Arohan- The Ascend

Dark clouds had covered the sky. The moon and the stars had hidden their faces & a dark night was ruling all over. The entire world slumbered on, unaware of what is happening.

But Raman, a school teacher, was sitting thoughtfully in the feeble light of a half-finished candle. His life was exactly like the half-burnt candle which struggled hard against the dark forces of nature.

In the dimly lit low thatched hut his one-month old son was sleeping by his mother after drawing a stomach full of milk. The sleeping mother and the sleeping child radiated an aura of trust in Raman’s fatherhood. But he was a wanderer in the labyrinth of uncertainties.

Raman looked admiringly at his wife. She was a wonderful women. Since the day she married him she had to live life in serials, installments and a meager salary of a school teacher. However, god had always been gracious enough to fetch them all the basic amenities of life. The thing that hurt Raman most was that he had neither any bank balance nor any security for a stable family life. His life was uncertain and unpredictable like weather.

He had always felt an enormous urge to emerge as a national leader who will bring revolutions and reformations in the society he lived. He had the ability to speak like a great orator but he had never found the necessary support and platform to blossom. Time elapsed year by year and like a candle he burnt and his light was limited only to a small village school.

This night when the cloud was the thickest and the night was the darkest, he came out of his little hut. He spread his hands and looked upward with a prayerful heart. He imagined himself to be a venerated leader. He could imagine a great mass following him. He forgot all his frustrations. He forgot his poverty. He forgot his littleness and imagined himself as a great authority who had shaped a new world where prevailed peace, prosperity and happiness. He resigned himself to the divine will. It was still dark. He started climbing up the nearby hill with his arms widely spread and the mind intoxicated with a divine frenzy. He got to the top of the hill. He prayed for the power and wisdom of the almighty. He felt a strange oneness with all the trees that look like shadows in the darkness. He felt the oneness with the rocks that stood unmoved. The night whispered in veneration recognizing his presence. The clouds congregated saluting his divine aspiration and a lightning flashed as a new hope in the midst of utter despair. He felt the communion of the almighty consoling his bleeding heart. His mind and body calmed. He felt an inward peace. The insecurities of life evaporated from his mind like the morning mist. His fervent prayers returned to him as the eternal goodness of love and humanity. He felt within himself the spirit of world teacher and felt to be above all mundane things.

He returned to his hut again and saw a beatific smile flickering across the face of his sleeping son lying by his wife. And the candle still burning and spreading its light and warmth with a renewed conviction.