Once upon a time in a remote village of time and space, there lived a
mountain, a large one. The Sumeru Mountains was very vast and was home to a
variety of flora and fauna, and was also home to a tribe known as Sramans.
Sramans were entrusted with the responsibility of care, protection, and
maintaining the ecological balance of Sumeru Mountain.
There was a mutual love affair between Sumeru Mountain and Sramans tribe.
Whenever Sramans faced any problem in their life, they prayed to the mountain
god and Sumeru always opened the gates of its riches and fulfilled the desires
of its people by eradicating the problems.
Sramans thrived on the offerings of the Sumeru Mountain, and it was
believed that when a Sraman dies then its soul gets united with the Sumeru. Therefore
the Sumeru mountain and Sramans tribe was believed to be one and the same.
Even though the Sramans had no connections with the other civilized
modern societies, but the tribe was administered in the most efficacious
manner. The rights, duties and responsibilities of each Sramans were well
defined. The Sramans were governed by a sacred Trayamak tree at the top-most
part of the Sumeru Mountain. The tree was believed to be the central nervous
system of the Sumeru and everything that happened in the Sumeru was recorded in
the tree and the tree was the cause of all occurrences and mis- occurrences.
The Sramans had well defined legislative, administrative, and judicial system,
but the Trayamak tree was the final arbiter.
The education system of Sramans majorly emphasized on enhancing the
intuitive and extrasensory perception of the students to understand the decrees
of Sumeru and the Trayamak Tree. It was public knowledge that Sumeru contained
extremely precious treasure beneath its surface, but it was law that no one
will ever mine the Sumeru, and the Sramans will only be dependent on the forest
produce. Sramans were consummate warriors, and were trained for combat from an
early age. Especially, the Sramans were trained to channelize the powers of the
Sumeru and the forest against any potential enemy.
The Sramans were not allowed to marry or make relations outside the
tribe; it was believed that any outside communications might contaminate the
virtues of Sraman people. Many people from different parts of the world visited
Sumeru, but none were able to make any permanent establishment and couldn’t
establish any communication with the Sramans.
The Sramans celebrated their annual festival at the Trayamak tree after
the end of the harvesting season every year. The fest started with all the
Sramans encircling the Trayamak Tree into deep trance and praying for their
health and well-being, Trayamak tree issued directions to the Sramans for the
following year, followed by a feast.
At one of those fateful annual celebrations, when all the Sramans prayed
in deep trance, the Trayamak tree started to speak. Trayamak tree said that
this year will be the most turbulent year in the history of Sramans, the omens
shows bloody battle with outsiders. Everyone was fearful after hearing the
tree, the feast was also cancelled and everyone sat with the elders to discuss
the situation. There are differences of perspectives, but everyone concurred on
the authenticity of warning.
Some days passed, and everyone in the tribe got back to their daily
routine. One day, at the time of siesta when everyone was taking rest, a young
girl was awake and was playing with his brother, she heard the cries of a child
from somewhere in the forest. She followed the cries, into the forest and found
a baby lying there unattended near the waterfall. She informed the elders in
the family and soon the news reached every one of the Sramans. They took the
baby to home and provided him with milk and other facilities. The chief called
the meeting of the elders to contemplate this strange incident. Everyone
concurred that that this baby must have some nexus with the prediction of the
Trayamak Tree at the annual fest, and this baby should be returned to his
father or mother at the earliest to avoid any mis-happenings. It was assumed
that the one who has left this baby must have gone to the forests. A massive
search operation was launched by the Sramans, deep in the forest, they found a
dead body of a person wearing military armory, the dead body was frisked and a
letter was found, but the letter was in a language not known to anyone of the
Sramans, but it appeared that it carried something like a royal stamp.
The Chief said that the only way to understand the contents of this
letter is by invoking the omniscient wisdom of the Trayamak tree, which can
understand anything on the face of the earth and beyond. All the Sramans
gathered at the Trayamak Tree that night along with the baby. They kept the
Letter at the base of the tree with the baby comfortably. They started the
rituals to attain the deep trance necessary to open the receptors of their mind
to receive the omniscient wisdom of the Trayamak Tree, everyone encircled the
Trayamak tree in a uniform movement, after a while everyone sat down on the
grassy ground, the Trayamak Tree started to speak, the voice was audible only
in the minds of the Sramans as they had attained the deep trance to open the
receptors of their mind.
