Intimidated and scared on their presence in the cowshed being discovered, the intruders cautiously peeked out from wherever they were hiding. As soon as they emerged from their hiding place, Narasimha realized that neither he nor the Ashram stood in any apparent danger of the intruders.
If there was anybody in urgent need of succor, it was the intruders themselves. They were a boy and girl in his own age group. They appeared to be twins as they shared a very strong physical resemblance. The clothes they were wearing, the words they spoke and their behavior reflected that they came from a well-to-do and rich family.
But the ragged, tattered and bespattered condition of their clothes reflected that both the children had recently been through hell. It looked as through several days must have passed before they had a proper and sumptuous meal and a good night's sleep.
The girl among the twins was constantly shivering. The living daylights of both these children seemed to have been knocked out by what they had seen and experienced. Narasimha instantly notified about the presence of these children to Guru Dharmagupta who took them under his care.
After a bath, they were given new clothes to wear and a tasty and wholesome meal to eat. After this, the boy narrated a nightmarish tale of what they had been through, "My name is Vedant and this is my sister, Nandini. Both of us belong to the village of Deval. It is a small and insignificant village situated in the borders of our kingdom, not too rich or of strategic importance to our own king to pay attention or give it army protection and similarly not a serious threat or resistance to any invading armies of the neighboring kingdoms.
During times of war, we were usually and benignly ignored by both our own army and soldiers and the enemy armies and their soldiers. At least that was what usually happened until the last war. War broke out. The enemy who attacked us this time was formidable and brutal, an enemy who knew no mercy. They knew only to kill and destroy. Our king fled the capital along with his own family and the kingdom's Royal treasury leaving all of us to our own devices and the vagaries of time and fortune.
My father was the Sarpanch of our village. He couldn't abandon everyone the way our king abandoned us. The danger signal was sounded. My father and brother left in a huff after advising all of us to lie low and keep the door locked until their return. Everyone in the village decided to surrender and not offer any resistance to the enemy army provided the common citizens, women and children were not harmed.
But the enemy army started indulging in looting and plundering, killing everyone in sight, and raping the women. Our men were forced to fight, something about which they barely had any idea. This little bit of civilian resistance was no match for a trained and brutal enemy army.
They were so strong and literally unstoppable. All the men in our village were dead fighting to their last breath to save the women, children and homes. Those enemy soldiers took my mother and elder sister before our very own eyes. Both of us somehow managed to escape from there and hid in the nearby woods.
The holocaust of destruction that hit my village blew away. But there was nothing left behind for both of us there. We walked for days together and rested during the nights. For the first few days, we managed fine by exchanging our jewels. We even occasionally hired bullock carts. We wanted to put as much distance as possible between us and those brutal savages who destroyed us and our homes.
Then we ran out of money and valuables. No one was ready to take us in and feed two orphans for free. Occasionally when we were lucky enough in hustling amidst the clamoring crowds of the temples en route, we got the Prasad or offering to the Gods to eat. But even there, we were not allowed to enter some of the temples because of the dirty and torn condition of our clothes.
We reached this place late last night. We slept in the cowshed. When everyone seemed to be stirring, we hid in the nearby bushes to prevent detection. That was when He (pointing towards Narasimha) saw us. We were not sure how our presence would be taken; whether we were going to be evicted or handed to the local authorities or mistaken for thieves or robbers. We stole or took nothing. We harmed nobody. We just wanted a place to keep ourselves warm and safe for the night."
After hearing this heart-rending tale, there ensued a long and heavy silence. Nobody spoke anything. Narasimha and all the others kids at the hermitage were left utterly horrified. Only Bhavani maintained a stoic demeanor of calmness while this whole tale was being narrated. Guru Dharmagupta said, "Both of you are safe here. You can stay as long as you want in this Ashram. We all lead simple and disciplined lives. We may not be able to provide much but your basic needs will be taken care of. You can live as students along with my students."
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Ever since the children had heard the tale of Vedant and Nandini, they were all very subdued. It seemed as though the recital had snuffed out all the merriment, glee and innocence of their childhood. Coming to terms with something that the children had actually been through was a really difficult thing. They had all come from good, safe and secure homes and loving parents who doted upon their children. It was the dawn of understanding for many of them that reality wasn't always kind and considerate.
Even during the lunch-time at noon, most of the children hardly ate anything. They lost their appetite for food. Narasimha hadn't touched even a morsel of food. But Bhavani seemed to be eating and going about her usual routine in the same manner as she did everyday.
Narasimha was astonished and shaken by her hardness and insensitivity. He hadn't expected that his friend would be like this after listening to such a tale. It would take him many more days to limp back to normalcy. How could a single person be such a bundle of contradictions? So sensitive and attuned to the needs of others during some instances and as hard as rock and fossil at other instances that it was literally impossible to move her.
