Chapter 1.The blind Sage

Powers of the universe are eternal and infinite and we humans are blind people to these powers. When I say blind it has two aspects, firstly that we ignore to see the ultimate and secondly it also leads us to simply begin a journey to find that ultimate. There was one such blind sage named Amrit. Well this sage was part of the worldly things, he had a wife with whom he agued day in day out, 3 young children who failed to understand him and disrespected him timely, parents who were seeing his downfall. How was he a sage then? The answer is that he was all alone even after being sorrounded by people. Alone on a journey to find deeper answers but still troubled.

A Doctor by profession he did have that fire in his belly to serve his patients and the spirit of service was the only energy left in him. One day as he sat in his study thinking about the management approaches to some complications a patient in his nursing home had developed , he noticed violent winds outside the window. He reached the window to close it but was mesmerised by what he saw. Dressed in a red Saree, open hair , holding bows and swords, radiance emanating from all her body, sitting on a lion suspended in the air was Ma Durga. "Dont close the windows son", she said. Amrit was taken aback. He couldn't close the windows, how long he hadn't closed the windows, had he never opened windows of enlightenment or were those windows always open and he never went there?

Durga Ma stepped inside his house, her lion raced into the endless sky and quicly vanished. As soon as he bend down to touch her feet, Ma vanished too. He was left with tears in his eyes. He was so traumatised by the departure of his goddess that he fell asleep on the window itself, dreaming all about her throughout his sleep. Next morning his wife asked if he was fine, he answered affirmative. "Why havent you tied your shoe laces then?", his wife with a kind gesture bend down and begun to tie his laces, and the very moment she begun doing that he felt a light strike his forehead almost blinding him, he felt the energy he was deprived when he was about to touch Ma Durga's feet the previous night. He grabbed his wifes shoulders and made her rise, he looked into her eyes. Her eyes told him the pain he had given her. All the stories of their fights reflected in the depths of her eyes. He knew what he had to do. He bend down and touched her feet. "Thank you for all the love Meera", Amrit uttered these words slowly as he rose. Meera gulped and was speechless. Amidst times of tension and fights these powerful words were surprising. Is bowing down the first step towards enlightenment?

In the wards during the rounds he interacted with the nurses updating himself with the status of the patients.From a distance he observed there was an old lady on the last bed in the ward. "When was she admitted?", he asked. "Last night, she had hurt her feet..." the nurse had not even completed and Amrit had reached the old lady's bed, he saw some blood still ooze out from her feet, without speaking a word he gently did her dressing again with pure devotion of healing her. Once he was done, a faint voice came from the patient, "thank you sister", He looked at his nurse with a confused look,"shes blind sir..I was about to say this but you had already left wothout listening" said the nurse. He gave a small smile and went back to his cabin. He was restless. The arrival of Ma Durga last night, was it an illusion? The incident with Meera..The interaction with the blind patient...There was something common. One core..One soul of the universe.

Anxious he took his pack of cigarettes and walked outside his cabin towards the emergency staircase on the rare end of the nursing home. He lit his cigarrete and very soon the place was filled with smoke. There was something magical that followed. The smoke which was grey slowly converted into pearly and crystalline clouds, he wondered what was happening. So captivated he was that the cigarrete dropped from his hands. He also noticed something on the stair. The ends of the stairs had candles with fluorecent flames guiding the way down. He begun walking down the stairs surrounded by those candles. He begun walking deeper within himself with that light. On reaching the base, his eyes were moist again, he saw her, there she stood, ope hair radiant face red saree, trident in her hand, Ma Durga, looking into his eyes. Ma Durga said in a very soft voice, "You are not blind Amrit!"

(To be continued....)