‘Could it be that Bhoomidevi is Lord Vishnu’s wife?’
Dweepa shook his head. ‘No. You already knew that, right? Why tell yourself things you already know?’
Anirudh shrugged his shoulders. ‘Er, no … I didn’t know that she is his wife.’
Sage Dweepa was surprised. ‘You didn’t know that Bhoomidevi is your wife?’
Feeling embarrassed, Anirudh shifted on his feet. ‘My w-wife? She … she isn’t my wife!’ Anirudh protested, feeling a blush come on.
Dweepa laughed softly. ‘You are Lord Vishnu. You saw that in the dream, right? So Bhoomidevi is your wife.’
Anirudh sighed.
‘I thought you’ve read a lot of stories and knew much about mythology. I assumed you knew this too.’
Anirudh sighed again and mumbled, ‘She is Lord Vishnu’s wife! But I am Kalki. I-I am Anirudh! And yes, I have read a lot on Indian mythology, but I haven’t come across this piece of information …’
‘If letting you know that Bhoomidevi is indeed your wife—sorry, Lord Vishnu’s wife was the purpose of the dream,’ Dweepa said, correcting himself, ‘then I think the reason for this is to assure you that Bhoomidevi is always with you. You can trust her.’
Anirudh looked puzzled.
Shrugging his shoulders, Dweepa added, ‘That’s the only possible explanation I can come up with …’
That afternoon, after lunch, Dweepa handed Anirudh the Mahabharata. He kept checking whether Anirudh was reading the words properly and pronouncing them correctly.
‘Why do you want me to read the epic?’ Anirudh asked Dweepa.
Dweepa answered, ‘The Great War is one of the most important events in the life of your Krishna avatar. It would be immensely beneficial for you to familiarize yourself with the entire, and detailed, account.’ With a smile, he added, ‘Plus you, as Krishna, instructed my ancestor to make you read the epic—all eighteen books of it. Lord Krishna believed you needed to learn something from it.’
Anirudh smiled back and resumed studying the epic.
Every afternoon, after he’d read a bit of the Mahabharata, Dweepa would tell Anirudh to meditate. On most days, the sage made Anirudh meditate at least four times. He told Anirudh to recite the word ‘om’ in his mind and try to dull his surroundings. Anirudh’s objective was to block out all ambient sounds, his immediate reality, in order to enter a state of complete silence. Initially, Anirudh had found this difficult to do. But with some tips from the sage, he was finally able to achieve this goal. Now he could slip into total silence at will and found his mind in a state of tranquillity.
Once he had mastered this technique, Dweepa told him to do the opposite! He instructed Anirudh to focus on each and every sound in his surroundings.
Though Anirudh found this very illogical, he knew Dweepa would have a solid reason to make him do this. But he couldn’t resist asking, ‘Why did you tell me to first shun the surroundings, and now to focus on them?’
‘All in good time, Anirudh.’
‘You’re really enjoying saying that to me, aren’t you? I know I’ve said it to your ancestor plenty of times … Haven’t I?’
Dweepa laughed, shaking his head. ‘Nothing personal, Anirudh.’
Now, meditating, blotting out all things in the background and escaping into oblivion came easily to Anirudh. But the real test was trying to pay attention to his surroundings. He was having a tough time focusing on the sounds, and it was proving to be quite frustrating, especially since he’d always felt he was good at concentrating on anything he’d set his mind to.
Dweepa sensed the frustration in his student, and advised him to focus harder on the task rather than his thoughts. He even told him to speak aloud every single sound he heard. And so, once again, the sage—being an excellent teacher—helped Anirudh achieve his goal. The key, as Anirudh found out, was to focus on one sound at a time. He found this easy to do when uttering what he heard, and he was able to quickly identify all the loud sounds. The chirping of birds, the gurgling of water, the breeze rushing by …
Then Dweepa told him to tune into the less audible sounds. Anirudh guessed some and spoke up. But for the others, the sage picked them out from the surroundings without even closing his eyes; then he asked Anirudh to locate them. Soon Anirudh started hearing more and more, and the sage trained him to guess the direction from which each sound was coming.
