The Story So Far: The battle is not always fought on the battlefield. The mind matters. Should you be strong and unbending? Or just let go? Finding my unique power had not been enough to ward off the Daits when they attacked earth. What can?
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I had hoped for peace. I had hoped that when he saw his son was safe even when he was vulnerable and unattended, the Dait King would have had a change of heart and would have withdrawn. I had hoped we could be friends, for Prince Ajat and the Dait Prince were deeply interwoven in my mind and I could not love one and hate the other.
There, I had to admit that I was in love with Prince Ajat. But whose personality did I love? Did the Dait Prince control every aspect of Ajat or only manifest itself when he needed something done? And if he was ever-present, was it his personality that attracted me?
Did I need such fruitless thoughts during a war? Weren't they now both beyond my reach, in realms that I did not belong to, shorn of their powers?
I sighed and focused on the task that had been given to me. I was in the sanctum sanctorum, facing the Sacred Shell and clueless. But I had been told that I would be guided. By whom?
"Ours is a solitary path," I heard a woman speak to me from nowhere, and then she emerged, took shape, right in front of my eyes. Ethereal beauty, indescribable, but what stood out was the simple self-assurance and the aura of power. It was an aura that gripped you, made you want to look at her and never want to look at anything else after that. "It is a solitary path but not lonely. For we carry the love showered on us in our hearts and our responsibilities on our shoulders."
What a mesmerising, sweet voice! I stared at her captivated, a part of me not even listening to the words but just soaking in her voice.
She smiled at me, as if catching my thoughts, all my thoughts, for why else had she spoken about the solitary path?
"That's right. I hear you, whether you speak or not. I have watched you and waited for the time you understand that good and evil, sometimes, cannot be separated, that they are not two things, that sometimes, evil can be more attractive than good... That sometimes, there is no evil and there is no good."
Those words must make some sense but my mind was too addled and I stared at her blankly.
"By destroying the Daits, you will not be rid of anything, for then you will have to deal with the evil amidst you. But you cannot always be at war with external forces just to hide your own weaknesses."
I was angry. "Who are you calling evil? The Prabhas are noble. It is only because of the Daits that my uncle and Prince Ajat went astray."
The Devi laughed as if she found me naive. "It is only Prabhas like your uncle and Ajat that the Daits can influence."
It left me stunned. Seeing I understood the implication, she said gently, "That is the way of the universe. We can blame others or take responsibility. But we can only be responsible for ourselves, not others."
I lowered my head, weighed down by a sense of helplessness, an old familiar feeling. "You had to experience that to know that however powerful you may be, you still do not have enough power."
"Did you feel hurt when you found that out?"
The goddess was quiet for a moment, looking at me with compassion. "Till you realise your true purpose, you cannot understand that of others. But once you do, it doesn't hurt. You realise something else..."
Her pause made me look at her.
"That you are the evil in someone else's world."
I sat down, devastated by this revelation. How could you fight anyone after knowing this?
She sat down beside me. "But you have to fight. Remember only not to judge. Not to label them. Not to think one better than the other. Just that... You have to stand by your convictions."
"Are you saying there is nothing called good and nothing that is evil?"
She was thoughtful and then spoke with a quiet deliberateness, "There is, but time plays a strange game when you view it linearly. It is one of the catalysts that take life to the next step." She looked at me again and said, "And remind us of our limitations."
"You are Mother Earth, the epitome of patience despite all the abuse you have to tolerate, all because of how the Daits are using the humans" I pointed out, a little agitated at her taking such a neutral view.
"I am a mother. I know that abuse is also part of my destiny... And Daits can only touch those who allow themselves to be touched."
I bowed my head.
"What should I do? Can I do anything?" I asked without hope.
"It is your time to act. Only you can act," she told me.
Continued here
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