Arohan - The Ascent

Power Or Love?

As everyone from Narottam's family sat down, cross legged in front of the Saint wearing saffron robes, Minku, Sonu, Jai and Vicky observed the goings on from the corner. The face of the saint seemed calm, a glow unlike anything they had seen before on his face. His hair was a matted mess, and his face covered upto his cheeks with beard. His eyes were like thin lines, his pupils submerged into his upper eye lids. Minku and Sonu even joked if he could see properly. The entire family of Narottam ji sat in reverence, in front of him, their hands folded, watching him closely.

As Narottam sat in stoic silence, the saint like man looked towards the four men standing in the corner and at Vikram in particular. Then he looked down towards Narottam. 

"In this house lives a man, who's life is about to change. With him will change the future of this great nation. Call Vikram," he said.

Narottam sat shocked at the words of the Saint, his family had been serving apparently for generations. This was the fist time, he had heard him speak in over the half a dozen occasions that he had got a chance to meet him.

Whatever else would or would not happen, this evening would go down in the history of his family as the day when the silent sage spoke a few words. "A man who's fate would change and along with it, the course of this nation? Was it going to be him? Who was Vikram?" Narottam thought to himself .

All the four boys who had been leaning against the pillar, lax and totally disinterested, stood to rapt attention, as the saint spoke out Vikram's name. They didn't care if the so called Saint could speak or not. To them it didn't make any difference. But to hear him call out to Vicky, in a name that no one used for him, shocked them.

Jai, Minku and Sonu turned to Vicky and saw him standing stunned himself. The four young men exchanged glances, unsure and apprehensive.

"Narottam looked all around him and in a respectful tone replied, "there is no one in the house with that name Guruji."

The Saint slowly turned towards the four boys standing in the corner, his eyes resting on Vicky as he stood with his friends, clueless as to what was going on. His eyes centered on Vicky, his gaze fixed on the face on the young man.

Sonu, Minku and Jai, looked from Vicky towards the Saint and back at Vicky again. Wordlessly, as if hypnotised , Vicky walked towards the saint and sat down, at the feet of the guru, next to Narottam.

An eerie silence had descended over the house. Nothing moved, time had come to a standstill it seemed.

Narottam though was restless, looking repeatedly from Vicky towards his guru and back at Vicky again.

Vicky knelt before the Saint and kept staring at the him. To his friends, he didn't seem like the Vicky of a few minutes ago. Otherwise he would have ridiculed the Saint by now at the least.

"Choose. Power or love?" asked the Saint, his eyes penetrating into the deepest layers of Vicky's mind.

Vicky answered immediately, "Powerful Love. Can you grant me what I want?" he asked

The Saint's lips curved in a mysterious smile. "Who am I to give you what is already yours or to take away what does not belong to you," he replied, studying the face on the young man, in front of him.

"Will she be mine?" asked Vicky, bluntly. "Your fall is definite, inevitable. It's your rise I am worried about. You cannot bend the ocean or capture the sky. Fate will take you places, the road is arduous, the journey is exhausting. And she stands between you and your fate." He turned from Vicky towards Narottam.

"I will not be coming back now. My blessing will stay with you always. But remember after 100 mistakes, even the Lord can't forgive. Stop while there is time," he said and got up silently. He turned to his two disciples and shook his head. They stood rooted to their spots as the Saint walked away silently, all by himself.