Saturday, 22 February 2025

Chitragupta clears Yama’s doubts

 Clouds of confusion springs from seeds of doubts!

The recent goings on, between Brahma and Chitragupta, stirred the pangs of jealousy in Yama's heart. His mind was telling him that feeling jealous is not a virtue of an Immortal, but his emotions reasoned it out as the side effect of dealing with the souls of human beings. Collectively they wondered why the human being alone recipient of this trait are, and what is the function of their much touted about sixth or seventh sense, in this regard!

To camouflage the state of mind, he preferred to raise questions as doubts, and doubts as questions. A doubt has to be posed or raised? This question confused him a little more. Not to miss an opportunity, he wanted to corner his bête noire, who has been freewheeling in a different orbit. Finally, he made up his mind, to do this way or that way, and went in search of Chitragupta to force for a one-to-one session and, raise his doubts.

Promptly, many troubling questions, in the garb of doubts, flooded in his mind, casting another doubt, whether he had contracted the disease of jealousy, as perks of his duties. There was no alternative, and he was duty bound to deal with every soul, that came calling. Having clandestinely watched Brahma preparing a question bank, he too wanted to do the same, though it would be a ‘doubt bank’. He did not want to abandon his fire-purified nugget of wisdom - easy to follow than lead and started to prepare the ‘doubt bank’. 

As a contingency measure, he enlisted a few, amenable nerds for help. He wanted to position them, as inconspicuously as possible, to absorb the entire discussion, for a verbatim. Transcription. At leisure, he would analyse the content, to understand what transpired during the meeting. He was satisfied with this fail-safe plan.

Coming out of his residence, he saw Chitragupta lugging some heavy object, instead of entrusting the task to any one of the souls, hanging around. This act raised one more doubt in his mind. Would it be something sealed under 'heavenly secret? The vibe he got was another foreboding doubt - What secret force keeps on pushing Chitragupta closer and closer to Brahma? Would he be a contender to my throne, sooner than later?

Hiding them under wraps, for the present, he hurried to meet with Chitragupta. 

He knew of himself as the first mortal to die and transcend to become a ruler of Yam Lok, yet his doubt was whether he would die one more time? Has any earthling has calculated his retirement age, by their standard year? Whether to include these doubts also, as supplementary questions? Like misfortune, which never comes alone, his doubts too appeared to come with companions. Literally with his back to the wall, he cursed himself for being the only fountain of doubts in all of Yam Lok.

The doubt waves, from Yama, hit Chitragupta like a ferocious tsunami. Intensity of the waves unsettled him to the point of crying aloud for help. This helplessness, just lasted for a very brief time. Chitragupta managed to capture the doubts from the tormented mind of Yama. He decided the only option was to clarify those doubts, one by one, to bring peace to the agitated mind. He chose a kind approach, to start with a few words of praise. He took the lead and asked, “Shall we go inside and talk?” Yama feeling awkward and looking sheepish murmured, “Sorry for forgetting protocol. Please step inside”? He had one more doubt – Is our frosty working relationship finally showing signs of a thaw?

First of all, I would like to share some insights, in the form of transient memory. You will hear and forget them, as soon as I finish. I hope this would settle some of your doubts, concerning me. Being Brahma's progeny, I am omnipresent and omniscient by design. This does not entitle me to any preferential Cosmic Rights and am happy to remain a protégé, till the end. I will answer to your nagging doubts. There is no secret force that keeps on pushing me closer and closer to Brahma, because I am already there by design and how can I get still closer to him? I have no such aspiration to usurp your throne, then how would I become a contender!’  

By the way, you need not have troubled the nerds, to eavesdrop on our discussion. Let them go away. Because, from now on whatever I am going to say, will remain etched in your mind and there is no need for a backup plan. The effect of the imparted transient memory and disclosure of his secret eavesdropping plan made Yama to feel extreme discomfort. Deflated, he could not even summon the strength to instruct the nerds and managed to wave them away. However, he did not forget to wonder, how Chitragupta always managed to make me feel inadequate? 

