Back to Planet Hoola

by Sudipta Das

  The rulers smiled. One of the rulers said, “We will consider that. Do you want anything more?”

  Now, Kit divulged, “Four days back you met Tik, a true blue Inthadian, one of the facets of my multi-potency. Now, standing before you is Kit, the red Isthadian, your absconding war-prisoner.”

  Rather than being surprised, the rulers seemed to be pleased to hear that. One of them said, “We already know that you are Kit. It was absurd that we did not have any record of Tik in our registers. So we were suspicious. Yesterday, during your medical tests you matched our biometric records of Kit. We found it intriguing. We could have crossed you then and there. But we decided to wait and watch your movements to find out your real motives.

  “Sometime after you managed to escape, the news of your escape was leaked. The fact that our own arrow struck one of our own, Doctor Ket, pained everyone in spite of the fact that she helped you to escape. There were many protests against the manner in which the matter was handled. You were our war-prisoner and not a criminal.

  Since then a lot of changes have taken place here, particularly, how we treat the war-prisoners. Accordingly, your name has been struck off our absconding prisoner’s list five years after you escaped. So far as we are concerned, you are free since then. You do not seem to know that. But still you entered into Inthad risking imprisonment. Why, only for this Sword?”

  Kit felt relieved. He said, “Do not be worried about Ket. By the grace of the Supreme, she has been resurrected. We have united and have two lovely kids. They are safely in Isthad now.”

  The Inthadians were pleasantly surprised. “They are welcome here. This is their country. Where have you been all these years? You seem to be as young as you were then,” asked a ruler.

  To their utter surprise, Kit said, “I have been to several places, including to another planet called Earth, millions of light years away from here. There, people do not grow tails.”

  “That’s incredible,” said one delegate.

  “But true. Doctor Adam Smith, my friend from Earth, has come to Hoola with me. He is also in Isthad now,” said Kit. He further declared, “At the right occasion I shall tell you and all even more incredible things about our own histories that may change the very way we see each other. Till then, please brace up to hear the unheard truth. Truth, which had been buried under the sands in the Violet Land for thousands of years, has been dug up and deciphered. We have found out how two great individual’s mutual dislike is responsible for giving rise to this millennia old unwholesome rivalry between Inthad and Isthad. You will know then, how our seeds of sorrow were sown at the very genesis of our colours.”

  Now, no one doubted his words. Kit’s wisdom had opened up the mindset of the Inthadian rulers. They saw that they had no direct use of the Sword of Istha and the Inthadians could not use the Sword without Kit’s help. So they decided to hand it over to Kit as his promised reward.

  Thus, Kit not only retrieved the Sword from the Inthadians without spilling a drop of blood, but, more importantly, he opened up the Inthadian heart towards the Isthadians. The Isthadian grudge over the Inthadians was subdued to a great extent after the latter returned the Sword to them. Kit achieved a friendlier atmosphere between the two belligerent colour countries; something that had eluded them with many years of animosity and war. Now, he happily met his parents and his mentor, Z.

  At first, Isthadian Kit’s union with Inthadian Ket seemed to be too radical to Kit’s aging parents’ exclusive reliance on the red colour. But, the moment they saw their lovely grandchildren, Sook and Soor, all their reservations evaporated like camphor in a pan. Z was ecstatic to receive his prodigy and readily approved Kit’s union to his other outstanding student, Ket. As the Principal of the international boarding school in the city of Aton in Isthad, Z had known them since they were about eight years of age. He was the only one who had tacitly understood the depth of their mutual affection even at their early age of fourteen.

  Kit, once again, became a national hero in Isthad and immensely popular in Inthad as well. Not only that, the stories of his extraordinary feats and his visit to Earth spread all over Hoola and soon he became a living legend catching the imagination of the global populations.

