Prologue – A World Called Kalki
Gods. Humans. In a world we live in, often at times, these two entities are considered distinguished from each other. One offering solace to the other, and sometimes presenting a fantastical notion of a greater living.
Over centuries, Mankind has seen people with extraordinary powers, who in time were given the name of Gods. Gods who ruled our thoughts defined our lives and professed our existence. Gods who could, with their gifts, build monuments, liberate slaves, provide resources, erect kingdoms from stones or turn empires to dust. However, as was seen over the course of time, a gift can often be a curse. Someone with the gift of turning the fate of humans can also be the one who plucks the fickle fabric of life. Someone with the gift of generating immense wealth can also be the one to induce a sense of bitter hatred. Someone with the gift of prophecy may plunge the whole world into a fear of the future. More importantly, make someone God, possessing gifts beyond imagination, and he brings with himself a plague of destruction, enough to wipe out the entire human race….
Chapter One – Birth Of Kalki (Dawn Of Kali Yuga) – 3109 BCE Neolithic Age
It is the 12th day in the waxing moon stage when the celestial bodies named Tishya and Krita are in an auspicious alignment. The village of Lahurdewa, on the banks of the modern day Ganges, is ornamented with inflammable wood through the borders, and the inroads. It is only an hours’ time, within which the prophecy needs to be fulfilled. Within this hour, lives need to be offered to the fire gods, and a life needs to be clutched out of destiny.
The woman, who shall be martyred as the Holy Mother, has already been bathed and has been made pristine by the head priest in his hut, which serves as the temple, with holy mud applied over her forehead and extracts of Lotus flowers applied across her vagina. Another type of mud, freshly moistened with the river waters, is applied all over her body. The scriptures have always spoken about a glorious Man to be born out of the wet mud, with a fragrance of a Lotus. The one born out (Kalk) of sediments of mud (Aei), shall be named Kalki. The preparations have thus been made. The hour of alignment is upon the Jurgrah clan, which has prepared for the birth of their ruler. The Kali Yuga needs its prophet.
As the Danistha formation (Sagittarius), appears in the sky, the firewood stacks are lit across the village. All across the village, fire erupts, rapidly spreading to the huts made of hay and mud. The clan is preparing itself to be burnt alive, and this is just the beginning of their sacrifice. One by one, men and women, plunge into the flames, burning themselves to death. Their shrieks and prayers fill the air with chilling consequences. Yet, as each soul dies, the clan’s belief gets stronger.
For the ruler of their clan, as the leafy scriptures say, resurrect them. The head priest of the clan immediately starts the ritual. He takes a small ball of eucalyptus extracts, and spits into it. Then he places the ball into the Holy Mother’s mouth and forces her to gulp it. The poisonous extract will work to sedate her, and eventually, kill her. The head priest then takes a long sharp scalpel shaped stone and starts his work. As the fire starts consuming lives across the village, the Head Priest feels the first flames trickle down his hay stacked roof. He quickly stabs the Holy Mother, and pierces through her abdomen. As the Holy Mother starts wailing in pain, the Head Priest inserts his hands inside her abdomen and starts applying pressure on her womb. It, the fetus, has to be forced out, as the flames spread through the floor, turning to pungent ash everything in its path.
A moment later, the Holy Mother is heard no more, as the wildfire blazes over her hair, and almost burns half of the Head Priest’s body. The whole hut is ablaze and has turned into a fiery ball of death. The fetus is half outside the Holy Mother. In a last desperate attempt to do his task, to fulfil the prophecy, the Head Priest reaches out for the head of the fetus and starts pulling it out. His hand is already blackened, his skin burnt and peeling off, and with his mere bones, he manages to pull the fetus out. The Head Priest is by this time burnt to the heavens. The fire engulfs the fetus as well. As the fire rages into a terrible dance, the fetus, now thrown into a pool of fire, remains unscathed.
In the hours to come, as the village of Lahurdewa is burnt to the ground, and the air is ripe with the smell of burnt skin and forest ashes, somewhere in the debris, under a small stack of wood, the hunters from the neighboring village find a baby, unharmed and irradiant like a sun. They’ve heard the prophecy hundreds of times, to know for the God’s word, that this is the ruler they were promised. Born out of the ashes, mud, and with a Lotus fragrance emanating from him. The All-Powerful God Kalki has finally arrived. The Hunter clan take the baby into the woods, never to be heard of again. Until the baby grows up to be a beautiful man who establishes a clan, which would protect his teachings, and his existence, over centuries to come. His successors would be chosen by him when the time of his heavenly ascension arrived upon. All the successors shall be named Kalki, and so comes into existence the clan of Kalki, which sheds light towards humanity which is bound to lose its path eventually. The clan shall thus hold hope and strength for the evolving man who will stumble in darkness, for the next 432,000 cycles of time**.
