Chapter 3. The sky of sky

Can there be a sky of the sky? Light leading to higher light? What makes the essence of infinity? As Amrit walks towards Dwarkamai he is lost in these thoughts. Shirdi is a peaceful place, there are trees which form a green cluster, a habitat of thousands of insects and birds, the air is cool and pleasant, fragrance of flowers from different directions enchanting the mind, small houses of simple people leading simple yet deep thoughtful lives and an atmosphere filled with the energy of Sai Baba's beaultiful purity as if every particle of shirdi was Sai and every particle of Sai was Shirdi, such was the glory of that oneness. Amrit was so absorbed into the vibe of Shirdi that he never understood when he reached Dwarkamai. Two wooden steps leading inside. Climbing on the first step something strikes Amrit and he steps backdown, he first lets his forehead touch the step in an emotion to surrender , to surrender to Sai who he was going to treat. The floor is made of wood and he can hear his own steps..1...2...3...and he suddenly begins to hear his own breaths synchronising with his steps, he kows he is on the right path because he knows himself now. In the corner of the room there is a wooden blog raised from the surface and surrounding are wooden railings, holding which sits Sai Baba, dressed in white robes and a white cloth covering his head, white beard, lanky tall body structure, eyes made of starlight looking at the sky from inside not even looking at Amrit. Where is Sai looking?In the sky? Whom is he searching there? But amrit is looking at Sai Baba eagerly..or is he actually looking inside himself?

"Baba! How are you feeling now?", asks Amrit in the most gentle voice possible.

"How am I feeling? Well..I'm feeling you Amrit!", Baba replies still looking at the sky.

Amrit a bit puzzled but as if enjoying that puzzle smiles.He continues-

"Baba can I examine your chest? I've come to know you have been having chest discomfort and breathlessness"

"Have you examined yourself in the first place Amrit?"

Amrit is silent now, a silence of self introspection. Baba continues now but in a more playful way now-

"You must be thinking why Baba is pulling my leg! Baba is is not pulling your leg..Come..examine me"

As Amrit reaches near Baba he feels a sudden chest dtightness and walking those few steps makes him breathless. Clueless what was happening to him he tries to focus on Sai and his analysis of Sai's health condition and not himself. Sitting near him he checks Sai Baba's breathing rate. Absolutely spell bound he is unable to understand that why neither Baba's chest nor his abdomen are moving. Baba is still not looking at him, he seems to have fixed his head, eyes and soul at the sky.

"Baba..."

Sai Baba's eyes are moist. Very slowly he lifts up his hands and points at the sky. The sky is clear and blue but gradually it begins to change colours and becomes darker, mist surrounds the whole sky and inside the mist appears form a moving image. A child maybe the age of 5 or 6 wearing trackpants and a colourful Tshirt and a colourful beautiful innocent smile is seen running piercing the mist, at the other end stands Sai Baba with a smile more calm and an aura of stability, but yes waiting for the child eagerly too. As the child is reaching closer to Sai Amrit is feeling his beathlessness is getting worse. He starts sweating and is becoming pale. The child in the sky reaches Sai baba and Baba holds him and brings him closer to his chest, Amrit begins to loose his balance, falls down into Sai Baba's lap, his eyes fixed now onto Baba's eyes, within his eyes he sees the whole sky stretched over the earth, Baba closes his eyes, Amrit looses consciousness.

Long jetblack hair and a fair face with a soothing beauty. Something is in between though, it makes everything a bit misty. Meera removes her white semitransparent dupatta(an indian cloth to cover breasts of a female) from Amrits face, Amrit lying in Meera's lap. It is his house in Mumbai, 2020. Beside them there is the huge window of his studyroom through which he can see the clear sky. Meera still asleep, in a sitting position, her head resting on the window edge. Amrit gets up and and wakes up Meera. Both look at each other and smile, she truly had some connection with his spiritual journey, not only a connection but she was a significant part. Journeys of life together with a spirit to know the unknown and to walk on the path of righteousness holding each others hands. They are looking at each other exchanging looks of emotions of some divine interventions both of them not knowing what they are actually. Amidst this they hear a voice, there's a certain amount of tremor in the voice but those tremors are like small waves of Ma Ganga moving towards an ocean of endless depth, "om sai namoh namah shri sadguru sai namoh namah(meaning-focus on the ultimate , the great shri Sai Baba the soul of the universe, we hail in your name)", it is Amrit's mother standing at his door, from her fresh look it appears she has just completed her pooja and returning from the pooja room. Both Amrit and Meera rise in respect and mother comes inside with divine words of god on her lips, she holds in her hand a really small vessel, it looks like a miniature cup. She comes close to them and inserts her ring finger into the vessel, the vessel filled with sandalwood paste. She applies the tilak to their foreheads one by one, Amrit smiles able to listen certain voices of the goddess Just like rain water seeps into the ground and makes ground water reserve,certain voices finally reached his core and he is emanating them too as while touching his mother's feet he utters slowly," om sai namoh namah shri sadguru sai namoh namah".

Amrit gets his shower, gets dressed and is now driving to his nursing home. On his way he sees the fast paced life of Mumbai and he is unable to connect, he is still in Shirdi it seems. However reaching his nursing home he was so engrossed into the worldy emotions that he even almost shouted one of the junior doctor for a blunder he had made, making him feel insulted in front of the other staff. He regretted his behaviour immediately and lowered his tone and said him to be more careful next time, something had changed, he wanted to be a more humble and better individual now. After a hectic round in the wards he sat down on his chair in his cabin and got himself indulged into articles of a medical journal. He raises his head and finds something unusual , on the chair on the other side of his desk some water is leaking from the ceiling drop by drop and very slowly those drops take form of a Devi who is wearing a blue saree, her hair tied in a bun and a yellow light surrounding her whole body. The lights of his cabin are vanished and his complete focus is on the Devi. He does hears some voices,voices of waves like that coming form water, voice of temples bells and Mantra ucharran by Saints. He looks around, beautiful Ghats of Varanasi surround with pooja being done in every temple, some monkeys on the ghats too, pilgrims from all over india having a bath in the river, and he himself sitting in a boat in river Ganga , on his opposite side the same Devi smiling at him." Welcome to Varanasi dear Amrit, my name is Ganga!"

(to be continued...)