[ Ego, Orpheus, fēminae per somnia dīxī antequam mē nōrat. ]
Karma! Sandhya had presupposed that she, being
a Goddess, was beyond karmic debt. She was prone to forgiving herself for
having perpetuated wickedness in hell, if not by intent. It was but in Vice to
disobey the eternal laws of darkness, as she thought she could make her own
laws, which would be held sacrosanct in the underworld.
Then one day, Shanaya asked her some difficult
questions, those that she paused to answer.
She could not believe her own silence.
It was a benevolent morning in the forbidden
forest, and on listening intently, she could hear a chant that seemed to
emanate from the heart of the woodland. She had suddenly forgotten that she was
surrounded by the ancient trees who fed on the flesh and bones of the
prisoners. Instead, the forest appeared to be welcoming her, but she was not
sure if this appearance was deceptive.
Shanaya was speaking to her in distant birdsong,
but she could recognize her disguise.
On hearing a solitary blackbird amidst the
overarching trees, she was curious about how a melody so beautiful could be
sustained in hell, a place where evil ruled with absolute control! She was also
wondering if she herself was surrounded by evil, and amidst the same, did she
want to sing in the voices of birds.
She remembered that the swans had gifted her a
ruby that carried the thoughts of her sister to her, something that she was not
yet ready to appreciate. She also remembered that Orpheus had given her a
cryptic book, consisting of empty pages. He had said that, when the time comes,
the vision will appear in ink, and you shall be able to converse with the soul.
Even so, she had carelessly placed the ruby on an
empty page of the book that smelled of amber and the unseen. To her surprise,
words began to appear on the blank pages, a magic that she had not expected!
زَهْر
“Zahr.” That was the first word that appeared! She
could see it written with deep blue ink, by a calligraphy that seemed to appear
from a far past. The ruby was still speaking to her, and the book revealed a
painting of the trees, flowers, and leaves, and, as if she could hear the
blackbird singing to her, yet once again. She had ventured to know more, and
the book showed her the vision of a desert and a solitary man walking on it,
and the forest following him like an ocean.
On looking closer, she could see the vision did
not include her, as if the black river was not born in this realm as yet. The sun and the
moon were yet to be seen, and it was neither dawn nor dusk; the man was walking
in his own darkness, illumined only by the light of his own heart.
Shanaya had asked, “If you are sovereign, then
why did you fear condemnation?” She could hear her asking, “And if so, why did
you need to be rescued?”
She was sitting silently in front of her dark
window, beyond which the trees reverberated with a solemn chant, a mantra that
she could vaguely understand. She could feel the spell slowly fill the night
sky as the forest spoke in a masculine voice, “Om Mani Padme Hum”,
only to be interspersed by the distant song of a blackbird.
Thus was the soliloquy of Sandhya when she
realized that she might have fallen in love with Orpheus, even if only for now!
Iamdiū somnus mihi erat, ipse tempora umbrārum
adiūvit
Certum est quod fors cūnctam terram creet
alteram
Sī regis ipse diēs, lēthum quoque frondibus
affers
Subitō sāncta mors appāruit, trēmens fātālia
tandem sum
Aetheriī cantant melodī, cantant avēs līberae
mihi
चिरं मे शयनं बभूव, स एव च्छायानां कालमुदग्रहीत् ।
नियतं यद् दैवमेवापरं कृत्स्नं मण्डलं सृजति ॥
यदि त्वं स्वयमह्नां शासिता, तर्हि पत्राणामपि नाशं वहसि ।
अकस्मात् पवित्रा मृत्युः प्रादुरभूत्, नियतिबद्धाऽहं शेपेऽन्ते ॥
दिव्याः गायका गायन्ति, मुक्ताः विहगाः मह्यं कूजन्ति ॥
* Arabic, Latin, and Sanskrit are written with the help of AI.
