Nachiketa 7.

Nachiketa spent the formative years of his life with this man who seemed to exist in a land beyond life and death. By now Nachiketa knew every brook, waterfall, and tree in that hilly region. After the last batch of monsoon clouds had departed, the winter would set in. Then the old man would wake Nachiketa before sunrise and the two would explore the hills for herbs. Their search would sometimes take them to the crest of the hill. Sometimes they would rest under a tree and watch the crowns of the neighbouring hills until the first rays of the morning brought to light their rough surfaces and threw into relief the multiple shades of colours that had so far been merged in one purple sheet of darkness. Below, one would never be able to fathom the depth of the valley.

Once Nachiketa got up from deep sleep, thinking it was dawn. He found the old man sitting cross-legged, silently facing the east. A delicate tinge of pink in the purple sky had deluded Nachiketa. He sat near the old man and stared into the dark. The old man gently stroked his head and said, “This is a false dawn. But do not fall asleep again. Stay awake and you will see how it will change into a real dawn. It is a beautiful experience." So Nachiketa sat there, watching the sky. Sleep overwhelmed him. It was a painfully long interval before the first rays of the sun started to ascend the sky. In the interval he felt drowsy and longed to go back to sleep, thinking that the darkness would never end. But then came the moment when the hint of the lustrous orb of the sun appeared behind the hill and soon the entire sphere began to throb and expand with growing light.

The old man smiled at him and said, “My friend, you will always remember what you have learnt in this moment here and now, and it will fill your life with light as it did today”.