Mountains of the East!

With Shankara at Rishikesh

They sat on the stairs at the ghat of Ganga at Paramarth Niketan, overlooking the ancient Statue of Shiva as it sat on the island in the middle of swiftly flowing Ganga.

“She starts from his locks, and yet years back she devoured him in her tides.” Shankara told Burak, pointing to the Ganga.

He then shifted his gaze at the starry sky above him. “That is the Orion – from where it all started.” He spoke t6o Burak.

“What all?” Burak asked, confused.

“All this around you, whatever you have seen.” Shankara answered.

“I don’t understand.” Burak said.

“The very life that we see now.”  Shankara answered.

“In times immemorial, before the prehistoric, before any human being ever roamed on the face of the earth, there was a cosmic battle. It occurred in the belt of the Hunter as we see it from here.” Shankara pointed towards the Orion. “There lies a higher world there to which we all belong –where we all go after our life – to be born again. That is our seed.”

“Ages back, when ice covered the earth; the vanquished of the war were exiled from the Orion to find their own world. The sages who protected them lived across the skies – headed by the seven most gracious ones. The vanquished approached those sages with a request for refuge. The sages however had another purpose to fulfill. They gave refuge, but on condition that they would leave in two years for the earth. The sages taught them the art of travelling at a speed higher than that of the light – with the speed of mind.

After two years the sages set them off for their new abode. When they reached here, they mixed up with the native life forms to acqire a body, as they were originally, mind bon, as all the cosmic beings. They formed a new species – Homo sapiens.

Some of them went to a higher world and built civilization higher than Orion.  

The seven sages are still our guardian angels who watch us from that dark space between the seven stars. The ones who control the Orion still look for victory and glory – both on earth and the higher planet. They are all mind – bodied except the beings of the earth, therefore their realm of control is mind and the senses. They repeatedly aim at controlling the human minds. That is their battleground.”

“The almighty from whose golden egg everything develops and who holds the world in the balance of his mind intervenes in this game of mind every now and then and enters the realms of the mind to balance out the opposing side whenever one side becomes heavy. The cosmic play continues in many millions of such creations all the time. We think about right and wrong, good and evil; but in reality none of this exists – it is just opposing side of the axis – which has to exist for the very existence of the other side. We are just the pawns in this game of dice, where the turn of the dice decides how much we would move – the only difference is that we have a freedom in deciding the speed of our movement and how high we would jump.”

“Whatever you say seems to make sense.” Burak  said.” But somehow, the brain tells me not to believe in it.”

Shankara smiled, “you have travelled all your life alone, haven’t you?” He asked.

Burak nodded.

“Yes.” He remarked. “It all ended in Mecca.”

“You saw me there?” Shankara asked.

Burak exhibited a sense of mild shock, more than he actually felt there. How does he know?

“You saw many other people there, isn’t it?” Shankara continued. “You were even instructed to go to the eastern mountains.”

Burak nodded silently.

“Look to the north Burak.” Shankara pointed to the snow covered peaks on the horizon. As Burak turned to have a look, Shankara completed his sentence. “Those are the mountains that you were ordained for.”

Burak took a deep sigh. He raised up from the ghat where he sat.  The water of the Ganges made a sweet music in the background. He looked towards the majestic mountains on the north  and their snow covered peaks. He never thought that the fate would take him this far. He looked back. He was talking to a kafir priest. He did not know what was going on, but there was something that was inviting him to the wilderness beyond Rishikesh. Was the seer to be his guide in this journey?

Old Story of the East

Lahore, India

Burak sat on his rocking chair in the guest house apartment with visual tool on his wrist and audio device in his ears. As he clicked the play button on his book, he heard the sound, “Please close your eyes for the text. You can open your eyes and the text would be paused to restart at the same point when you play again. In case you want to start from the beginning or another page, just say scroll back or scroll forth. Happy reading.”

As he closed his eyes visual images started forming about the text as his imagination fed the visual tool sensors. It started.

“It is a prehistoric text of the subcontinent of India - A text on its rulers, a text of war and a text of peace.”

Images rose in Burak’s mind about huge buildings, wars, brown kings and cities and villages of old. There was tumult and excitement.  The book continued, as did vivid image in Burak’smind.

