The kalakanja shifted his feet uneasily. His intuition told him that this kill was of particular importance to their master. He found it difficult to understand why then, the relatively unknown pisaca was chosen to lead the mission. The other thing that bothered him was the urgency. Any upanshughatak worth his name knew that you had to stalk your prey and wait patiently for the right time to strike. Yet the pisaca said that they had been commanded to do the deed by the end of the next day. What’s the urgency? he wondered.
The bonara felt the same way. But he was made differently. He could hide his feelings far better than any of the other upanshughataks and focus on what had to be done. This was one of the reasons he had survived more contract killings than any of the other members of the Zataka Upanshughatak tribe. He spoke softly to the pisaca. ‘What is the plan?’ he asked. The pisaca turned one of his tentacles towards the bonara, while with another one, kept the kalakanja in his sight. The other six tentacles looked around, scouring the area for any possible eavesdropper.
‘I have observed Devki’s movements over the past few days,’ he said. ‘She never steps out of the palace without her companions, and there are always a few guards close at hand.’
The kalakanja sneered as he interrupted the pisaca. ‘Afraid, are we?’
One of the tentacles of the pisaca turned menacingly towards the kalakanja, but the other seven tentacles restrained the maverick limb. ‘Not afraid!’ he hissed. ‘Just smart!’
‘What’s so smart about this? Can’t we kill a couple of dozen guards and a few female attendants?’ The kalakanja spat out the words.
‘Of course we can,’ the pisaca replied, a little more patiently now, as if he was explaining the basics of an assassination to a five-year-old. ‘But when the three of us kill Devki in front of so many witnesses, there are bound to a be a couple of them who may escape in the middle of the bloodbath. Do you think the Dark Lord would be pleased to show his hand so soon?’
The mention of the Dark Lord subdued the kalakanja to some extent. Seeing him vacillate, the pisaca pressed his point. ‘If anyone sees us and escapes, Ugrasena and everyone else in the kingdom will know that Pataal Lok has sent assassins. This is bound to come to the notice of Shukra. Once he knows of the Zataka Upanshughatak’s involvement, how much time do you think he will take to connect the Dark Lord to us? Whatever the Dark Lord is planning, he was clear on one thing—Shukra should have no whiff of his involvement till the Dark Lord himself reveals it.’
The bonara looked at the pisaca with grudging respect. The Dark Lord had chosen the right person to lead them in the plot to assassinate Devki. he thought. ‘Which is why we need to wait for Devki to be alone to kill her? Is that right?’ he said aloud.
The pisaca nodded, glad that at least the bonara was in sync with him.
‘But if Devki never comes out alone, how are we going to kill her without anyone else seeing us do it?’
The pisaca’s body seemed to wriggle again; it seemed that he was laughing but there was no way to be certain, since the eight tentacles representing his face were almost impossible to read. ‘Tomorrow she will be going to the Shiva temple to pray for her brother’s peace of mind. The temple is on the top of a hill, a quarter of a yojana (one yojana being equal to eight miles) away from the main palace compound. If she is accompanied by any attendants, they will wait for her at the base of the hill since only the royal family goes to this particular temple. The soldiers, too, will wait there as the hill is supposed to be a holy zone. No mortal would dare to carry weapons on that hill, as a mark of respect for Lord Shiva.’
The bonara grinned malevolently as the full import of the pisaca’s words struck him. ‘So the soldiers would not feel it necessary to accompany the princess to the top of the hill, since they would believe it is a safe spot…it’s a perfect time for the kill!’ he exclaimed.
The pisaca nodded at the bonara, and then turned towards the kalakanja to see if he was in agreement with the plan. Under the combined gaze of his fellow assassins, the kalakanja nodded his consent reluctantly. He still wasn’t happy being told what to do by the Pisaca but as a professional, he could see that the plan was perfect.
‘Good!’ the pisaca hissed in a pleased tone. ‘We meet tomorrow at the top of the hill. May the dark force be with us,’ he said, raising his voice and waving his extreme right tentacle in the air in salute to the Dark Lord. The bonara and the kalakanja too, raised their right arms in the air as their shouts filled the air, ‘May the dark force be with us!’
