Part 2 in Devansha Series
The time has started ticking for the Mantri sisters. They have finally retrieved Vijaya and secured their place in Gurukul.
But will everything stay normal for Mantri Sisters after Adya's challenge to Asura raj Virat? Will...
Music for the Chapter: O Re Piya by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Jaideep Sahni from Aaja Nachle
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Guru Atri looked at the place with an odd look in his eyes. He touched the pillars left in ruins and looked at the temple.
"You remember it?" I asked.
He turned in a direction and joined his hands in respect. He pointed me to a faraway distance and the gopuram of a temple was a bit visible on a hill. "That is a Shiva temple. He appeared there as a swayambhu linga after ages of tapasya of a devotee. There was a boundary of two kingdoms between there to here. So, people couldn't travel sometimes when the kingdoms had bad relations with each other. There was a great devotee of Shiva. Because he couldn't visit the temple, he would come to this spot and every day, see the gopuram and become extremely happy as if he had seen the Shiva linga itself. As old age got to him, he became unable to come here. His son would bring carrying him on his shoulders here so he could see the gopuram. Maharishi Agastya and I had been passing from here on our way ahead. Being Maharishis, we were never obstructed from one kingdom to another. That is when we met the father and son. The son explained the story. The man explained that as old age was getting to him, he couldn't see the gopuram anymore because his far vision had become old. We prayed to Mahadev in this place. Then, pleased by our prayers, he appeared here and gave darshan to his devotee. The son carried him on his shoulder so that he could do pradakshina around Mahadev. Mahadev then stayed here in form of a Shiva linga. The King built a temple here in that honour. I had last seen the temple during a time in Kaliyuga. Now, the sign of Shiva linga isn't there. The temple is in ruins. The grand temple which would instantly bring a person's attention here. The Shiva linga was meant to increase devotion among people because it was the devotion of that devotee that made Shiva appear here. Now, there are few people who really understand devotion and even fewer people to teach what devotion is. Sometimes, it makes me even sadder seeing the state of people these days. They identify themselves with this bag of skin, flesh, and bones that they do not know the identity of the soul at all."
His eyes showed worry and pain. Only he could understand what people had truly lost. Temples and the heritage they have is at such a risk. People don't know the history of the temple, neither do they seem to wish to know. Like these ruins, the entire country has many such ruins.
"During that time, one sub-continent and several kingdoms was a problem but now even if the entire country is free boundaries, they still live in those differences. Honestly, things seem to only get worse. The differences have come everywhere. The difference in how humans treat each other. Even animal seem better than us now. Human life was the only life that could allow 'chintan' about the soul but now that is also not there. So, animal lives seem much better. That too is trouble by humans."
Only someone who knows a golden time would see how terrible the times had become. Guru Atri affectionately touched the broken pillars and ruins. His eyes far back into the memory of how it looked.