“When they first wrote it, writing was an art confined only to the Brahmins- elegant and intellectual caste of the Indians. They wrote it with peacock’s feather. The dark and effulgent Krisna  Dwaipayana ,the one who was born on an island in the dark coloured Yamuna; who is also called Vyasa because he divided the eternal  knowledge into various subjects so that it is intelligible by the human minds; wrote this text. No, they say the elephant headed immortal – Ganesha, who is the son of Shiva –the lord of demigods wrote it as Vyasa narrated it, on a condition that when his pen stops he would write no more – and when he stopped, the epic became the largest poem ever written on the earth. It claims that what is here could be found elsewhere, but what is not here is nowhere to be found. This is the history of Prehistoric India, the story of the line of Bharata. It’s called the Mahabharata – The great scions of Bharata.

Burak opened his eyes. The images vanished. He hadn’t asked for the subcontinental history. He called on Mujeeb. “I think we’ve picked up the wrong book Mr.Mujeeb. Its about prehistoric  India. Looks like fables, where there are strange beings.”

Mujeeb gave a short laugh. “Well, Burak. I told you that this is a conditioning text. You need to read this before anything else Be patient and read as I say. I know  what I have given you to read. We’ll discuss about it tomorrow.”

Burak closed his eyes and started with the text again. He slowly got absorbed in the text as it entered his mind in viid imagination till he heard in his mind the sound of  azaan – the call for prayer.

End of an era

Bamiyan

It was the year of power transfer. The Bamiyan Assembly held an election every four years in which the general public elected its representatives. The assembly had two limbs – the residential corporation and the commercial corporation. The residential corporation was elected by the people based on the geographical locations. Each location had a member who took care of the interests of the residents. The commercial corporation was elected by the trade guilds based on various registered professions. The trade guilds were elected by the professionals. The main work of the commercial corporation was regulation of the professions. Elected members of the residential corporation were simply called corporators, who were headed by a mayor, while those of the commercial corporation were called ministers. The ministers were headed by the chancellor. The mayor and the chancellor were integrated by the Convener of the assembly. The mayor, chancellor and the convener made the board of the governors, who also took care of the home office, the treasury, and the external affairs respectively. A shadow government was, likewise, made to represent the minority voice in the assembly. The shadow assembly had half the vote of the actual assembly. Every resolution was passed on a three fourth majority. As a result a second choice poll was usually conducted.

 

In the Grand Hall which was the office of the Convener of Bamiyan Assembly, Wazir Ali Khan signed on the sheet of parchment with his traditional fountain pen. As he ended his signatures with a dot, he broke the nib.

As was the tradition, the last sermon; as the law was called in Bamiyan, would be issued by the Convener in the Grand hall in presence of the mayor, the shadow mayor, the chancellor and the shadow chancellor. Over a period of time, the Conveners had made another unwritten rule of breaking the nib on the last sign.  

“Indeed, this era would be written in golden words in the history of Bamiyan.” Muzammil Hussain said holding Wazir’s hands, kissing them, and touching them on his eyes.

“Definitely sir! You make us proud.” The other voices added. There was an overwhelming atmosphere in the hall.

Wazir Ali smiled gently, took a seal out of his drawer and put it under his signatures. The seal bore the emblem of Afghanistan and under it was written:

W. A. Khan

Convener, Bamiyan Assembly

The sermon pronounced the dissolution of the Assembly and passage of all the powers to the chair of the highest power - ceremonial chair of the god kept under the golden dome in the central hall of the assembly. The chair would, thereafter, bestow the powers to the peoples’ representatives after elections. He passed the parchment over to his clerk. The clerk would later broadcast it and digitalize it for its use for all practical purposes. As for the parchment – it would be laminated and kept in the Assembly Achieves like all other sermons.

Wazir Khan folded his spectacles into his case. His Durban took hold of the case and followed him. As he moved on to the corridors, his staff had gathered on both the sides to see him off. He had been there for eight years – two consecutive terms. He had denied contesting for the third time.

Wazir took the stairway at his right that led to the central hall and stood before the chair of the highest power. He closed his eyes and said:

“Allah! Let there be prosperity and peace!”

