Part 1

Guruji in the horizon is a short story about a rustic boy ultimately transforming into a Spiritual Guru. The story will be published as a series, containing a number of parts. Here is part 1:

It is yet another day.  I always like the dawn - the creeks of birds, misty leaves and the redness of the dawn. Red stands for compassion.  I used to wonder how the sun being so red at the time of dawn gradually turns white.  I live near river Cauvery. It is good to walk on the sandy river bed.  The tiny sand grains acupressure my feet and I used to enjoy this.  The river was flowing with the rustic sound that changes every minute.  In the river bed, I perform my yogic exercises.  I prefer the river bed as you have plenty of natural unpolluted air around.  The more oxygen intake helps to rejuvenate the body better. When I begin my yogic exercises, the sun would not have arisen.  I firmly believe that I should complete my morning chores before the dawn. 

I live in a tiny village – you can call it as hamlet - called Aduthurai, where the river Cauvery flows.  My house is right on the banks of the river.  Sometimes, when I do not get my sleep, I listen to the rustic sound of the flowing water.   I do not use any bedding accessories except a small pillow for my head. The watery breeze that dabs me around makes me sleep.  I live with my mother and a country dog.  Our house has tiled roofing with a hall and kitchen.  The whole house is 400 sq.ft.  It is more than enough for three of us - my mother, Jimmy my dog and I. Jimmy is very fond of my mother and me. She has a feeling that I am close to Jimmy than to her.  Jimmy has the habit of accompanying me wherever I go.  Most of the time, Jimmy and me spend our time under a huge banyan tree.  There is a rock below the tree.  You can sit on the rock and rest your back on the bark of the tree.  This tree has thick foliage.  When the wind blows, the movement of the leaves produce the sound of om. 

It is difficult for anyone to predict my age.  I am now twenty five and people do not believe my age. I look much younger, may be due to my yoga or due to my food or even could be due to my life style.   I am a school dropout.  My father had an ambition that I should become a district collector.  He used to share his utopian thoughts with his friends, who used to laugh at him for his dreams.  Aduthurai has only twelve houses.  Most of the houses are now locked or in dilapidated condition.  All my friends moved away to cities and towns to pursue their education.  Some of them are in other countries too. 

I learn yoga from a yoga master in the next village.  I met him in a community festival, where he was demonstrating his yogic skills. A cluster of villages come together and celebrate couple of community festivals in a year.  There will be plenty of roadside shops mostly meant for women.  You can find cheap cosmetics, vessels, clothing and that kind of stuff.  There will be a worn out merry-go-round flocked by children.  For grownups there will be giant wheel.  I rode both in the merry-go-round and in the giant wheel when I was a boy.  When the giant wheel goes up, people shout due to enjoyment and fear. Though I like to go in the giant wheel, I neither enjoyed nor feared.  Though boys of my age go to such festivals daily, somehow I do not like crowd.  I take a walk to the festival ground either with Jimmy or with my mother.  My father never cared about me as I never rose up to his expectations.  Even for minor mistakes, he used to ridicule me.  He was good in one way.  He had never beaten me.  He was strong built and was engaged in fulltime cultivation in our land.  Even today, we have our land of one acre (4840 square yards).  We grow paddy and some vegetables and make our living only from that land.  My father died a few years back due to massive cardiac arrest.  When my father died I never even cried.  A few of my relatives came down to our place, consumed his body to fire.  My mother was crying and almost became desolated.  By nature I do not speak much.  However, I consoled my mother and both of us prepared ourselves for a life without my father.  I was forced to carry on the activities of my father.  I hardly put half of the efforts my father had put to cultivate the land, but the yield after my taking over was more than two times than my father’s time. Though I am not surprised, my mother was surely surprised.  We lived a comfortable life than my father’s time.  I do not buy anything for myself.  I made every effort to keep my mother as comfortable as possible. 

My mother too started becoming sick quite often after my father’s demise.  I took her to a doctor in a city nearby.  After waiting for more than an hour, we were called.  Doctor was in a hurry.  He examined my mother for a minute and prescribed some medicines which he asked me to buy in the next medical shop owned by his wife. I paid hundred for nothing. I did not buy medicines and we returned home.  My intuition told me that there is nothing wrong with my mother.  I could not get my sleep during the night, as my conscience was pricking me for not having purchased the medicines.  Something was telling me that these medicines were not necessary for my mother and that she would be normal in the next few days.

It is a moon lit night. I moved out of my house to the rocky bench under the banyan tree.  Jimmy followed me.  He never leaves me alone.  I lied down flat on the rock and was fighting against my conscience.  The hamlet was absolutely peaceful in the bright full moon light, except the euphony of flowing water.  My inner conscience started speaking to me now.  I could hear the sound of my conscience very clearly.  It asked me to go and see the doctor again tomorrow.  Now, I was damn sure that I have made a mistake for not purchasing those medicines for my mother.  I have decided to visit the town next day morning to buy those medicines. Once I found a remedy for my guilt feeling, I drifted into my sleep. I heard someone clearly telling me in my sleep that I need not worry about my mother and I need not even buy those medicines.  When I woke up, I had to fight against my conscience on one side and the intuitive conveyance on the other side. At last my intuitive won over my conscience. I know now for sure, that my mother would get better in the next few days and she did.  Positive affirmations always help. 

Though I did not evince interest in my education, I had a flair for physical activities.  My physical training teacher had a soft corner for me.  I always stood first in running, high jump and long jump.  I never played games.  My elan for physical activities attracted me to the yoga teacher in the next village, which is four miles from my hamlet. I cover four miles in less than half an hour.  Yoga teacher has not regularly studied yoga. He learnt the art by himself.   He agreed to teach me yoga for free.  My father would not have given me any money, even if the yoga teacher had demanded.  I learnt several postures and in a short time mastered almost every yogic posture he had taught me.  Within a matter of thirty days, I was doing better than my master.  He became jealous of me and asked me not to come again.  I begged him, but he did not agree.  Factually, I was his only regular student.  He went to different places and taught yoga to make his living.  Only later I came to know, that many of his postures were wrong. However, he never claimed himself as an authority in yoga.  He also lived in a small house, with no luxuries whatsoever. He did not want to lose his only student and he patched up with me and started working together.

(to be continued)