A Prayer for Kansa
rahma bowed to the magnetic individual sitting peacefully in front of him. The formidable personality reclined on the jagged rocks as comfortably as if he were sitting on the softest diwan in the universe. He looked like he had just come from a funeral—layers of freshly created ash were smeared in generous quantities over his body. The ash made his form appear grey; but on closer examination, one could see the light of Brahman emanating from all parts of the charismatic Being’s sinewy body.
There was no sign of life or vegetation for hundreds of yojanas around this area. It seemed even the wind had trouble reaching this spot; yet there was a sense of peace and calm that prevailed here, which was difficult to discover even in the most favoured haunts in Swarglok. There were only two people in the entire universe that Brahma was in awe of, even a little scared of at times. He was standing in front of one of them right now. The last time he had angered the ash-clad person, Brahma had had to undergo untold mortification. But eventually, he had realized that this compelling person had helped him more with his castigation than he could ever have done through kind words. Today, Brahma hoped to persuade him for his help yet again.
‘Aum-Num-Ha-Shi-Vai,’ Brahma uttered the five-syllable mantra with a touch of reverence. It meant ‘I bow to you, O Shiva’, and he said this with a deep belief that Shiva epitomized the inner consciousness that dwelled in every living being.
Shiva smiled at the man standing in front of him, and wondered for the thousandth time how the youngest of the three supreme gods managed to look the oldest amongst them. Vishnu, and He, despite being older to Brahma by a few million years, still retained their youthful countenance, while Brahma had developed the façade of a much older persona almost within a few years of his birth. It’s probably because he is unable to control his senses, Shiva mused to himself.
‘I am yet to learn much, My Lord,’ Brahma said with a humility uncommon to him, reading Shiva’s mind through cosmic telepathy.
‘Not much to learn Brahma…just a little more to apply,’ Shiva corrected him gently. ‘You have mastered the force of Brahman, and that gives you powers that a handful of people have in the universe. It also gives you infinite life.’
‘Yes, My Lord’ Brahma said meekly, not sure where this was leading.
Shiva continued, ‘People die because their energy and vital force depletes as they age. Brahman represents the universal force and energy. If you have it inside you, you will never be short of the vital force that gives you life. You will live forever. That is how Vishnu and I have existed since the beginning of time…by carefully harnessing the force of Brahman inside us, where it now flows inside our bodies as if it were part of us. You yourself have done the same, haven’t you?’
‘Err…yes…but…’ Brahma was totally confused now. Why was Shiva giving him a lecture on Brahman energy, he wondered.
Shiva interrupted him. ‘Used properly, the force of Brahman keeps revitalizing your dead cells on an ongoing basis, which is why one never grows old. Have you wondered then, why you have steadily continued to age with time, despite having the knowledge of Brahman?’
Brahma was speechless. It was true that he had always wondered why it was that he alone had continued to grow older in appearance while Shiva and Vishnu still retained their youthful charm. He had put it down to the fact that they probably had more knowledge of Brahman than he had. After all, they were the ones who had a million years ago initiated him into the use of Ba
l and Atibal, the two defining mantras necessary to wield the vital force of Brahman. While he had grown older over time, he had been content that he still retained his energy levels and strength, while the devas, who only had recourse to amrit (life-enhancing nectar) had a life span of just a few thousand years. It was wrongly believed by some that the amrit could give you infinite life. It just extended your life by a few thousand years; that too since Vishnu had energized the potion with some of the force of Brahman before the devas drank it, ages ago. However, the presence of the Brahman force in the potion was not sufficient to give infinite life. This is why, once in a while, some deva or the other would grow old and finally die. But none of this still explained why Brahma was getting older with the years while the passage of time didn’t affect Shiva and Vishnu in the least.
Shiva looked closely at Brahma as the latter did not answer his question. ‘You understand the knowledge of Brahman…but your senses are not attuned to it in perfect harmony.’
Shiva held up his hand as Brahma attempted to interrupt him.
‘Don’t get me wrong, Brahma. You know as much about the theoretical aspects of Brahman as Vishnu and I do. But you have not prepared yourself to assimilate all that knowledge in the way it should be done. And that is why while you have benefitted from it, those benefits are nowhere as large as they could have been.’
