One
should watch Macham on the move; it is a perfect harmonious combination of agility
and balance. Swiftness and style were additional features that he moderated in
accordance with the need of the situation. He can spear through the wind or
float like a feather, either way there was something very unique and admirable
about his walk. He spellbound everything, everywhere his feet took him through.
He walked steadily, with straight back and unswaying hips; exuding elegance,
masculinity and authority that befits men who have mastered themselves. His
hunting senses were remarkable. He spotted circling eagles; skipping
butterflies; hopping squirrels; even the fall of dried leaves as he walked
along. He was well aware of the slightest disturbances within the helm of his
surroundings, any odd movements got his immediate notice, on the go, but he
never stopped not even a moment. During the walk, he was completely silent and was
absorbed in the music of the immediate dwellings. He had this special gift of connecting
himself to the environment that allowed him to move around instinctively, with
precise, sharp, well calculated strides of consistent pace, amidst hovering
trees and thick undergrowth. That thing, sureness and containment, that naturally
emanated out of him, in every move he made, captivated not only Adhavan but
also the spread of the wilderness around him. He rarely used the staff, but for
the clearing of the growth and to make path for Adhavan.
It became growingly difficult,
for Adhavan to cope with him, though he had been used to such long walks due to
his nature of work, he is no match to Macham in the terrain edges of the
Laughing Hills. They continuously walked for three hours in a stretch to find a
group of pools interconnected by a slithering river, lit brightly by the
setting sun. They stopped, for less than a quarter of an hour, drenched their
thirst, squatted a while and resumed their journey. The silence was comfortable,
neither of them talked and it gave ample time for Adhavan to make fine
observations of the landscape. Alarmingly, Macham picked additional pace in his
walk, so that he can find a safe abode or create a one for both of them, for that
night, sooner the better. He started pacing. He almost ran across the
wilderness, this time he didn't set his feet firmly on the ground, rather he
used his front part of the foot to propel forward and make faster strides. That
almost created a gliding effect.
Sun has set, to pave way for the
seemingly beautiful moon to take a stroll to the high skies and shower coldness
with soft light. After the stop near the ponds, they walked incessantly for two
hours and a quarter in a stretch. Adhavan felt lurking pain in each and every
part of his leg. Especially his feet and calf muscles were sore. He terribly needed
a rest. He lay down flat on the ground. In the mean time, Macham cleared the nearby
growth and made way to a massive flat boulder, towered by trees and covered by the
dark undergrowth. In whisk of a moment, he was on top of the boulder along with
his staff and hunting knife. He removed his dhoti; dusted the boulder; wore it
back; signalled Adhavan to join him. Relieved to find a resting place, Adhavan dragged
himself to the boulder and allowed Macham to help him climb it. Adding to the
tiredness borne out of all this endeavor, hunger and thirst rummaged his spirit.
It was hard for him to distinguish, if he was fainting or he was being thrown into
a deep sleep.
Aware of this, Macham went in
searching for food and water. Being a native of the forest, in an hour’s time
he returned, with a palm sized bowl, full of water in his left hand; burning
torch in his right hand; bundle of twigs and two large sized tapioca roots along
with a few herbs, tied down neatly around his shoulder by drying creepers. He
lit the twigs, made a leaping camp fire, squeezed the herbs, smeared it on the roots
and grilled it. Once the food was ready, he served the largest of the roots along
with a few herbs to Adhavan. Dizzy with the sleep, he found a hot, smelly, dark
greenish burnt root right before him. First, he searched for the water and sipped
it slowly from the bowl. He felt it running cold down his throat, caressing his
dried burning throat with the coolness of the moon. Then he took a bite of the
burnt roots, it was not charred rather it tasted as though it was boiled with
the herbs. He peeled the skin, it came off easily and beneath it, the root was
pale greenish white. He took a handful of the herbs and munched it along with
the roots. He knew the food wasn't made for his taste buds; rather it was
purely prepared to satisfy his hunger. Macham was squatting near the remote
corners of the boulder and was savoring his food for the day. As usual, his
eyes were closed and he was completely immersed in chewing and relishing the
burnt roots that tasted like boiled ones over the effect of the herbs. He never
worried or cared about anyone around him while he was eating. He got totally absorbed
in the action and that must be giving him a sense of psychic pleasure. His dark
silhouette sharpened against the burning wood. Adhavan didn't have the heart to disturb him. Though they had not talked for almost six hours, it seems talking
was completely unnecessary with Macham as he neither looked for any explanation
nor did he give a one.