The letter started “Dear Senapati, The kingdom of Suneha has witnessed
unprecedented betrayal, fraud, and deception in the last few hours, as the King
was killed by his own brother, Lankesh, who has betrayed him for the lust of
Kingship, and the life of our only descendant and successor Kumara Shatrughna
is in grave danger. Therefore, in capacity of the Queen and Ruler of the
Kingdom of Suneha after the death of the King, I hereby order you to take
Kumara Shatrughna to the Sumeru Mountains and give him to the safe custody of
Sramans to protect his life. The order shall be executed in the most
efficacious and expeditious manner. Maharani Chintamani, Queen of the Kingdom
of Suneha, ROYAL STAMP.
The Sramans still in deep trance started seeking directions from the
Trayamak Tree for the best course of action to be followed under the
circumstances. The Tree spoke, “the Sramans are the carriers of the will of the
Sumeru Parvat, and Sumeru mountains lives through the virtues of Sramans, today
every Sraman should seek the guidance from its heart and follow its decrees,
because Sumeru rests in the hearts of every Sraman, whatever the heart says
shall be the decree of Sumeru, and every particle of Sumeru will fight to
uphold the decree of the heart”.
The Sramans came back from the trance, and it didn’t took long for
everyone to concur that the right course of action would be to provide care and
protection to the baby Kumara Shatrughna, at any cost as this will be the
dharma and decree of every Sraman’s heart.
Kingdom of Suneha was a powerful kingdom at the north of Sumeru, having
influence on the vast expanse of land, and all other smaller kingdoms feared
the wrath of Kingdom of Suneha. It was ruled by a great warrior and philosopher
King SuryaPradhan, who was a great leader and always ruled for the welfare of
the subjects of the Kingdom. The subjects enjoyed great autonomy and freedom,
and were loyal to the King. SuryaPradhan had a step-brother Lankesh, who was envious of the King right from his
childhood because of the great qualities of SuryaPradhan in being a
warrior and a great leader. Lankesh was planning for the coup d'etat for a long
time, and when the favorable time came to fulfill his ambitions, Lankesh killed
the King SuryaPradhan and took over the reins of Kingdom Of Suneha. All the
well-wishers of the king was either killed, or locked in prison, and others who
were left, along with Maharani Chintamani are hiding in the jungle and
preparing for a revolt. Lankesh wanted to crush any chances of revolt, and
wanted to completely eradicate the royal bloodline to deter any heir to stake
claim on the throne. Lankesh madly wanted to find Kumara Shatrughna and kill
him, but he couldn’t find Kumara in the precincts of the Kingdom. Lankesh
activated the spy and intelligence units of the Kingdom in all the nearby
areas, and everyone was ordered to find the whereabouts of Kumara Shatrughna.
Three days later, Lankesh received a message from one of the spies that
Senapati was sighted with a baby near Sumeru Mountain, and it can be presumed
that Senapati is hiding somewhere in forest in the Sumeru under the safe haven
provided by the Sramans tribe.
Lankesh ordered the entire Cavalry, infantry, and artillery forces to
march towards Sumeru, and he himself was leading from the front. When the
forces reached the foothills of Sumeru, the army was ordered by Lankesh to halt
and camp there and a team of 10 armed soldiers were formed to go in the
territory of Sumeru and find Kumara.
The habitation of Sramans was in the inner sanctum of the Sumeru
Mountains, and it was covered by thick forest vegetation from all sides.
After Trekking and travelling for 3 days, the team of soldiers reached
the habitation of Sramans, they entered the colony without letting anyone know
about it. They saw that everyone is standing in front of one house on the
eastern side of the establishment. After close observation the soldiers heard
the cries of a baby, and found that the physician of the tribe is administering
medicines to the baby. Looking closely they found that the baby is none other
than Kumara Shatrughna himself. Soldiers contemplated the situation among them
and reached a consensus that they will attack the house and kill the baby at
night when everyone will be sleeping.
The soldiers were closely monitoring the situation from their hiding,
analyzing each movement of the people. Considering the circumstances, where the
bringer of child is already dead, the chief ordered that a group of people
shall stand guard at the house where the child has been kept, and shall remain
awake whole night. Soldiers came to know about this, but they were complacent
and thought that they are trained soldiers of the army of Kingdom of Suneha,
and a group of forest dwellers will not be able to withstand them.
Night fell, the soldiers were waiting for the right opportunity to attack
but the guards were awake and standing at the different sides of the house. At
the late hours after mid-night the soldiers found that the guard standing at
one of the gates has dozed off, and the soldiers found the opportunity.
