The Vision Before the Arrival of the Maid

"Are you the bridge?" The girl asked me.
"I am the banks, the bridge and the river" I answered her.
She became silent.

I was seated on the large sofa under the neem tree in my backyard. It was more than a sofa, it was a throne. My legs were crossed in lotus position. I was dressed in dark brown silk paavadai. The south Indian skirt. A silk blouse of the same colour. A copper colour silk davani or half saree draped over my breasts and left shoulder. My hair was heavily oiled and was straight and flowed freely.

She was seated on the floor. On the ground. On bare Earth. Dressed in a dark brown silk saree with copper colour border with matching blouse. She was dressed like a south Indian bride with all the jewels and neatly braided hair.

I was nineteen then, and she was twenty one.

She had come in search of me. To know the truth. To see the truth.

She thought she had come to me because she had chose to come. The girl is wise. Now she has realized that she never chose to come here, she was summoned by me.

Yes, when I saw her in my meditation a week ago, when I saw a lost girl. I called her. I did not know where she lived. She did not know where I lived. But I called her. I said "Come to me, darling" And here she is now. Seated before me.

"How did you find me?" I asked her.
She had only one answer. "I don't know".

"Will you show me the truth?" She asked.
"What is the truth that you seek?" I asked.
She fell silent again.

"Girl." I said.
She looked up at me.

"Look behind the throne in my left side"
She turned her head and looked in that direction.

"Do you see a termite mound?"
She nodded her head.

"That, is a manifestation of my womb." I said, gently touching my lower abdomen over my skirt with my right hand fingers. "Within it lives a cobra. It is a glimpse of the truth that you are seeking. A condensed, physical form of the glimpse of truth."
She kept staring at the mound.

"Darling" I said a few minutes later.
The turned her head and looked at me.

"Go into the house and have some sleep. You have travelled a long way to reach me."
She turned her head and looked at the back door of the house. It was wide open.

She stood up. Slowly walked towards the door. She stopped at the edge of the door and turned back. I said nothing. She stepped in and disappeared from my sight but I was still watching her. I have been watching her from last week, from the moment I saw her in my meditation. I watched her travel from her home to mine. I cannot get rid of watching her.

She walked into a room. She sat on the bed. She laid down and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths. Then I closed my eyes. I stopped seeing her. I was in the void.

I turned back and I found myself in a mud walled hut with bare ground floor. The roof was covered with dried grass. There in that hut, seated on the floor was Maa Dasi. Dressed in black blouse and knee length yellow skirt with yellow floral designs. Her hair was untied. She put out her tongue, and red nectar flowed out which she collected into a conch shell that she was holding on her right hand. She laughed and I recoiled back, terrified. She said, "your house will be my new hut". Then she ululated and I opened my eyes. I saw the girl wake up terrified. She has seen what I saw.

She walked out of the room and came to the back door. She stood their looking at me for a few minutes. Then she turned her head in the direction of the termite mound. Then she walked towards it and kneeled before it. She moved her head forward and look in through an opening. It was dark inside. She smiled and kissed the edge of the opening. I felt the kiss in my womb. Then she hugged the mound and placed her head next to the opening. She felt very relaxed. I felt the love of a daughter.

I stood up and walked towards her. I knelt beside her. I softly touched her shoulder. She lifted her head and looked at me with a smile.

"It is my mother's womb. You are my mother." she said.
"How can it be? You are older than me." I said.

"I am starting to see the truth. You have a body of a young woman. You are not young as you look. You are as old as this world. You told be you are the banks, the bridge and the river."
"Yes" I said.
"You are also the mountain, the ocean and the sky above" she said looking up.

"The woman who I saw in the dream. Is she the mother?" she asked.
"Yes darling" I said.

"You have seen her many times. Haven't you? In many forms. And in all forms you are the one who holds her, who contains her. Isn't it?" she kept on asking. She was realising the truth.

She continued. "The mother is the truth and you are its container. The snake here is the mother and you are its home. And yet you are not distinct from the mother, hence you are the truth." she said. A drop of tear flowed down from her left eye.

I kissed on her forehead. "Darling, you are the seer of the truth. Even the truth itself must learn the truth from the seer. You have enlightened the truth and yourself"