‘I don’t understand, My Lord. What have I done wrong?’ Brahma was completely nonplussed now. Shiva changed his tactic. ‘Tell me what would happen if you tried to fill an empty bucket with water?’
Brahma arched his eyebrows. Much as he respected Shiva, he was beginning to feel that Shiva had been spending too much time alone in the sun. It was beginning to affect his mind, he thought.
Shiva laughed all of a sudden, and Brahma realized rather belatedly that Shiva had read his thoughts through cosmic telepathy. Damn! Why do I always forget to shield my thoughts when I am with him? Brahma mentally berated himself.
‘No I haven’t lost it, if that’s what you are thinking,’ Shiva smiled. ‘But answer my question—what would happen if you tried to fill an empty bucket with water?’
Brahma sighed in resignation. ‘The bucket would fill in sometime My Lord.’
‘Absolutely!’ Shiva said animatedly. ‘Now if you were to poke multiple holes in the bucket, what would happen?’
Brahma shifted his feet uneasily, beginning to get a faint idea of where Shiva was going with this. ‘The bucket would take a lot of time to fill…water would continuously need to be poured into the bucket, and yet, if the holes are too large, the bucket may never get filled completely. It would be a huge waste of water, My Lord.’
‘Exactly! So what would you need to do to stop the water from being wasted?’ He looked at Brahma with a twinkle in his eyes.
‘It would make sense to put a stopper to all the holes immediately...,’ Brahma stopped mid-sentence as he realized what Shiva was trying to tell him.
Shiva smiled benignly at the man that Vishnu and he had tutored close to a thousand millennia ago.
‘So why aren’t you plugging the holes in your system, my friend?’
Brahma looked down at his feet, as embarrassed now as he used to be as a child when Shiva or Vishnu would chide him for something he hadn’t done well. Shiva got up and patted him on his shoulder.
‘Your system is like that bucket we spoke of just now. And the force of Brahman flowing into your system is the water we mentioned. Ideally, your system should be full of the rejuvenating force of Brahman at all times, and you shouldn’t age or lose your vitality with time. But your lack of control over your senses from time to time creates holes in your system…such large holes that even the vital force of Brahman is never enough to fill you entirely with vitality. And as a result, even though the presence of Brahman in you is enough to make you live infinitely, you age faster than Vishnu or I, because it is still not sufficient to keep your youth fully charged.’
Brahma gaped at Shiva, realizing his folly all these years. But he knew there had to be more.
‘What is this lack of control that I suffer from?’
‘Your temper…your ego…the yearning for things…for recognition…the list is endless,’ Shiva paused before continuing. ‘These things reduce the potency of Brahman in your system. They leave you weak and continuously needing to recharge your energies. You are never fully charged as a result.’
Brahma remembered how he had felt after hearing the voice in his head, the reason why he had come to Shiva in the first place. And he remembered how depleted he had felt of energy after that conversation with his former student. He saw Shiva observing him closely and knew that Shiva had telepathically read all the thoughts in his mind, including the reason that he had come to him for help. He saw Shiva’s face tighten with emotion at what he had just read in his mind.
‘You see, don’t you, what your temper did to that boy two hundred years ago?’ Shiva’s voice was harder now. Gone was the soft tone he had been using with Brahma till now. The God had reverted to the role of a teacher, and Brahma was once again the diffident protégé.
‘And it was your ego that made you curse the boy back then,’ Shiva thundered, close to losing his legendary temper.
‘My Lord…please….’ Brahma’s voice was a pleading whisper as he shuddered at the memory of what had taken place two centuries back. He had never been able to completely relive that event even in his mind. It was too painful. And to be reminded of it in the presence of Shiva was doubly agonizing.
Shiva took a deep breath to calm his inner self. He knew now why Brahma had come to him, and it repulsed him to know that he may need to be a part of this someday, even if in a passive role. The boy had been good, almost too good. Damn it Brahma, why did you have to get us all into this mess! he thought.
Brahma sighed in relief as he saw Shiva beginning to calm down somewhat. He knew he had not been fair to the boy by cursing him in the past. But that did not give the youth the right to put the entire universe at risk.
‘My L-lord,’ he stammered. ‘That boy…he has become evil incarnate. He has to be destroyed.’
