MEETING WITH MAHASHAKTI

Strange Meetings

My younger brother and my mother were racking their brains to put an end to my suffering.My brother and I visited a number of people.At first,we visited a woman on a Tuesday. People told us the Goddess Mangala entered her body every Tuesday and Saturday.I thought she was a cheat and was exploiting simple folks and making money.When we reached there,we saw a strange sight.The woman decked with flowers and wearing a black sari was having terrible convulsions all over her body.A large number of men,women and children were offering their obeisance to her.A sacred fire was burning. An old Brahmin and a young Brahmin boy were chanting hymns and pouring cow ghee onto the wild flames.The possessed woman had a crooked smile with very thin lips and little dark eyes.Her voice which was trembling,was commanding and sharp.We were totally absorbed by her strange behaviour.She hissed at me saying:"You got the indication but ignored it..!Now why have you come here?I can't do anything but Mansoor can..Both of you will be well placed in this city.You have to wait."

We looked at her with the expectation to clear our confusion. We didn't know who Mansoor was.But what was the indication I had got?When did I ignore it?I thought she was trying to trick us into paying her some rupees. There was a huge brass plate in front of her containing coins and banknotes. I was unwilling to make any donation to her. My brother placed a fifty rupee note on the pyramid of coins and notes.When we were coming back,she told us to stop. A tall thin boy his body being pitch dark with a long beard and long hair came up to us and detailed us about Mansoor.He looked hungry and scary because of his unusually deep-set eyes.He tried to remind us of the old Muslim tailor in the wood cabin under the pipal tree,not very far from the temple of Adi Mata at the bazaar nearby.My brother seemed to know him and wanted us to visit him. I was indignant about it and summarily turned down the suggestion.When my brother insisted,I was incandescent with rage and threatened to attack him physically. We came back home.

When mother heard about my refusal to meet the old Muslim tailor,she appreciated my decision. My brother was in intense anxiety and endless tension.I would be cross and annoyed with him without any sufficient reason. Now after twenty four years I still retain that deep sense of guilt originating from my savage treatment to him during bouts of my irrational anger and intimidation.
I began to see those weird creatures again.The dark naked woman with a pig's face,the three bare bodied dark men who were also naked again surrounded me with their scintillating swords and knives urging me to follow them.They were sometimes excessively polite and assured me that they were with me and nobody was going to kill me. But I rubbished them sure that they would ask me to go onto a rooftop and jump to the ground from there.It was sensible of me to ignore them.

One morning without anyone's knowledge I went to meet the old Muslim tailor.He was cheerful and amiable.When we talked,I was ashamed to know about his indepth culture of Hinduism and its tantric practices. Being a Muslim he knew about my religion so much!He had said:"Your sacred texts are a treasure house of wisdom. But present day Hindus are ignorant of them."He asked me if I remembered the famous Mahamrityunjay Mantra.Getting my negative nod,he wrote the mantra on a piece of paper and handed it to me.After a lot of rambling,he succeeded into making me pay him fifteen hundred rupees towards a puja that would give me mental peace and spiritual comfort.

The next morning I was walking to the bazaar.A vegetable seller who knew me by name came flying to me and started urging me to withdraw my money from the old tailor.Without giving me time to ask why,he hurried me like anything and we reached the tailor's shop. The old Muslim was surprised to see me.He said,'What is the matter now..?"

"Please return the money!"I demanded.

He was looking on with eyes wide open.

The vegetable seller said,"What are you going to do? You are going to sacrifice a calf to your God?We don't want it. Return the money!"

I asked him emphatically,"Why didn't you tell me about it? "

"When you Hindus offer goats,chickens and buffaloes to your goddesses,it is all right..! You Hindus are a queer people. Let me sacrifice a goat then." I refused his suggestion cruelly.The tailor smiled skeptically,and returned the money.He was livid with rage and cursed me:"Allah will never forgive you!"

When I reached home and narrated the story to my mother and brother,my mother said,"It's good you got back the money." Although she was old-fashioned,she strongly opposed animal sacrifice to the Hindu goddesses."

My mother and my brother decided to take me to Balasore where my two sisters lived.They were all convinced that I had gone mad.I was in contact with those strange figures and nightmarish visions.