Chitragupta continued, “I will clear the doubts or questions, regarding your dying once again and calculated retirement age, like this:

The infinite is the Creator. Then super immortals, immortals and semi-immortals get placed in the hierarchy. Super mortals, mortals and semi- mortals come in order on earthAs a mortal after death, you gate crashed and took over Yam Lok, escaping punishment due to a divine intervention. Your sense of righteousness, mindset on martinetical approach had to be pressed into, to deal with the souls of earthlings. As a quid pro quo, you have been bestowed with a quasi-immortal status. You are now, an undisputed judge, dispensing dharmic justice with unwavering dedication. Think of the chaos which otherwise would have rocked This Lok! Be happy, feel proud” 

Yama felt proud and could not hide it. Chitragupta smiled because he intended to evoke that response. 

Continuing, he said, “Yama, you might live for another 350 to 360 crore years, (now you are 4 lakh years old) or depart in about 500 crore years, when your ‘star father’ dies, whichever is earlier. Due to your quasi-immortal status, there is no exception whatsoever and you cannot hitchhike to another dimension. Take heart, your services are being well appreciated by Brahma.”

As the unrivalled ruler of Yam Lok, you cannot be all forgiving. Still, you can emulate Brahma in this regard. 

"Why, and how " asked Yama in a doubtful tone. 

"Not an earthling forgets to blame Brahma for the karma experienced or would be experiencing, on earth. Is he not forgiving all of them and keeps his calm? Why not you welcome and forgive death, whenever it comes calling? It will give you peace of mind, now” It might embellish your reward, if you could brush aside attachment and think about forgiveness. It is only a suggestion.” 

Only, Chitragupta could pull it off, like a seasoned diplomat – giving a gentle and subtle advice, with a slight hint of reprimand, in the guise of a suggestion.

Yama became a bit emotional, after hearing such a precise analysis and lucid explanation. For his part, Chitragupta felt his approach has started yielding tangible result – instead of doubts, questions are being asked, though tentatively.

“No doubt, you have the distinction of being the only fountain of doubts in all of Yam Lok. But once in a while, it is also being raised by the acts of humans, in the minds of the ‘truly Immortals’. For example, the temple runs have a fascinating story to tell. My survey pegs the reason like this: 25% are forced by peers, 25% enter to seek something in advance, 15 % as a means of getting away from home, 15% with mixed devotion and thanksgiving agenda, 10% in search of cure for illness. The twist is, these numbers change, like seasons, due to migration from one group to another. Of the remaining, 5% visit only to pray without accompanying applications. The rest 5% never coming anywhere nearby.  The moral of the story has been breeding uncertainty, in the minds of the worshiped.

While as an earthling, you might have heard about illusions and mirages.  Attachment, envy and jealousy etc; are its tools, to dominate. Every day, advances are being made by some of the current incumbents and while a few others are fixated on a particular star, anchor the position of a few planets, and then try to decipher a human’s life, till the end. The former tries, unsuccessfully, to breach the barrier while the latter, believes in positions and numbers of a horoscope they have cast. Both the factions assumed, without realising, that permanence and achievement are a mirage. Yet they go on about it, with a certainty that would lead somewhere. Certainty gives no room to doubt. As you are a welcome guest there, visit earth and mingle with them and experience it for yourselves.

Doubts are like the many headed Hydra. The effective way of dealing with them, is not to succumb to uncertainty but by hitting them with questions eliciting information. Instead, you are prejudging the outcome, burdened with uncertainty. Are you not aware that uncertainty itself is doubt? Naturally doubts are born out of this, assisted by fear of inadequacy or failure. Who gets doubts - one accepting anything at face value! Verifying or seeking for more information, through questions is the only way to illuminates the doubts shrouded in darkness.”