As the days progressed, Anirudh could identify all the sounds around him. To test his newfound skills even further, Dweepa took him to the wide rivulet of Gomati one morning.
As they sat down on the rocks nearby, Dweepa said, ‘Hear how noisy this water is?’
It was indeed deafening. It seemed like they were sitting next to a waterfall! Anirudh nodded.
‘Tell me what you hear in the surroundings. And also the direction the sounds are coming from.’
Anirudh nodded again and closed his eyes. He focused his thoughts. First, he heard the loudest sound, of course—the gushing water.
‘The river on my left.’
‘Correct.’
Anirudh tried to focus again. The sound of the water was overpowering, but suddenly he heard a crow cawing above his head.
‘A crow is flying above us, from right to left.’
‘Correct.’
Anirudh now tried picking out different sounds. But the tumult of the water made it impossible. He got irritated and opened his eyes.
‘I cannot focus because of this river. It’s too loud!’ Anirudh complained.
Sage Dweepa flashed a smile of achievement. ‘And this is when you shun your surroundings, the loudness, so that you can focus on the many quieter sounds.’
Anirudh couldn’t help but grin. What the sage said astounded him. The ‘illogical’ lesson finally seemed to make sense to him. He closed his eyes again and refocused.
When he did so this time, he felt like he was sitting in a peaceful valley, one in which the rivulet didn’t even exist! Now he could hear many other sounds, like the cuckoo’s chirps to his left and the coursing cool breeze, which was also coming from the same direction.
Dweepa completed his tests for the day, and was secretly impressed. Convinced that Anirudh’s powers of concentration had improved, the sage decided to take his training to the next level. So the following morning, Anirudh and Dweepa sat outside the house for another challenge, facing each other.
‘I’m now going to take you to the next level. Your focus has to be very sharp and accurate. I’m going to create sounds, and you have to guess what they are and where they are coming from.’
Anirudh nodded and closed his eyes, readying himself. Suddenly he could hear a faint whooshing movement in front of him.
‘You are moving your hands.’
‘Correct.’ Dweepa was indeed moving his hands in a circular fashion!
Dweepa stopped rotating his hands and set them down on his lap. Anirudh heard a light thump. He knew the circling of the hands had ceased.
‘You are resting your hands on your lap.’
‘Absolutely right.’
Anirudh grinned, his eyes still shut, as did the sage.
Now Dweepa’s smile vanished and was replaced by an expression of total concentration. In quick succession, he waved his hand at a nearby tree on his left, breaking two leaves off a branch. One of the leaves floated to the ground, while the other one was suspended in mid-air by Dweepa’s left hand. With his free hand, Dweepa levitated a stone that was behind Anirudh and placed it softly on the ground, to his left.
Anirudh’s brow was furrowed. He was following the sounds one after the other, his focus unwavering. He finally spoke, disbelief in his tone, ‘You waved your hand. To my right, two leaves were snapped off a branch. One fell to the ground. The other hasn’t fallen yet. Behind me, on my right, a stone was picked up and then placed on the left.’ He paused and pondered a bit about the leaves and the stone. ‘Are you using magic?’
Dweepa smiled broadly. ‘Perfect!’ Then he brought his hands
to his chest, his palms facing upwards, towards his bearded chin. The leaf that was suspended in the air slowly descended to the ground. The sage brought his right palm on top of his left palm, and Anirudh heard the leaf touch the grass. Then he heard a curious crackle.
Anirudh said, ‘The second leaf has landed on the ground. And … I’m not sure … but I think I heard a fire being lit.’ He could now hear the continuous sputtering of a fire. It was coming from somewhere in front of him. Dweepa remained silent, his eyes dancing with mirth.
Hearing no response from the sage about the intriguing sound, Anirudh opened his eyes and said, ‘How am I able to hear fire—’
He stopped in mid-sentence, his eyes fixed on the unique sight before him.
Dweepa’s smile widened as he saw Anirudh’s awestruck expression. ‘Soon I will start teaching you how to do this.’
Hovering above Dweepa’s palm was a small ball of fire, crackling softly.
