Bala Devi, Girl-Child Avatar - Book Two - Holiday in Kodaikanal

Chapter One - Heavenly Program

Chapter One

Heavenly Program

It was the beginning of another day. The heaven dwellers had taken their morning bath earlier, when the misty silver clouds rolled in across the lavender-coloured sky, sweetly encircling the ladies in fragrant dewdrops.

Mother Ambica had only just returned from her private spa bath at the sacred spring, and now she was having a leisurely cup of tea while her coiffure was being adorned with strings of diamonds and seed pearls by her ladies-in-waiting.

Draped in yards and yards of soft gossamer silks, the Shakthies were imbibing fruit and honey elixirs, which trickled into goblets from the rainbow arch overhead.

An exuberant group of youngster Shakthies appeared bearing colourful reed baskets on their heads, laughing and talking to one another as they carried away the breakfast things.

“Please be quite,” cautioned General Dandanatha. “Our gracious Queen is here and we must observe silence.”

Setting herself comfortably on her gemstone throne, Mother Ambika clapped her hands thrice. Immediately, the ladies who were assigned to the office staff took their places on the steps surrounding the throne. Dressed in matching yellow sarees, they bowed their heads, dedicating the day’s work to the Divine Mother Ambica, before taking powerful laptop computers out of their satchels.

It was time for the day’s work to begin. Mother Ambica, of course, herself the mainframe of the universal mind, needed no exterior machine, though she was linked to all the tiny laptops.

One of the younger Shakthi ladies, Kamakshi, had recently transferred from the musical orchestra group to a post with office staff. She was happy because she would be able to work more closely with the Divine Queen. She was a little nervous, and so Mother Ambica gave a rather detailed explanation of the procedures as she distributed the day’s work.

“Here is the list of active files whose souls left the world yesterday. Send them back to ‘Fie Manager’ and, after that is completed, rename files for the ‘newborns’ on the second list. Do you understand, my dear?”

“Shall…shall I delete the souls on the first list, Mother?” Kamakshi asked nervously.

“No dear, we change only the file name, the title, but we never delete a soul. They are made inactive only as far as their sojourn on Earth is concerned. The files will be renamed and assigned to a file bank in another world. Visa Lakshmi, have you edited the discs I assigned to you yesterday?”

“Yes, Mother, and here are the ones which simply don’t compute. I tried to reform but they weren’t accepted by any of the programs.”

I’ll have to reformat them myself then,” she sighed. “Leave them with me. So much bad Karma!! And yet, they’ll all pray for happiness. Neem trees will not bear mango fruit, you know!”

“Yes, Mother.”

“And, of course, they continue to plant the same bitter seeds, life after life, and wonder why they never have sweet, juicy mangos! Oh! By the way, did you know? Our Bala is going to Kodaikanal for a holiday without her parents! You remember Bala, of course, Kamalakshi, she is my very own nine-year-old daughter.”

“Oh, yes, Mother, but I thought that she was always sitting on the stool, at your feet.”

“Yes,” said the Queen, sadly shaking her head. “I also thought so, but she has such a compassionate nature, and the plight of the creatures on Earth touched her so deeply that she begged me to allow her to take birth there.”