Hearing the wheels meshing, Chitragupta paused the discussion to create an opportunity in Yama’s mind, to absorb the content.  Not allowing more time for Yama’s mind to wander, Chitragupta continued, “Just awhile back, you grudgingly thought why heavenly secrets are entrusted to me. Let me clear that doubt troubling you. The hefty object, I was dragging, happens to be a ledger accounting for the active black holes, neutron stars, dwarfs, supernovae explosions, space occupied by ejected star materials, nurseries forming new proto, aborted and baby stars and so on of celestial objects. Their records, numbers going beyond infinity, are in need of constant revision.

Besides this accounting, my task includes a responsibility of devising and monitoring the security protocols, at worm holes to detect and neutralize the threats from trespassers. These functions are not included in the scope of your duties and responsibilities. In fact, to dispel your misplaced doubt and misconceptions, I am circumventing the Rules of Cosmic Ethics here, by once again invoking the ' hear and forget' clause. Why to do you suffer from misdirected envy?  If you could manage to clear off all your doubts and dislodge envy from the mind, this Yam Lok is yours as long as you live. Believe me but remember the sooner or later rider, attached to your longevity.

There are these special categories of doubts. To do or not? Possible or not? Beneficial or not? Better or not?  Why and why not? and so on...

Having come to some grips with the content, Yama wanted to know why?

Chitragupta was waiting, exactly for this sort of an opening. He continued, " Did you notice that all the special categories of doubts, that I mentioned, ending as questions? You have to act and get them cleared in one way or another. They result in information, the lack of which raises these doubts in the first place."

“I have a question on life predictions by humans.”, said Yama.

Chitragupta smiled and said, “Now you are seeking information, and it is progress. What do you want to know?”

If the stars and planets do not remain as such forever, and constantly change, then how they are useful in predictions.”

Humans considered the influence (light, heat magnetic and gravity) of a local proximity star and the family of planets as adequate. They believed that even the far away stars remain stationary much longer than their life span and wisely chose them only as reference points to chart the movement of planets. Here the operative word is belief. No doubt, they did not get to predict with total accuracy. and rely on the thing dubbed as karma, as an escape route. But they keep on adding information. That is why I used these words, earlier - ‘permanence and achievements are a mirage.”

Chitragupta’s eloquence kept him spellbound. Yama remained speechless, after hearing this heavy dosage of illuminating talk. Though Chitragupta had managed to drive home some punches, they were not hurting.  All at once his doubt about Chitragupta's proximity to Brahma and the reason for their frequent one to one meeting, got cleared.  In doing so, Chitragupta had adroitly managed to kick start his thinking machine in the right direction., Yama wanted to plan a visit to Earth, along with Chitragupta.  - he was not shy of picking Chitragupta's brain, for some more of the hard to come by and rare wisdom. No doubts now, he was certain that Chitragupta would definitely be willing to!

Saturday, 15 February 2025

A debate in Heaven – Q & A session 2

 


“A mirror shows what it wants to and not what you want it to. Neither is true”

From: The world of maya

Why, the cosmic code endows Immortality to some and dictates the opposite to all other beings? What happens to us, the Immortals, when we reach the top of the scale?

Unaware of Brahma surreptitiously checking the validity of his beyond-all-dimensions-access card, and his “Am I an illusion” dilemma, Chitragupta replied, “Cosmic philosophy has an elegant answer to this question. Mortals exist in a phenomenal world, where they undergo a time bound decay. On the other hand, Immortals are placed on a higher plane, in the non-phenomenal realm.  A while back, we had a discussion about celestial bodies becoming dust and then be born again, as newer ones. Really, the celestial bodies are a reflection of us, the Immortals. Brahma did a double take on Chitragupta’s subtle attempt to elevate his usual monologues, as a discussion!

We also disappear and reappear, as scheduled in the Cosmic calendar. It should not be confused with reincarnation as our disappearing building blocks get dispersed throughout the cosmos, to spawn myriads of celestial bodies. Kindly recall the face to face, you had with your predecessor, in the deepest point of an ocean. He is to become part of the water world and get into the marine life and water cycle routine. At the end of the scale, the motto for Immortals is to continue to serve in the Cosmos. This could be the reason for the very long tenure for Immortals. 

