Beauty and the Beast

32

"I didn't realize that I had stopped while looking at you." She answered.

That opened up the closed eyelids. His lotus petal shaped eyes, the red tint in them, the black eyes. The kajal decorating his eyes.

"Do you want me to take that oar?" He asked.

"No. It's fine." She smiled back at him.

"I just wished to make thing easier for you. It would be difficult to look at the boat and me at the same time." He teased her.

"Well, I have managed for years. I can continue." She chuckled.

He settled back but this time, his eyes were open and he fixed his gaze at her.

This was just as beautiful.

"Should I take?" She asked him.

"You could but Madhurya is about pleasantries given and taken. You always have pleased me with such. So, I wish to give it back to you."

She chuckled. Leaning ahead, resting her chin on her hand, she looked at him. This Bhavanashini was very familiar to her. She had spent long hours on her banks. The river which had emerged from the deep caves ahead into Ahobilam from where Narasimha first retreated. Ahobalam Ahobilam.

That sweet stare of hers came back as small bumps all over his skin. Narayana and shy never went together but Lakshmi had seen every colour being splashed over him. Even the red tint of bashedness. Rare occasions but yes.

"Seems like the scenary is pleasing to Jalajakshi." He pointed out.

"Well, there can be no sight prettier than you. So, yes, the scenary is quite pleasing to the soul. It makes me wonder what I desire more. To attain Kaivalya and merge away into you or to have Sayujya. Sayujya makes me think what if you go away somewhere but Kaivalya makes me think that it wouldn't allow me this pleasure of being near you and experiencing this closeness with you."

Narasimha stopped rowing the boat and looked at her. Resting the oar over his lap he called her closed.

"I'll tell you a secret. Come here."

Chenchita pushed herself ahead to him.

"You, priya, are the first one who ever even knows the deepest beauty of Kaivalya. Hridaya nivasini. Because you know the sweet love of Kaivalya, you do not desire to ever go away from me. Whoever could be closer to me than you? Whoever is more in me than you? I fill every pore of your being, what could be Kaivalya but that? You fill all of the space within my heart, how is Kaivalya different than you?" He whispered to her.

"What you say is true. Kaivalya and it's beauty is unparalleled. Who would wish to return to samsara when they have experienced you? You very form is that if Kaivalya but this being called me always wishes to experience you constantly but the experience cannot happen outside of this human body. No other body can give this glorious experience of Narasimha. No other body would give me the fortune to hear about you, to know about you. A soul has no ability to hear, see or speak. All of that leaves with the body. All a soul can experience is either anantam or adi purusha. But that has nothing to do with knowledge or sense. The soul has no sense. It can't touch you, it can't see you, it can't hear you, it can't smell you, mostly in my personal case, it can't offer the fortune to taste you. How is it not to scare me? I wish for Kaivalya because that means even you can't separate me from you but that also means giving up on al these."

He gave her a wink. "The secret is that all of this samsara itself has arisen because of you."

"Me?"

"Yes. You. I am always happy in myself. You are within me. I am within you. Everything becomes perfect. But then, all of a sudden, Narayana Kutumbini desire to be Amma. That meant, I had to create Shiva from myself. Then give rise to Brahma from my nabhi kamal. Brahma then created the material world. So, when you completely settle within, I would cease to desire anything. And that would bring pralaya kaala." He whispered sweetly.

"That's quite harsh on me, Swami. What have I done to be the last one to attain Kaivalya?"

He laughed. "Well, you do cast a spell on me. Such that my eyes begin to seem lotus like looking at your lotus like form."

"How does a lion's eyes turn into lotus like eyes?"

"You just need to see it. For that matter one can't make out a smile on a lion face but you know I am smiling. So, I'd say if you look, you will see it."

Chenchita touched his hand. He extended his hand letting her see his hand. Generally, Narayana was quite the lean one. The equal measures of body fat and muscle. A youthful face. His arms could sometimes make asuras wonder how he carries the weight of the entire mountain of Mandara and Govardhana. But Narasimha, in comparison, was more muscular. It proportionately matched the lion head. Chenchita, in comparison to Narasimha, looked quite small.

Such that it could make one question how the small Chenchita sitting on Narasimha's lap could silence his anger. The 12 foot tall form of Narasimha and the 6 feet Chenchita. Almost double her size. That enough to tell the amount of weightage she had on him.