Soldiers entered the house and 4 of them decided to wait in the hiding to
negotiate any unwanted situation. Just as the soldiers were entering, one of
them accidently hit the table kept near the entrance, and the utensils kept on
the table fell with a loud noise, which startled each of the guards. Much to
the surprise of the soldiers the Sramans were trained warriors and were trained
in the ancient form of warfare of the tribe. Sramans were masters in close
combat and the fight didn’t last long and the soldiers were soon overpowered by
the guards, majority of the soldiers were killed and one of them was held in
captivity. The crowd gathered
around the house. The soldiers waiting in the hiding analyzed the whole
situation and determined that they should go back to the army camp and inform
King Lankesh about the whole situation.
The soldier captured by the Sraman guards was taken to the chief, the
soldier warned the chief that the army of Kingdom of Suneha is camping at the
foothills of Sumeru, and the misadventure of the Sramans will be dealt with in
a stern manner. King Lankesh will be offended by the fact that Sramans are
harboring his enemy and everyone in the tribe will die a cruel death. The
Soldier advised the king to surrender the child before King Lankesh and pray
for mercy, the king might spare their lives. The chief was anxious that the
prediction of the Trayamak tree is materializing in gigantic proportions where
the life of every member of the tribe is at stake.
Everyone gathered at the center of the Sramans colony, the chief informed
the people about the situation and the potential dangers in the event of war.
Few men advised that we should hand over the baby to the King; some said that
we should protect the child until our last breathe and never give up. The chief
heard everyone and then started speaking “We the Sramans have lived our lives
in the most righteous manner, we have a great accord with the nature in turn we
are closer to god, we are indebted by the great gifts that nature and Sumeru
has given us, and the only way we can repay the debts is by upholding the pious
values of the nature, it has been decreed by Trayamak Tree that we should
listen to our heart which is guided by Sumeru, and I believe that the heart of
a Sraman is pure, it can be corrupted momentarily, but if we invoke the
collective conscience of every Sraman, we will reach at only one consensus and
that to fight for an innocent child, and fight for our future generations to
provide them the pride to say that their ancestors had fought against all odds
to uphold the pious values of Sumeru and the nature, we will fight till our
last breathe”
The electricity of the rhetoric of the chief passed through each Sraman,
and everyone was thumping with pride, it has been decided that each Sramans
will fight till their last breathe to protect and uphold the pious values inherited
by each Sraman from their ancestors and Sumeru.
The four soldiers who fled the Sramans colony after the attack at night
reached the army camp in the late morning and narrated the whole story to King
Lankesh; the king was startled to hear the misadventure of those petty forest
dwellers and immediately ordered the army to move towards Sraman
establishments.
The army of Kingdom of Suneha was large and outnumbered Sramans with a
ration of 1:3, in addition there was cavalry, and heavy artillery equipments.
On the other side, Sramans were master of
their ancient warfare which gives them unmatched ability in close
combat; in addition, they had advantage of better understanding of the
geography of the region. But the odds were heavily against the Sramans, and the
army of the King Lankesh appeared to be unstoppable.
Sramans were ordered by the chief to prepare for the war. Men and women
were busy in preparing their weapons and building an armored wall across the
establishment to stop the enemy forces from entering the colony. The Sramans
had never foreseen this kind of war-like situation and they were ill prepared,
as they have no weapons to attack the enemy from a distance.
The army of King Lankesh reached and took guard outside the Sramans
colony on the next morning. The Senapati announced “This is the Supreme Commander
of the Army of Kingdom of Suneha, you Sramans have no chance in front of our
mighty army and the best advice for you would be to lay down your
weapons and surrender the child Kumara Shatrughna to our great king, and
we promise you that we will go back to our city without resorting to any
bloodshed”.
The chief replied “Sumeru has always given asylum and safe haven to
anyone who seeks earnestly, and today each Sraman is ready to fight till death
to stop you from murdering an innocent child, we are ready to die but only
after quenching the thirst of our weapons with your blood”
The king ordered the infantry to enter the colony and kill Kumara
Shatrughna and anyone who comes between them. The big fight ensued, the heavy
army entered the colony, and blood was spilling everywhere. Sramans had an
upper hand with their extraordinary ability in close combat, and their ancient
form of combat proved to be disastrous for the enemy. Soon dead bodies of the
enemy started falling everywhere and the army retreated.
The Senapati went to the King and informed him of the whole situation,
the Senapati advised the King that it is hard to win against Sramans in close
combat, and therefore they have to employ the artillery to hit Sramans from a distance.