Mortals (humans and all other living beings) are driven by self - survival, seeking wealth, getting at each other for mutual destruction and so on. Imagine the gravity of chaos, if mortals are gifted with unlimited life-span. Many humans gifted with 6th and 7th sense, have no time to remember the Creator or perform duties to please such an entity. They remember to knock at our doors, as a last resort, and that too only for a help line. There is a saying, on earth and it is an apt answer for your question - ‘a goat only has a measured length of tail’.

Brahma asked, “Then, what about those potentially Immortal species, almost defying death? Did I not tell you about the glass sponge and turriptopsis dohrnii, living up to 10,000 human years, in the deepest point of Ocean?”

Chitragupta replied, “These oceanic creatures. live in a different environment, where light and time are almost non-existent, than the crowded space and hurried pace of the human beings. Yet, there is this similarity; the sea creatures hunt for food and are also hunted for food and whereas, wars, famines and diseases take the toll on human population. The only difference being the need, avarice and act of recklessness of humans which catalyses and shortens their life-span.”

Brahma could not refrain from asking, “Then, what drives the mortals?”

Chitragupta was ready with an answer. He said, “The Cosmic Force, donning the robes of a teacher, devised a portal to impart and update knowledge and wisdom, from time to time, among the mortals. In this portal, situated in higher dimensions, some of chosen mortals are enriched, as they are enabled to travel back and forth. In rare cases, the "Wheels of Miracle' is used to transport the soul, after demise, to a higher dimension and is given a glimpse of afterlife. On completion of this journey, the soul returns to its shell, comes back to life and shares that experience back on earth.

This we can consider as the Cosmic Human Responsibility, for the wellbeing of the mortal population. The chosen few passes on their gained knowledge and seed thoughts in many others, to create and embed the Cosmic culture. Now, the humans have reached the stage, to send probes in to deep space, gather light and capture waves permeating and distorting space. Their quest is to reach the very beginning of their universe and at the same time trying to test the theories, again and again, of the scientist who simply bent the fabric of space, with some symbols and numbers! All because of the Cosmic Human Responsibility doctrine.”

Brahma: Will the humans, soon reach the origin of their universe?

Chitragupta: Not in the foreseeable future. Reasons are many. They have to grapple with Uncertainty principle, Quantum theory, theories of Relativity, String theory, parallel and multiverse postulates, teleportation, warp drive and wormhole theories. Each year, another one is being added to this list. They may seriously embark on that journey, only when the supply of theories gets dried up! Sometimes, I wonder whether this is a backdoor entry, provided in the CHR, to control any over speeding, in this human endeavour!

Becoming worried and tense, Brahma asked, “Will they stop there?”

Chitragupta simply said, “311 trillion years”

What is this number about?

The earthlings given a short span of life - and living in a dimension where time itself is an illusion, have attempted this monumental calculation to arrive at this number!

Ok. What is its relevance, here to our discussions?

Relevance? It is your calculated age! 

Taken aback, Brahma asked in a hesitant tone, “Is there any chance for a miscalculation?”

My answer to both of your questions, “Will they stop there? “and “Is there any chance for a miscalculation?” - is only your time can tell or it is up to the next generation of humans, to attempt the calculation afresh.

Brahma, strongly favouring  a status quo, asked, “Why don’t they leave it alone at this number?”

Replying, Chitragupta said, “Given their nature, I would not bet on a status quo, as their pet philosophy is - not even change is permanent! That is their way, of disagreeing with the past, and to try prove the present is better than the past. Poor earthlings! They describe, exhort, strive and still do not comprehend it. How would they know, living in Maya, their act of preaching about it, is itself a Maya. How can they gauge the age of a subtle form, like yours? Don’t worry, Maya will work in our favour.

 At this stage, Brahma having second and third thoughts, started to blame his own curiosity to pose question after question and supplementaries. Chitragupta had dealt with all of them, as if it was of no sweat to flex his memory cells. Unable to hold on to the puzzle any longer, he asked, " Where and how did you gather all this information?"