All the people repeated the phrase. The only difference was that everyone prayed to his own god. The Chair of the hisghest Power was the place where the god sat – the one god, called by innumerable names. He protected the city and the world through ages. In this age of decline – Bamiyan was verily a heaven.

Wazir Khan left the building through the northern stairway that led straight to the Republic Street. People had gathered at the Assembly Square to see Wazir Khan leave the office. He was, perhaps, the most popular face in Afghanistan, and one of the world’s most important persons.  Just as Khan came out of the high door, there was a massive applause from the people at the square. Khan waved at them shortly and then descended the stairs onto the official wagon waiting to drop him home for the last time. He sat on his wagon and took a sigh. His work wasn’t over as yet, though.

A History into the future.

4

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

  

When it came to controversy, or the matters of faith and pride, last three centuries saw a shift of geographical favoritism to the central Asia. Bamiyan had become the Jerusalem of the east. It was hotly contested by various faiths and nations. Its development over the other greater cities of central Asia like Kabul, Samarkand, Tashkent or Kandahar could be chiefly contributed to the symbolic presence or absence of the giant Buddhas there. So intriguing was their effect that every community in the world tried to make its presence felt in Bamiyan; turning it into a mixed and shortly even the most inflammatory city in the world.

The city was initially in control of the Arab s, who built the white mosque with its blue onion dome. Towards the end of the twenty first century the predominantly Shia Iranis captured the city and established a higher centre of Shia spiritual learning that centered on the Farsi Mosque. The Farsi Mosque and the Farsi University still formed an exceedingly Persian majority area of the city. The Persians had the hold on the city for almost 100 years. This led Bamiyan to peace and prosperity. This was the time that a majority of Hindu traders settled in the old city. They still have a strong control over the trade of the city. The Hindu areas of old city were established. It was the Hindus who established the Taksalkhana which still holds a lot of influence over the commercial markets of the region. When the Americans and Jews overran Iran, Bamiyan fell into Jewish hands. The Jews replicated the Temple of the Rock at Bamiyan as the easternmost outpost of their influence and developed it as a seat of the Rabbi of the orient. The Christians were still conspicuous by their absence from the city. It was not till the Russians ousted the Americans and Israelis from the city that the first church was built. It was the Russian Orthodox Church of Jesus the Apostle which was later upgraded to the status of Archdiocese with the reigning Archbishop of Bactria. There was a brief re flourishing of the Buddhists with the coming of the Chinese whom Russians recruited in a large number in order to have a greater control over the city. The Chinese brought back Buddhism with them and reconstructed the lost Buddha of Bamiyan and built the Pagoda to Avalokiteshwara the Bodhisattva.

By the end of the twenty fourth century the Hazars and Pathans from Bamiyan and the surrounding parts of Afghanistan had approached India so that the power could be restored to the natives.

In year 2374, Indian forces crossed the Suleiman and captured the city of Kabul. By the end of the year the united Baloch and Indian forces entered Iran and toppled the western forces at Yazd in the middle of Dasht – e – kavir. By the end of the year two armed groups were marching towards Mazar-e-Sharif. The Chinese forces got no re-enforcements from the Russians.

The Russians, who were always wary of the Chinese had entered into a secret treaty with the Indians at Baku whereby they would not reinforce the Chinese military and let the natives ovetake Mazar –e- Sharif,  and later Bamiyan with the help of Indian forces, if the Indians could ensure that the Christians and the Archdiocese remain safe, and that the Russian companies, and traders were given a special status. In fact they offered help to India in case China starts any military operations on the Indian borders.

By the year 2376, the Chinese had retreated from Afghanishtan and Bamiyan had fallen into combined Indian and Afghan forces. An Indian cantonment was constructed at Bamiyan and two great Indian style mosques were constructed – The Akbari Mosque in the east and Jama Masjid in the south. In the north-eastern corner of the city a new Indian enclave was constructed in the traditional Mandala design and was named Somapuri as Afghanistan was considered the traditional land of the Soma and the temple of Somnath was built – the largest Hindu temple outside of India. This made the religious diversity of the city complete. By the year 2377, the Indian army had moved back and Afghanistan was rendered a republic with Bamiyan having a special status and the Bamiyan Assembly representative of all the communities taking care of its legislature.