When they had their humble supper,
the night was drawing a blanket made of stars for their warm sleep. Macham
leapt down and disappeared into the darkness. Adhavan found himself alone. He
stood up, straightened his body and looked up at the skies. The spectacular
arrangements of constellations and stars are indeed a grandeur art by God—one
of his masterpieces. Realizing the usage of the word God, Adhavan turned around,
to make sure Macham was not sniffing his thoughts far from a distant hide about.
The questions started pouring in from nowhere. Where does he fit in this grand
design? What was he called for? Why was he born? Who is he? With so many
unanswered questions, he was staring at the shining stars, slowly the thoughts
drifted away, the stillness started growing inside him. He looked down at the
distant river, a silver streak amidst the darkness, lit by the bluish shades of
the moon. He started to see the circles of light in his forehead, the greenish
circles enclosing the bluish ones that further enclosed the white ones. Slowly,
unknowingly, he went into a trance. He heard a resonating masculine voice from
a faraway place. It said,
“Trance not this night for thee
will speak about the immaculate ones.”
Adhavan woke up from the trance and found Machcam in siddhasana,
swaying back and forth right before him, staring deep into the wilderness. His
eyes were wide open and brightly lit. He saw in him a tiger, ready to pound on an
invisible prey and tear it into pieces. Unafraid, knowing that he would never
harm anyone intentionally, he flocked very close to him. Macham started
reciting,
“When
mankind is deprived of justice and are outrageously pulled into the immoral
doings. When betrayals and adultery become a day to day chore. When physical violence
and emotional torture become the way of the life. When a human watch another
human being killed, raped and abused for fun and frolic. When ethical values
are strictly forbidden and considered to be outdated and impractical. When all
these evil doings are professed under the hood of the political, religious, social,
professional and survival ideologies. When a part of the human race is alienated
from the path of the righteousness—the souls of the wretched victims will smear
their faces with sand and dark ashes of their dead and cry face down to redeem
themselves from all these evils, haunting them in every facet of their life; severing
them from the goodness of the character; cunningly seducing them to partake in their
evil ways; ravaging their moral behaviours to the core; squeezing out the sacredness
in the being and leaving them drained of any possible morality.”
Macham paused for a moment and
continued,
“Their
outcries thunder out the likes of us; their tears flood our eyes; their anguish
pierce our hearts; their agonies instill pain in our flesh; their emotional
fear and red hot sweat make our bones tremble involuntarily—this is the ultimate
beat of the incessant knocks on the doors of the divine abode in each one of us
to steer up for the greater reformations insighted; healing of the victims molested
by injustice; extermination of the pain inflicted on the righteous; exposing of
the atrocities lashed on the meek and the humble; loving of the slaughtered and
butchered spirits; wiping out the neverending cries of emotional pains;
satiating the honest ahcings of the mutilated souls; fulfilling the genuine cravings
of the crushed psyches and love deprived hearts.”
Adhavan gasped and uttered
feverishly, “The incarnation of the immaculate ones.”
To which Macham nodded and said,
“An
incarnation is the personification of the divinity in the human form. The
purity of their purpose is unquestionable; strengthening morality and ethics of
mankind; infusing sanctity and sacredness in all the willing, dear human hearts
they encounter. And they are called as the avatars. Each one of them are born
with specific purposes, imprinted on their souls, guarded well by their chosen
ones. Few of the larger sectarians call them as ‘soldiers of god’ but here we
don’t break our heads about these differentiations on who the avatars are,
rather we carefully look into the purpose of their mission and seek ways we can
help such, with intrinsic humbleness, to accomplish what has been set forth for
them.”