His protégé answered, " Souls of great thinkers pass through our gate. Some of these souls, after gaining enough experience, knowledge and energy essence, disperse into the Cosmos and are considered as having an afterlife, in an upgraded form. Out of their habit of expounding thoughts, they continue to share philosophical and metaphysical insights, with a touch of quantum consciousness. Tuning my ears to listen and focusing sharp eyes, to spot such souls, I managed to pick up all these information. At times, I wonder what more I could have learnt, if I had more heads! Besides, there is a rich mine of information, languishing in our own darkened repositories"

Brahma was upset by this brazen attempt to allude that he was not doing any of it! Furthermore, he had slipped in an expression of interest to have more than one head, to rival him. Attributing both the attempts to Chitragupta’s impish behaviour, Brahma queried," Why the mumbo-jumbo and what is its purpose?" Chitragupt came up with a curt reply, " Oh! That was me, iterating those ideas to extract the essence. The mumbo-jumbo is my own special language, no one would understand, if they eavesdropped."

Brahma wanted to ask some more questions but after a quick mental review, he concluded that his wily protégé would effortlessly answer, about anything and everything, without a pause! He decided, it was safe not to open any more cans of wiggling-worms, when Chitragupta was around.

Saturday, 8 February 2025

A debate in Heaven – Q & A session 1

 “A mirror shows what it wants to and not what you want it to. Neither is true”

From: The world of maya

For a long time, Brahma had a wiggling-worm of doubts, tunnelling through his mind. It had a multiplier effect, like amplifiers, due his four headed Avatar. Is it a boon or curse and if so, why? He had no one, to turn to and seek a clarification.

Setting aside, the seeking of clarification agenda, he focused his attention on one of the wiggling-worm doubt. Is Chitragupta a versatile salesman or creator of utter confusion? Probably, he might have an answer for the boon or curse dilemma!

Though in doubt, he did not want to play the trump card, as an opening move in the game. To his knowledge, no one could outwit or outthink Chitragupta, in finding a solution to arrest the tunnelling wiggly-worm. He soon realised, that prolonged meditative thinking only helped to push the solution to his doubts, far and farther away.

If confronted directly, Chitragupta may give answers that have to be first untangled and then end up getting more confused. His usual techniques of remotely accessing Chitragupta's mind, failed for some unknown reasons. Has Chitragupta installed firewalls around his brain? This added to his list of doubts to worry about, and the wiggling-worm started showing signs of vigorous agitation, protesting of overload. 

Even Brahma had to abide by the Cosmic Code, that proscribed a further deep dive in to the mind of Chitragupta. He was well aware of the underlying principle – to prevent a deep state from sprouting, among the immortals.

He started with analysing the known information on Chitragupta's routine. The routine was just moving here and there and conversing with souls-in-waiting or waving his fingers through empty space or practicing mumbo-jumbo strings.  Nothing stood out as a marker or bulb or a flag, except the mumbo-jumbo part. Chitragupta being Chitragupta, this might simply be a deception, to hide something, going helter-skelter in the mind. He paused to think - why this extraordinary concern about Chitragupta? Is it because he is his protégé?

Brahma’s admiration was based on solid facts – the nerds’ problem, the demi-gods’ dilemma, reasoning out the ominous cloud, expose’ on hightailing politicos and acumen to reveal a run of the mill human’s predicament down on earth, etc was a show of critical thinking and superb salesmanship. Though this process eliminated his doubt about the salesmanship angle, the one whether Chitragupta is a creator of confusion or not, remained.

Now, a new doubt emerged to feed the wiggly-worm regarding the source, his protégé was relying up on. Having sorted out some part of his doubt, he started looking for ways to solve the remaining part. He knew that a half-solved puzzle is as good as an unsolved puzzle.

At the end, he decided to pose certain hypothetical questions as doubts. He mused, “What would be the best course, to test Chitragupta, other than this? He was not averse or shy, to show some appreciation on his protégé. To gladden him, he would touch upon his shrewd intelligence. With decks satisfactorily cleared for action, Brahma hastened to organise a tough question bank.

