Becoming God Read online

  In view of huge registrations for the competition, the judges’ panel decided to hold a screening test by setting the first two of the five categories for screening test and the rest three categories as the main test. The final decision was to be based on the points scored in the main test.

  The screening test started with the animal race. The competitors utilizing horses won in large numbers because of convenient maneuvering of the animal. Among others, only three could qualify - Shiv on the strength of his bull Nandi, Mahish utilizing a buffalo, and a prince from the desert region utilizing his camel. In the javelin throw, Shiv insisted on using his trishul instead of the normal javelin made available there. On examination by the judges trishul was found much heavier than the javelin and no unfair advantage was suspected in Shiv’s insistence. He was allowed, and he qualified the test easily. Almost all rishikumars and acharyas failed in the screening test itself.

  After two days, the main test commenced. A grand stage was raised for the competition under dance category, on the first day. A huge crowd was seated facing the stage, with distinguished persons accommodated in the front row flanked by panel of judges on the right and ladies cloistered on the left. The competitors were seated in the especially created enclosure.

  The competitors were called for performance as per their turn, decided by drawing lots. First came the turn of Karush from Utkal, who refused to perform, ridiculing such performance was unbecoming of a real man. Mahish from Vindhyatavi could not move his hugely plump body and failed badly in his attempt to give a performance. He was loudly jeered at by the audience. Then came the turn of Shiv, who plodded towards the stage, fretting over banality of the pompous event. Maharshi Kashyap from the judges’ panel jibed at him, “What dance this tribal gentleman will perform! Let him remain careful lest his animal hide robe fall down.” He laughed aloud over his joke, much to the chagrin of other judges on the panel and resentment by the audience over his facetious comment.

  Shiv, who had gagged the miasma of bitterness within himself for quite some time, felt a strong urge to discharge it all. As he was always against hurting anybody, even by expressing his resentment, Tandav was the only resort for him to release the accumulated acrimony. He started dancing Tandav initially slowly, but soon switched over to vigorous performance of Rudra Tandav, ascending the rising tempo of his eternal energy manifesting Srishti, the creation; Sthiti, the preservation; Samhaar, the destruction; Tirobhava, the illusion, and Anugraha, the release.

  At the peak of the performance Shiv grew dreadfully ferocious, spilling the sensation of Samhaar. The stage trembled as if being shaken by strong seismic tremors. Shiv’s hair and his hide skirt were swirling in the air. He was romping tempestuously, making tumultuous shrieks from his swollen blue neck, waving his arms violently, and shaking his whole torso as if possessed by some spirit. The audience were frightened, and the judges were wonder-struck at the theme and vigour of the dance.

  Shiv segued to Tirobhava melting away the bitterness, and finally to Anugrah when the whole bitterness banished and blissfulness dawned on him. Now, he was dancing in joy, rhythmically delighting at every move. This was his Anand Tandav through which he was gracefully bestowing bliss and blessings to all, filling all with joy and fearlessness. By the moment he finished his dance, the people were enthralled by ecstasy and showered appreciation with frenzied applause. Maharshi Panini arose from judges’ panel, showered Shiv with profuse appreciation, breaking protocol, and bestowed him with the epithet of Natraj, the master dancer.

  The other competitors were disheartened over Shiv’s awesome performance. Some of them withdrew from the competition, presaging definitive defeat. Undaunted though, Sujoy from Gauddesh attempted a dance, which was scoffed at by the audience dismissing that as quite feminine. Divodas from Vairat and Ranvijay from Kaushal tried to render classical dances of their respective regions, but remained unimpressive. Locha from Dandakaranya, however, did a bit better when he performed a folk dance of his tribal area.

  The next day, competition of music was held, in which participants were allowed to render in either instrumental or vocal stream. Shiv, on his turn, enchanted the audience by amazingly playing his simple instrument, damru. By waving the instrument by his right hand, he produced such divine melodies that enthralled the people. Further, singing by Sujoy from Gauddesh was despised because of his thin and feminine voice. Playing of Mridangam by Divodas from Vairat and Veena by Ranvijay from Kaushal were appreciated by the people. Blowing of trumpet by Locha from Dandakaranya and thumping beats on huge drum by Mahish from Vindhyatavi caused peals of laughter and ridicule in the audience.

