One night I decided to give up on this world and run away into the unknown. It was a strange night when the unknown seemed better than the known. I didnt think, I didnt even pause to look back. I ran into the thick darkness,with a luggage of hatred and anger on a path that leads nowhere. As I sped in the dark, I was fanning the fume inside me. I hated the world...and I kept walking repeating that hatred. And that was when, I saw her, sitting at the doorstep of some fortgotten ruins...
She was a frail little girl. It was just a blur from where I was standing, but she was an eloquent beauty with fierce eyes and an ethereal grace...I was stunned at her form and just watched her from the distance; she looked like a dream!Her face shone like a thousand moon in the faint glow of of the silver clouds.I wondered what a frail little girl like her was doing in this scary silence of this jungle.I walked closer to her and her form was becoming clearer and more enchanting.
She had her head down and she was sobbing. I looked closely, she was bleeding and bruised too. Her beautiful eyes moist with tears; glistened in the dark like little fireflies. Summoning all my courage I approached her. I asked her," Can I help ? ..."
She looked up at me. She had blue black eyes; just like the midnight sky! Such were her eyes that I could see myself reflected in them. A moment of gaze seemed like a lingering century...I was preparing to ask her again if she needed my help, when she stood up and walked off leaving me empty and baffled . I dont know why, I didnt walk off then- I was frustrated enough...I was humiliated enough...- But I didnt! I followed her. She walked and walked under the moonlight and I kept following her. There was something about her that was mysterious and magnetic. It seems strange for a person like me with so much hatred to follow a weeping strange little girl in the middle of the night in an unknown jungle.Perhaps it was my aimlessness, perhaps when in hatred I threw away my world, I was throwing myself into an existential vacuum.
Who knows!
And that was when it happened....she started singing...
My heart stopped!Her voice pierced the insides of my soul like a million swords. Her voice was faint and melodious but as she continued singing, it shred my soul into pieces and I felt a deep, unbearable pain. My insides bled! She walked into into a cave,still singing... I followed her into the cave. The next thing I know, is that I was in this deep dark cave alone talking to my own voice...and found myself battling between shock and pain. She was gone!I felt humiliated and angry, but at myself this time not at the world. I endured all this pain...to catch a glimpse of her and she decides to hide. I was angry with myself or caring...!I stormed out and walked back...
That was the last time I was going to care, I said to myself..
And just as I finished saying that in my head...I spotted her again...sitting on some other ruin...
I was'nt going to let her baffle me this time. She is not what she seems, I thought, and I must get to the bottom of this. I was convinced that this was far from reality and I was spiralling in a phantasmagoria...
I approached her again and I said " Look, I dont know what your story is. I am tired...now. Look at what you did to me!...Your voice pierced my insides and now I am bleeding...What have I done to deserve this?What are you...? Are you like a ghost or something?Are you punishing me for hating this world?...I dont understand...."
She looked up at me with her moist blue black eyes again and stared again into my eyes. There was a certain helplessness in that stare , this time.Then in a faint, soft voice that had the quality of first rain about it, she said " You say I am punishing you? " She titled her head to one side and looked at me rather consolingly and said " No, I am not, In fact you are punishing me..."
I was shocked!
She continued " I am not a ghost or an evil spirit. I dont have the power to punish. I only have power to love and receive love. I am the Goddess that once knew not what grief is, until the day
the seed of hatred was planted on earth.
Today the weed of hatred has invaded the world and there is no place for me. I walked out of the concrete buildings ,whereI was housed and people came three times a day to offer meaningless prayers! I was bathed in expensive milk and honey and annointed pointlessly, when I could hear the world chanting pure hate! I have become nothing but a wooden or marble figurine in a building or an image in a frame. I was feeling consumed !I couldnt breathe! I was dying a new death every moment seeing the world tear itself. It was just too much and I had enough!
So one day I walked out of all those temples , for good! I didnt want to exist, monumentally...I walked out into the darkness like you.And today I am homeless, I am alone..I am a goddess without power. I can only weep at the death of humanity. I can only sing a song of hope...
I wander aimlessly in the darkness mostly on my own. Occasionally I meet people like you ...who are runaways like me. There is only a single difference between me and you - I am running away from hatred, you are running towards it...."
She got up and walked off, singing into the wind, in a resounding voice that was like the first rain...She didnt turn back...
I stood there dumbfound and guilty; in an unknown jungle surrounded by thick darkness!I stood there watching a forgotten deity walk off...
I closed my eyes and I saw her blue black eyes again..I stood there with my face to the sky..
It started raining ...
The deity is crying...
3 comments:
Great work Anju...Loved it! :)
"Love" and "hatred" - very strong words with a lot of meaning! But in this meaningless selfish world love has narrowed down to each of ours selfish needs! And hatred to the creator!
When people chant the slogas without knowing the meanings…When each of us plead and beg for our selfish needs…And when we blame the “God” for not giving us enough of what we wish for…we forget about the so called Selfless, sincere offering that each of us are supposed to make on the first place!
God is in our heart...and in our deeds...but now human race has degraded themselves in to a level where there is no light, no survival...
The Godliness in us is dying...But that doesn’t mean it will leave us! Like ur write up, even thou the Deity showered the confused soul with her tears...yet, it lead the human heart filled with hatred to Love, passion and more than that the light to Life!!!
Once again, Loved the writing...
Great work! :)
Neetha.
Thank you for your comment - insightful and deep!
It was interesting to note that you mentioned that 'we plead and beg for our selfish needs..'. Selfishness is that dark jungle that the charachter ran into.
Until you reach the middle of the jungle you wont realise you are lost. When you stop, it is always to too late to go back...
In my opinion ,however, Godliness in us never dies.. It is a power greater than what human race can possibly behold. When the charachter walked into the jungle out of hatred , he was walking into the darkness of his own selfishness, his own depths. The jungle was his own fears. It sure was scary. But even in the eerie darkness of the jungle, where fear lurked in every corner, he found a Goddess; sure she was weeping, sure she was hurt, sure she walked out of her temple....but she still walked about singing the redemption song inside....
It was just upto him to find her! There is no despair, as all of us will find our Gods inside us, when all hatred is spent and all egoes are exhausted....we are bound to find our homeless deity and surrender...
The deity is crying now, but remember, it is raining too...
Tears will merge with raindrops and there sure will be a river of hope!:-)
Thank you so much for your deep thought provoking comment....Neeths...we need more people who think like you, to keep this world smiling!
Usually, I dont do read work like this , you know me , I am a humour gal, I read and write humour.
Half way through, I was thinking what is she on about but the ending smashed it my bird!
Hun, It was great. I was in tears and not just saying it. It is true. Its like going in a circle cos it carrys on more and more. you have created a lovely story to demonstarte the impact of two very strong words.
btw blogrolling you!xx
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