A Rishi and an Apsara

They said, whoever loves the maiden shall surely face hell.

Whomever touches her in a passionate way, will die.

Was the maiden the cause for their grief? No, but whoever brings her forth to a life (apparently) worth living, shall perish.

The maiden was one of the apsaras from heaven. Bewitchingly beautiful. They were sent to break the meditation of the Rishis - those who vowed to live a celibate life for as long as they lived, as long as they were destined to be born. They would bewitch them so they broke the vow of celibacy and fell from the highest position they could find.

The Rishis pledged that they wouldn't look at the beautiful women who came with the sole purpose of making them fall from the ascetic life they were leading.

No one had made this a rule, till the Rishi Ashtavakra took it upon his head to make a society where no love, nor the throes of passion could impeach the holiness of their lives.

No women could seduce them.

No Rishis would live a proper life should they break the rule.

Reyaz was meditating when he heard Ashtavakra's voice tell them all of the rule.

Reyaz smiled.

He was not interested in beautiful women.

But that is something everyone doing penance said, till they fell.

Reyaz lived a life of joy, penance and sincerity.

He believed that truth was the only thing that gave meaning to life.

He tutored a few of the novice brahmacharis, those of whom would grow to become the Rishis of the future.

Why do we need to speak the truth, he used to say.

Truth and honesty mutually are not distinct but distinct at the same time. Truth always exists. Honesty is but an expression of that truth. Truth expresses itself in feelings, trust, and forms the fundamental basis of existence.

It is said that God alone is true. From God stems nature, life, love, emotions. Are they separate?

What is a lie? A downright negation of the truth. Yet truth can be masked, hidden, can change a thing's nature from one form to another but erasing truth from the world is impossible. Because life cannot exist de novo, so how can life wipe out truth?

Truth emerges from truth. However suppressing the truth day by day by masking it or outright negating it weakens but does not wipe out its existence.

God once said Everything can be forsaken for truth but truth cannot be forsaken for anything. Perhaps to not allow mankind to fall in quality?

Masking truth would increase mistrust. Distrust breeds further scrutiny and scrutiny begets discontent. Discontent breeds ignorance. Ignorance breeds poverty, disease, filth and brings death even when alive. It weakens moral strength and makes us forget where we stemmed from.

We stem from roots deeply set within the Eternal Truth. If we repeat the truth day by day and bring ourself not to say a falsehood we can attain Godhood. A Godhood perhaps of power, but certainly of purity, sainthood and goodness.

It is said that once a person never speaks a lie for twelve years, their words become true. Such is the power of truth.

However such is not the destination of truth. A lie cannot be uttered by a person who always speaks the truth.

What confuses me is how Maya is related to Truth. All parts of Maya is True but illusory. What is an illusion? A blanket over a swirl of liquidy-vapory Truth perhaps. Perhaps.

Perhaps a new seed and a fruit from the seed and a seed from the fruit is expressed as what compresses expands and what expands compresses, and is always of the same Truth.

Truth is in our nature and can never be lost.

Someday the Truth is always revealed time and again for us so we can feel uplifted once again.

Every day, Reyaz would teach the younger ones something.

He was well respected among Rishis and students alike.

What Reyaz didn't know, was that the Apsara Yamini had infiltrated his group of students, with the aim of making him fall from grace.

Reyaz's prayers and wishes were all answered because he was pious and truthful.

No one wanted to take a chance with him.

So one day, when Yamini came to his hut saying, "Hare Krishna Hare Rama, will you give me some alms?"

Reyaz, without thinking twice gave her a bowl of rice.

Yamini flaunted her beauty and thought, 'Now he is going to be bewitched.'

After taking the alms he offered, she said, "Bless you, young sage. I am new here, so could you direct me to a place where I can take a bath?"

Reyaz simply smiled, and said, "If you try to go past the forest from the East, there is a lake where you can take a dip."

"Will you lead me there?" Yamini said.

"I cannot leave my chores and leave with you. But I hope that you will find the lake yourself."

Yamini bowed.

The next day, again, she appeared, begging for alms.

Reyaz offered her rice, like the day before.

Yamini said, "Honoured sage. I got lost trying to find the place. Could you please direct me to the lake?"

Reyaz smiled and refused.

After a lot of pleading, Reyaz agreed to go.

Reyaz lead her halfway through and told her to go ahead, and she would find the place. When he was ready to leave, Reyaz blessed her saying, "May you always be truthful."

Yamini came back for a third time.

This time, she had come with Moha, a divine illusory sheath that could be draped on a person and they would be cheated.

Reyaz smiled, offered her alms and she put the Moha on him.

Reyaz saw the figure of Yamini, inside the waters, basking in the sun, her body covered in waves upto just below the neck.

Reyaz saw Yamini beckoning him into the water.

However, Ashtavakra had come right in that moment and broke the spell.

Angry at what he had seen, he threatened to punish the Apsara but Reyaz stopped him saying, "She will repent."

And truly, Yamini appeared mortified and begged for forgiveness.

For whatever he had seen of her, he knew she was going to repent.

Saved from Ashtavakra, Yamini found herself falling for his nobility in mind, word and action.

She pleaded him to marry her.

Reyaz said he could not.

But after that, he said, because of the truth she had told him, he would marry her in his next birth where she would be his wife. He further told her, she would be named Kaveri.

Saying this, Reyaz disappeared from his ashrama, never coming back.

Yamini, now having the wish to marry only him, spend the rest of her life in penance and got reborn as a river.

The river Kaveri found Reyaz in Yamini's next life, and when she found him, as soon as she touched his feet in the flowing waters, she transformed into a woman, beautiful and ready to wed him.

Thus the story of Reyaz and Kaveri unfolded, from a place where they were not allowed to love to a place when they tied their lives to each other in a sacred way.