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Sunday, September 14, 2014

The Missing Notes: Part 2--Pure Anguish

So it happened that Vallabh was born into the family who had wealth and prosperity. The father had acquired considerable wealth and the mother was known for her beauty and charm. They named him Vallabh as he was the missing piece in the joyous gathering of the souls. Vallabh grew up fast.  And it so happened that he developed a hunch and poor eyesight.                                                      Soon he became a hunchback and was ridiculed by all the children in neighborhood.  The parents resented the boy, as he became the focal point of the town’s misbehavior. Over next few years their wealth dwindled due to father’s negligence in the business and increased preoccupation with his boy’s looks. He called upon doctors from far and wide to make him straight. The father lost his family business and so the collectors demanded all the jewelry and the house as ransom.On top of the piling debt, the boy ate a lot and he grew up to be really big, bigger than the other boys of his age. Vallabh’s parents became tired of his hunch, his strange looks, and his growing appetite. One day Vallabh knocked off a painting while reaching for water in a pot after a big meal. The father threw a fit, became agitated and knocked him over. He kicked him out saying that he should have been killed the moment he was born and that he had brought down the entire  family and the wealth they had built for generations.The mother poured hot water on him and said that he was the reason she was no longer admired as the beauty of the town and such an ugly being was not worthy of her love.
Vallabh was out of streets and he begged until he was taken to a shelter. He was passed on from one orphanage to another.  None could bear his presence and his appetite.His body emitted foul smell and his hunch was more prominent than ever.  To his demise, the little food he received was turned into a strong body, which made him fearful.                                Tired of the society in which he grew up, of the life he had lived, and of the hatred he had received – Vallabh finally took off in a random direction towards an unknown town. One day he accidentally touched the left hand of the daughter of town secretary and the secretary brought down hell on him and got him sentenced for six years of hard labor.After six years of being in prison, breaking stones and living filthy, the hunchback was released in a work-farm which employed young men. The farm owner was a simple woman who had lost her husband many years ago in an accident. She was known as the miracle mother who can cure any one of any illness. She looked after about fifty young men and helped them transition back into society while facilitating their growth and natural talents.And so it happened that the Miracle Mother took to young Vallabh and gave him the love and care he never received. As Vallabh changed he noticed how the Miracle Mother worked. He never ventured outside of the farm eventhough the Miracle Mother encouraged him to do so. One day out of curiosity, Vallabh discovered that besides the strangely smelling plants (Vallabh had an extraordinary sense of smell) that the Miracle Mother grew in her farm, there was a pleasant meadow full of fragrant flowers,  and juicy fruits right across from the irrigation canal that watered the farm.                                       Soon Vallabh grew fond of the orchard and the meadow and came to sit there after the day’s labor and spent most of his free time there. Three years passed and Vallabh now became intimately familiar with the potent herbs that grew in the farm and the sweet smelling orchard. Vallabh became Miracle Mother’s right hand as he is the one who grew and took care of the medicinal plants. Vallabh was sent out on errands to collect needed supplies for the medicines and deliver the medicines. He soon became familiar with every smell and odor of the town. Vallabh learned from the Miracle Mother and developed a knack for understanding how certain odors can cure certain diseases.Vallabh became more tuned and grew stronger and bigger. He mastered the arts of potions under Miracle Mother’s tutelage and healed many people including himself.
He combined his sadhna and potions and got rid of his hunch completely. He became un-deformed and cured of his illness.    One day he was told to deliver medicines to an old couple in a nearby town.  Unbeknownst to Vallabh, he entered his hometown completely oblivious to its smells as he never learned to use his gift while he grew up.
                            As he approached the varanda of the pale yellow house with the swing, he immediately recognized it as his childhood home where he was born. He was tuned to his parents smell and as they came out to get the medicines he stood in his track.
    The old frail woman gave him the money and thanked him as the geriatric and dilapidated old house stood still.  The old man sat on the swing blankly looking at him and not looking at him at the same time lost in his dementia.  The woman asked him "what’s the matter son, did you get the right change for the medicines?"
  ‘No mother. I was told not to charge you any money by the Miracle Mother.’
‘ Okay then, you must be hungry. Let me get you some food , then you can be on your way’.  The woman exclaimed.
   ‘ No mother, I do not want your food either’.
  ‘ What do you want then?’ the old man off-handedly asked and continued with this day dreams.
   ‘Your apologies’.
   Finally after a long hard look, both the old man and woman recognized their son.  They cried and embraced Vallabh and said they hardly recognized him, so young, and stout and handsome.
 The whole scene from years of isolation, insult and throw-up by the society played out in Vallabh’s mind, topped by the incident that started it all.
 Vallabh now took the anger he gathered in his entire life, and spat on his parents and threw them back at the swing and said, ‘ I curse you, both of you for abandoning me and throwing me out on the streets while I needed your love the most.  What good are you as parents when you could not love your son. I curse you both that you will suffer till you die in this life and the next till you shall learn to receive me as I am and as I choose to be’.                                  The old man and woman cried their hearts out while sitting on the swing. Their heart-felt apologies and the outpour of years of anguish were heard by no one but the Divine Mother as she is the one who orchestrated this show and others that we are part of.     We are only the writers of the script, the actors and the audience for she is the one who creates us, for she is the script, and for she is the theater seats and the stage upon which these dramas are being played out.

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