Chapter Two – The 721st Iteration Of Kalki – Present Day
As humanity evolved and worlds were built, as mechanical power got replaced by automated tools, as ideologies turned into religious propaganda, the protective clan of Jurgrah too found a new shape of existence. In the form of world religion, which professed oneness and moral justice, the Jurgrah clan now donned the name of Bahullah tribe. Bahullah tribe which literally meant ‘Many’, stuck true to its meaning by naming plurality in their worshipping methods and divine acceptances. The tribe, now a modern day Religion, looked to their Baha’ullah, The Wisdom Giver, the mortal embodiment of divine power, one whom the rest of the world, addressed as Kalki. The mortal being of Kalki, today in front of them, protecting them from world’s various terrors and vices, is the 721st iteration or avatar. It is known from the start of the Yuga, which started about 4500 cycles of time*** ago, that once a Kalki ascends into the darkness, the other takes his place. It is a natural law.
It is a ceremonious day here today in a small village near the foothills of the Himalayan mountain range called Itwa. The thrown away town bustles with activity and fervor, as every soul in the village prepares themselves to celebrate the Betrothal Day Anniversary of Kalki. A decorated horse is prepared, white one particularly, and trumpets are blown across the village as the simpleton populace awaits the grand arrival of The All-Powerful Kalki. Hirankomi, the village elder, perhaps one of the very few to have witnessed two Kalki’s in his lifetime, speaks about the occasion thus.,
“They are here, and our welfare is ensured. World is peaceful because of them. They ask us nothing in return but to live with peace and be loving to each other. They have cured my wife when all hope was lost, and she can walk now. She walks in their name, and that is the divine power of them. They know us. They know the poor and they know our lives. We are grateful for them, as they are coming here today. I am so blessed to witness this. I have seen them. I will again…”
The Almighty God, Kalki, is considered as a mortal embodiment, who constitutes all genders, all beings, and all lives. Kalki thereby, as per the law of the land, needs to be addressed as they, them and their. To reduce their existence to any one singular meaning of life is considered a crime by the local tribe. As one would expect in a fanatical society, the fervor of Kalki’s arrival is ornamented by sacrificial rites and bodily piercings. Long hooks and needles are being pierced into young men’s backs and waists, so as to pull the chariot for the King of the World. The women in the tribe dress themselves to the best of their appearance, and prepare sweet rice dishes, which will be offered to Kalki as he passes by, in small leaf-woven cups. The sounds of trumpets blowing is now interlaced with the drums, which go wilder by the beat. The hilly village situated on the banks of the Ganges tributary comes alive, as the first spotter notices a man walk out of the woods a mile away. In a clockwork motions, the drums and trumpets play a particular tune (I am told later that it is a symphony called Farigiun, liked by the God), and a horse is left astray in the open field, between the village and the forest.
As the fantastical moment reaches its feverish peak, the man pats the horse and gets on it. The first thing that strikes anyone who would see them boarding the horse, and entering the village main pathway, was the familiarity of their face. It feels like you have seen this face many times before. And as I go through the day pondering over the familiarity of the face, I am told by the villagers that everyone feels the same. My company, Hirankomi, sums the feeling up in one sentence, “We always see God in shapes we know, isn’t it?”. It is said that The Almighty God Kalki appears to everyone in a way that is different and unique. How do they look like? Well, they look familiar. That’s all anyone can say. The God thus arrives. An immortal being, in a mortal cage of a human body.
Chapter Three: The World, The Faith And The Astute Understanding
Kalki, The Almighty God, is guided towards the Holy Kuranmye Temple, in which they will reside in for the next few hours. The temple itself is decorated with rare flowers and the pathway leading up to it is speckled with Lotus flowers. They get down from the Horse, and walk barefoot into the Temple, crushing the Lotus flowers along the way. This particular behaviour, to me, seemed unsettling. But before I could pinpoint on why I felt that way, I see Kalki remove their robes and proudly stand at the temple footsteps, bare naked, and their glory facing the world. For a moment, their eyes fall on me, and the slight curve of lips exhibit a hint of recognition. It took me a moment more to realize that their eyes never blink. At first, I brushed off the suspicion, but a nagging thought made me truly observe their eyes. In the meantime, an old and wrinkly Head Priest bowed in front of them. As their presence brought in a noticeable dip in the temperature, the air felt chillier than usual, as the Head Priest kissed Kalki’s feet, and offered his guidance into the temple.