TWENTY-TWO
‘Okay, Mom. I’ll call you in the evening. Don’t worry … Bye.’
Anirudh disconnected the call on his mobile phone and walked back to Sage Dweepa, who was sitting outside the house and reading a religious text.
Anirudh called his parents twice daily. Once in the morning, before they left for work, and once in the evening, after dinner. They were always worried about him—after all, their son had been away for over a month now—but were relieved to know that Dweepa was taking very good care of their son, as promised.
Anirudh sat down next to Dweepa and, acknowledging each other with a smile, they continued their lesson. Anirudh was reading the Mahabharata yet again. However, even though the book was open in front of him, his mind was on something else today—something he had hidden from Dweepa and his family. It was well hidden even from him, as if it were buried deep within him: the pressure of being Kalki, an avatar of God.
Anirudh flipped the page over absent-mindedly as the thoughts collided in his head. Ever since he had started learning to expand and control his mind, he’d realized that he was slowly stepping closer to being Kalki. And since then, sleep rarely came easily to him. He was always in a state of worry. Being an avatar wasn’t child’s play, he had discovered. With it came the burden of immense responsibility and the pressure to deliver. Anirudh knew that even his smallest actions could have large implications. Feeling trapped by these doubts, he didn’t know what to do to squash them or whom to open up to. He suspected that he lacked the confidence the Kalki avatar should possess.
Anirudh turned another page. Dweepa noticed that he had done so within moments of flipping over to the first page. He looked at Anirudh with concern, and saw that though the boy’s eyes were on the book, his focus wasn’t.
Dweepa kept his text aside and placed his hand on Anirudh’s shoulder. ‘What’s bothering you, Anirudh?’
Anirudh smiled and shook his head mutely.
‘I know that something is on your mind.’
He sighed and looked up at Dweepa. ‘I don’t know if I can be Kalki, Sage Dweepa. It’s a huge responsibility. And I don’t know if I can bear it well.’
Dweepa nodded silently, as if urging him to continue.
‘What if I make a mistake? I mean … I am Kalki. The whole world looks to me to save it. What if I do the wrong thing and it hurts people? It’s just … just too much pressure, Sage!’
Dweepa said softly, ‘Anirudh, Kalki is a common man first, then a god. There is nothing to be so worried about. And there is no question of whether you can “be” Kalki or not—you are.’
Anirudh shrugged and asked him, ‘What if I do something wrong?’
‘What do you think I’m training you for? It’s to ensure that you always do the right thing. Whatever decision you take, you should feel right about it. It’s important that you believe in every action you take, Anirudh. For only when you have the conviction that what you’re doing is right can you convince the world that it indeed is.’
Anirudh smiled weakly.
‘Besides, you need not worry about Kalki for now. Right now, Kalki is a secret. By the time the secret is revealed to the world, you will be fully prepared to shoulder his … your responsibilities.’
Anirudh was somewhat relieved after hearing Dweepa’s words. He lay back on the grass and stared at the sunny sky before a bout of drowsiness took over.
Anirudh found himself standing in Ksheera Sagar, the ocean of milk, yet again. In front of him, on the huge Ananta Shesha, his Vishnu form was resting peacefully. Even though it looked like he was reposing with his eyes shut, Anirudh felt that Vishnu was actually looking at the various events happening across the universe, omnipresent as he was. The white waves gently lashed against Ananta Shesha’s coils and rocked the snake bed like a cradle.
Vishnu smiled his mischievous smile. He felt like a baby being rocked to sleep. A soft laugh escaped Anirudh lips too, when the harried sound of anklets broke the silence again. Vishnu’s eyes fluttered opened.
Stepping out from the mists of the ocean and standing in front of Vishnu was the lady in green—Bhoomidevi. But she was no longer that mesmerizing woman whom Anirudh had seen in his previous dream. Her condition now was horrifying. Vishnu rushed to her and held her in his arms. Gently picking her up, he made her sit on the bed. Seeing her sad state brought tears to Anirudh’s and Vishnu’s eyes.