Entranced by the
conversation, Adhavan uttered,
“Few of them were born to lead
people, wage terrifying wars and regain the lost kingdom.”
The words just popped out of him
involuntarily. Neither did he notice it, nor did he realize it. The voice was
very sweet and it had a feminine touch to it.
Macham immediately realized who
was talking through Adhavan and who has come to see him in the middle of this
night.
He prostrated right before
Adhavan and said, “O Divine mother! You have
honored us by coming all the way down here, bless thee in all our endeavors and
infuse our fragile souls with your unbreakable will and determination...”
Only upon hearing this Adhavan
came out of the trance, turned around and looked out for an old lady, but
finding none, he turned sheepishly and looked at Macham quizzically, sincerely
hoping that he will give a straight answer at the least for this incidence,
rather Macham broke into his heavenly laughters. The whole forest was set ablaze
with convulse of his unstoppable laughters, even the boulder they were resting
on, trembled a bit. Infected by the divine laugh Adhavan started smiling
sheepishly.
After they both quietened down,
Macham still in siddhasana, raised both his palms together above his head, looked
at Athri’s hill, closed his eyes, muttered a few words of a prayer that no one would even imagine of eavesdropping and it all slowly subsided into a very
serious stance. Macham continued his recital,
“Profane
is these mankind, their psyche is so terribly weak and they succumb to even the
slightest of the enforced pressure by evil, they merely close their eyes to all
sorts of inhumane behaviors, as though they are part and parcel of their daily lives.
They compromise their morale, willingly and knowingly, for ever fleeting nature
of the material benefits. The prayers of the victims are inconceivably alarming
to the course they are heard in my slumbers and I wake up, finding myself
physically and emotionally torn apart. These voices are from the north west,
behind the great snow mountains. If I am able to hear and feel them, then
imagine the curse borne by the greater selves than us, especially the near and
dear ones of us, dwelling in the snow mountains.”
“Their
race has lost even the slightest form of humanity in them. People stand up in
an arena and applause, whenever a hero is slaughtered, their bravery and
patriotism is politicized and being sold in the cruelest form history has ever
witnessed. Women are merely sex objects, they were stripped in brothel houses,
exhibited and sold openly for food, wine and pleasure, whereas publicly they were
stoned for committing adultery. The power circles that reigned over them,
allowed it maliciously, as their intentions were being fulfilled by these insane
immoral acts. For them, it's easy to govern a pleasure driven unethical hypocritical
society. These pleasures addicted mob can be used to crush rebels of their own
race. Brothers kill brothers, for the sake of wealth, pleasure and power. They washed
their hands off their captives ethics, as it benefits their own rulers power strategies.”
“A
man of immeasurable inner strength, courage and valor will be born in a
forsaken barn, amidst shepherds, will grow up to be a shepherd of his own
men. His kingdom will not be of this world. Even a wise man from our land will
pay a tribute to his birth. His unshakeable faith will be tested mercilessly by
their own blood. He will be beaten to remorse, betrayed and forsaken by his own
disciples and followers. He will be fastened and lashed out to witness against
his own faith. Even people who pledged to him, will spit on his face. Still, he
will hold truth close to his heart, never for a moment will betray his faith.”
Adhavan’s face was drowned with
unbearable grief and he started speaking forcefully,
“Why on the earth, he won't take up
a sword and fight? Every man born in this world has right to defend himself.”
Macham replied,
“Yes.
He will fight. It will be a battle of the utmost courage and strength, the
history would ever witness, by a single incarnation against a whole race,
deprived of even the slightest form of ethics. He will muster every ounce of
his blood, stand tall and refrain himself from any sort of non-violence, though
he will be subjected to the crudest form of physical abuse and violence. His whole
life, he will preach about love and only love. It is not love of the menial
form. It is the love of the divine—unconditional, unbound and everlasting, that
seldom people realize and hold close to their bosom. He will allow the whores
to kiss him. He will allow the lepers to touch him. He will love the forbidden
men and women in the streets. For all this, he will be despised by his own race.