  12

  Iben

  Eventually, Kit invited the rulers of both Isthad and Inthad for a face to face dialogue in an attempt to bring their mutual animosity to an end. He volunteered to mediate in the dialogue. The ceaseless war had been costing these two great nations dear. There was economic urgency to at least ease the war. Besides, the newer generations had grown increasingly averse to carry on the burden of the egoistic baggage of their ancestors. They wanted peace and development more than anything else. Under these compulsive circumstances, the relatively orthodox rulers of Isthad and Inthad reluctantly decided to give the dialogue a go.

  The blue and the red colour rulers agreed to hold the deliberation at the auditorium of the prestigious international school at the city of Aton in Isthad. This auditorium is not only huge but also equipped with the state of the art interiors, gadgets and decorations necessary to host an assembly of such grandeur and gravity.

  I recalled that, Kit had written in his diary that he had studied in this school. It is here that he had metamorphosed from being a na�ve rural boy into one of the most promising adults on the planet, Hoola, under the able guidance of his mentor, the then Principal of the school, Z.

  Now, on the day of the proposed convention, the delegates from the rulers of both the colour countries sat on the stage. Kit, along with a few of his fellows, also sat on the stage. Intellects, dignitaries, distinguished guests and laities from both the colour countries sat among the audience, Inthadians on the right and Isthadians on the left. There were interest and eager anticipation on both sides. At stake was a possible mitigation of their differences and an amicable solution for peaceful coexistence.

  After brief introduction and formalities, the delegates of the red and the blue colour rulers took the stage one by one. They were eloquent and diplomatic in their delivery but each wasted little time in trying to tacitly assert their supremacy over the other.

  Each side claimed that the Originator of their colour was the only son of Iben whom he took along with him for a significant sacrifice. Thus each of the two colours claimed exclusive lineage to Iben, the great. Not only that, a few of them opined that, their Deity was the original Deity of Iben whom he had neither named nor described. Some of them were of the view that the sacrifice took place within their geographical territory. The competition on the stage readily percolated among the audience. Soon, the audience became embroiled in a hue and cry over the exclusive credit for the great sacrifice that Iben had earnestly intended and almost committed.

  In this doldrums and uproar among the audience, Kit gently rose from his seat on the stage and quietly approached the centre of the stage. Someone from the audience immediately noticed him and shouted, “Look, here comes Kit.”

  There was a delightful aura of such peace and serenity around him that the cacophony of the audience gradually toned down to murmur and then to whispers. By the time Kit reached the centre of the stage, there was complete silence. Every ear was eager to hear what would be delivered from his lips.

  Then, with the conviction of the skyscraping mountains, Kit said in his beautiful resonating voice, “My ladies and my lords, I salute thee the way I salute the Supreme Almighty.” Thus he aligned himself to the audiences. First he turned to the Inthadians and his white tail turned into blue. Then he turned to the Isthadians and his tail turned red. Thus Kit physically demonstrated that red and blue are non-dual, being two states of the same Hoo entity.

  The silence of the audience was spontaneously broken by a rapturous applause that continued for a couple of minutes. Then Kit continued, “The Supreme is the singular source of everything in this universe. The Supreme is our Father, our Mother and our Creator. I perceive the essence of the Supreme in each one of you.”

  Saying thus, K
it went on to reveal the stone-tablets to both the colour communities and articulated the truths that were inscribed on those as follows:

  “During his time, Iben achieved many astonishing feats but the following is the one feat that is mainly responsible for securing him permanence in the Hoo legends.

  “The stone-tablets tell that, thousands of years ago, there was a fertile land in what is now known as the Forbidden Violet Land. A community of ancient people thrived there. Iben was the most pious among the community. He realised great wisdoms from the premises of his devotion to his Deity whom he never named nor described. Some Hoo scholars speculate that it was a Violet Deity though there is no evidence to support this opinion.

