Around 10 PM, Bhadramanu slipped out of the temple and walked around towards the Banyan Grove. It was dark and the Moon was full in the clear village sky. It was big too…a mild yellowish white in color and the moonlight felt good on his face.
He walked into the grove and stepped past the police cordon . He held a little kerosene lantern that Srinivas had given him, but he could have done without it. The light from the full moon was bright enough for him to see everything…albeit he could not discern colours or see very clearly in dark spaces. But that did not worry him at all, Bhadramanu had witnessed and experienced a lot more than most men could ever hope to.
He felt drawn back to the spot where he had found the amulet. He went back there and settled down at the very spot where he had meditated earlier that morning. He sat down cross-legged and started deep, gentle breathing. He was circulating the prana in his body, through some specific nadis (meridians). The special technique he started was meant to help cross his awareness over to the spirit world. He was hoping to communicate with Gowri or the spirit of the Ashwatha Tree, or whatever else he might run into.
As the Udana vaayu started flowing through specific nadis, into his Ajna chakra, Bhadramanu slipped into a trance-like state. He had applied a kavacha (psychic armors) before starting the meditation (just as he had done before)…and just as he slipped into the spirit realm, a terrible thunderstorm swept into the tranquil landscape. The moon was obscured by ominous thunder clouds and lightning forked in the sky all around, like the forked tongue of an electric snake!
But Bhadramanu had stepped into the spirit realm and his body remained with but a subtle prana flowing through it, protected only by kavacha he had applied. Should a medical doctor have inspected the body at that point, he would have declared Bhadramanu comatose!
Bhadramanu had entered the spirit realm in the past, but had not stayed there for too long. When the Ajna awakens, the spirit realm is easily accessible, but once the prana stabilizes in the pranamaya kosha, the spirit realm is masked out by the sadhaka’s awareness. This time, he had to enter and explore the surroundings.
As soon as he entered the spirit world, Bhadramanu started seeing the entities that populated that world. He was also part of that world now and would be affected by the laws of nature that governed it. He saw various entities that lingered in the shmashana (cremation grounds) behind the Banyan Grove, hovering around. But none seemed to come into the Grove itself.
Just as he had observed the complete lack of any living creature in the Grove, he saw the same mirrored in the spirit world as well. It was as though the spirits were afraid to get too close the the Banyan grove! But they all saw him…as he was the only one in the Grove.
Things work differently in the spirit world and sensory phenomena such as sounds, sights, vision, etc are different there. They still exist, but their mechanism is different. Words don’t need to be spoken, they can be articulated without sound. They only had to be thought. Emotions, feelings were tangible here…rage, hatred, envy were waves that travelled slowly, and were heavy and oppressing. Feelings like love travelled fast and were light and uplifting. Bhadramanu suddenly felt a heavy, dense flux inundating him all of a sudden. And this was actually all around him, rising from below, coming down from above, from all directions, like the air itself he would breath in the living world!
As he scanned his surroundings, he sensed that the source of this was coming from behind the Ashwata tree itself. It was coming from a spot several hundred feet behind it. The Banyan grove itself did not just consist of the Ashwata tree…there was another entity that shared the space with it. It was distinct and separate from the Ashwata. It grew all around it, covering the substantial amount of land (acres). It was hard to tell which was the main trunk of this grove…it was perhaps as old as the Ashwata itself…had grown think and dense, expanding slowly…perhaps a few square inches every year.
The spirit body could travel as fast as the mind itself, since it was not hindered by the physical shell. Bhadramanu flew towards the source of this depressing flux of rage and hatred. Just as he was about to enter the space where the source of this energy seemed to be, he felt like he went spinning into a vortex. And within a few seconds of spinning out of control in the vortex, he felt as if he had fallen down a deep ravine. He had been knocked right back into his physical body. Something had flung him out of the spirit world!
He was still sitting, since he had assumed the lotus position before entering the spirit world. He had a terrible headache, he realized and his throat was parched as though he had walked several kilometers through the Thar desert!
He sat still for a long time, eyes closed, dissipating the shock he had received from being flung back into his physical body. Slowly, his headache melted away, falling into the inner space of his consciousness.
As he stood up, he noticed a bunch of laterns and torches from a distance. He walked up towards the lights and saw that it was Srinivas and Madappa and a few other villagers. They saw him approaching and cried out to him “Swamiji! Are you alright?”
Bhadramanu replied “Yes indeed, I am well. What is all this commotion about?”
Srinivas said “Swamiji, there was a terrible thunderstorm a while back and I stopped by the temple, to request you to come to my home, since parts of the temple are not exactly water proof. But I could not find you there. I thought you had stepped out for a walk and waited a good half hour. Since I could not find you, and was not brave enough to come by the Grove alone, I went and fetched Madappa and a few other villagers to help search for you”.
Bhadramanu smiled “You need not have worried about me Acharya Avare…I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. But I appreciate the thoughtfulness nonetheless…”
Both Madappa and Srinivas walked back to the temple with Bhadramanu, after having thanked the other villagers and sending them back home (the other men were only too glad to head back, from the Banyan Grove). As they settled down, Bhadramanu went up to the tube-well in the outer courtyard of the temple and drank some water. He also washed his face, hands and feet and joined the two men.
Madappa asked “Swamiji, you were meditating near the Ashwatha Vata…did you see anything?”
Srinivas looked up towards him inquiringly as well.
Bhadramanu replied “Yes my friends…I found something. I don’t quite know what it was…but whatever it was, was very powerful. It smacked my linga sharira right back into my physical shell, and I could not do anything about it. This is a very formidable entity we are dealing with!”
Srinivas asked “So Swamiji, you are saying that there definitely is an entity at play here?”
