The Oath of The Vayuputras (Shiva Trilogy #3)

by Amish Tripathi

‘Anger is your enemy. Control it! Control it!’

‘Evil is never in a rush,’ reasoned Brahaspati. ‘It creeps up slowly. It doesn’t hide, but confronts you in broad daylight. It gives decades of warnings, even centuries at times. Time is never the problem when you battle Evil. The problem is the will to fight it.’

‘I hope Lord Ram has mercy on your soul, Emperor Daksha,’ he shook his head and sighed.

‘Meluha has been let down. Its fair name has been tarnished forever; tarnished by the one sworn to protect it.’ Bhagirath kept quiet. ‘These ships were sent by Emperor Daksha,’ Parvateshwar said softly.

‘This technology is from Ayodhya.’

‘Yes! It looks like Emperor Daksha and my weakling father have formed an alliance against the Neelkanth.’

‘That the Somras has been the greatest Good of our age is pretty obvious,’ said Brahaspati. ‘It has shaped our age. Hence, it is equally obvious that someday, it will become the greatest Evil. The key question is when would the transformation occur.’

‘I call it dumb luck,’ said Kali. ‘But King Vasuki believed that the deformities caused by the Somras were the Almighty’s way of punishing those souls who had committed sins in their previous births. Therefore, he accepted the pathetic explanation of the Vayuputra council along with their compensation.’ ‘Mausi rejected the terms of the agreement with the Vayuputras the moment she ascended the throne,’ said Ganesh, referring to his aunt, Kali.

I call it the wages of sins that we didn’t even commit. We pay for the sins others commit by consuming the Somras.’

‘The destruction of the Saraswati seems a small price to pay when compared to another, even more insidious impact of the Somras.’ ‘Which is?’ ‘The plague of Branga.’ ‘The plague of Branga?’ asked a surprised Shiva. ‘What does that have to do with the Somras?’ Branga had been suffering continuous plagues for many years, which had killed innumerable people, especially children. The primary relief thus far had been the medicine procured from the Nagas. Or else exotic medicines extracted after killing the sacred peacock, leading to the Brangas being ostracised even in peace-loving cities like Kashi.

‘By the Holy Lake,’ said Shiva. ‘The Brangas are being poisoned by the Somras waste.’

‘Divodas told me the Branga plague peaks during the summer every year. That is the time when ice melts faster in the Himalayas, making the poison flow out in larger quantities.’

‘I took up the matter with Emperor Daksha. But he doesn’t really understand scientific things or involve himself with technical details. He turned to the one intellectual he trusts, the venerable royal priest, Raj guru Bhrigu. Lord Bhrigu seemed genuinely interested and took me to the Vayuputra council so I could present my case before them, but they were not at all supportive. This was where the issue was effectively killed. Nobody was willing to believe me about the source of the Brahmaputra. They also laughed when they heard that I was ostensibly listening to the Nagas. According to them, the Nagas were now ruled by an extremist harridan whose frustration with her own karma made everyone else the object of her ire.’ ‘I’ll take that as a compliment!’ said Kali.

‘Tara, the woman I intended to marry, suddenly went missing,’ continued Brahaspati.

‘But somewhere deep within, I do believe Tara was taken hostage. It was a message for me. Keep quiet or else...’

Vishwadyumna had accompanied the son of the Neelkanth. He intensely admired the fierce warrior skills of Kartik.

Kartik reached over his shoulder and drew out the two swords sheathed on his back. In his left hand was a short twin-blade, like the one his elder brother Ganesh favoured. In his right was a heavier one with a curved blade which was certainly not appropriate for thrusting. This weapon was perfect for swinging and slashing – a style of fighting Kartik excelled at.

Kartik stood quietly at a short distance, watching the animal in its final throes.

The son of the Neelkanth bowed low to the animal. ‘Forgive me, magnificent beast. I am only doing my duty. I will finish this soon.’

‘And now you are worried about our people.’ ‘Yes,’ said Shiva. ‘I’m worried the Gunas will be arrested and held hostage as leverage over us. Before they do so, I want you to slip into Meluha quietly and take our people to Kashi. I will meet you there.’

‘My brother Ganesh is a great man, Ayurvatiji. He has so much to contribute to society, to the country. And yet, he was almost eaten alive by dumb beasts because he was trying to save me.’ Ayurvati reached across and patted Kartik. ‘I will never be so helpless again,’ swore Kartik. ‘I will not be the cause of my family’s misery.’

‘You’re a man of your word,’ said Shiva. ‘You honoured your promise to Brahaspati, without sparing a thought for the price you would be paying.’

‘I’m proud of you my son,’ said Shiva. Ganesh smiled.

