Kashi: Secret of the Black Temple (Harappa Series)
Page 25
Tara and Manu looked at each other. Even the name of Kalki had moved something in them.
‘As you say, Matsya. We will leave no stone unturned in keeping the celestial sword safe. Anything else that we need to do, to save mankind from the dark future that you have just described?’
Matsya shook his head as he looked far into the gigantic waves that the Ark was negotiating.
‘You cannot prevent it, Manu. But do not get me wrong. The dawn beyond the great deluge is also the golden age for humankind in many ways. It is now that men will conquer the skies and fly like birds. It is now that humans will tear into the heart of the oceans and sail undersea chariots. Wealth and wisdom will know no bounds and science will achieve what is incomprehensible today. Man will leap high, even towards touching Chandra (Moon) and Mangal (Mars). And it is when prosperity and knowledge, poverty and violence, disease and progress reach their zenith...that the Surya of Harappa, the great Vivasvan Pujari will be born again. As one of your descendants, Manu.
He will be the greatest of your bloodline.’
‘The scroll of the Black Temple that you have rewritten in the Harappan script, Manu, will be Kaliyuga’s greatest secret. Keep it safe. Build Black Temples and guard this precious scroll. Do you know as pralay engulfs all of known Aryavarta and beyond, there is one holy city that remains untouched?’
‘Untouched? I thought the great deluge has drowned the entire planet!’
Matsya laughed again, paused for a few moments and closed his eyes. He appeared to be praying to someone before he spoke his next words.
‘Who can drown a city that rests on the tip of Shiva’s trident, Manu? Who can drown Kashi? Go there once the great flood subsides. Thousands of years from now, it is in the very city of Kashi that your greatest descendant, the punahrjanma - reincarnation - of your magnificent father, will unveil the secret of the Black Temple and welcome Kalki to the world. He will be the one to protect Kalki till the avatar turns thirteen and is united with the Ratna-Maru. That is the divine task for which this magnificent man, this devta will be sent to earth.’
There was silence for a few moments. Then Tara turned to Matsya and asked what was in her mind for several minutes now.
‘Tell us about this great descendent of ours, Matsya. The one who will unfurl the scroll in Kaliyuga, in Kashi. What will he be like?’
Matsya grinned and gulped down the remaining wine in his glass. In a glimpse of boyish abandon, he tossed the empty shell-glass into the ocean, much to Tara’s consternation. Every spoon counted on the Ark.
‘What can I say, Tara? He will be extraordinary. He will be a diamond among men. A warrior, a yogi, a lover, a charmer and a leader. He will be half-human, half-God!’
Pausing for a moment, Matsya added to his previous description.
‘You might say he will be like the power of lightning.
He will be like...Vidyut.’
Banaras, 2017
VIDYUT
The ashes floated on the surface of the sacred waters. It was a fitting end for the marvelous Dwarka Shastri, as his soul departed from this life to another. He had died in the city of Trayambakeshwar or the Lord of the Crossover Bridge, Lord Shiva. It was believed that Shiva Himself whispered the mantra of salvation into the ears of anyone dying in Kashi.
Vidyut waited till every last speck of his Baba’s remains dissolved into the holy Ganga.
Under the guidance of Purohit ji and the other yogis of the Dev-Raakshasa matth, he had performed the last rites of the great matthadheesh. His cut-up heart wept, as he recollected every small memory. His faint, childhood glimpses of the towering mahataantric in his prime. His first sight of the grandmaster as he had arrived at the matth after over two decades. He remembered how his Baba had fed him lovingly. How Dwarka Shastri believed that it was Vidyut who had protected him against the Maarkesh that loomed over his fate.
It was deep sorrow that was consuming Vidyut. After having lost his parents in quick succession while he was still a child, this was the greatest loss the devta had endured in over two decades. Dwarka Shastri was the only family he had. He suddenly felt like an orphan.
Once again.