Looking at the untouched plate of her friend with arched eyebrows, Bhavani asked, "Your lunch plate is untouched. Aren't you going to eat?"
"May be you could after listening to such a tale. I can't!" The words spilled out accusatorily out of Narasimha's lips. But after he spoke, he bit his lips feeling a bit sorry for having spoken the words he did to his Gurukul friend and mate. They would hurt. At least, if anybody said the same thing to him, he definitely would!
"I am sorry! I didn't mean it!"
Bhavani's face was however rigid and inscrutable. It seemed that the words were either unsaid or did not penetrate through her internal defenses. She said at last, "You should eat when you get!"
That is when Narasimha realized the true import of his friend's words. It only meant that his friend must have gone without meals a number of times prior to this, "Have you ever gone without a meal before this?"
His friend just evaded the question, "I am going back for the afternoon session. My lunch is over."
"Bhavani" Narasimha ran behind his friend, "Wait! You haven't answered my question."
"What will you do knowing the answer? You aren't going to feed me", said Bhavani with exasperation.
"I will!" said Narasimha.
Bhavani retorted, "How many? Your father hasn't earned so much with his business that you can afford to donate it in charity to the whole world. Life isn't all roses and rainbows. There are thorns too!"
Narasimha mumbled within himself, "If I want to feed, I can feed every hungry mouth around me with the money and wealth my father has!"
But remembering his promise to his father to hide his true identity at the Gurukul, he checked himself and merely contented himself saying, "I want to make a difference....at least to the extent I can. Just because I cannot change or correct the whole world does not mean I cannot try to change that which is in my power? I will make a difference to every person in my life and every person around me."
Guru Dharmagupta who had been listening to this conversation from behind appreciated, "Yes! That is the right spirit. Rather than concentrating on what we cannot, we should do what we can. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita'Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani!' It is the foremost duty of every human being to discharge whatever duties and responsibilities they have been assigned in their particular place and station of life. Neither should the fruits of the action be the incentive for you to discharge your duty nor should you waste your time in inaction and pessimism."
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It was the second night that Narasimha was supposed to spend without sleeping to complete his punishment for breaking the Gurukul discipline. He sat on the porch, the cool night air brushing against rich, silken brown locks of hair that were wafting in the air. This night seemed easier than his first night of punishment. The incidents of the day had left him with a lot of food for thought.
What sort of a man must that king have been to ditch his citizens like that and forsake his duties? He should have been protecting his people to the last drop of his blood. But he simply ran off with his family out of fear for the enemy.
And what sort of a demon must that enemy king have been to attack, kill, plunder, enslave, rape women, and reduce common hapless citizens and children to a state like that? Where was the need for all that? Did having strength and power entitle somebody to destroy?
Dharmagupta observing his student in his emotional turmoil and dilemma said, "Go inside and sleep in my chamber. I told you that the punishment was just for the sake of appearances. You needn't carry it out to the exact letter."
"I wouldn't be able to sleep today even if I tried, Guruji" said Narsimha shrugging his shoulders.
"Something is disturbing you. You can confide in me if you want" offered Dharmagupta.
"I haven't been able to forget what I heard from Vedant today morning" replied Narasimha. "Can any human being be so evil?"
Dharmagupta asked "Have you read Ramayana and Mahabharata?"
"Yes, they are our sacred scriptures. My mother has often read them for me. But what does that have to do with what happened today?"
"If you view them as any other text, then may be not! But if you look at them as a way of life, you will find all the answers to your questions in these two texts. You will begin seeing yourselves amidst those diverse stories. Your story, your conflicts, your dilemmas are not very different from what happened in the past. The names and places might have changed but everything else is similar. This whole world is a big battle field, a Kurukshetra of good and evil. Ram and Ravan lie within the same human being. And every human being is given the time and opportunity to choose the right path and make the right decisions. The right path is often the most difficult and conflicting. You may face many obstacles. You might be all alone and isolated in this fight. None of your near ones might be ready to support you. Still you have to keep going with the conviction that what you are doing is right. Being the Vibhishan or Bharath in the battle of good and evil is even more difficult than being the Ram or Ravan."
"I am feeling much better after talking to you Guruji." After a pause, Narasimha asked with a slight bit of hesitation in his tone, "Guruji you have the power to see and foretell. Do you know about those demons who attacked Vedant's village?"
Dharmagupta realizing that his student was still physically and mentally not ready for the revelation of the full truth at this point of time, simply evaded and changed the topic speaking something entirely different.
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Author's Note: If you liked whatever you read, kindly vote and comment on the story. A big thank you to all my constant readers, supporters and friends. Your love and encouragement for my story means a lot to me. It inspires and motivates me to write.