- Gift 1c [in construction]