  The third day was earmarked for the oration on the topic ‘The Supreme Virtue of the Perfect Man’. The oration by each competitor was to be followed by a session of question-answer, in which anyone from the audience, judges or the competitors could ask questions and the concerned competitor was to answer that.

  The first orator was Mahish from Vindhyatavi, who spoke on fearlessness as the supreme virtue. Citing, nay boasting of, many anecdotes from his own life, he tried to establish the importance of fearlessness, and ended with an exhortation that one should not let one’s life be controlled by fear. As he lacked good articulation he could not make a good impression, and had to face a volley of questions on true nature of fear – whether it is inherent in human psyche; whether caused purposefully by the Creator; is it not beneficial for evolution of creatures, and how courage is different from fearlessness? Mahish could not understand most of the queries. So, instead of answering them well, he remained stuck to the rhetoric of his own anecdotes, which was neither liked nor believed by the audience, who booed him off in disgust.

  Next came the turn of Dhananjay from Angdesh, who had spearheaded most of the queries to Mahish, particularly on difference between fearlessness and courage. Obviously, he opted for courage – Shaurya – as the supreme quality. Clarifying that courage is not just fearlessness, he stressed that it is going ahead, despite fearing fear. He propounded that courage is the only strength necessary to practise any virtue. He attempted to add humour to his speech by stating that courage moves on four feet – bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest. However, his talk was not well appreciated by the audience as he failed to answer some queries satisfactorily, particularly in clarifying nuances relating to difference between courage and bravery.

  The talk delivered by Divodas from Vairat on Vivek, the intellect, could not impress the audience. Though he established well that intellect counted much in identifying the problems and solving them, he could not satisfy the query as to how intellect alone, devoid of other virtues, could do. Further, the talk by Ranvijay from Kaushal on truth could not earn applause from audience as he could not take his talk beyond just portraying truth as a virtue opposed to falsehood. As he had no personal experiment with truth - neither deep knowledge nor practice of it, he could not face the queries relating to the philosophical, ethical and experimental aspects of truth.

  When it came to the turn of Shiv, he chose Karuna, compassion, as the supreme virtue. He started his speech humbly, stating that the virtues pointed out by earlier speakers could well be covered under one virtue that is compassion. Emphasizing that compassion is at the core of the existence of all living beings, he elucidated that compassion is the divine force which threads all the virtues together. Recounting emotionally how he had seen compassion in the eyes of his Ba, he stressed that compassion can be appreciated well by only those who have realized it through their own endeavours against sufferings. He remembered very reverentially and affectionately his Ba, describing how his concern for him was loving and gentle amidst his struggles and sufferings. He ended his speech on the pith that compassion is the nectar for soul. Though his speech was plain and brief, the depth of the content and simplicity of delivery appealed directly to the conscience of the judges and the audience. Spellbound, they accorded standing applause to the speaker well before the question-answer session. When the question-answer sessio
n started, most of the queries were aimed at acquiring wisdom from the speaker instead of testing him. Someone from the audience desired to know whether love was different from compassion, and if so, how? Shiv clarified that not only love but many more virtues like mercy, friendliness, forgiveness, fearlessness, etc come together to generate compassion and to further elevate it to divinity. Even vices lose their sting when touched charismatically by compassion, Shiv elucidated. One of the seven rishis asked whether compassion is not just sentimentality, and how it can really work for the good of people, Shiv replied that compassion is not just a sentiment; it requires a lot of courage and patience to share sufferings of others as one’s own and help the sufferers find the remedy out of one’s own realization. He further charted out the road map stating that compassion is contagious and works in chain reaction: once a person realizes it, he is bound to share it with others. Warning against being judgmental to others, he stressed the need to be compassionate. Shiv fell silent as there were no queries, except the uproarious applause.