‘We should leave now, beta.’
After several minutes had passed, Purohit ji came and tapped the devta on his shoulder.
‘Let him leave this realm in peace, Vidyut. The more you grieve, the harder it will be for him to crossover.’
‘Yes, Purohit ji...I understand,’ replied Vidyut, as he folded his hands in a last salutation to the fading remains of his Baba.
‘What now, Purohit ji?’ asked Vidyut.
They sat on the steps of the Dashashwamedh ghaat, strong breeze from the holy river brushing against their faces and hair.
‘The Order will be compelled to withdraw...at least for a while, Vidyut. By crushing Romi, Trijat and the Maschera in a matter of days, you have inflicted them with heavy setbacks. They will need time to regroup, and they will. They always do. Patience is a virtue they do not lack. But when they do strike back – it will be harder and more vicious than anything we have seen so far.’
Sonu brought them glasses of spicy aam panna, a refreshing raw mango drink.
‘Thank you, Sonu,’ said Vidyut, as he passed a glass of the tangy brew to Purohit ji.
‘Without Baba it will be very hard for us to fight them, Purohit ji. Who is going to lead us?’
Purohit ji turned to Vidyut with an amused expression on his face.
‘Our new matthadheesh will lead us, Vidyut. The successor of the mighty Dwarka Shastri will lead us.
You will lead us, O devta!’
‘Kalki is not coming for the Hindus alone. He is not coming for the Muslims or the Christians either. Nor for the Sikhs or the Jews. He is coming for all of mankind! Just like the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu, the Buddha, belonged to everyone, similarly Kalki will defend every pious soul, every righteous human and every innocent individual.’
Vidyut was listening to Purohit ji with deep concentration. After his Baba, it was this brilliant priest that the devta trusted.
‘Anyhow, what is your plan now, beta?’ asked the wise purohit of the Dev-Raakshasa matth, changing the topic. He knew Vidyut had been through enough.
‘Ah...well, I am not totally sure, Purohit ji,’ responded the devta. ‘I will go back to work and spend a few days setting things in order at my company. Thereafter, I will leave for where the avatar is born, and spend the rest of my years looking after Him, protecting Him. Yes, I have indulged in one luxury. My office will be procuring a super-bike for me. It is one of the most powerful motorcycles in the world. It is being customized as per my specifications. It has a terrific dual-duct engine, because of which my local mechanic Babloo calls the bike Dev-dutt or Dev-das or something! He can never get saying dual-duct right!’
Purohit ji smiled and nodded, as he drank the delicious aam panna. He then asked simply.
‘And what about Damini?’
Vidyut and Damini held hands, tighter than ever before. Damini was distraught at listening to her devta’s plan. He had decided to devote his entire life to defend Kalki, till the avatar reached the age of thirteen and even after that.
She was trying her best to dissuade him from this perilous and sacrificial life-plan.
‘You can look after Him even while you continue working, Vidyut. You just need to spend two days in a week at your company. You can organize a security team for the Lord wherever He is, and visit the place once every...’
‘Will you marry me, Damini?’
‘You are not getting me, baby...there is a better....’
She stopped as Vidyut’s question sank into her.
‘Whaa...what did you say, Vidyut?’ she asked, praying in her heart that she had heard the words right.
‘Marry me please, Damini. I cannot traverse this path without you by my side.’
The beautiful journalist from Delhi could not hold her tears back.
‘Yes...yes...a thousand times yes, V
idyut.
I will marry you...you silly boy!’
Vidyut was bidding farewell to everyone at the Dev-Raakshasa matth. Men, women and children of the matth were crying as they saw their devta leave. They all knew without any doubt – Vidyut was the new matthadheesh of the God-Demon clan.
After he had said his goodbyes to his dear ones like Balvanta, Sonu and Govardhan, the devta came face to face with the most beautiful girl he had known in the world.
