Contd.
Maitreyi looked at him with the memory of what had transpired between them in his previous visit which was as unforeseen as the present one. Without trying to hide her knowledge of the peculiar bonding that was forming between them, she said, "If Yajnyawalkya trusts you, you are not an intruder."
Artabhaga said,"I shall be an intruder still if you don't trust me."
Maitreyi hesitated. There was an invisible barrier beyond which truth waited. She said, "I trust Yajnyawalkya."
Artabhaga looked at her in a surprise. He wondered what held her back then from Yajnyawalkya.
Artabhaga said, with a view to extending the conversation, "Last time I came here with questions. This time I have come to surrender the answers to you. "
Maitreyi exclaimed, "To me?"
Artabhaga said, "Yes, to you. Last time I articulated my doubts, fears, hatred, distrust, everything. I had unburdened myself to you as if I was addressing Yajnyawalkya. Now I know, you held the answers, but wanted me to get them from Yajnyawalkya. "
Maitreyi appeared to be lost in a world that had no co-relation with what he was saying. Her silence drew his attention. It struck him with a sudden clarity that they had moved away into different orbits. She was not the woman he had seen in his earlier visit to the hermitage. Last time he could not state his questions to her. She had to draw them out of his silence. And she had done it with the exactness of the marksman hitting the target simply by following the direction of the sound. He had refrained from alluding to the circumstances in which Shakalya had died. But she seemed to know the meaning of everything.
He remembered how in his last visit she had drawn his scattered energies back to the centre without straining for words. But the woman who was sitting before him now, did not seem to make any sense out of what he was saying to her. She was least aware that she had directed his quest to Videha and perhaps also back to the hermitage.
But Maitreyi had caught only the word Yajnyawalkya and her soul responded with a silent eloquence. Artabhaga looked at her eyes and realized that nothing else had mattered to her at that moment except Yajnyawalkya. Artabhaga felt a life-time throbbing under the silence, waiting to speak in response to a single word : Yajnyawalkya. In that one moment he saw a whole universe of emotions whirling into a vortex, at the centre of which was Yajnyawalkya.
To be contd
Maitreyi looked at him with the memory of what had transpired between them in his previous visit which was as unforeseen as the present one. Without trying to hide her knowledge of the peculiar bonding that was forming between them, she said, "If Yajnyawalkya trusts you, you are not an intruder."
Artabhaga said,"I shall be an intruder still if you don't trust me."
Maitreyi hesitated. There was an invisible barrier beyond which truth waited. She said, "I trust Yajnyawalkya."
Artabhaga looked at her in a surprise. He wondered what held her back then from Yajnyawalkya.
Artabhaga said, with a view to extending the conversation, "Last time I came here with questions. This time I have come to surrender the answers to you. "
Maitreyi exclaimed, "To me?"
Artabhaga said, "Yes, to you. Last time I articulated my doubts, fears, hatred, distrust, everything. I had unburdened myself to you as if I was addressing Yajnyawalkya. Now I know, you held the answers, but wanted me to get them from Yajnyawalkya. "
Maitreyi appeared to be lost in a world that had no co-relation with what he was saying. Her silence drew his attention. It struck him with a sudden clarity that they had moved away into different orbits. She was not the woman he had seen in his earlier visit to the hermitage. Last time he could not state his questions to her. She had to draw them out of his silence. And she had done it with the exactness of the marksman hitting the target simply by following the direction of the sound. He had refrained from alluding to the circumstances in which Shakalya had died. But she seemed to know the meaning of everything.
He remembered how in his last visit she had drawn his scattered energies back to the centre without straining for words. But the woman who was sitting before him now, did not seem to make any sense out of what he was saying to her. She was least aware that she had directed his quest to Videha and perhaps also back to the hermitage.
But Maitreyi had caught only the word Yajnyawalkya and her soul responded with a silent eloquence. Artabhaga looked at her eyes and realized that nothing else had mattered to her at that moment except Yajnyawalkya. Artabhaga felt a life-time throbbing under the silence, waiting to speak in response to a single word : Yajnyawalkya. In that one moment he saw a whole universe of emotions whirling into a vortex, at the centre of which was Yajnyawalkya.
To be contd
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