  Shiv was an obvious winner, though the judges were still busy in conferencing and confabulation, calculations and conclusions. The decision was delivered by Maharshi Panini, on behalf of the whole panel, who declared Shiv the victorious, the Param Purush. He also divulged the details relating to the points earned by each competitor. Among the judges, Maharshi Kashyap and Sati were noticed to be biased. Maharshi Kashyap was biased against all competitors and even against the fellow judges. His markings were completely discordant with other judges, and were almost at the lowest for all candidates alike. As far as Sati was concerned, she was heavily biased in favour of Shiv by awarding him full marks, besides awarding her total privilege marks to him.

  4.6

  Shiv’s marriage with Sati was performed in a grand and majestic way; the Saptarishis overseeing the rituals and bestowing blessings; the kings and princes having assembled there from across the world, wishing good wishes to the newlywed. Maharshi Kashyap, however, excused himself from participating in the marriage and left with his family for Kashmeer post-haste as his sons – Adityas and Daityas - often created scene by frequently indulging in fraternal fights causing embarrassment to him. He also felt miserable as he could not even stake his claim to Sati.

  Sati was jubilant over finding the man of her dreams. Shiv was indifferent to everything, and felt rather bothered and burdened to keep a princess as a wife. King Daksha was disconcerted that an almost-naked and stinking tribal was the husband of his snobbish and pampered daughter, while queen Veerini was happy in happiness of her daughter.

  4.7

  Sati was welcomed at Lohtsa in Deul by Bilotu as his family woman. Incognisant of institution of marriage, he impelled the men in the family to stake claim to Sati. Meanwhile, Kenka, the wicked Goba of Thongsa village, also approached to lay claim to Sati, citing his filial bond with Shiv as per the earlier agreement between the Gobas of the two villages.

  Shiv was perturbed over the disgusting tradition of the tribe and their brazen arguments. He tried to make them understand what a marriage meant, and stressed the need to bring about a change in their customs so as to be on a par with other more developed people. He admonished them for treating a woman as a common chattel of a family, and advised them to inculcate a custom of remaining committed to one woman as a wife. But, the people were not willing to lend credence to what Shiv was talking about - the custom that was unheard among them. Shiv’s eloquence and his newly earned title of Param Purush could cast no impact on them. They valued their tradition more than priding on the achievement that one of them had been acclaimed across the world as the perfect person.

  Sati was stunned to know the disdainful tradition of the region. She was woefully surprised that the people were too rigid to listen to a person like Shiv, leave aside felicitating him. Shiv felt caught on the horns of dilemma. He did not want to be harsh to his innocent fellow-villagers. Simultaneously, he did not want to let anybody hurt sensibility of a princess. He was confused; he was in panic. The Perfect Man was so weak and helpless before his own people!

  Eventually, he resolved to protect the dignity of the princess who had shed all trappings of a royal life behind and preferred a tribal life for the sake of her husband. He tried to persuade her to go back to her parents’ home and find some other man suitable to her stature and culture. Miffed at Shiv’s suggestion, Sati looked meekly at him from behind tears welling up in her large black eyes. Shiv cringed at anguish writ large on her sensuous face. He mumbled, moving closer to Sati and holding her face affectionately under his palms, whispered that the only way out of the vexed situation was to escape to the Kailash, the peak of solitude. Sati agreed immediately. Her determination to live with him could not be shaken, even when Shiv tried to dissuade her by describing vividly the hardships of living in a glacier.

  4.8

  Sati had never earlier been to such high altitude as that of Kailash. It was very difficult for her to live there. To lessen her discomforts, with the limited available means, Shiv erected a snowhouse and made many more arrangements. For movements to and fro Anand Kanan and Kailash peak, Nandi was readily available. Sati enjoyed visiting Anand Kanan, and gradually become accustomed to live at Kailash.

  Despite Shiv’s concern for Sati’s comforts, Sati was resentful - deeply but silently - over the habit of Shiv leaving her alone in the snowhouse in night and staying out to perform tapasya. Once having made arrangements, whatever little he could do, he appeared relieved from concerns for Sati, and was complacently engrossed in his spiritual pursuits. Sati did not like to make advances to Shiv on her own, partly because of coyness of a new bride and partly because of her disinclination to bother Shiv by causing interference in his tapasya.

