Krishna Chandra was teaching in the courtyard of his house when he saw the soldiers coming toward him.
Krishna Chandra stopped immediately as he thought that the soldiers had brought an important message.
Instead of giving him a massage, the soldiers attacked Krishna Chandra without asking anything.
After some time the soldiers brought young aacharya Krishna Chandra Shastri into the court like an animal by chaining him in thick iron chains.
Krishna Chandra's clothes had become torn by the beatings of the soldiers. Traces of soil and blood were also visible on the body visible from the rags.
The innocent Aacharya looked at the king responsible for his condition as if he wanted to know his sin. He had gone to the palace after having a royal meal only a few hours ago. What could have been the reason for this sudden bad behavior with him?
King Ballabha Kumara's anger had now subsided because the bright eyes of the convict were disturbing him. His conscience knew that Krishna Chandra did not deserve this abusive behavior. When his ruthless eyes could not face young aacharya anymore, the king started looking at another side.
Krishna Chandra felt very bizarre.
Krishna Chandra tried to see the king's courtiers, but they did exactly what the king did. He found them in a similar situation. Every person who belonged to the king had guilt on his face.
The guilt of everyone's body language made it more confusing to innocent young aacharya.
"First they did this to me and now no one wanted to face me...What happened to them?... By making my condition like this, everyone is feeling ashamed of themselves, what meaning should I drive out of this?" Thinking that in his mind, Krishna Chandra looked back with great difficulty.
Krishna Chandra saw smiling Brahmins, zameendaaras, and sahukaaras with victorious smiles. Tejasraja was flaunting his mustache.
Krishna Chandra became more confused because he was not connected to any of them. Neither they nor their boys were shishyas of aacharya. Most of the people were unknown to him.
After a while Tejasraja became serious.
"You are a blot on the name of the Brahmin. You have no fear of God. God has given the privilege of being the aacharya to the Brahmin cast and the shishya to the upper class, so how can a small person like you share that fortune among the beggars?" Tejasraja shouted.
The crowd loved that.
It took Krishna Chandra some time to understand Tejasraja's ludicrous things.
On understanding, Krishna Chandra started laughing in the court.
Everyone was stunned by Krishna Chandra's laughter. Some of them wanted to stop him and others loved to hit him hard. He ignored everyone and kept on laughing for a long time.
After that Krishna Chandra became silent, clearing the tears of laughter.
Tejasraja had felt that Krishna Chandra would present some arguments in his defense and he would answer those arguments with his effective arguments so that he would make Krishna Chandra degrade himself in front of everyone.
Tejasraja desperately wanted to listen...'Tejasraja ki Jay ho.'
But nothing like that happened there. That silence could not be tolerated by Tejasraja. He got angry.
"Please answer, Mahapundit Ji, you cannot make fun of everyone by being silent like this," Tejasraja said to provoke Krishna Chandra.
Krishna Chandra kept his silence as if he had not heard anything of Tejasraja.
The assemblage wondered what was happening! Tejasraja was bobbing and everyone was calm.
That suffocating peace was pierced by the roar of Prince Keshava Kumara.
Keshava Kumara came to the rescue of his Gurudev, waving a drawn sword. Seeing the sword without the sheath and the fury on the face of the prince, everyone including Tejasraja stepped back in fear.
Krishna Chandra felt very sad to see the sword in the little hands in which he had always seen the Peacock feather (Peacock feather used by kings for writing as a pen).
"What are you doing Shishya? Leave it right now..." Krishna Chandra said, compelled to break the silence.
"Don't stop me Gurudev. If you have to face any problem in my presence, then it's a shame for me to be a Kshatriya blood." Keshava Kumara roared as a son of a king.
Those words were more painful for Aacharya Krishna Chandra. It seemed like an insult to his teachings.
"Don't say that Shishya. Just listen to yourself. These words are an indication that you have forgotten my teachings. Always remember Keshava, who are you? Think for a while and tell me, who are you?... A Kshatriya or a human?" Krishna Chandra said sadly.
Krishna Chandra desperately wanted his first student should behave according to his teachings. Otherwise, he will fail miserably as a teacher in his own eyes.
Keshava Kumara realized his blunder. He bowed his head, but not the sword.
"Aacharya, Pardon me, I am a human." Keshava Kumara replied as his Aacharya wanted to.
That gave only a little relief to Aacharya because the sword was still in his shishya's hand.
"If so, don't behave like a Kshatriya. Please show some humanity. Do not forget that a mean person by taking the help of caste to hide his petty thinking becomes Hindus, Muslims, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Neech, but noble people remain mere human beings in every situation of life." Krishna Chandra repeated his teachings.
Krishna Chandra said all that earlier too before going to the jungle. He always felt that behavior is superior to caste, religion, money, or status.
When Keshava Kumara was thinking about his Aacharya's teaching just then along with the crowd Tejasraja was shocked to listen to that rubbish statement of the so-called most literate person of Aryavarta.
"What do you mean? If I call myself a Brahmin, do I become mean?" Tejasraja said with a chuckle.
Krishna Chandra did not answer, he articulated as if he had not heard anything.
"You get it right, that's exactly what my aacharya wants to say," Keshava Kumara replied on behalf of Krishna Chandra.
YOU ARE READING
Vardaan 1...The Ultimate Boon
Historical FictionLife is a story and every story has a writer. As the pages of the story of life keep turning, we start to feel that there is someone who is watching as well as testing us and writing our story. He is continuously observing us with sharp eyes. There...
