‘What if you’re not a morning person?’ said the mother.
‘Mahadev doesn’t mind at all. You can go any time when the temple is open. They are quite relaxed about the dress code otherwise. Any day is good for Mahakaleshwar. There is an endless cycle of puja and harati Monday prayers, prayers for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year. Every temple in Ujjain has its own cycle. Ujjain had a cosy, happy atmosphere with its calendar of festivals and feasts. I felt that I was part of a living tradition.’
‘I do wish you would come with us,’ said the grandfather.
‘Please come, Teacher,’ said the child.
The guru looked at them fondly. He liked them very much and had every intention of coming back to Delhi to tell them more stories and teach the child to read and write the language of the gods. He looked forward to sharing his own love of prose and poetry. Many pleasant days lay assuredly ahead, delightful times of song and story.
But now, it was time to go and wander alone around the land he loved. ‘Shivbhumi,’ he thought and chuckled silently, thinking of cake. That would have amused and pleased Mahadev and Parvati.
He felt a rush of glad warmth in his heart. ‘They’re laughing inside me,’ he thought and got up to leave.
‘Let me know when you plan to visit Ujjain,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we’ll meet by the Kshipra and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see Mahadev together, at least a glimpse, like Narada at Bhadragiri. “Mahimna paaram te parama vidusho yadya sadrushi—Even very wise people have not seen the far shore of your greatness”, as Pushpadanta said to Shiva once upon a time.’
THE BEGINNING
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First published in Penguin Ananda by Penguin Random House India 2019
Copyright © Renuka Narayanan 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Jacket images © Devangana Dash
ISBN: 978-0-143-44747-4
This digital edition published in 2019.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05504-2
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Mahadev Page 18