Ask what you seek.

When the winds whirling got a little warmer, people started preparing for summer vacations, and so did Shiva who booked a ticket for Ratnagiri, 20km from there was his grandmother Sumitradevi’s ancestral home surrounded by cashew, jackfruit and mango trees spread around five acres of land. Shiva planned to visit there with his friends from the city to enjoy the season’s best mangoes and beaches this summer, but a pandemic had forced his friends to stay back at their homes. Shiva took the train and came here two weeks ago, he spent his days exploring the gardens and tending the house repairs, the house didn’t had visitors as everyone moved to the city after Sumitradevi’s demise, it was Prasad who looked after the farms and cleaned the property twice a month. Shiva fixed the water pipes and oiled the door, it took him four days to learn his way around the house and get pest control done. Today he decided to sort his grandfathers office room for any important documents or childhood memories, he remembered his grandfather to be a disciplined and wise, villagers used to come to him with their problems and he offered them wisest answers and solutions, he was a very religious and spiritual person who was regarded as high as a priest by all, after he passed away Sumitradevi locked his office away and prohibited anyone’s entry without her knowledge. Shiva found an old letter in the last drawer; the letter belonged to Ramchandra, his great great grandfather who suddenly disappeared one day, and rumor had it that the villagers called him crazy as he talked about people from another time with rarest metals and wisest knowledge, who told him about the destiny of the world where there would be magical lamps and people would fly across the sea. Shiva found that the letter was written in English, no not written, it looked like it had been printed but nobody spoke English nor did they have printers at the time when Ramchandra was alive, the letter talked about a rare element which channelized human emotions with cosmic waves, extracting power which was able to bend time, space, and death opening a gateway to places where one could seek wisdom. At the end it said it was given to him by the lord of seven worlds for his honesty, valor and wisdom and with it he would help those in need. The letter was signed with a date, the date written astonished him, and it was 27/07/4090 A.D he thought it must have been some ones prank and kept the letter as it was.

It was afternoon when Shiva noticed that their was a wooden door on the right, hidden behind the pillar, he didn’t remember if he had seen it earlier, but he decided to take a chance and find out what was behind that ugly door. He covered himself with a cotton bed sheet for protection against spiders and dust and hammered the old style lock till it fell open, he slowly pushed the door inward and peeped, it was merely 50 sqft of area, and to his surprise the room didn’t show a sign of spiders, ants or dust in fact it smelled like it had been cleaned this morning, he walked inside and noticed it was sandalwood and marigold aroma in the room, further he discovered that it wasn’t a mere room it was a shrine, with pictures of deities and pots filled with holy water form seven rivers were kept decorated with turmeric and sandalwood paste and flowers which had dried now. He looked examining the old pictures and opened the pots to find them filled with water, he decided to empty them to stop the malaria spread around. He picked up the first pot and emptied it through the window, he continued this till he emptied six pots, when he went back inside the shrine to pick the second last pot he noticed something on the wall behind them, he shifted both the pots to get a better look. This wall was different than others in his house or even this room, it was made unusually, with a surface like that of the marble and texture that of granite and luster of gold, it was carved, Shiva moved closer to see what was carved and noticed it had a immense sun at it its center with mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter, Saturn and moon around it, he brushed his knuckles over the sun, which glazed beneath his touch, he saw something was written on it squinting his eyes he read “when you count your blessings you shall seek the one who shall seek the wisdom you seek” he stood their for a moment trying to understand what it meant, he placed his palm over the Sun and closed his eyes ‘count your blessings’ it had said and suddenly his mothers name left his mouth “ma” he whispered softly, suddenly the cold brick began to warm up beneath his palm and he felt the sun glow brightly, moment by moment the room turned unbearably heated and a wave of bright light appeared around him, he closed his eyes and fixed his palm for support, soon the heat died out and he opened his eyes to find out that he wasn’t in his house anymore, he was at the banks of Ganga, he looked around and saw a old sage sitting near a burnt out dead body, he had long tangled hair, a orange cloth wrapped around his waist, and burnt ash dusted all around himself like talc powder, he was sorting the bones from the ash when he saw Shiva he smiled at him “ask what you seek” he said. The boy remembered the inscription on the wall and he wondered for a moment “what is truth?” he asked to test the sage. “Death is the truth” the sage said turning his head towards the pile of ash and bones, he places his hand over Shiva’s head and Shiva once again felt the heat rise around him, but when he opened his eyes this time he was back into shrine standing like he had with his palms against the sun. Shiva thought that he had been hallucinating but everything had indeed happened as he found his hairs covered with ash, he placed his hands on the sun again and tried but nothing happened this time, with sweat on his forehead he ran out of the room in panic.

