Prologue

Beginning of the book:

Roger goes to Himalayas

Prologue


Hermit did not know when or where was he born or who were his parents. As far as he could remember that he spent ten or more years with wandering snake charmers and thus he was a snake expert. They caught snakes from wilderness and delivered snake poisons to laboratories. As it is usual in India, they also exhibiting snakes in the streets and were called upon to catch snakes from homes for a fee.

Once they were in the hills of Eastern India and he was playing with a cobra but it bit him on his right wrist. They were deep in jungles and neither had they believed in modern medicine nor they had access to it. His people did everything possible to save his life but finally they assumed that he is dead. They were gathering wood from the forest to criminate him but then an aboriginal appeared. After looking into the whole matter thoroughly he declared that the young snake charmer is not dead yet. Aboriginal was an herb expert; quickly he uprooted a plant and crushed it into a pulp by rock and squeezed its juice in the mouth of dead person. Soon dead snake charmer’s vital life symptoms reappeared.

But his group left him with disgrace because he made a mistake with snake. A snake charmer’s mistake with a snake was an act of incompetence and not a forgivable matter in their community. Aboriginal brought him to his camp where the rest of his tribe was staying. Aboriginals looked after him and he regained his health in many days.

Now he was with a group whose expertise was in poisonous plants and black magic. They mostly camped in jungles and civilized people were scared of them. Money was never their goal but they needed it to survive so they made and sold medicines, poisons, drugs, hallucinogenic mushrooms, medicinal spirits and wines. They were contacted to perform black magic and occult consultations for good but mostly bad deeds. As civil authorities as well most people were always suspicious of their activities so they were always on the move from jungle to jungle.

This group of aboriginals never accepted him as one of their own. He looked and behaved different but actually it worked out to be an advantage. They used him as a courier and messenger for the civilized world around them. Soon he found himself learning about herbs and plants around him. He was making, and selling drugs, liquor, poisons and medicinal wines. He tried those drugs and liquors upon himself, drugs didn’t suit him well and made him sick but he got addicted to the liquor. It did not take him long to become herb-expert and to his own astonishment he saw miracles as well mortalities caused by deadly poisonous plants, spirit and wines. In five years he knew how to kill or cure people with poison. Also he now considered himself an occult expert.

And his life with aboriginals came to a sudden end. He fell in love with aboriginal chief’s daughter, and their frequent trips to jungle suddenly became obvious.
One day chief took him to jungle and said, “Run, and never come back.”
“Why?”
“We saved your life and we really hate to take it back again. We give you a chance to run.”
No further reason was explained but he knew it. If even one person in the tribe wanted him dead he would be dead. He was lucky to be given a chance to run. So he ran for his life.

He did not dare to go back and gather his belongings; he had no food, money or any worldly possessions. He spent many days fighting hunger and finally he became a solo snake charmer. He caught and exhibited snakes in the villages and towns. He lived at the edge of jungles far away from aboriginals. He made his own liquor from sugar, wild honey, beetroots and herbs, some to sell, but mostly to fill his own addictions.

One day he was drunk in a jungle. He saw a huge king cobra and caught it. Intoxication impaired his reflexes to handle extremely fast and deadly snake. Even snake charmers avoided king cobras, which move at lightening speed even on the rugged surfaces. Snake bit him. He knew about a poisonous plant that grew around him for the cure of king cobra poison, luckily he found it, plucked it from its roots and washed it with liquor and started chewing it and gradually lost consciousness.

He woke up with a group of Hermits. With their love, affection and tender care, he was on his feet again. They named him Shiva because he ate deadly poisonous plant and saved his own life. In the company of those ascetics he felt love for the first time in his life. He stayed away from the liquor. Hermits were wanders too but they rarely begged. Ashrams provided them with basic food and other bare necessities. Now he was a Hermit with a goal to ultimate freedom or Nirvana. He was illiterate and it was too late for him literate himself. He went from one guru to another. He fasted and tortured himself but his mind found no rest. For the pursuit of Nirvana he became a solo Hermit.

One day in he saw a snake biting a dog. He had antidote in his bag and saved its life. From that day dog was his only companion and it followed him everywhere.

For many days he was having a vivid dread; it always indicated that he must go to Uttarkashi and serve the holy river Ganges and wait for some person who will walk him to the path to Nirvana. Repetition and the intensity of that dream were making him restless. One day when he woke up he found his dog digging the earth. It uncovered a small brass ancient idol of Mother Ganges and brought it to him. He took it as the message of divinity to go to Uttarkashi. He washed the idol and kept it in his bag and started walking towards the north, in the direction of Himalayas and Uttarkashi, or rather his dog lead him in that direction. As long as they walked in the general direction of Uttarkashi, they both were in peace, if they diverted in other direction for a bit longer, the dog turned its face in the north direction and started barking restlessly. He and the dog, they walked for about six months and walked about two thousand kilometers to the bank of Ganges, in the town of Rishikesh where the holy river leaves the mountains of Himalayas and enters in the plains of north India. After a week, he and the dog arrived on the public ghat in Uttarkashi where Ganges was rushing down with great noise in a huge cascade in the lush green and cool valley surrounded by pine trees. He fell in love with that place instantly. There was a tiny neglected temple on the ghat at the edge of water; he installed that ancient idol which he was carrying all along, that the dog dug it up months ago. There he started worshiping the holy river Ganges. He ate food in the ashrams and gradually he took over the maintenance of the ghat and the little temple and found acceptance among the town people. His name there changed to Gangagiri, a selfless servant of holy river Ganges, keeper of the little temple and the ghat.

He was in Uttarkashi for the last seven years. Two years ago the dog died. Since Uttarkashi is on the pilgrim route to the sacred site of Gangotri where Ganges originated long time ago, so time-to-time he saw familiar faces of his colleagues or Hermits on the ghat. He was a wanderer by character but settled on the ghat with a flame of wait in his heart. Wait for the person who will find him and resurrect him. Not to miss that person, he rarely left the ghat. He had no idea how that person would look like. Is he a Hermit? Dream only said that a person would find him.

He was practicing self-endurance for the last many years. He deprived himself all joys of the life. He ate tasteless food without any salt or spices or stayed hungry. Initially he was miserable and he saw food in his dreams but in few months he trained his body and mind. Some times aroma of foods made him upset but he tried to use that time to test his endurance and he always won. He focused himself totally on the goal to Nirvana.

End of prologue