‘Stop calling him “boy”, dammit!’ Shiva roared. ‘He has a name, or at least had one before you made him a victim of your wanton temper.’
Brahma was taken aback with the force of Shiva’s outburst. He had only once in his life seen Shiva lose his temper completely with him, and he didn’t want that to happen again.
‘B-But, My Lord…’
‘Say it! Speak his name!’ Shiva was unrelenting.
Brahma took a deep breath. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to speak the name of his former student even in his thoughts, leave alone say it out aloud, all these years.
‘A-Amartya,’ he said diffidently.
‘The full name!’ Shiva goaded him.
‘Amartya….Amartya Kalyanesu,’ Brahma breathed out the name in anguish, desperately trying to control the emotions that were threatening to overcome him.
‘Do you know the meaning of that name, Brahma?’
‘Immortal goodness…’ Brahma whispered, even as the cries of a half-burnt youth and the smell of scorched flesh from two centuries ago penetrated his memory.
Devki was late for the prayers. She had to be at the Shiva temple by the first light of dawn. It was believed by her family that the first prayers of the day offered before the sun came up, were the most potent. She wanted to make sure that she was there in time to seek blessings for Kansa. Her mind had been deeply troubled after the last meeting with her brother. She wanted to do everything in her power to get him back to the way he had been before Ugrasena shared the secret of his birth with him. Ugrasena too had been closeted in his personal chambers ever since the fateful conversation with his son. She couldn’t bear to see two of the most important men in her life, losing their zest for life with the passage of each day.
‘Mandki, we are late!’ she exclaimed, goading her childhood friend and companion to move fast. Mandki glared at
her. She had been ready and waiting for Devki for the past half-an-hour. Devki gave her a sheepish grin, and put her left arm around her friend in an attempt to appease her. In her right hand she carried the puja thali, precariously balanced on the balls of her fingers.
‘The horses are ready, My Lady,’ Airawat nodded respectfully at Devki. Even though Airawat had addressed Devki, she noticed that his eyes were subtly observing her friend. Mandki seemed to be aware of the attention she was getting from the chief of Madhuvan’s cavalry division. She suppressed a smile but consciously avoided looking in Airawat’s direction.
‘Thanks, Airawat. Are you going to be accompanying us to the Shiva temple too?’ Devki smiled at the handsome man holding the reins to her horse.
‘Yes, My Lady. I will be coming along,’ he said in a soft and slightly self-conscious tone.
‘Come on, Airawat. You don’t need to call me “My Lady” and all that. You have known me since I was a child and you used to teach me how to ride a horse. You used to call me “little Devki” in those days.’
Airawat smiled at the memory of days gone by. He had been an ordinary cavalry man employed in King Devak’s army. But more importantly, he had also been a personal bodyguard of the king and his favourite at that. When Devak’s wife had died, he had been the one to ride all the way to Madhuvan to give Ugrasena the message from Devki’s father. Later, he had also accompanied Devak to the forest where the king gave up his body to depart the mortal world. When he returned to Haripur, Devki and Mandki had already left with Ugrasena and his son Kansa, but there was a message awaiting him from Ugrasena at the palace. Ugrasena, who had been impressed with Airawat’s loyalty to Devak, had invited him to Madhuvan to be a part of his retinue of personal bodyguards. As the king of the combined nations of Madhuvan and Haripur, Ugrasena wanted people he could trust, by his side. Airawat had been at the king’s side for the past fourteen years. He had been a young man back then. Now he was almost thirty-three years old. While he had always respected Devki as a princess, he had developed a fascination for her companion, Mandki. Initially, he hadn’t given her much notice as she was still a child. As the years progressed, however, he began to fall in love with her character and the nobility with which she conducted herself in everything, including rejecting the best suitors for her hand, because she did not want to leave Devki alone. It never occurred to him that Mandki was not just a woman with a flawless character. She was also possibly the most beautiful woman in Madhuvan, second perhaps only to Devki. Having said that, the brave soldier that he was, he had never been able to draw up the courage to declare his love to Mandki. He wasn’t even sure if she had any idea about his feelings for her.
THE CURSE OF BRAHMA Page 7