Shiva couldn’t sleep that night, the next very morning he decide to go inside the office to find if he was imagining the shrine or not, but he wasn’t, the shrine still unlocked as he left yesterday, it smelled of sandalwood and marigold, he walked towards the wall and placed his hands on the sun and closed his eyes “dad” he said this time and the heat began to rise again, when he opened his eyes he found himself in the maternity ward of the hospital, he saw a heavily pregnant women sitting on the cot, “ask what you seek” she said when she saw him, and Shiva moved closer to her, “what is death?” he asked remembering the sage’s words. “beginning of new life” she said caressing her stomach and asked him too, he moved his shaking hand over her stomach and felt soft heartbeats of new life growing there, soon the heat began to rise and he was back into the shrine room, once again he tried to make the portal work like yesterday but nothing happened and he left the shrine. He realized that his forefathers must have thought about the element as gods act and had built a shrine around the portal, but he was doubtful that it was something more, it might be that it was something from perhaps the other planet discovered in the future, which was like a spiritual or philosophical computer with advanced algorithm which analyzed our energies and walked us to wisdom where time, death, and space were altered.

He came the next day and placed his hands on sun like before he closed his eyes “food and water” he said this time and the heat began to rise again this time it took him to old age home for veterans, he looked around and saw no one “ask what you seek?” said a heavy commanding voice from behind, he turned to find a old man in wheelchair, he had lost his one leg down the knee and his arms were covered with heavy scars. He must have fought many battles thought Shiva as he kneeled before the veteran “why do we need a new life?” he asked. The soldier looked at the sky and said “to serve and protect and love every creation, to sacrifice” and extended his hand towards Shiva helping him to stand up, soon the heat began to rise taking him back to his house.

Shiva came the next day as he did the day before and placed his hands on the sun and closed his eyes “my work” he said this time and the sun filled the room brightly, this time the heat took him some place he had been before, he looked around and saw his grandmother picking up the cashews fallen on the ground. “Sumitra ma” he said and ran toward her, she smiled at him and said “ask what you seek?” to him. “How would we be able to serve, love and sacrifice?”He asked. Sumitra ma gave him a cashew and answered “by being selfless and expecting nothing in return” Shiva kneeled and touched his grandmother’s feet and she placed her hand on his head blessing him. As always the heat began to rise and transported him back to the shrine.  

The next day Shiva came early to the shrine and cleaned it with a wet cloth and placed fresh marigold flowers around all the pictures. After he was done he placed his hands on the sun and said “my friends and family” with his eyes closed, the heat began to rise and this time took him to the throne room of the great king of seven seas, he looked around and saw the throne at the centre of room made out of pure gold, embedded with precious jewels, he was awe struck with its beauty “ask what you seek” told someone, the boy looked around to find a man covered in robes fit for gods and a golden broach with a biggest and brightest ruby pinned on it, he was the king, Shiva recognized, the king was watering the small sapling kept near the window. Shiva walked towards him “why should we be selfless without expecting anything in return?”He asked. The king placed the water pot down and said “for he who begs on the streets and he who rules seven seas, both go empty handed with nothing but their deeds” he opened his palm which had seeds in it, Shiva took a seed from his palm and soon the heat began to rise and within blink of his eyes he was back to his home.

The next day Shiva came as usual and placed his hands on the sun and closed his eyes “sleep” he said and the heat raised and took him at a farm where he saw a man plough the land with his two bulls, he was drenched in sweat and tanned from working in the sun “ask what you seek” he said to Shiva who covered his eyes to protect from the burning sun above their head, “why should we do our deeds?” he asked. The man wiped sweat of his forehead and said “to fulfill the circle of life” the farmer answered and gave Shiva his water bottle to take a sip, as Shiva took the bottle in his hands and sipped a little the heat engulfed taking him back to his home.

It was Shiva’s last day at the house as he was going back to the city by tomorrow early morning. He went into the shrine and placed his hands on the sun for the last time and said “health” the sun brightened the room and the heat transported him to a foot of a mountain where the weather was cold than usual, Shiva looked everywhere and saw no one, tired he sat down on the ground, that’s when he saw footprints on the soil, his eyes followed the footprints which disappeared up the hill, he decided to climb the mountain and began doing so, after a while he saw a monk meditating in a small cave formed by sliding of rock that might be there before. He walked closer to the cave and decided to stand out till the monk was done meditating but the monk called “ask what you seek” the boy moved closer now and asked “what is the circle of life?” he bowed his head in respect. “When one knows the biggest truth of life is death and death is the birth of new life in another form where you would serve, love and sacrifice selflessly and without expectations because you know your deeds are everything that counts, a selfless deed nourishes ones souls which is free from the worlds materialistic pleasures and gains of the world, where its only purpose is to feed others, our soul which attaints fulfillment of the circle of life. When no one is hungry anymore as one feeds the next in this circle of birth and death, completes the circle of life to attain peace” the monk preached and Shiva joined his hands in devotion, the monk blessed him and soon the heat began to rise and brought him back at his home. 

Shiva cleaned the shrine and placed the pots as they were against the wall as they were before and hammered the lock back onto the wooden door, locking the shrine and he closed his grandfather’s office door as it was before. The next day he left for the city, with wisdom in his mind and peace in his heart, he knew his purpose of life and everyone’s life was to serve the world selflessly with devotion, valor courage and love. Shiva also learned one more thing and that was begin grateful for what he had, everyday he counted his blessings and thanked everyone for them.