Jealous of him, people will tend to ruin his reputation. Still, he will stand
tall among all, as he will never compromise on ethics and morality, not even
during his last breath. He will live a life of what he taught and what he
believed in, amidst all tests, agony, pain and betrayals. Never the moment he
will forsake his teaching not even one of them. That is the war he will wage
against all mankind who have fallen prey to ethical and moral blasphemy. He
will be victorious at the end.”
Baffled at this level of insanity
in the incarnations, Adhavan unable to digest it, shouted against
it,
“This is totally unscrupulous. I
just can't bear it. No man has rights to sacrifice himself for the good of
many. It is an act of utmost disgrace against the divinity. I can’t bear to see
a good man tethered by the evil, either I will kill them all or get killed by
them, rather let a such divine being die at the mercy of those barbarous,
uncivilized, gutless, inhuman malicious wicked beasts.”
Macham softly replied,
“No!”
“The
stage is being set for him. If his vocation is that, he will abide by it. That
is the universal law of incarnations. Not all incarnations will have such
calls. There are other types of incarnations also, who were born to become
great musicians, painters, writers, emperors, scientists, spiritual leaders,
sailors, poets, ministers, ascetics, philosophers etc. One should not confuse
with the greatness of the incarnation, rather it is the purity of the purpose that
one should embrace. Whoever they might be, whatever their mission is, they
should be supported in their purpose in whatever means one can. To add on to
your worries, though his teachings will apply to the whole of human race, and his followers will also multiply in multitudes after his death,
there will be seldom few, who will live the life he lived and that he will be actually
proud of.”
“Not
only his followers, followers of any teacher, religion, belief, tradition, and
dogma should stand up and sincerely scrutinize themselves against the universal
ethics and morality in standpoint to their teachings and their adherence to the
teachings. There is no better jury than oneself, provided the sincerity sprouts
from within and they stand totally naked before the truth and start the self
scrutiny thereafter. All holy scriptures will finally profess one grand truth. One
needs to ask such questions, How close am I to it? Do I really take measures to
get to the truth? Am I covering my head in scriptures and just keep professing
the truth as I understand from the scriptures, rather than allowing myself to
be conceived by the grand truth and profess what I have wholeheartedly felt?
Do I actually know the truth? Have I seen it for myself? If not, what a
hypocrite I would be to profess what I have not experienced yet, leave alone
practicing it?”
“In
here also, we have incarnations. They will live and die for our people. They
will uphold our culture and tradition against odds and difficulties that even
our imaginations cannot vividly describe of. We have our own history to create
and our own divine vocations to attend to. Lord Krishna, whom your sister is devoted to, is one such divine
incarnation.”
Macham realized that it was too
much for Adhavan at this juncture. He looked deeply at Adhavan for a few
moments. Adhavan drifted into a deep trance. Macham sat in padmasana and let
himself slowly get into a Samadhi.
The sun rose majestically,
stretched its first rays of light across the world, warmly embraced the mother
earth and its siblings. Adhavan was still in a deep slumber. A black raven
croaking and scrambling over the previous night’s leftovers stuttered on
Adhavan’s Bamboo staff and balanced itself at the tipping point. Adhavan woke
up and looked straight into the dark eyes of the raven. It flew in the
direction of the Laughing hills. He looked around, Macham was not there. A sudden
grief grasped his heart firmly, he was in the middle of the dense forest all
alone, without any aid. The truth was bitter. He felt a sharp pain. Then it
slowly subsided as he realized that ravens can only be seen near human dwellings.
He looked at the laughing hills. It
was covered with lush of green and dense thickness on all its sides. It stood firmly
on the ground, sturdy, proud and erect. Something in him told, that this
mountain has treasured secrets, buried deep within its greens. Keeping his
thoughts away, he looked out for the passes to the laughing hills, but he found a
lonely figure walking towards him, steadily. It was Macham. He felt a throb of
joy in his heart. At the same moment, Macham looked at him magically, raised
his arm and signalled him to come to him.
