"That light from deep within me. What is it? It feels as though my stomach is bottomless and the light comes from there. It is so bright. It is blinding me. It is like a fire which does not burn."
Mayun slowly phased out the chant. Raia had reached the point from where she could continue on her own.
"Do not be afraid," he said. "That is the light of the Spirit, the Force, and the Source of all Life. Embrace it and let it guide you."
"I do not fear it," Raia said. "I know this light now. I recognize it well. It has been with me before though I cannot remember where." She sat absorbing this, and then in a voice that seemed to come from a distance, said fascinated, "The light, Mayun, I see it within you too, bright and strong. It is taking me beyond here. Oh! It is all around. I can feel it in all of us in the ashram, in the animals. We are all connected in the Light. Oh Divine Spirit, why was I so afraid? You are so clean and pure. We live in you and you in us. You are endless and infinite. Take me where you will."
Mayun listened, content.
Raia continued, "We are beyond the hill and towns now. I see the Indus flowing and changing, constantly. How wondrous she is," she said, "and how merciless. She claims so many lives and the Spirit grieves with the pain of the people too. Many seasons are changing, so rapidly, and the towns are growing larger. There are so many of our people. How much they have learnt and changed. Is this how our people will progress?"
"Yes," Mayun answered softly.
Suddenly Raia cried out, "It is gone. The towns are gone and the markets and the people. There is so much desolation. The Spirit is crying out. What has happened to our people, Mayun? I cannot bear it."
"I do not know yet, Raia," Mayun replied, "but do not despair. The Spirit has promised us hope. This, what you see, is not the end of the Raida."
"Now I am in a new place," Raia said, after a brief hiatus. Her voice changed, interested. "Everything is different," she said. "The people. They are so strange. They wear so many clothes. Their skins, their hair, their eyes, even the words they use are a new sound. And yet the Light in them is the same. The ground is so white and cold, like the tops of the mountains we see. Here too, seasons change and years pass. So many more people ... and they too constantly learn and change."
"No!" Raia screamed, without warning. "What are they doing? They are hurting, destroying, killing each other. Oh Mayun, the pain of the Spirit. Why do they do this?"
"These too are the ways of man, my child. We are protected here in our valley from such evil and the Raida forbid it among our people."
"So many weapons, so many ways to kill, is it possible? I do not want to see any more."
As if in response to her entreaty, the image seemed to have altered for her face grew more peaceful. With her eyes still shut tight, she went on, "Now I am in another new place. The animals are the same as ours - elephants, lions, rhinoceros, deer but the people look so different. They are tall and proud and have dark, glowing skins. How many kinds of peoples are there Mayun?"
"I have never counted, Raia, but the Spirit in all of us is the same."
"Here too, there is killing Mayun. The Spirit is so weary." She sat sad and quiet for a while until her brow grew creased again. "Do I see this truly?" she asked. "The Light walks among people as a man."
"Yes, my child," Mayun replied, knowing exactly where Raia stood in history. "In truth, you see it exactly as it will happen one day."
"Oh, to live in a world where the Light glows constantly. How fortunate are those who surround him!"
"But Raia, we live in that world too. For us too the Light is ever present. Heed me now, steel yourself, the pain to come is crushing."
Even with the warning, Raia could not prevent herself from screaming out her distress. Leen and Seeru heard her cry in the antechamber and flinched and cried for her pain.
"No, no, no! Please help. They are destroying the Light. How can they do this? Why does no one stop them? Why is it permitted? What will happen to us now?"
"Hold fast child. Look the Light still glows in you, does it not? There is a reason for this too. Now wait and watch."
But Raia continued to rail against the atrocity, "Do they not realize that in destroying him, they destroy themselves? Are they blind?"
"Most of us are born blind Raia. Some want to see. Others have to be compelled. Some are content to remain blind for all time," Mayun said equably.
Raia moved past the anguish of death and reached a new landmark. Here Mayun's promise of hope was realized and she glowed with the peace and comfort she was experiencing.
"There is no death," she said with absolute conviction. "The Spirit can never die."
The journey was not over for Raia. She moved from age to age, from one terrain to another, seeing the flashing images but not always understanding fully what she saw. She walked mentally through eons, through continents and marveled at the diversity and the similarity of man. She saw their misery, their failures and their triumphs and achievements. She rejoiced with them and she mourned with them as she voiced her thoughts out aloud for Mayun.
"There are lands that belong to one people but others come and kill them for the land," she said, indignant.
"It will happen many times," confirmed Mayun.
As the years flashed, Raia saw even more alien things. Some interested her enormously. Some disgusted her. "What wasteful creatures we have become. How can one abuse the same earth that feeds us? Surely a people that have advanced so much could not have become so careless?" She paused and went on, "What manner of transport is this now? Can man travel so far, so fast?" She giggled. "Look at the funny houses, so tall, like little toy boxes piled high. How easy life has become and yet people seem less happy."
"Now we are near the banks of the Indus again. I can see vast areas dug up and big mounds of dirt all around. Many people are still digging. It is a town of the Raida that is being uncovered. I see a group of people gathered at one broken house. They are near the kitchen and have found some old, broken pots. They are looking at them carefully. I see a young girl with the group. She has moved to one side and is bending to pick up something. Oh, but how is that possible? It is part of the new, black pot I made after Dhreen's wedding. I would know the design anywhere. She is holding it in her hands and is staring at it. I can see her so clearly. She wears a funny tunic with designs of flowers on it and her hair is held back by a piece of cloth dyed in the same manner as her tunic. She is still looking so hard at the pot. I must go closer. Now, she has lifted her eyes and ... Oh Holy One! She sees me as clearly as I see her. Her mouth is opening ..."
"Raia! Return to us immediately!" Mayun exclaimed in alarm
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