part0040

“You asked me how your father knew me. Well this is where we met for the first time.” He laid his hands out. “He was a neat fellow, mate, and a worried man at the time I met him.” He paused. “It was before you were born or at least, you were about to be born.”

“How old are you?” Kalki asked.

“More than hundred, but I’ve lost count now.”

“How is that possible? You drink like it’s the end tomorrow.”

Kripa smiled indulgently. “Because I have been gifted, though the correct term would be ‘Endowed’.”

“Yes.” He said. “You believe this is the only Age we live in, full of peace and chaos. No. There were a lot of Yugs, or Ages to be precise, and I was in one of them, the last of it. I had saved plenty of lives and I had been endowed by the last Avatar. A chance at immortality.”

Kalki couldn’t believe his ears. He had read about immortals, the ones who would live on forever.

“The Endowed are also known as the Chiranjeevs.”

“That’s impossible.”

“So is your strength, mate.” Kripa grinned cheekily.. “Don’t think I have not noticed that. Arjan, your brother, must be burning to ask the question—how can his brother withstand multiple arrows without dying?”

Kalki felt embarrassed. The look of suspicion had crossed Arjan’s face and even the other villagers who had witnessed the miracle.

“We don’t live in an ordinary world, mate. Not anymore, not since the Ancients have died down and the Breaking has happened.” The words were just flying over his head.

“How do you know my father?”

“Let me start from the beginning.” He sat cross-legged on the ground. “Every Yug has Dharm, the hero, and Adharm, the evil. The last Age, where I had played a prominent part, had had a vicious war. It had a hero named Lord Govind.”

Kalki was mesmerized, for he recalled the name. It was during the history lesson that he had heard about the valour of Lord Govind, a strange advisor to the kings of Aryavarta, who had helped them in winning the Mahayudh. They were all history.

“He was the Avatar of Lord Narayan, or in simple words, Lord Vishnu, the God of all Gods.” Kripa smiled. “Or at least he thought he was. I never believed the man. They are all bogus, you see. The scriptures say that Narayan, when he had departed from Illavarti, had promised to return in every Age, when evil would strike in a different form. He would become the Avatar. I don’t know how true that is. I choose not to believe in this as I feel Govind chose his own path rather than following the path of Narayan. I’ll come to the reasoning behind it.” He paused. “Lord Govind had given me and my fr…not friend, but yes, an accomplice, a sacred duty of never letting this Age come again. He didn’t believe in the prophecies, or the chosen ones. He felt it was stupid. He wanted to end the cause of all evil—Somas. He felt Somas were what made the heroes and madmen and he felt was best to end the line of madmen if it meant sacrificing a hero of this Age.”

He signalled over to the caves.

“He wanted me to stop it with my nephew and my accomplice. My accomplice had to undergo severe penance for he had committed a great crime, and to seek redemption, he handed me the duty to travel alone around this country, and finding the Somas and destroying them.”

“What about your nephew?”

Kripa’s face turned grave. “He went on a different path. I don’t know what he believed in, but he just left. I was all alone and I did it. Constant travel leads to fatigue and so I drink to carry on with my arduous mission. Lord Indra had spread the power of Somas across the country and they were all scattered so it was difficult, you know.”

“I don’t understand one thing. Why did Lord Govind believe the Somas were evil since they were the gifts of the Gods?”

“Not necessarily,” he said. “Lord Indra had good intentions when he spread these stones, but what he didn’t realise was—they weren’t for Manavs. They were too weak to handle them for they were too sinful. They would go mad, they would make people crazy. That’s why the last Yug had a Mahayudh. It was because many had inhaled the Soma fragrance. That’s why Govind didn’t want people to have it anymore.”

“Did he have it?”

“How didn’t he go mad?”

Kripa thoughtfully contemplated. “I am not sure about that. We aren’t. The spiritual side says that there are the Dharm and Adharm, the only two entities in each Yug who can take the power of Somas and use it for good and evil practices, respectively. And science says some are just built better immunologically. They have better genes or better frames to withstand it, with better mental faculties. We don’t have a definitive answer to this question.”

“So the Adharm can also withstand the power of Soma?”

“Did you find him?”

“Not as of now. But my accomplice says he’s close to getting him.”

“What about the Dharm? Did you find…wait a minute…” Kalki narrowed his eyes as Kripa continued to smile at him. “You think I’m Dharm?”

Kripa nodded. “Now comes your father in the picture. I had travelled across the country to reach this godforsaken place. I reached and realized here were the Soma Caves. I knew I had to do something, so I decided to close them.”

Kalki looked at the mounds of rock. “How did you do that?”

“I have my tricks,” Kripa smiled. “There are some chemical mixtures that can lead to a blast. I’ll teach you sometime.” He paused. “I had done my job when I was attacked by a figure. He hit me and scolded me for doing this. And I stopped him, trapping him using his own strength against him. He wasn’t a fighter, I could tell, but his arms were strong. He was your father.”

