Samsaara : Devadoot

A Beggar on a Horse Back

When I opened my eyes, I was back there again. There, at the river bank where I nearly drowned. The after-image of the bright light behind my back flickered and faded into the nothingness from where it came.

Everything was exactly as I remembered. Only this time I could appreciate this picturesque scene since I was fully clothed and not injured. The spot where I laid still had the dark rusted colour of my drying blood. The minnows that pecked at my feet still created perfectly concentric ripples in the slow moving water. One of the mongrels that kept me company detected my scent and came by to greet me with a few hops and barks. I turned around and walked upwards, away from the river bank. The dog trotted alongside enthusiastically.

The surroundings were draped in darkness; the full moon gently kissed the Earth with its bright luminescence. I saw the Ujjain-Devas link road close by, so I began walking uphill and surely within some time I was at the road. Now I continued to walk down the road in hopes of finding some means of conveyance but that did not come about. Luckily the key continued to point in the direction that I was walking.

For almost an hour, I walked on the route without a single sighting of a rickshaw or a bus. Hitchhiking seemed like a plausible option right now. So I waved at every passing vehicle. None of them stopped to offer me a lift. The headlights were like bright judgmental eyes that looked at me with mistrust as they passed. Finally, tired of the barrage of rejections, I gave up trying altogether.

The long and arduous walk re-commenced. After the first hour of walking, the sweat on my face and the cold winter breeze kept me refreshed and I began to enjoy my mini hike. As I continued walking I thought about the key and the door/portal in space. The conditions for using the key was firstly to utter the word 'dwara udghataya', then stabbing the space with considerable force with the key in my left hand and then walking into it as usual.

Why I reached the place where I woke up a day earlier was anybody's guess. I did not know whether I should take a risk and use the key to return home again. The safer option was to just take a bus home and I should be back home by Sunday evening. As I continued to walk ahead, I did hear some sounds. A distant sound like someone was mumbling. I tried to pay close attention to understand what the sound was.