Why, I have only four heads and not six or eight at least, if not more?

I am puzzled, that you are asking me this question. Still, my answer is - symmetry ensures balance and balance gives stability and stability leads to further symmetry and the cycle repeats itself over and again. This is the inviolable, circular rule (or tail tucking rule). One who has studied the Cosmic dynamics will readily understand.

Any number of heads, be it four, six, or eight or more, if symmetrically positioned, is perfectly balanced. Then, why not nine! In this case, the head at the center has to be raised a bit to have unrestricted view. Though, this arrangement would be odd to look at! More than nine heads, would be a overcrowd, jostling for head room! All said and done, the benefit of increased thinking power is negated by the quantum of headache that will increase and rock them. The four heads, you are endowed with, is neither an ornament nor an award. They help in managing issues that arise from diametrically opposite and perpendicularly at loggerhead, all at once.  So, to say, head-on collisions!

Brahma did not expect anything other than this circular answer!

The space is endless, and the celestial bodies are countless, why so?

The celestial bodies are mortal, and when they extinguish, eject voluminous star dust, elements and chunks. In a given instant there is a possibility of countless such explosions. To ease and disappear them away peacefully, adequate space is needed. If it is inadequate, secondary and tertiary explosive chain reactions will tear apart the space itself.

Why the countless celestial bodies? This could be safely attributed to the conundrum of creation or to the inherent nature of space, which always tries to occupy more volume! Though, it seemingly defies logic, the simple fact is, when more space is created to prevent it from tearing apart, then it has space to fill with more objects. Then the converse, also is true, axiom takes over. Taking a break, Chitragupta asked, “Am I anywhere near the answer to your question?”

Juggling with the dilemma, whether to accept or reject the answer, Brahma, changing the topic, asked this tricky question.  “In all the dimensions, will time mean the same? If so why and if not why?

With your permission, I have to digress a little here and recall what great philosophers and scientists have said about time. "As of now, time is an illusion." One of them, even had gone to the extent of merging space and time into a single entity and bending space and time to accommodate his theory! To ease our conscience a little, he had left a side door open - it is relative and works fine within a frame of reference. The current consensus or absence of it is, a down-to-earth-feeling, that even this theory cannot be but an illusion. Constantly, new techniques and new thinkers are emerging, to prove or disprove the notion that time is an illusion. The time is a serious subject, having its own theories!

 Brahma, as he had anticipated, got a twisted reply, confusing the issue, omitting the behaviour of time vis a vis the dimensions. He seriously had a doubt, whether Chitragupta was simply winding the clock. When queried, Chitragupta simply referred him, back to the concept of reference frame, and deftly shifted the onus of judging the merit of the issue, on to the inhabitants in such dimension and avoiding to mention its applicability to immortals. Stopping short, Chitragupta asked, “Is this answering your questions, including, If so why and if not why?”

Though aware of Chitragupta’s propensity to be loquacious, Brahma felt, he had far exceeded himself in this current session.

Why is the age of Immortals like us, is in crores of year and not even a few hundred for mortal beings? Why different scales are being used? Is it not against fair play?

Without a pause, Chitragupta started, “The Cosmic rule, which states ‘Immortals having a zero potential to degrade, and thus preserve for infinite time, whereas the mortals, not so endowed, decay’. When counting is made by mortals, the age of Immortals will be beyond their comprehension. It is a fact, that the time taken by an Immortal to grasp and act, is less than 10^-43 of a second and for a mortal it is in the order of seconds. This is not due to the different scales but differing perception of the meaning of time. It is not a secret that some mortals, notwithstanding the fact that time is an illusion, have attempted to predict the lifespan and figure out the current age of Brahma! At this point, with a sneaky glance Chitragupta could see the worried faces of Brahma!

For the present, if we keep aside this different scale or difference in perception, we come face to face with an enigma. The existing vast difference among the Immortals. Some stay above all the dimensions and have insight into the past, present and future, with a little overlap into pre-past and post-future. Some others are proscribed to migrate within but are free to transcend down to any lower dimension. They could only peer into the fag end of past, the present and have limited access to the beginning of future, as a sort of a peace deal!