Kalki walked with such an encompassing confidence, that you could sense a speckle of courage and hope in every moment. The devotees were allowed to follow them inside the temple, except for children. I accompanied my ageing friend, the Hirankomi, inside, as I saw a huge human circle being formed around the God. Kalki knelt down at the centre of this circle and took the mud in their hand. They then started applying the mud on their body. Their familiar face seemed glorious than ever before, as sharp sunrays seeped through the temple roof cracks and fell on their face. With almost 70 people inside the temple and everyone maintaining devout silence, it seemed that one could hear the heartbeat of the person sitting next to him.
Kalki, The Almighty God, sitting in the middle, lifted their hands and started making some noises. These noises grew eerier by the second, as all the people within the circle bowed down and looked only to the ground. I was ushered to do the same. The eerie sounds were answered by shrieks of women outside the temple. As we looked down, we could see three wobbly women walk into the temple, as if possessed by an invisible hook and being dragged to the centre. The women shrieked to let go, of some invisible hand, which we were prohibited to see. As I could hear them, one of the women fell to the ground and started banging her head on the stone floor. The other two almost rolled into the circle, and went to the centre, to Kalki’s being. We were forbidden to look up. In some time, we heard the banging stop. This was followed by some inaudible whispers that Kalki, The Almighty God, spoke to the wailing women. A moment later, a loud shriek was followed by absolute silence.
Kiloppi Jurani Myo Renhga Lopi…..Kiloppi Jurani Mya Renhga Lopi….the people in the circle, started chanting these lines. ‘For The Wellness Of The Everyone, Let My Blood Be The Cause’. The line meant a sacrificial stance, which all of them believed in. As the chants went on, a loud laugh filled the temple, and it was safe for us to look up. The women were nowhere to be seen. Kalki, The Almighty God, sat there with a broad smile on their face. They looked a bit different when they smiled. It was peaceful and calm, like an ocean giving out a cool breeze. After they had scanned the whole population inside the temple, their eyes fixated upon me quizzically. It was then Hirankomi’s turn to introduce me, as a seeker of the God’s audience, for four years now.
Chapter Four: Interview With The Immortal Being
At about an hour into the conversations that I had with Kalki, The Almighty God, it became apparent that faith is a powerful tool for a peaceful existence. The Bahullah tribe followed their master, to every syllable he uttered, and that perhaps gave them means to a peaceful co-existence. The small village was not disconnected with the outside world. They were aware, but they were woke about their own faith as well. They followed their Baha’ullah with no varying notions. Hironkomi, who understood Hindi, became the translator between the God and myself. I could see that Kalki, The Almighty God, had answers for everything. Validly so, as I was later told that Kalki wanders the dense forests for almost a year, lost in their thoughts, pondering upon the things happening in the world, and emerges only after their thoughts have taken a shape. With seemingly all the power in the world, their astute and detached attitude to be away from the world perhaps stems from a deeper understanding of humanity. One which was never going to be comprehensible to my understanding.
The God About Faith
“………..We think we believe. Yes. We think we trust. But we only expect. You see a tree giving out delicious and tasty fruits once, and you expect it to give it again in the same manner. Then you make patterns of expectations, that this tree will have to behave within. You trust that the tree will give fruits in the way you expect it to. And what happens when it doesn’t give fruits. Your trust is broken. Is it the tree’s fault? Is it yours? Or Is it the fruit’s fault that you liked it? If a tree, which has no mind of its own, can defy your expectations and break your trust, think now child, about the People around you? Will they behave or do something according to your trust or pattern of expectations? Trust is having this specific expectation from an entity, which is wrong. Faith is expecting the tree to give fruits whenever it can, in whichever manner it can, and in any taste, sweet, sour or bitter. Faith is resolute belief in a happening, Trust is restrictive belief in an occurrence. So Faith, my child, is bigger. Have Faith on people around, that they will do something that they can, at some point. Base your decisions on Faith, and you will never be wrong. How can you be?”