Bhadramanu replied “I am afraid so Acharya…and I suspect that when I crossed into the spirit world, I might have enraged it further. We have to ask the villagers to be careful from this point on…without frightening them too much”.
Srinivas asked “Swamiji, could you please tell me what you meant by ‘crossing over to the spirit world’?”
Bhadramanu replied “Sure you want to hear this tonight? it is already past midnight!”
Both men hurriedly replied in unison “Yes Swamiji, please tell us. We are interested in learning!”
Bhadramanu cleared his throat, drank a sip of water from his copper kalasha (tumbler) and started -
“The material universe is dualistic in nature (dvaita). Everything comes in pairing of opposites — hot and cold, night and day, darkness and light, heavy and light, soft and hard. One only has to look around in nature to see that this is the case. This duality of the material universe is manifest in two polarities, Sat (the existent) and Asat (the non-existent). One could consider the two as being Substantial (Sat) and Insubstantial (Asat) as well.
Sat (substantial energy) is predominant in all material objects of the Universe…the living world accessible via mundane awareness.
Asat (insubstantial energy) is predominant in all non-material objects of the Universe…the living world not accessible via mundane awareness.
The ‘living’ realm as we know it, is primarily Sat, with an element of Asat. The spirit realm is primarily Asat, with an element of Sat.
The Asat realm can be accessed only by increasing the insubstantial energy in the body, and the Udana Vayu needs to flow through a specific sequence of nadis and then pierce the Ajna chakra for this to happen.
In colloquial terms, Sat and Asat are used to identify Good and Evil, Honest and Dishonest. But that is because the true meaning is obscured behind a veil of avidya. Sat and Asat actually are like two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other because one is the expanding, growing energy of substantiality and the other is the collapsing, imploding energy of insubstantiality. Sat will dissipate into nothingness without Asat and Asat will collapse onto itself without Sat.
Acharya Avare, you must be familiar with the nAsadiya Suktam in the Rg Veda. It goes like this:
na mRtyurAsIdamRtaM na tarhi na rAtryA ahna AsItpraketaH AnIdavAtaM svadhayA tadekaM tasmAddhAnyan na paraH kiM canAsa
tama AsIt tamasA gULamagre.apraketaM salilaM sarvamAidam tuchyenAbhvapihitaM yadAsIt tapasastanmahinAjAyataikam
kAmastadagre samavartatAdhi manaso retaH prathamaM yadAsIt sato bandhumasati niravindan hRdi pratISyAkavayo manISA
tirashcIno vitato rashmireSAmadhaH svidAsI.a.a.at retodhAAsan mahimAna Asan svadhA avastAt prayatiH parastAt
ko addhA veda ka iha pra vocat kuta AjAtA kuta iyaMvisRSTiH arvAg devA asya visarjanenAthA ko veda yataAbabhUva
iyaM visRSTiryata AbabhUva yadi vA dadhe yadi vA na yo asyAdhyakSaH parame vyoman so aN^ga veda yadi vA naveda
Roughly translated it means:
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminate chaos.
All that existed then was void and formless: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
This is a brilliant teaching that the Rishis transmitted to us, the heirs to their immense spiritual knowledge. But the dust of time has obscured it’s true meaning and only a few know of this.
In reality, the Material Universe originated from pure, undifferentiated Asat (which is often represented by Water, which is also absorbing, pliant, soft), from whence arose the duality of Existent and Non-existent, substantial and insubstantial, Sat and Asat, Good and Bad, Day and Night, Light and Darkness. You take your pick!
All duality rose this way and this duality is necessary for the material universe to function. I will not spend any more time talking about this at this juncture. But to make this already long story short, I accessed the Asat realm, which we call the Spirit world.”
Both the men were stunned and speechless! Madappa did not quite understand the Sanskrit hymn or it’s significance but could see the the duality that Bhadramanu just referred to. He saw it everyday, in everything, now that he thought about it!
Srinivas realized that Bhadramanu was not only a very powerful Yogi, but a highly knowledgeable one too! A thousand thoughts were racing through his mind, and he was finding it hard to come to terms with what he heard. In the Gurukulam where he had studied, they had chanted, recited and memorized the Shastras. They had learned the darshanas (philosophies) and what they meant. But he had never ever come across someone who could explain things quite as clearly as this old wanderer did. Neither experientially, in all his meditations; nor theoretically, as Bhadramanu had just done with the Nasadiya Suktam!
He glanced at Madappa and indicated that they should let Swamiji rest, and said “Swamiji, we should let you rest right now. I will stop by in the morning and let you know when tindi (breakfast) will be ready.”
Bhadramanu smiled and said “Rest well my friends…I suspect that we will have some long and grueling days ahead of us all.”
And then he turned and gave Madappa a little rudraksha bead and said “Dear Madappa, please hold this in your right fist and walk home, without looking back towards the temple! I will see you tomorrow morning”.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by Jim Clark, 2009-08-10 05:43:29
-
- +0
-
-
written by Jim Clark, 2009-08-10 05:15:03
DWAI
this is a great flowing well articulated narrative.....
the use of fiction is similar to the format Hermann Hesse used in Siddhartha..
OM TAT SAT
JIM
-
- +0
-
-
written by Deshika.N.Kumar, 2009-08-03 02:57:18
-
- +0
-
-
written by narensomu, 2009-08-01 23:53:51
Family lore is full of such narrations .Er..those from other realms, Siddar-figures who walked the villages and so on. May be I'll understand about them more after reading the series.
Here in your series, we come across explanations and that makes it very interesting as well as informative .
Madappa here represents a clean slate kind of person who is more open to new ideas and the Acharya a somewhat written -upon slate who is now sorting things he learnt ealier from a completely different angle.
Regards
ns
-
- +0
-
-
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