The moment Chitragupta stopped talking, Brahma surreptitiously checked the validity of his beyond-all-dimensions-access card. Though he wanted to check Chitragupta’s access card too, he thought better not to.  As predicted by his protégé, his heads started spinning and pounding with headaches. He could not find an answer to this question - Am I an illusion, too?

Saturday, 1 February 2025

The message of the ominous cloud:

The words ‘preventive strike, life-extension, offset by mutual human destruction, self-destructing weapons and lab grown mini blackholes’ kept on reverberating, non-stop. Chitragupta’s solution to disperse the Ominous Cloud hanging over his residence, appeared elegant when proposed but the how and how soon to implement these countermeasures, all by himself, worried him.  Eager to contribute, each on of his head came up   with different approaches. Added to this, he himself has these doubts- after getting life-extension how these brainy people would co-operate? Just simply keep quiet and enjoy the bonus or try to make selfish gains or ply both the sides against each other to gain upper hand or become a de facto ruler!

Finally, he decided it would be better to involve Chitragupta rather than frequently looking up at the cloud and suffering neck-pain. Chitragupta promptly appeared as soon as he received the message, which made Brahma to wonder whether he has been anticipating such a call, all along! Brahma simply said,” Solve the problem as you see fit. But do it fast.”

After handing over the charge to Chitragupta, he decided to take some time off and actively searched for a geographical soft spot, on Earth. Has this choice something to do with the previous trip with Chitragupta? He did not know, why on earth he wanted to visit only the Earth and not to any other of the countless number of planets! Having decided, he wanted to make it worthwhile - he retrieved the plan to study the dynamics of existence on planet earth, which was languishing in cold-storage. 

Spending considerable time, to the point of suffering four-headed headache, he concluded that taking either Yamadharmaraj or Chitragupta or both of them along, appeared to be a bad idea. He loaded Yamadharmaraj with stacks of issues, to prevent their internecine quarrel, to allow Chitragupta to solve the issue of Ominous Cloud.

Desperate times need desperate measures. Unable to narrow down the choice of spots to be visited, Brahma decided to consider suggestions from Yamadharmaraj and Chitragupta.  to maintain a tight seal of secrecy, he withheld the real purpose. For no reason, at this point, he remembered Chitragupta’s words- “Nothing can be hidden below the deepest point in Ocean or kept above the farthest distance in space.” Though the example of space and Ocean, in the same breath, appeared little incongruent, he let it slide as it added only an element of anxiety to his plan. Really a simple ruse – to ask each one of them to name   places they would visit and not willing to visit. It set off a series of raging debate, on merits and demerits, among his heads. In the end, the splitting headache greenlighted the Nothing can be hidden below the deepest point in Ocean or kept above the farthest distance in space.” Choice of Chitragupta. To avoid further escalation, it sweetened the choice with a tag - worth the risk.

Chitragupta could have easily got down to earth for this task but the better facilities available at home tilted the scale. Another important factor happened to be the availability of an extensive data bank and unfettered access to it; he had already managed to install a backdoor entry, during a system upgradation. He got busy to identify and bring the susceptible candidates to his residence.

In another location, Yamadharmaraj was getting ready to tackle the stack of issues, dumped in his shoulders. Seizing this opportunity, Yamadharmaraj wanted to impress, the biased Brahma, with his issue solving capability, given this chance! The stack of issues beckoned him like an exploding supernova. Going through the first issue, he discovered a connection to the second issue. Marking that spot, he perused the complicated second issue which landed him in the middle of the third issue. 

Undaunted, he travelled through the connecting issues, as pointed.  Though he had used all the page markers on hand, he found, to his utter disbelief, that he was back at marked passage of the first issue. Thinking that he might have missed a clue here and there, he started afresh, from the beginning. This time, he could not understand why the first issue forged a link with the seventh and not with the second as noted earlier. Continuing with the fresh lead, he found himself pages deep in the nth issue. 