‘Ooff...why do you do this to me, Nainu?’ he said, teasing the stunning beauty that stood in front of him.
‘Oh, come on...I am sure every lass from every Gurgaon pub makes your heart flutter, Vidyut,’ she replied, rolling her eyes.
She loved him beyond measure. She wanted him today as much as she had ever wanted him before.
Vidyut laughed. But he became serious in a few seconds, as he noticed Naina’s eyes were not laughing with him.
‘Just know this, Naina, you were the closest I ever came to falling in love...when I shouldn’t have.’
Naina gave him a tired smile, typical of beautiful girls when they want to show made-up disdain. But then she realized this was perhaps the last she was seeing him for a long long time.
‘Just know this, Vidyut...I love you. And I always will.’
She kissed her devta on the cheek, even as he kissed her back.
As his white and silver tank of a motorbike vroomed to life under the roar of its extraordinarily powerful engine, and the magnificent Vidyut waved a final farewell to everyone, Purohit ji was reminded of something that had not struck him so far.
He smiled with illimitable happiness as he gestured a goodbye to the last devta of planet Earth.
As per the scriptures, dual-duct or Devdutt was the name of a divine being’s earthly ride.
It was supposed to be the vehicle of Kalki.
THE END.
THE BEGINNING...
EPILOGUE
He looked like a ghost on that stormy night.
Hobbling from one grave to another on all four of his limbs, he did not care for the whistling wind and the rain that blew across the medieval cemetery, washing the decaying coffins and broken tombstones. Carrying a small kerosene lamp that he guarded with his life, he seemed to be looking for the right corpse to exhume for his ghoulish black ritual. He did not appear to be human any more, and looked more deceased than alive. His filthy hair was ruffled, falling over his forehead up to his cheek. Soaked wet his body seemed twisted under his deathly white kurta-pajama and his skin was peeling off his demonically aging face. It was all as if he were possessed by some dark, evil force.
He finally saw it from a distance and rushed towards it in mad glee, hopping crookedly on all fours. He brushed the tombstone off mud and rainwater with his oddly bent fingers, just to be sure of the name engraved on the epitaph. Satisfied that he had found the potent sarcophagus mentioned in the dark scriptures, he looked up at the moonless night and growled like a primordial sorcerer, before beginning to dig the grave with his bare hands and dirty fingernails.
As he dug into the slushy grave and threw handfuls of wet earth all around him, he feverishly muttered something, as if communicating with someone far far away. The words that came out from his frothing mouth seemed to be invoking an otherworldly power, summoning it to Earth.
‘Rise!’ he mumbled like a deranged goblin. ‘Tear open the heart of prithvi and rise from its blackest depths!’
His eye flickered under the stormy rain, darting in all directions in complete lunacy.
‘RISE, LUCIFER!’
Brahmanand knew only the Devil himself could stop the savior of Kaliyuga.
He was calling Satan to Earth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vineet is a first-generation entrepreneur. At age 22 he started his company Magnon from a small shed. Today Magnon is among the largest digital agencies in the subcontinent, and part of the Fortune 500 Omnicom Group.
He has led the global top-ten advertising agency TBWA as its India CEO. This made him perhaps the youngest ever CEO of a multinational advertising network in the country.
He has won several entrepreneurship and corporate excellence awards, including the Entrepreneur of the Year 2016. He was recently listed among the 100 Most Influential People in India’s Digital Ecosystem.
Vineet’s second company talentrack is disrupting the media, entertainment & creative industry in India. It is the fastest-growing online hiring and content-crowdsourcing platform for the sector.
He has written three bestselling management & inspirational books – Build From Scratch, The Street to the Highway and The 30 Something CEO.
His first two fiction novels, Harappa – Curse of the Blood River and Pralay – The Great Deluge, are both national bestsellers. The books have won rich critical and literary acclaim.
www.VineetBajpai.com
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Write to Vineet at vb@vineetbajpai.com