CHAPTER 7: Aryaman To The Rescue

Ravichandran hesitated.

“Let us not waste time here, O King! Please trust me!” So saying, Aryaman sat on his toes and asked the King to accede to his request.

Finally, the King agreed. Aryaman made him comfortably sit on his shoulders and slowly moved up in the air. In a short while, he had reached the outskirts of the forest where a white horse was waiting for the King.

He landed and the King got up from his shoulders. “Thank you! You saved my life today!” Ravichandran acknowledged finally regaining some of his composure.

“You are welcome, O King! Actually, I wanted to meet you for some discussion. You appear shaken by today’s incident and thus I believe you need to rest. If you deem if fit, can we meet tomorrow?”

The King agreed and mounted his horse.

“My purpose of coming to this forest was to stop you from hunting, O King! Animals should not be killed for sport. After all, how would we feel if a similar treatment is meted out to us?” Aryaman deduced.

The King forced upon a smile. The flying hero bid him adieu and rose in the air. Soon, he disappeared into the sky flying.

King Ravichandran looked on awe-struck. Was he a deva in the guise of a human, he wondered? What does he want to discuss with me? That was the other question, which bothered him. Slowly, he took the reins in his hands and galloped the horse to his palace.

Sitting on a golden couch in his chamber, King Ravichandran pondered about the incredulous events he had witnessed in the forest. Just then, one of his spies came to see him. He had brought news about the other deeds Aryaman had performed in the village of Amlanagar. He also informed the King about the strange events which occurred in the temple that had unnerved the authorities to such an extent that they had closed the place of worship until they arrived at a decision about the future course of action!

After the spy had left, the King was lost in deep deliberation. Who could Aryaman be? A couple of facts, which became clear to him, was that the flying hero upheld Dharma and he cared for the people. Was he a Deva who had come for some purpose? He wondered. Ravichandran hoped that his meeting with Aryaman on the coming day might throw some light into these aspects. He usually spent his evening time in complete merriment by winning and watching dance programs in the durbar. However, this day turned out to be an exception as his thoughts solely rested on Aryaman.

The next day, in Amlanagar, some villagers had gathered on the outskirts of a river alongwith their children. Some wooden logs tied by coir ropes were kept near the banks. The villagers used these logs as boats to cross the river with their children. Thereafter they had to travel quite a few distance on foot in inhospitable conditions to leave their children in the abode of their guruji, Vedanand. The parents used to wait for a couple of hours in the guruji’s place and then used to bring the children back in yet another grueling journey. Beside the other end of the river, was a hilly terrain, which could have served as a shortcut route to their travelling. However, there was a deep partition at the center of the hillock, which made travelling over it impossible.