  “Iben had two sons named Inth and Isth. As wise as he was, Iben never imposed his wisdoms upon his beloved sons. Instead, he simply made his realisations available to them and allowed them to spontaneously absorb their essence. His extraordinarily gifted sons imbibed the richness of his wisdoms but they did not stop there. Following their respective individual inclinations, they themselves further evolved their own wisdoms in the light of their own realisations. Legends also have it that these two immensely talented brothers were quite out of tune with each other. In certain respect one seemed exactly like the opposite of the other. Their discord was most prominent in their contradicting approaches to wisdom and spirituality.

  “One night, their father, Iben, had a vision of his Deity. In order to test Iben’s faith in It, the Deity asked Iben to sacrifice his beloved sons. The next morning, Iben woke up early and called his sons and told them about his vision. The two worthy sons of Iben readily agreed to sacrifice themselves without asking any question.

  “Thus the three of them bathed in what is now the dried up Forbidden River. Then they made the gruelling climb to the peak of the mountain that is now called the Forbidden Mountain. After reaching the peak, Iben embraced his sons one by one for the last time. Then he lined up the sons at the edge of the cliff with their backs towards him. Thereafter, showing no hesitation to execute his Deity’s mandate, Iben pushed his dear sons off the cliff into the deep gorge.

  “Pleased with the sacrifices, the Deity immediately transformed the sons into two identical soothing white dove-like, but alien, birds. Their only difference was in their eyes. While Inth had deep blue eyes, Isth developed scarlet ones. The Deity said to Iben, ‘Dear Iben, don’t be worried. Your sons will regain their Hoo forms as soon as they touch the ground. Your sacrifice shall be remembered with reverence through the ages. My unceasing blessings remain with you.’

  “But, for some reason only known to them, the two sons did not go back to their father, Iben. True to their contrasting inclinations, they flew off in opposite directions. Inth headed east while Isth flew westwards.

  “After flying for days, weeks and months, the two brothers landed on two distant lands and got back to their Hoo forms. Inth landed in a place where the daylight is blue. He was a great intellectual. He employed his intellect and, through fine analysis, revealed the subtle and superb realities of and about the existence of the universe. Eventually, he realised the Supreme Unity in the form of a blue Deity whom he called Intha, which, in the Hoo language, means the Lord of Inth. His sacrosanct tail turned blue. The Hoos who followed him also developed brilliant blue tails. Thus Inth became the Originator of the blue colour.

  “Isth, on the other hand, reached a land where the daylight is red. His gift was in his heart. Through years of unselfish sublime devotional services, he emptied and opened up his heart to the Supreme. Gradually, the emptiness of his heart was filled with the Supreme Inspiration. From that Inspiration oozed spontaneous knowledge, even though Isth never sought after knowledge. He realised the Supreme in the form of a red Deity whom he called Istha. Like him, his followers also developed radiant red tails.

  “Mysteriously enough, none of the two brothers ever went back to their father, Iben, in the land of their birth where the daylight is violet. They even forbade their respective followers to visit the Violet land. Neither of them ever spoke about the other brother. So, for millennia, each of their respective followers thought that Iben had only one son and the Originator of their colour was that son. Some Hoo scholars opine that the brothers avoided each other and their father to maintain the distinctiveness of their respective approaches to the Absolute Truth. However there are oppositions to such views.

  “Over the next few centuries, the land of their birth became totally abandoned and came to be known as the Forbidden Violet Land. The mountain cliff, from where they were pushed off by their father, was later called the Forbidden Mountain. The river at the foot of the mountain, in which they had bathed on the day of the sacrifice, has long dried up exposing the spear-shaped crystal stones of the river bed. But even now it is called a river, the Forbidden River.

  “Meanwhile, the colour wisdoms of Inth and Isth spread over vast land masses on either side of the Forbidden Violet Land. Their colours were passed on from one generation to another. Thus two great colour countries grew up. The country on the western side of the Violet Land, where the daylight is red, was called Isthad, meaning the land of Istha or the red country.

  Similarly, the country on the eastern side of the Violet Land, where the day light is blue, came to be known as Inthad.

