Nachiketa 8.

Nachiketa

3

These days the old man was mostly confined to the four walls of their cottage. Nachiketa, now young and strong, had been busy collecting life-giving herbs for him. His search would take him to far off hills and valleys, to places which he had never known to exist before. It was an unusual experience for Nachiketa to wander alone thus. When alone, he would sometimes think of the past he had left behind, his father, mother, the fateful day on which he broke away from all of that life, his journey to the unknown…He would be arrested in his meandering thoughts by the reminder of the gentle, soothing words of the old man. In the moments when grief had seemed to overwhelm him, when the effort to connect himself with his origin had proved futile, the old man would say, “Do not try to remember the past, nor think of what is to come. Think of here and now, my boy. Do not chase shadows. Time is ever present. “

Nachiketa would then stare at the herbs he had collected. He would refrain from asking the unasked question:”What was he going to do with these herbs? He could not yet distinguish very well the remedial ones from the harmful. He had to place them before the old man who would feel them with his trembling fingers, smell them and explain the properties of each of them. His eye-sight had weakened and Nachiketa knew that he could scarcely distinguish between objects except by their feel. Looking at him, Nachiketa began to fear the knowledge that seemed to dwell in the deep recesses of the old man’s heart which Nachiketa, as yet, had not begun to fathom.