“….Science baffles me. It does not make me wonder, but makes me sad. I am not saying that Science is not required. Science is required to understand things we might not understand, but saying science can explain everything is ignorance. Science merely questions, But Faith plainly realizes. Science is just too self-aware to understand somethings, and so I cannot believe it to be better than Religion, Faith and Belief. You see around you here, Men and Women of all ages, bowing down to me. Why do they do it? They show respect to my existence. They understand that there are somethings exponentially more powerful than humans. We always taught that over the ages. Respect what you cannot understand. And when you do so, you open your mind to larger possibilities of finding answers. That is what our religion teaches. Question. But be prepared to stretch your mind, to accommodate the answers. Are you equipped to know the answers to the questions you seek an understanding for? Have you wondered the pathetic mind you Humans have? You only question what you already know to some part. You cannot question things you do not know. Hence, Religion and Belief gives you a step forward in understanding your own question in its truest form”.
A Violent Experiment
As an hour passed by, and to my blessed fortune, we discussed things about random things in the world. As it were, one of my questions seemed to particularly interest them. They wished to conduct an experiment then and there.
One of the women sitting in the circle was asked to come near. Kalki, The Almighty God, asked her to sit down in front of them, and placed their hand on her forehead. After a moment, they said, ‘Go bring your child’. The woman swiftly stood up and briskly walked out of the temple. She returned after ten minutes carrying her infant child in her arms. She sat down in front of them again. The Bahu’ullah looked at me and spoke,
“…..you ask about relationships. It is a myth. You see, no one is connected to anyone. You think you are, because people talk to you, or make love to you, or have given birth to you. No no. You are one. One itself, not two. Not infinite. Just one. You are not your Father or Mother. You are not your Child either. Humans like to believe that while giving birth, they are establishing a connection with their Child. This is just a mental convenience. Yes, you give out some features to your child, perhaps he even looks like you, but there is no automatic affection or special connection. Every father or mother will choose their life over their child’s. When time comes, that is what happens. So Parents are a lie. You look at what they did to you; you will see more of their convenience than your need. I shall prove it to you..”
They signalled the woman in front of them to place the child on the mud floor. The Almighty God then looked at the baby, and something horrifying started to happen. The infant child started turning blue. It was as if life was seeping out of the infant with every breath. I had seen many horrors in my journey as a journalist, but this was something so awfully destroying, that I found myself numb to the torture. The baby started crying, as its small hands and legs turned to stony blue. The mother was as shell-shocked as anyone in the temple. It took her a precious few seconds to snap out of numbness, and she fell to the feet of Kalki, The Almighty God. She wailed and begged for the infant’s life. He looked away, towards the cracked ceiling of the temple. As the infant grew bluer, another interesting thing happened.
None of the occupants of the Temple felt the need to protest or even stand up, myself included. It was strange and utterly unexplainable. It was as if someone had pinned us down involuntarily, and made us calm enough to watch the horror unfold. The fingers of the infant started to peel off, starting with nails on either of the forefingers. The mother was the only one agitating. Her helpless begging and pleading now was speckled with anger and loathing. Her eyes turned red and lashed out at Kalki, The Almighty God. As her fingers almost touched the immortal one, a deep cut appeared over her forehead. It took her a moment to realize what was happening. But before she could truly understand, Kalki leaned forward and said ‘Let your life save your child. Allow me to take your life’ and they touched her forehead, as the cut deepened. Miraculously, the child seemed to be recovering.
The mother now just cried, watching her baby turn paler shades of blue, and having her life sucked out of the cut. She cried and cried until she could take it no longer. She suddenly pushed away their hand and jerked away from the Almighty one. She took deep breaths, and as she did, the infant grew closer to death. She looked at the infant, looked at all of us occupants for help, and resigned to her fate. She approached her baby, kissed it, and walked away. Just like that. She couldn’t bear to witness her infant dying, and so tiredly walked out of the temple. The Violent Experiment was complete.
Kalki, The Almighty God, picked up the baby and ensured that the infant recovered to its healthy state of being, and handed it over to Hironkomi.
“….You are only one. Everyone else wants to be connected to you for they think it makes them stronger. But Humans are so fickle. How can they consider any other life as their own?”
The Inside World Vs Outside World
“We were born in Fire. We fought worlds. We became teachers, we became messengers. We showed the stars, and commanded noble kings. And yet, We are never you. That is the difference. An inside world. We make the inside world, for you. A world built on thoughts and more. Where everyone is fair and just. You then build a world over the inside world, which means nothing. You divide yourself. Then later you feel undermined because you become the victim of such divide. You think you will fight to close that divide. Then you fail. You let go of such hope. We never make that divide in the first place…”
“…Outside world is always unequal and lopsided. Rich humans are there and poor as well. Rich in what? In the resources they control. Poor are poor because someone is rich. And truth of universe is simple. Humans spawn faster than resources regenerate. So, resources become lesser, and people who can snatch them away from the others become the Kings. In an equal world, Rich is only rich when he is willing to step out from the moral rules of community. One small step away, and a humungous change in fortunes. Have you asked about that? You show me an Honest and Moral bound man, who attained incredible riches and power, without doing a crime. If he has, he must be invariably one of us, Gods.
