Becoming Immortal!

5

The Himalayas

All the mortals had deserted the hermitage by the afternoon. The only ones left were Parashurama and Gorakshak. It was a long afternoon, and Gorakshak lay in his hut; thinking of all that had passed.

His birth in Nepal as a scion of a rich family was the only aberration in his otherwise perfect life. As a child, all the love, attention, and comforts that he got, made him feel suffocated. He always felt as if he was living someone else’s life. It wasn’t until he first met the wandering ascetic Matsyendrak at a Shiva temple that he felt at peace. Gorakshak immediately ran to him and asked him.

“Why does it feel that someone has relieved my pain all at once?” The words were fresh in his mind to this day.

Matsyendrak had laughed and pronounced a syllable in Gorakshak’s ear: “Hroum…..”

Within a second, the whole universe seemed to dissolve for Gorakshak. It felt as if the whole world around him had spun into nullity. The next thing that he remembers was waking up in his mother’s lap. She just asked him to visit her twice every year, which he did religiously till she lived. For rest of the time, he was with Matsyendrak; wandering around the world, and learning hatha yoga from him. By the age of 18, Gorakshak had attained the level of Yoga that Matsyendrak could attain in 40 years. One day, Matyendrak asked him to take care of the hermitage, and went away, never to return.

Gorakshak always knew that there was an important purpose for him, but today seemed to be an anticlimax to his life. For the first time in his life, Gorakshak felt scared. Not of his death, but a life of unfulfilled purpose. He tried to repose his faith in Lord Parashurama, but the last yogic hurdle that he had to cross, posed a huge problem for him.

Late in the afternoon, he heard Lord Parashurama sing the Kathopanishad conversation between Nachiketa, and Yama – the lord of death. The primal human conversation about death made Gorakshak anxious. As he came out of his hut, Lord Parashurama was completing the wick for the large lamp that he used daily for the lamp ritual. He asked Gorakshak to fill the lamp with clarified butter. The slanting rays from the sun, as it appeared dipping over the Asta Mountains of the west casted long shadows amidst rusted reflections in water. It was the time for lighting the lamp.

Lord Parashurama indicated Gorakshak to pick up the big Damaru drums as he himself held the big bell in his left hand and the lighted lamp in the right. He started waving the lamp, as he rang the bell and Gorakshak played the drum by vigorously turning them up and down. The hymn today was different; it was for Kali than for Shiva like in the usual days.

He entered his hut, and among chants and pandemonium of the bell and drums, he held the lightened lamp high, and let the fire touch the straw roof. The straw caught fire immediately. He then moved to the next hut and repeated the actions till all the huts were on fire. He asked Gorakshak to dip the ends of his angavastram cloth into the lamp. After Gorakshak did that, he did the same with his angavastram. As Gorakshak’s clothes caught fire, he tried to throw the burning cloth away, but Lord Parashurama held it and tied a knot of the cloth around his waist. Gorakshak was wincing in pain now! Parashurama held Gorakshak’s arm tight and took him into his burning hut. Gorakshak screamed, and tried to escape, but Parashuram’s grip was too strong. Gorakshak felt his body burning. It was the pain of a thousand cuts, all at once. If there was a hell in this universe, it was this! As Gorakshak cried in pain, he sensed his skin melting like candle wax. It had become difficult to breathe, As he choked on smoke and fire, he saw Matsyendrak come to him and pronounce a syllable in his ears: “Hroum…”

Everything reverberated into that sound, and for a moment, everything froze in time. The next moment Gorakshak could sense was that Lord Parashurama was sitting in front of him in a meditative lotus position. He was blue color of the flame! He his arms, and legs. They were the same blue color as lord Parashurama.

Gorakshak couldn’t feel the heat anymore! The fire had probably purified him. He felt light and happy! All he could hear around was the sound of fire in the wood. It was a soothing music. He heard Lord Parashuram sing the first verse from Rigveda.

अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवमृत्विजम् । होतारं रत्नधातमम् ॥

I praise the fire, which completes and heads the divine ritual of life, and manifests the fulfillment of desires. (Rigveda 1.1.1)

He sat beside lord Parashurama, and among the burning fire and slipped into deep meditation. He was an immortal now!