‘You’ve seen a frog, right?’ asked Ganesh. ‘Yes,’ said Kartik. ‘Interesting creatures; especially their tongues!’ Ganesh smiled. ‘Apparently, an unknown Brahmin scientist had conducted some experiments on frogs a long time ago. He dropped a frog in a pot of boiling water. The frog immediately jumped out. He then placed a frog in a pot full of cold water; the frog settled down comfortably. The Brahmin then began raising the temperature of the water gradually, over many hours. The frog kept adapting to the increasingly warm and then hot water till it finally died, without making any attempt to escape.’

Wow coolll

‘Often, our immediate reaction to a sudden crisis helps us save ourselves. Our response to gradual crises that creep up upon us, on the other hand, may be so adaptive as to ultimately lead to self-destruction.’

‘For I refuse to believe that the Vayuputras, the people of Lord Rudra, would consciously choose to let Evil live. The only explanation is that they genuinely believe the Somras is not evil.’

‘I think the Parmatma does not interfere in our lives. He sets the rules by which the universe exists. Then, He does something very difficult.’ ‘What?’

‘He leaves us alone. He lets things play out naturally. He lets His creations make decisions about their own lives. It’s not easy being a witness when one has the power to rule. It takes a Supreme God to be able to do that. He knows this is our world, our karmabhoomi,’ said Shiva, waving his hand all around as though pointing out the land of their karma.

His wizened face, calm eyes and gentle smile showed a deep understanding of true wisdom. The wisdom of sat-chit-anand, of truth-consciousness-bliss; the unrelenting bliss of having one’s consciousness and mind drowned in truth.

Ujjain, the city that conquers pride.

‘What a brilliant idea, dada!’ ‘Yes. Instead of building a bridge over the moat they have built a tunnel underneath it. And the door to the tunnel merges completely into the cobbled ground, thus being effectively camouflaged.’

‘The Parmatma is the supreme soul. It is infinite. And if you want to represent infinity through a geometric pattern, you cannot do better than with a circle. It has no beginning. It has no end. You cannot add another side to it. You cannot remove a side from it. It is perfect. It is infinity.’

‘Lord Ram had said that even if his entire life was forgotten, this phase, the one that he had spent in exile along with his wife, his brother and his follower Hanuman, should be remembered by all. For he believed that this was the period that had made him who he was.’

Excess should be avoided; excess of anything is bad.

Some of us are attracted to Good. But the universe tries to maintain balance.

So what is good for some may end up being bad for others. Agriculture is good for us humans as it gives us an assured supply of food, but it is bad for the animals that lose their forest and grazing land. Oxygen is good for us as it keeps us alive, but for anaerobic creatures that lived billions of years ago, it was toxic and it destroyed them. Therefore, if the universe is trying to maintain balance, we must aid this by ensuring that...

That is the purpose of Evil: it balan...

Creation and destruction are the two ends of the same moment.

And everything between creation and the next destruction is the journey of life. The

Humans, however, have been blessed with intelligence, the greatest gift of the Almighty. This allows us to make choices. We have the power to consciously choose Good and improve our lives. We also have the ability to stop Evil before it destroys us completely.

I suspect it was my uncle’s doing. Though how he did all this is a mystery to me.’

‘I remember being administered some medicine in my childhood by my uncle. I used to suffer severe burning between my brows from when I was very young. My uncle’s medicine helped me calm the burning sensation. The throbbing persists to this day but it is not as bad as it used to be. I still recall his words as he readied the medicine:

“We will always remain faithful to your command, Lord Rudra, this is the blood oath of a Vayuputra”.

Then he’d pricked his index finger and let the blood drop into the potion. It was this mix that he gave to me, and made me ...

‘Great Neelkanth, what was the name of your uncle?’ ‘Manobhu,’ said Shiva. The stunned Ayodhya Vasudev turned to Gopal. ‘In the great name of Lord Ram!’

‘Lord Manobhu?’ ‘He was a Vayuputra Lord, one of the Amartya Shpand, a member of the council of six wise men and women who rule the Vayuputras under the leadership of the Mithra.’

‘Which means your third eye has been active from the time of your birth, and that is very rare. It convinces me that you are the one chosen by the Parmatma.’

‘Third eye?’ ‘It is the region between one’s brows. It is believed that there are seven chakras or vortices within the human body which allow the reception and transmission of energy. The sixth chakra is called the ajna chakra, the vortex of the third eye. These chakras are activated by yogis after years of practice. Of course, they can also be activated by medicines. The Vayuputras use medicines to activate the third eye of those amongst their young who are potential candidates. But in all my one hundred and forty years, I have yet to hear of a child born with his third eye active.’

‘Sometimes, faith can lean towards over-simplicity.’

‘Maybe simplicity is what this world needs right now.’