The artillery started firing fireballs on the Sramans Colony and stampede
in the colony ensued. Many of the houses were on fire. The men and women
gathered around the chief to seek his directions as the fire balls may soon set
fire on the whole colony. The chief said that we have to leave the colony and
take everyone to the Trayamak tree, where we will decide our next course of
action. Everyone obliged, they took the child and their weapons and retreated
to the higher mountain side towards the Trayamak Tree. In about 3 hours, they
reached the Trayamak tree.
The artillery firing continued for some time and only halted after the
Senapati was convinced that there will be no one alive in the colony. The King
ordered a team of soldiers to go inside the colony and look for the corpse of
Kumara Shatrughna to ensure that the heir is dead. The soldiers searched
everywhere but they didn’t found anyone. The soldiers came back and apprised
the king that the Sramans along with the child has retreated somewhere. The
King ordered the troop to search for Sramans in the higher mountain side.
Night was falling, everyone was anxious about their destiny; the Sramans
started the rituals to invoke the wisdom of Trayamak tree by opening the
receptors of their mind. The tree spoke “there is nothing new today, we have
always fought the adversaries who are bigger and mightier than us, but we have
not lost until we give up the fight. Sramans are pride of Sumeru and they have
demonstrated their heart by putting up a great fight against the mighty
adversary today. We as human beings are only prisoners of our own imagination,
and we just have to shatter our identities and tap the unlimited will of the
virtue of being just a “life”, you the sons and daughters of Sumeru have the
infinite power to control each and every, small and mighty organism of Sumeru,
you just need to break the prisons of your identities by your collective will,
and become infinite. Tonight, there will be unification of the energies of
Sumeru for one great endeavor, to remove the enemy out of our territory. So
make a chain of yourselves and destroy your identities which are acting as
hindrance in your unification with Sumeru and its boundless resources, and
become infinite and boundless.”
Everyone formed a human chain in the same state of mind, the energies
started flowing through them, and a large ball illuminated in the night sky, it
became bigger and bigger, and then exploded. Everyone felt
something inside them has exploded, and they can now see and listen to
the whole of Sumeru in their astral body inside their minds. They asserted the
will to each and every living organism of Sumeru that an enemy has entered our
territory and that we have to remove them from our territory. Every Sraman
experienced the great movements in the Sumeru, they knew that there is mobilization
of living creatures in Sumeru on a large scale.
The King and all the soldiers witnessed the large illuminated ball in the
sky and its explosion; they can now assume the location of the Sramans but
could not understand the phenomenon. The army started moving faster towards the
location of Sramans.
One of the Sraman saw that a large group of tiny insects were moving
towards them with loud humming, the humming turned into all kind of noises, and
in a few moments the area of Trayamak tree was filled will all kinds of
animals, Lions, tigers, rhinos, elephants, dogs, some strange mighty beasts,
all kinds of birds, and beasts of every kind, and they kept on accumulating.
In the meanwhile the Kings’s army reached the area of the Trayamak Tree
and attacked the Sramans. Suddenly, the whole of Sumeru went after the King and
his army. The beasts were ripping apart the army like their everyday hunts; the
bushes of the trees strangulated the soldiers. Soon, there was stampede in the
army, and each of the soldiers along with their King was retreating to save
their lives. But it was late and in a few moments the entire army was
eliminated, even the tiny organisms have participated in this war against evil.
They saw that the child Kumara Shatrughna was smiling in the corner and
playing with the bushes of the tree. The chief said “in every era, god sends us
their prophets to connect us to the divinity resting inside us, and this child
Kumara Shatrughna is one such prophet of god”. Everyone thanked the Trayamak
Tree and Sumeru, but no one slept that night, everyone celebrated and immersed
themselves in the glory of great mountain god Sumeru.
Next morning, the chief and all the Sramans took the child to the Kingdom
of Suneha, to handover Kumara to Maharani Chintamani, who came out of her
hiding from the forest, and was anointed as the RajMata to rule over the
kingdom till Kumara Shatrughna matures into an able ruler. Maharani thanked the
Sramans for everything that they did for the child, and offered them wealth and
residence at kingdom of Suneha, but Sramans declined the offer and said that
they are forest dwellers and wealth and residence in city will mean nothing to
them. Sramans actively participated in the celebrations in the kingdom, and
left for their abode in Sumeru after a few days.
Everyone lived
happily ever after.
Thanks
for Reading…!