Chapter 5
Kamalkant was now a broken man and his mind turned to spirituality. Because of his exceptional surgical skills, the prison authorities allowed the prison hospital to use his services for which fees were paid to his prison account. While keeping up his skills in tact, Dr Kamal kant also developed himself spiritually by reading lot of books and calling for new books to be added to prison library.
Shanta continued to ignore him as she believed he had bungled the entire case by trusting lawyers of inadequate capability to put up effective defence. Kamalkant stopped thinking about his family and thin coat of vairagyam covered his mind set. In recognition of services rendered and good conduct through out the term, he was released after 12 years. When he emerged out of Tihar jail,near Delhi, far away from Hyderabad, he was a totally different man , with out any ambition or hatred against any one. He tried to contact Shanta but she did not respond and he gave it up. He decided, he would not go down south. During the jail term, the fees paid for his services and other allowances had amounted to a sizeable sum with which he could sustain himself.
He travelled north, roamed about in the hills and reached gandaki river As he was bending down to scoop water in his hands from the river, he found the stone. HE PICKED IT UP AND EXAMINED THE SHINING PEBBLE, HE FOUND A SENSE OF ELATION IN HIS MIND. The stone was heavy. The sun’s rays hit the stone and in the reflected beam of light he found new meaning to his life. He felt the stone was cleaning him inside out. He had heard his Brahmin friends talk about saligrams which they kept in the puja rooms .He had heard them tell about power of these pebbles when kept and worshipped daily. They called their pebbles by different names of gods. He wondered if the pebble found by him also had some unknown power.
He examined the stone sitting on the river bank while drying himself in the sun. A worm had drilled a hole in the stone to make a home for itself while it remained submerged in the river water. To his keen eyes, the hole looked like some one leaning against a cow and holding a flute in hand. He called out softly,’venugopala’ and put the stone to his ears. He distinctly heard the tunes of long forgotten melody on Krishna sung by his mother. Kamalkant was thrilled that he could recognise the song after all these years. He cried out like a child repeating name of Krishna .From that day, the stone remained with him close to his body. He felt divine agencies were now beginning to direct his life. He spent many evenings in isolation talking to the stone and one fine day, the stone talked back.
Some thing in his mind told him to go to Rishikesh, . He found an ashram who could use his skills in return for a roof and board. .He began an altogether new life He was now past 65 years and his spiritual leanings made him pick up friendship with all people who came to rishikesh for mental peace
The Ashram authorities found kamalkant had amazing skills at organising events. Over stressed people from big cities like Mumbai, Calcutta, Ahmedabad etc found it rejuvenating to spend a few peaceful days at the ashram. The spiritual discourses by kamalkant became a great hit and his advice on health matters were very helpful. kamalkant worked on combining the concepts of health and spiritualism, perfected it and prospered. Soon the ashram had a health spa, yoga clinic and counselling desk. Kamalkant was a new man with flowing grey hair and matching long beard. The ashram authorities soon made him a director and he was now officially referred as swamiji..
Life seemed to settle nicely to a routine keeping swamiji happy and busy forgetting those days of suffering behind bars. Swamiji kept attributing all his success to the black stone in his hand. He maintained it in a divine form ,an ikon .He performed puja to the stone and offered milk and fruits before his meals. He would talk to the stone calling him Krishna and telling him about the work done by him every day. The stone seemed to listen and occasionally uttered a word or two in appreciation. The rational mind of the doctor termed it as his own imagination on account of loneliness and lack of understanding companion in his life. But that changed soon when the stone became down right chatter box admonishing at times and advising him when he needed some.
One day after his morning puja, the pebble talked to kamalkant. He heard ,’Kamal, will you please take me out in the open today. I would like to look at the sky and hills around this place.’
Kamal was puzzled.He said, ‘sure Krishna’. He took the pebble in his hand and walked out to the garden with in ashram compound. The sky was grey and it was very cold out in the open.
It had been a very hot summer in the plains and winter had set in earlier than usual. visitors to the ashram would be very less in number and after new year traffic will pick up. Today, dark clouds were clinging to the hill tops and there was a hint of rain. The stone shook in his hand and he heard the stone say, ”There is going to be a cloud burst in the hills and there will be huge landslide. Many people will suffer. why don’t you go and alert the authorities. Stop people from travelling”.
Kamal knew what he had to do. He rang up the hospital and advised them to test their state of preparedness to handle a sudden landslides. He also asked for a meeting with military regulators to stop movement of vehicles in the hill roads. The commander of military camp gave him time to talk. THE COMMANDER WAS AMMUSED THAT A SWAMIJI FROM LOCAL ASHRAM WAS GOING TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT POSSIBLE LANDSLIDES. The army usually took control of hill roads during winter months. The commander was busy organising supplies for long winter months. He listened to the swamiji with respect but laughed out when the good swamiji began to advise him on what he should do .
The commander said rudely, ’that is enough swamiji. we will take necessary precaution. but let me tell you, it is too early for landslides. The rains will not be so heavy during this period, they pick up strength a little later only. Anyway thank you for your concern and we will take steps to face any disaster”.
Kamal felt like a fool talking about non existing danger.
Swamiji returned to ashram a little disillusioned. Late in the evening he heard a great explosion in the military camp in the hills and saw a huge ball of fire rising in air.
It came on TV that huge ammunition dump maintained by the army had exploded causing huge landslide trapping a dozen army trucks and many personnel on foot patrolling the hill roads. A SUDDEN CLOUD BURST COMPLICATED MATTERS AFFECTING RESCUE WORK. The commander remembered the swamiji and he promptly told the Military intelligence people that was investigating the explosion that swamiji had a prior idea about the coming events. That was enough.
Early morning, much before sunrise , swamiji was picked up from the ashram premises by MI for interrogation. How did he know about landslides ?. Did he know about explosion?. did he see any terrorists in the hills or around ashram? how and where did he pick up all this information?. Even the met dept had not seen the cloud burst. How did the swamiji know about this ?
The questions came one after other, in a frightening sequence. Swamiji was staggered .he looked at the pebble in his hand,’ Krishna , what is this?’.
The pebble remained silent.
Two burly sergeants joined the team. the interrogation was now becoming a bit physical. The sergeants took turns to punch swamiji in the face.
Swamiji fell off the chair. THE PEBBLE ROLLED OUT OF HIS HAND.
He leaned forward to pick it up. The sergeant kicked the swamiji and other sergeant picked the pebble up.
KAMAL KEPT TELLING THAT HIS KRISHNA HAD TOLD HIM TO ALERT THE AUTHORITIES.
WHO IS KRISHNA? WHERE IS HE NOW? .We would like to talk to him
“He is very much here. He is listening to all this. You better believe me.”
They laughed at him. They were angry that he was not cooperating.
It is ridiculous to believe that a stone could talk.it is better not to talk about Krishna. He kept looking at the sergeant who was tossing the stone and catching it.
The nature of questions changed
Where are you from? what is your back ground?
How do you know about medicine ? Are you a doctor?
Kamal was silent
Why did he come to rishikesh?
One by one, in a systematic manner, they extracted every bit of information he was desperately trying not to reveal
He was in tihar?
That clinched it. They slammed him in a cell in the barracks. They were courteous enough to return the stone to him.
For two months , they held him. Their investigation could not link him with the events of the day. They decided it was a cruel coincidence. They thanked him for his advise on handling the disaster. he was allowed to return to the ashram. The ashram authorities were decent. They did not ask embarrassing questions. They made it clear that he could not stay in the ashram any more. He was asked to clear out of the place.