Beauty and the Beast

16

10 days.

Chenchita sat there for 10 days not even moving from the place.

Her sheer stubbornness brought several hunters from the Penta to try and convince her but she didn't move from the spot. Even the bulkiest hunter couldn't move her from the spot. It shook all the hunters.

"She's almost like a mountain. I can't even move her an inch." The hunter complained.

"I am telling you. Stop trying to force her into anything." Jaya tried to tell them.

The hunter who didn't give up, held her arm tighter and tried to pull her forcefully. The grip almost left a mark on her skin. When the grip got much tighter, it almost cut off the blood circulation.

Suddenly, the closed eyes of Narasimha opened, burning with rage. A warning growl erupted from him. It instantly scared the Chenchus. The hunters got up. The hunter who tightly held her arm stumbled back, falling down. Fear filled when the beastly eyes stared at him. Almost like his eyes were the raging fire in the sun.

"Swami..." Chenchita joined her hands and got his attention.

Narasimha saw her. He had noticed her presence for a long time. Since she sat before him with a resolve to receive that knowledge. The childish huntress began to melt away the longer she stared at him. The very face of Narasimha revealing things she had never imagined. When he finally looked at her with open eyes, she seemed quite thinner. Having given up eating meat and food, she had become slightly thinned. Her eyes sank in slightly from the sudden detachment with sleep. The clothes she wore were dirtied slightly. Her hair uncombed had begun to form knots.

Narasimha picked up the small glass of water, left there from the rituals the sages performed to him, and offered it to her. She took the glass and drank water. He passed the bowl of fruits to her, insisting her to eat. She ate the bunch of bananas.

"What do you wish for, Chenchita?" He asked her.

"Who am I and what is relationship that I have with you?" She asked him.

"It is an illusion that there is two. There is only Parabrahma. Everyone else is a part of that Parabrahma. There is no I, Chenchita. There is only Parabrahma. Everyone else is just prakriti, made out of pancha maha bhuta but the antaratma is  Parabrahma himself. This form one takes on is temporary. The only permanence is Parabrahma." He explained. "You are also a part of me."

Chenchita just wondered on it. "If I am a part of you then why has this division arrived?"

"Because I desired to be two from one. Prakriti emerges out of me. I am Purusha and prakriti emerges from Purusha, forming a duality. Yet, this prakriti is a part of me. Not exactly all a unity but not completely different either. In an analogy, these fingers are a part of my hand but this hand isn't me. What you describe as 'aham' is the life that allows me to control this arms. It is a part of me but individually me. Similarly, Prakriti is a part of me but not me individually."

"If all of this prakriti has emerged from you then when does it return to you?"

"There are koti jeevas in this creation, Chenchita. I am antaryami to them all. Covered with avidya, they assume themselves to be completely independent. All of this prakriti will revert back to me when mahapralaya occurs. Then once again, the time span of non existence as long as mahapralaya passes away, prakriti will emerge out of me. But till then, the cycle of life and death will continue. Jeeva takes birth, dies and is reborn again. The krama of kaalachakra continues with my order. The karma chakra continues as long as the kaalachakra moves for them."

"So, none of this is permanent? All we strive for in our lives are in vain? If it is so, then why does one gather wealth? Strive to perform anything if all of it will be in vain?"