Everything Oscillates... (Just a Share)

 "DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?" he asked. A guy in his mid forties, I guessed. He wasn’t looking towards me while asking the question. His eyes were closed. I thought he was talking to himself.

          “I am asking you, my son. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?” He opened his eyes. Those were the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen till date.

Do I? I think deep down inside, I do believe in God. There is a god in all of us.
                                                                           
"No" I replied.

I couldn’t have said yes. It was something I had decided in my mind, before meeting this guy.

"Are you sure you don’t believe in God?" his eyes were glued to mine now. There was something about mystique about this guy. I had a feeling he could read my mind. His tar black eyes were piercing my body.

          I was chocked. Don’t know how. Don’t know why. But try as I could, I just could not speak. I nodded. It meant acceptance. There seemed no point in lying to this guy.

"So do you believe in devil?"

I just knew that was going to be his next question. Any toddler could have guessed it! Every religious Guru plays with these two opposites- good and bad, God and Devil. Life and Death.

          Do I believe in devil? I do not know. Its something which I prefer not believing in.

"I don’t think about it" I mumbled. He smiled.

"You sure you don’t think about it?" his smile grew wider. It was as if he was manipulating my mind.

He was pushing me harder with his questions. He had nailed me now. I was under his black eyed spell. His presence had an over powering effect on me. I could sense some waves coming out of this person. The power. The force. It was disturbingly intimidating.

          My heart was racing now. I grew paler. Know it sounds exaggerated, But if you don’t believe me, meet this sadhu. His name is Shastri. Everyone in the village believes he can look into the other world. I didn’t believe it before. Now, I just don’t think about him.

          "LIFE AFTER DEATH. You believe in it?"

I decided to look away. I was avoiding his penetrating eyes. I tried focusing on a mountain in horizon. Heusan point was the name of the peak. I was in the village for two weeks now. I knew basic geography of the place.

"You know why its name Heusan point?" he finally asked a human-like question.

"No, I am kind of new to this place." my first confident answer.

 He was still observing me keenly. He smiled. He showed his blackish teeth. Everyone said he ate raw dead meat. Meat of a very different kind. Meat of the most intelligent animal. Shastri ate flesh of dead human bodies.

"Everything oscillates my son. EVERYTHING OSCILLATES!" he said.

And he handed a note. His smile suddenly turned into a grim. He closed his eyes. Turned his head towards the skies. Then in a fast rhythmic move, he rolled his palm all across my face.

As soon as his rough hands touched my face, I heard a sound. I knew it was a man’s voice. A man calling for someone. Or maybe a man talking in my ear. I can never recollect, no matter how hard I try, what that sound said. I can’t even describe exactly what the sound felt like. Was it happy? Sad? Was it in agony? I do not know. I guess it’s something which I’ll never know.

          I was in no further mood to be interrogated by him. I took the note. Carefully folded it and placed it in my shirt’s upper pocket. And I left.

By corner of my eye I saw him open his eyes. I saw him smile again. even when I turned I felt him seeing me. I felt him touching me.

 "Everything oscillates" he said again.

“EVERYTHING OSCILLATES”

It gave me creep. I washed my face with water soon as I reached home. I tried to analyze what had really happened. I thought long and hard about my meeting.

I met Shastri to prove he was a fake sadhu, but now, I just don’t want to think about this guy.

          Everything oscillates. These words were roaming in my mind. What did he mean by that? I wanted to solve this puzzle. On second thoughts, did I? I don’t know for sure. May be he had hypnotized me. May be not. I do not know. I could still see him smile. Look heavenwards. I could feel his hands on my face. Voice? The voice was gone. The voice was dead.

          For days the note remained untouched. I knew where it was but didn’t want to read it. I didn’t have the guts to read it. The note called me. It was talking to me. I had to read it. I had to face what I had started. Finally I decided to read it. It read-

             " The traveler achieved what he was destined to achieve. The traveler finally reached the top of the mountain. It was the most beautiful sight to be seen. He decided to change the route he had taken before. He wandered for hours and days together. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Everything kept coming back in circles.

                   He was determined to make his way out. He knew god will surely come to his aid. His heart was filled with hope. His brain started playing games with him. Many a times, he felt like giving up. He tried to recall every person he loved. His memory kept fading. Only his survival instincts were alive. Time was a cloth weaved with reality and illusion. It was like a grave sleeping solemnly and everything moving around it. A distant sound was calling him somewhere.

                   He thought he was dreaming. Both Sun & Moon were to be seen, but light kept fading. Sky overhead was playing games. His journey turned darker and darker as time progressed. He felt somehow, he was falling short of time.
                  
                   He decided to act quickly. He was hoping to be found by someone. There was not even a single soul to be seen nearby. He was totally and completely lost. Fear was creeping all over him. Everything around was hypnotizing him. It got tougher to focus on what he was doing. He was trying his best to understand where he had reached. He decided to sit under a tree.
                  
                   And the enlightment occured. All the weariness he had was gone. He wasn’t thirsty anymore. Food didn’t bother him. The life he led before had no meaning now.

                   In a way everything felt familiar but was entirely new. He started seeing the world differently then. This death led to another chapter in his existence. "
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
            The note ended. THIS is why they named it Heusan point! I felt bad for the Heusan guy. A sad, lonely death. I folded it back again and kept it back in my shirt.

Suddenly I heard a voice. Was it the same voice which I had heard at Shastris? I cannot say that. Only similarity which I can recollect of the two sounds is, I can’t recollect any part of it!

I looked everywhere around me. I was alone. I looked everywhere in the house. There was no one except me there. I went back to my room where I read the note. The note was open. It had no folds. It lay cleanly on my table.

          "Everything oscillates" Shastri said. Shastri was smiling. His black eyes were watching me. His stained teeth were hypnotizing me. His hands on my face. An unknown voice in my head.

What did he mean by that? The question oscillated in my mind. I read the note again.

Inner voice made me read its last line, again and again. I felt it had a deeper meaning. There was more to this note than what I had read. The note hadn’t ended there.

This death led to another chapter in his existence. Everything oscillates. Heusan point. Shastri. I was missing something.

          I read the note again.

          Everything oscillates… EVERYTHING OSCILLATES…

          YES! EVERYTHING OSCILLATES. The voice in my head. Shastri’s smile all over again. The note oscillated. It had a deeper meaning.

          This death led to another chapter in his existence.

          I read this sentence first. Then its previous and then sentence before it. I continued reading the note in reverse order of sentences. The note ended. Everything does oscillate.

          Death after life and a life after death both exists. Everything in this Universe; from the gigantic earth to tiny electrons in an atom. Everything moves around something. Everything oscillates. I saw Shastri smiling. My view towards things changed… forever…