  “Over thousands of years since the ancient times of Inth and Isth, the underlying wisdoms of their colours have mostly faded away from the public consciousness. Today, for most of the Hoos, the colours remain merely as a stereotyped traditional identity and an external appearance. These colour identities have become so rigid that a formidable gulf has been wedged between the two colours due to their apparent outward differences. Today, the two people are grappling to come to terms with the menace of this colour conflict.

  “Thus, a single sibling-rivalry, between Iben’s two great sons, Inth and Isth, snow-balled into unabated animosity between the two great colour countries and resulted in unparalleled mayhem and bloodshed. Even the common paternity of the Originators of the two colours has been easily forgotten. Astonishingly, the two colour communities, in spite of being in such close proximity demarcated by a thin borderline for as long as millennia, remained separated by their colour differences, oblivious of the common ancestry of their Originators. Only if the two peoples could wake up to this reality of their brotherhood/sisterhood, the underlying singular Unity behind the two colours could be realised and the gulf between the two colour countries be bridged, half of the seven billion strong global Hoo population on Hoola would be unified.

  “Now, the wise readily realises the fact that, the real essence, the crux, the centre and the moral of Iben’s great sacrifice rest in the depth of his devotion and in the height of his submission to his Deity and not so much in whom he took for the sacrifice. This has gone into oblivion. Instead, each of the two colour communities thinks that some credit is associated with being prepared for the sacrifice and is merely bent on taking the credit for the sacrifice. Has there ever been any dearth of people who covet credit? What is there in that dull and mundane credit taking? How does it benefit us, the Hoos? What else do we gain from it other than the endless animosity that it has evoked between the two colour countries?” Kit solemnly enquired.

  None uttered a word. Kit continued, “At any given point in time, we find our-selves positioned in the present, which stands between the past and the future.

  “Past is something which has gone by. No matter how hard we may try, the clock cannot be run backwards. The incidents, which have already happened, cannot be changed. However, the impressions of the past linger on and cannot be dismantled easily. Thus, traditions and conventions come into being. These things have their utilities and benefits but problems arise when these have outlived their time. Some traditions seem to hold on to our mind even long after those have become dysfunctional. Such perpetuation of outdated traditions often leads to agony and misery. Nevertheless, the educative value of the past cannot be underestimated. With this enriching l
egacy from the past, we have to move into the future, which is exactly the opposite of the past.

  “Unlike the past, the future is mostly unknown and there is always an element of uncertainty about it. These aspects make the future fascinating and interesting and give birth to conjectures, speculations and predictions. If the cause and effect patterns of history are extrapolated forward, we may have a somewhat hazy gaze into the future.

  Moreover, as Hoo beings, we do have certain control over our future. In order to exercise that control, we must first control our own internal nature. There may be a multitude of methods and ways of doing so and raising our consciousness to the higher planes of truth, wisdom, selflessness and bliss. Once we are able to reach the purity of these higher planes, our minds can perceive the light of vision. With this light of vision, we can guide and propel ourselves into that glorious future when the heavens will descend on Hoola and we, the one Hoo race, will live with our inherent divinity manifested. That is the highest goal and the ultimate destiny of the race.

  “Obviously, all these good works have to be done in this wonderful time that we call the present, which is the bridge between our past and our future. Therefore, the significance of the present is immense and it is the most important of the three parts of time. Let us derive the most out of this present.”

  Kit paused and went on to say, “My ladies and my lords, the task at our hand is not easy. Habits created over millennia are not easy to undo. For many generations now, the Hoo psyche of the two colours has been veiled by these illusions. Particularly in this case, the basic recognition zeal has thoroughly overwhelmed the reality. Knowing the truth is not enough. What lay ahead of us, is to understand it and to accept it. Then, we shall have to realise the truth in our inner selves and manifest that realisation from inside out into the external environment. With the right knowledge and education, we can reach the goal in as early as three generations; if we start now, that is.”