Kalki never imagined Vishnu to be someone who would hit a fly let alone a man. But then, Kripa was someone who could get on your nerves.

“He said the Somas were God’s gifts. I told him it was wrong, people go mad because of it. It’s not the right way.” He continued. “And he told me about you, about how your mother was so sick during her pregnancy and he had broken all rules, stolen the nectar out of the stones and given it to her, hoping the Gods would help her. And she became all right. Later on, when you grew up, Vishnu saw signs of your strength. He was shocked, but he also realized they could be given to others so we all could be strong like you. He was wrong and naïve.”

Kalki recalled how his father would say he was special, he was chosen.

“And at that moment, I was curious. Never has it happened that the Somas could transfer its property like this. Your mother wasn’t gifted anyway. It was you. You got the power. And you didn’t go mad or die. You were fine; in fact, heroic. You were a spitting image of Lord Govind; the same nobility, valour, and morality, but also the arrogance. You made me believe in Dharm. I made Vishnu understand all of it and he got the idea, which was that it was right to let you grow into a good person.”

“But I knew,” he continued, “that you had to be looked over, that the amount of Soma you got was diluted. Maybe you were just lucky. But you proved me wrong in the battle with Mlecchas. You are the real deal, mate.”

Kalki clenched his jaw. “I don’t think…I don’t know…”

“The Adharm is close; Kalki.” He came forward. “And you need to decide. Are you going to stand by, watching it happen, or are you going to stop it? The Dark Age of the Adharm is where the world ends and we don’t want innocent casualties again, not like the Mahayudh.”

“What if it doesn’t come, you know? You have closed all the Somas. I was lucky; it was just that,” Kalki paused. “Why didn’t you destroy it, rather than closing it?”

Kripa looked at the temple that was made out of the caves. “Because one day, and there will be the day when the Dark Age ends, we will all have enriched minds, and on that day, when the sins will be exhausted, the drink of the Gods, this Soma will be opened to everyone and everyone will be able to use it. I have closed it off till then.”

There was silence until Kripa spoke again.

“And for your initial question.” Kripa laughed at himself. “My accomplice and I often laugh about this. Even though we tried stopping the Dark Age, to prevent the Rise of Adharm and even Dharm, the fates didn’t allow us. It stopped us. Sometimes you can’t cheat; karma always comes around and does what the destiny has planned. So if you think, the Somas are closed and anyone won’t get it to become the next Adharm, there will always be a surprise planned for you, something you won’t be expecting. This is how the world spits at and make jokes at you.”

Kripa didn’t sound like the drunkard he was. Rather, he looked like a man of wisdom and knowledge, someone Kalki really needed in his life.

“How?” he quietly asked.

“We need to leave Shambala as soon as possible, for the Mahendragiri Mountains, where my accomplice will teach you the ways of the Avatar to make you become worthy and fight evil when it rises.”

Kalki nodded. “I have so many questions, and yet such few answers. My father knew all along and he never told me.”

“Because he didn’t want to believe it. He felt it was best for you to grow without having the burden of that knowledge on your shoulder. But now you are old, you are strong, and you are ready.”

“Who are you?” Kalki turned. “I know about everyone except you and your mysterious nephew or accomplice. How do I know you are not Adharm?”

“Mate, I am far from that, though I cannot reveal my nephew’s identity to you,” he chuckled. “The point is, my name is Kripa Acharya.”

“Acharya? That’s given to the gurus who handle Gurukuls, isn’t it?”

Kalki walked to the cave. He touched the inner granite rocks and felt the strength of it. They were here for good.

“You won’t open this again?”

“What if I need more of this?”

“It’s not good; it kills people’s minds,” Kripa said. “When you are ready and trained, you can do so. But right now, the amount your father ended up giving you still affects you. Soma is good when used once. For the Dharm perhaps, it is healthy, but more consumption can be tricky for we haven’t tried it.”

“But if I’m Dharm, I can sustain more ingestion of Soma, right?”

“We don’t know and frankly, mate, we don’t want to try.” He shook his head. “We don’t want to see how it would affect you, even if it means sacrificing for the good. We don’t want to see what the flip side is. It’s scary, mate. You need to be careful around it.”

“What about Lord Govind?”

Kripa nodded. “He had more before the Mahayudh was about to begin, to get his powers charged. It didn’t go very well. He did get the power, but um…it kind of gave him a side effect. His skin turned blue-black. It couldn’t withstand the effects. It’s scary, I told you. Don’t consume more unless it’s absolutely important—those were Lord Govind’s words.”

There was an absolute silence. Kalki recalled the paintings and the portraits of Lord Govind where he was shown blue or dark. His Guru said it’s because he was the warrior who fought valiantly and blue is what represents valour, thus it ended up like that. The explanation was clearly all bogus now.