Her green saree was torn in many places. In fact, it looked like a ragged piece of cloth, as though someone had brutally slashed it with a knife. The saree’s edges were black, like someone had singed it with fire. But even worse affected were her hands and face. Scars ran deep in dashes of crimson. Her arms were covered with numerous burns, even as blood oozed from open gashes. Dried blood was visible on some old wounds, which had left cracked brown patches on her formerly flawless skin. The skin on her face was dry beyond repair, and she sported creases of weariness. Her grey hair was streaked with red, and her eyes, too, were a ghastly grey.
Anirudh could hardly recognize Bhoomidevi! She was in a deplorable state, and his heart went out to her. Who would dare do such a horrific thing to her? he thought.
In a gut-wrenching voice, she cried out, ‘Look what our children have done to me!’
Stunned, Vishnu sighed, his tears caught in his throat.
‘Every day they just keep fighting among themselves! And they keep destroying me and polluting me without thought!’
Vishnu held her hands in his, silently listening to her lament.
‘I can’t take it any more, my lord. Please … please save me.’
Vishnu embraced Bhoomidevi and closed his eyes. After a long moment, when he opened them, they were like pools of blood. He whispered coldly, ‘I am coming, Devi. I am coming soon. You will be avenged.’
Anirudh caught a glimpse of the lord’s eyes, and was terrified. He was seething with anger, Anirudh could tell.
Bhoomidevi broke away from the god and bowed to him, taking her leave.
But Vishnu was still holding her hand. ‘I am coming now. The time has come for my Kalki avatar to take birth on earth.’
Saying so, Vishnu let go of Bhoomidevi. She gave him a haunting look and left.
Anirudh gaped at Vishnu. His eyes were still flaming red—like churning oceans of blood.
‘… And then I woke up. Red eyes and enraged breathing—that’s what I saw last.’ Anirudh finished narrating the dream to Sage Dweepa.
On hearing about the pitiful state of Bhoomidevi, Dweepa sobbed into his hands. He touched the ground with his fingers and smeared the earth on his forehead. Wiping his tears on his saffron robes, he looked at Anirudh.
‘So that’s the reason why you were born early … before time. Bhoomidevi’s condition is unforgivable.’
‘Well … It’s not surprising that I was born early. Man has been fighting so much—bitter wars, and terrorist attacks every other day. And all the pollution—dirty rivers and dying oceans, global warming … Man has ruined everything. All this affects Bhoomidevi. And it will keep affecting her
… till it eventually kills her. It’s my job to stop this from happening.’
Dweepa patted Anirudh’s back and sighed. ‘So do you see why it’s crucial that you accept your role as Kalki?’
Anirudh nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m glad I had this dream. It has affected me … deeply … Motivated me to fight for what is right.’ Turning to Dweepa with strangely calm yet grave eyes, he added in a low voice, ‘I don’t want to give up on mankind just yet.’
His teacher looked at him, puzzled.
Anirudh stared into the distance, his shoulders squared, resolve radiating from his being. ‘Though I am destined to be the harbinger of pralaya, the great flood that will end this yuga, I don’t want to be the destroyer of the universe. I … I want to fight and keep man alive.’
Dweepa said kindly, ‘Your destiny is also to restore the balance between good and evil, to purify the earth—remember that. And though you are bound to your destiny, the journey you take to fulfil it is up to you.’
Anirudh felt the turbulence in his mind subside. He had suddenly recalled a verse he had read in the Bhagavad Gita. Only now did he realize what it really meant. He recited the words softly but with purpose, evoking their significance as he watched the leaves dancing in the distance:
Yada yada hi dharmasya
Glanir bhavati Bharata
Abhyutthanam adharmasya
Tadatmanam srjami aham
Dweepa observed Anirudh’s changed demeanour. Smiling, he translated, ‘Whenever and wherever there is a decline in righteousness, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of unrighteousness—at that time, I descend myself.
‘You have already informed the world that you will take birth when adharma rises. So it shouldn’t be a surprise at all that you took birth well ahead of time. You are the lord, after all. You can do as you please.’
Anirudh looked towards the horizon and only laughed. But the laugh didn’t reach his eyes.
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