The Vault of Vishnu

by Ashwin Sanghi

who recommended that a debt should be paid to the final penny and an enemy finished to the final trace.

‘Read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War,’ replied Mark. ‘One of its lessons: Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

That is the binary nature of the world; every positive comes with a negative.

‘To use bitter words when kind words are at hand is akin to picking unripe fruit when ripe ones abound.’

Sometimes the most unlikely acquaintance can turn out to be your saviour.

Never forget that you are simply channelling his energy. You can never be the source.

‘Faxian’s potion was derived from vishalyakarani, Eupatorium Ayapana. It is capable of increasing muscle strength and creating bone marrow, thus it is the creator potion. The Chinese called it Bamahao instead of Brahma. ‘Bodhidharma’s potion was derived from Santhanakarani, Sonerila Tinnevelliensis. It has the capacity to produce the burst of strength needed to kill one’s enemy; thus, it is the destroyer potion. The Chinese called it Shipo instead of Shiva.’

a river could only get over its fear by entering the ocean. The moment it entered the ocean, it would realise that the experience wasn’t about merging into the ocean but becoming the ocean.

It’s because this block of stone—the vault of Vishnu—had already been moved here that the Chinese team could not find the urns in Cambodia.’

This is the only place in the whole damn book where the title of book is mentioned, feels like it was placed literally!

He that would keep a secret must keep it secret that he hath a secret to keep,”’

I said to him, ‘The folly of Qin Shi Huang lay in thinking that immortality could be the result of a tonic. Yes, Bamahao-Shipo-Pishinou can add years to one’s physical life, but immortality of spirit is already present in all of us. We just can’t see it.’

‘You have done our people proud, like Faxian and Bodhidharma. You are now Di San Sou Chuan—the third vessel.’