Adhavan raced towards Macham, he
leaped and jumped across the boulders and terrains and found himself right before
Macham in less than quarter of an hour. He gasped for breath and laughed
heartily like a child, without any reasons. He felt at home with this place. It
was a river bed, completely hidden by the lush of green envelope. A swarm of
butterflies swirled around them, kept painting ever changing patterns of colors
in the empty space, though they were washed off the very moment they were
drawn, by the soft gush of the trickling breeze. It was a breathtaking sight, Adhavan
stood still, allured by it. Macham said, “We have a half a day’s walk. If we
start now we can reach our place by mid-noon.”
They resumed their journey and
they walked together steadily. The diversity of the flora and fauna was a treat
to Adhavan’s eyes. He took in everything he saw. He had never seen such a heavenly
place in his life; rich in vegetation; fed by numerous streams; seasoned by the
warmth of the sun and coolness of the moon; showered by the outrageous downpours;
inhabited by life of all forms and types. Adhavan lost his heart to the swaying
of the reefs in the pleasant breeze; trickling of the lively water, adulterated
by nature, with honey and rare rejuvenating herbs; the hallucinating fragrance
of the wild flowers that got mixed perfectly with the ripeness of the wild
fruits; of all, the overwhelming feel of the freshness and the abundance in the
lives of the wilderness as such.
On the way, Adhavan had a go, at
ripe sugar apples, gooseberries, guavas and manila tamarinds. Macham let him
wander around freely and stopped whenever he found something new to learn about.
He plucked three wild lotuses, one white, one red and one blue for Sarutha. Macham
was exceedingly patient with Adhavan. Infact, he went all the way along with
Adhavan, in search of wild fruits and flowers. He answered all his questions
about the vegetation, patiently. Then they finally landed upon one extra large
Jack fruit. It was almost the size of Adhavan’s torso. Adhavan took one of his
dhotis, coiled it around and placed it at the crown of his head. Macham then
lifted the heavy Jack and balanced it on top of Adhavan’s head, it comfortably
rested on his head, separated only by the thick layers of neatly coiled Dhoti. Thenafter,
Adhavan was not distracted anymore, he kept walking steadily along the river
bed with lotuses in one hand and the jack fruit, balanced with the other hand.
Macham carried Adhavan’s Bamboo staff for him.
Around mid-noon, Adhavan saw a
faint bluish smoke, emanating from a wide, large hut. Adhavan saw a moderately
built woman, giving instructions to a handful of tall, dark, muscular men. She
must have realized that he was looking at her. She turned around and smilingly waved
her hands. She had on her, a dhoti that covered her lower half to the calves. Just
like old women in his village, she didn't cover her torso, but she looked very
young for her age it seemed she never aged a day. Her waist was flat and much smaller
than her wavy hips. She gracefully, slowly, walked towards them; with her hair, cascading
in rhythm to her walk; bouncing to her knees. A group of men followed her, amiably. Adhavan can't help
staring at her. She had such a beautiful, fair, lovely face; a perfect oval and phenomenally large, wide eyes. Macham said, “This is Sarutha.” She was near him.
Adhavan started trembling before her. He collapsed on his knees, gave her the
flowers and said, “You look like a goddess”. On the contrary, Macham was pitch
dark, thin and straight like his staff. Though he was an inch taller than her, made full of raw sinews and had lustrous skin, he was still a no match for such a divine
beauty like Sarutha. Both, Macham and Sarutha laughed heartily. They must have
read Adhavan’s thoughts.
From the sides of the hut, three
pairs of young female eyes ravaged Adhavan, a new male in their land. Adhavan noticed it and was magically pulled towards them. Macham said, “They are our three daughters
and you will also be seeing some of my sons in the evening.” Sarutha took the
flowers with her, one of the men carried the Jackfruit and the party walked
towards the large hut, talking among themselves in low whispers.
(To be continued...)
Written on Dates: 02/21/2015; 02/22/2015; 02/23/2015; 02/24/2015.
About Adhavan
Chapter 1 The Realization of the Vocation
Chapter 2 The First Glimpse of the Third
Chapter 3 The Complete Surrender