  One day, when Shiv and Sati were at Anand Kanan, a call was heard wafting from the below. It was soon amply clear that some people were calling Shiv, in a chorus, from the cremation plateau. Shiv was alarmed over the call and immediately set to move down with Sati riding Nandi. Coming closer he noticed that they were Gannu and Bhero along with his old friend Narad. Hurriedly, he reached them and enquired anxiously about their welfare and the reason why they were calling him so desperately. Narad assured him, affably smiling, that there was nothing to worry; he had come there just to see Shiv and Sati.

  Then suddenly, as if recollecting something, Narad glanced mysteriously at Sati and disclosed that her father was organizing a great yagya, the ritual sacrifice. Shiv laughed loudly, teasing Narad: “So, you have brought invite for us”. Glow banished from Narad’s face as he mumbled sadly, “Sorry, Shiv, it’s not so. You have not been invited there. You know King Daksh’s aversion for you. He has decided not to invite you, despite pressures and persuasions from Queen Veerini. He struck off your name from the list of invitees, commenting that the tribal and barbarian need not participate in a Vedic yagya.”

  “OK, we shall not go there”, said Shiv in a voice heavy with sadness, as he remembered Daksh’s old odium for him. Sati, who was meanwhile engrossed in thoughts of her parents, suddenly blurted out, almost involuntarily, “A daughter never needed a formal invitation to visit her parents”, and declared that they would visit Mayavati. Embarrassment flitted across Shiv’s face over their dissension coming out to open. To avert any further flare-up, he hastened to ask Narad to stay at Lohtsa and wait for their decision.

  Back at Anand Kanan, there was a stormy run-in between Shiv and Sati. Sati stood resolute against Shiv’s opposition to her decision to visit Daksh’s yagna. They stuck to their respective assertions. Shiv insisted that Sati must not visit Daksh uninvited, contending that she would thus bring ignominy to her and her husband. Shiv’s argument nettled Sati. She reacted tartly, ruling out any likelihood of incurring of dishonour and claiming that his dear father was not a crank. Sati persisted arguing that a daughter, even though married, never needed a formal invitation from her own native home. She tried to mollify Shiv by assuring that her father would forget all rancour once he would see her. In tur
n, Shiv tried to make her realise that after marriage a woman comes out of her parents’ tutelage like a snake sloughing its old sheath behind, and becomes part of her husband’s persona by assuming a life completely anew.

  Shiv’s contention, particularly his comparison of a woman with a snake, provoked Sati so much that she shouted back at Shiv that a woman was not an appendage to either her father or her husband. She had got her own independent personality, her own distinct individuality, and was capable of making her own decisions. Seeing a strange glint of determination in her eyes, Shiv realised futility of his opposition, and eventually yielded to pressure from Sati, but under condition that he would not accompany her. Sati grew more obstinate, insisting that she must visit her parents and that too, with Shiv only. A long discussion ensued, which concluded in an agreement that Shiv would accompany Sati up to Rishikesh. Further ahead, Shiv’s friends would accompany her to Mayawati.

  4.9

  An entourage comprising Sati on Nandi, Shiv, Narad, Gannu with his companions, and Bhero with his men set on a journey to Mayawati. After a week’s travel they reached Rishikesh, where Shiv broke away and the rest moved ahead to Mayawati.

  At Mayawati, Sati found that her parents had already left for Kankhal, the site of the yagya near Mayavati. She, followed by the entourage, went straight to the venue.

  At the yagya venue Sati was accosted first by her father Daksh to whom she rushed to seek blessings. He seemed flustered to see Sati there and asked brusquely, “I’ve not invited you. Has that stinking tribal also come with you?” Before Sati could understand the full import of what Daksh had just asked, her mother Veerini, with a view to avert the situation, rushed to intervene by embracing Sati, and took her to the ladies’ enclosure, scowling angrily at Daksh.

  At the ladies’ enclosure, Aditi and Diti hurriedly came up to welcome Sati. While Aditi showered Sati with blessings, Diti asked, with a glint of mischief in her eyes, “Where have you left your man behind?” Puzzled Sati was once again rescued by her mother, while Aditi tapped with affection on her back.