WALKING WITH NANAK – Part 2

Resumed from the last episode of WALKING WITH NANAK 

Mansukh not only answered the king but also conversed with him about the path that was not able to be put into the small vessel of the words.

King and Mansukh had a long talk than expected.No one disturbed them.The peace dawned upon the court’s king.The setting sun covered the sky with crimson hues, the birds went to their homes and in no time stars and moon also came to witness the serenity that was for the first time has been evident on that landml. The whole place was meditating upon the love, that they were unaware of. Now there was only the sound of waves of ocean calling Mansukh and the tears of the King that were pleading Mansukh to stay a little longer and talk about love.

After that night, Sangladeep and particularly King Shivnabh never remained the same….

Few months later after Mansukh left….

King Shivnabh , the ruler of a small town of Sangladeep,was sitting on one of the rocks clustered on the shore of the ocean.He wept bitterly. Although it’s not uncommon for the kings to have their crowns embedded with the gems of stress and fear of losing their kingdoms, but these tears were not coming out of fear or stress but looked like the pearls of beloved’s love burning in the flame of longing.

His eyes gazed towards the sky and then he fixed them on the shore on the other end,he wept, he smiled and sometimes even he spoke the words, filled with the sweetness of love in his pain and heart piercing voice…

Where are you ?

I know close by !

Why don’t you call me ?

  You do, but my ears don’t hear you.

Where are you ?

I know close by !

Why can’t you be seen ?

        You can be, but my eyes don’t picture you…

Where are you ?

I know close by !

Why can’t we meet ?

       We can, but my arms don’t grasp you.

Where are you?

My handsome beloved !

You are close by me,

My dear Beloved !

You are close by,

Yet I yearn to meet you !

I can bear these pangs !

No, I can’t.

This king had yet not met his beloved, it seems,but someone who was his Beloved’s lover had pulled him into the unending fire of love of the unseen.

As the darkness descended the king left the shore, went to his kingdom.and slept with his family.But his sleep was not deep enough,his nights were restless with the longing of his beloved.He would wake up in the mid of the night and anxiously moved around with his lips incessantly remembering only one name, the whole night…

NANAK…!!….O…NANAK…!!

This small town on the island of Sangladeep, was a land of religious people.The priest of this land was not just a priest but was an intellectual,a philosopher, a visionary; all Vedas worshipped him, rather all the eighteen puranas streamed from his lips like the water falling from the huge glacier of wisdom.

But an air of melancholy had surrounded him just like it had surrounded both the ocean and the land.Abundance of knowledge yet sorrow !?

But if you dig a little deeper, sorrow that had dawned on this priest was not unreasonable because more the knowledge, more the clutter of thoughts,more the clutter more the doubts and where there are doubts,there resides the sorrow.

In the meantime ,a man named Sehju arrived and asked the priest,” How are you Pandit ji ?”,  in his ever delighted voice.

Priest : won’t you know ? what I am going through.I think you are still far away from the worries that I am sinking in !

Sehju : Me and worries ! Huh !!

that’s the reason , my parents didn’t got me higher education .My only job is to amuse and entertain the king and make him laugh, how come I will know what are worries ?

Priest : Sehju !! now the king has no concern with amusement and merriment ,he weeps day and night, he doesn’t need us anymore, he needs ladies who can lament over his grief.

The priest’s sharp edged words stabbed the ever joyful Sehju, for the first time in his life, his bright face seemed to get seized by a sullen look.

The one who kept the worries at bay all the time, had too been casted by a shadow of sorrow that the priest mourned. 

Diwan (courtier) of the king entered the room where the Priest and Sehju were sitting with their gloomy faces.

To be continued….