“…You ask how to ensure peace, Kill the rich ones. They are the biggest criminals. They may have not committed a crime, but they are enjoying the fruits of it. They are outgrowths. If a toe-nail grows bigger than the others, it becomes an obstruction is it not? They have side-stepped the rules, so you are just bringing them back. Kill one rich person, and tell everyone that you did so, because he was rich. That is enough. You will have stopped almost half the crimes happening. If the ambition of becoming rich becomes the biggest nightmare, imagine what people will do. When they are slapped back to reality saying that they are normal, you look at them then. You will find goodness in them again. Long lost goodness. The rule is simple. Equal number of resources, to total number of people, equally. That’s Nature’s Law…”
The Marriage Of The Almighty One
As the Almighty Bahu’ullah sat and discussed about all things under the celestial bodies, a new way of looking at life emerged inside of me. A detached manner of dealing with life’s most complex questions became the simple answer inside my heart. The irradiance in their face only grew stronger by the minute, and only after a mere hour of talking to them, I was facing an embarrassing situation. I was running out of questions to ask. What do you ask someone who speaks so conclusively about something? One who is well versed as much as one can be about everything? Who was literally, as was evident in the last couple of hours, an all-knowing entity? They weren’t just answering, but resolving issues then and there, with simple thought-provoking ideas. Although there are so many, now that I recollect, some have stuck in my mind. Do Humans believe in God, or what other Humans say about God? Is religion a set of rules for you to abide by, or a means of life to regain your freedom?
Between all this, a conch blew outside of the temple, indicating the ceremonial marriage of the Bahu’ullah. Every year Kalki, The Almighty God, selects anyone with whom they would mate, and decide who would succeed them. In their 372 years of existence, they have yet to find the successor. Every year, Hirankomi tells me, that their Bahu’ullah returns to the forests without uttering a word. It seems the mortal humans fail them every time.
As the congregation walks out, trailing the Almighty God, conch sounds fill the air with excitement. Every parent in the village wants their child to be the selected one. The immortality of the newborn is a reward every parent craves for. One who will bear the seed of Bahu’ullah will have to leave the village and accompany them to the forest, where that chosen one shall live forever or more. All the villagers throng the pavement leading up to the temple, where the God descends.
Kalki, The Almighty God, walks assuredly into the crowd. It is tradition that no one shall touch them. It is the God who will touch and decide. There are women, of varying ages, dressed up to look at their presentable state, nervously smiling at them. Kalki, The Almighty God, smiles back at them, but eventually crosses them. They wade through the villagers, until they stop. They stand silently and look at the sky. Kalki, The Almighty God, smiles at everyone, as if assured that they have decided on someone. They walk back, and touch a young boy not older than twenty. The young boy, as fate would have it, shall give birth to the next Kalki…………….
(To Be Continued….)
Editor’s Note:
1. The cycle of time is a measure which has been put to practice by the devout Bahai tribe to measure time. Of course, the cycles have no correlation with the widely accepted Gregorian time system which divides time into seconds, minutes, hours, months and years. Bahain time system only contains of ‘cycles’ or ‘pahars’ which are reflective of celestial movements. However, if one has to understand the correlation of Bahain time system with the modern daytime system, a broad derivative would be One day is about 12 cycles of Bahain time. However, this correlation also changes in accordance with the seasons. So perhaps a range of 12 to 18 cycles per one Gregorian day, is appropriate.
(Source: The Holy Science, by Jnanavatar Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society of India, 1949)
2. The opinions expressed and the knowledge imparted by Kalki, are to be taken in the spirit of teachings. VoxSpace in no manner whatsoever vouches, defies or otherwise professes the validity or otherwise gratifies the teachings.
3. Theatricality and miraculous happenings have always played an important part in the propagation of religious ideologies. Often, Religious teachings are speckled with extraordinary happenings, which on careful observation and analysis, might come out to be incidents of simple visual trickery. However, VoxSpace does not wish to comment on such happenings. These fantastical happenings are the basis of strong beliefs and values which Bahain religion bases its existence on. If we are to question them, we need to question perhaps every belief and every religion. Who are we to say anything here?