When he thought that he had finally arrived at the destination, he was looking at the fourth issue, once again. Yet another attempt, from the beginning, ended in the same fashion but the route the hop-skip-and-jump routine took him was different.  Exasperated, he called an end to the session but the stack of issues kept moving along, wherever he went. He ascended to the surface of the ocean, all the while thinking how Chitragupta came to this knowledge and why he did not forewarn him? The lapping of waves and blowing of salt-laden moist wind did not merit a second glance. Fixing his aim at a point in the sky, he took off creating all sorts of speeds, shredding theories of Earthlings, to bits and pieces. Somewhere from his recollection informed him that the scientist of Relative reference frame would be beaming a smile!  

At the same time, in another part of the universe, precisely on Earth, Brahma prepared himself for a dive to reach the deepest trench in the ocean. Why it was called a trench and not a canal – Chitragupta did not explain, and he did not ask! Cautiously, he kept on diving deeper and deeper in to the ocean depth, which he could have done it in less than a zeptosecond (one trillionth of a billionth of a second, a decimal point followed by 20 zeros and a 1). Simply he wanted to spend quality time with the various life forms, that had emerged from his laboratory. A chance to assess in how many ways these organisms have mutated as he wished to verify Chitragupta’s statement, regarding humans in the la ominous cloud affair! He hoped, the ominous cloud would have vanished, by that time he finishes his sojourn.

Out in the depths, photosynthesis stood down in favour of chemosynthesis. The chemiluminescence slowly gave way to bioluminescence, as the depth increased. The size, shape, colour and techniques these marine creatures exhibited, though as the creator he was fully aware of, held him fascinated. At the trench, the deepest point on the ocean floor, he sat cross-legged, imbibing the serenity and play of constantly moving bio-luminescent rays of light. Then and there he decided to have such an arrangement of moving bio-luminescent rays of light installed in his abode. His heart had started to swell with pride, for having created such wonderful creatures. The sight of a fully encased indeterminate form, sitting cross-legged, on the ocean floor, drained away his euphoria giving way to indecipherable confusion.  Had he failed to see in the dim light or got distracted by the play of bioluminescence all around?

As he continued watching, a hoard of light emitting creatures surrounded the fully encased indeterminate form. In quick time the points of light arranged themselves to display a message. It simply said “How do you like this place? Soon you may have to sit beside me” Brahma understood that the first part of Chitragupta’s statement that nothing can be hidden below the deepest point in Ocean, has come true! Having come so far, he decided to test the second part of that statement.

He mentally plotted the course to navigate, by giving a wide berth to blue super giant stars- fortunately not many in a nebula-, transiting by the darker fringes of nebulae. He knew all, but why give a chance to some rogue star, hellbent on a collision course. He regretted the omission of a super shield, in his kit bag. For most of the travel, he felt as if stuck stationary in a spot, but knew it to be an illusion created by the vastness of space.

For most of the travel, he felt as if staying stationary, but knew it to be an illusion created by the vastness of space. He chuckled to himself and admired the Astronomers who have intuitively understood the vastness and emptiness of space. 

He knew, Chitragupta had made a small unforced error. Actually, he should have said, nothing can hide beyond the limit of space instead nothing can hide above the space. Pardonable confusion and failure to distinguish between space and beyond the limit of space. After hearing Chitragupta's words, he did not want to stop with a surface visit to Earth and modified the itinerary to serve a cosmic purpose.

He knew what awaited him at the end of this journey. Not the one to alter course midway, he continued onwards. Finally, he saw a huge nebulous object, spanning billions of light years, bathed in soft glow and hanging at a distance. The beauty was beyond compare even for him. A strange sense of serenity permeated all around. As expected, the cloud split and displayed the cryptic message, " You have some more cosmic time; your successor in the making."

Brahma got his confirmation on the original edict of the cosmic order. With epochs to go, he resigned himself to suffer, his current duties.

Chitragupta was impressed by the luminaries who had responded to the call. He had compiled vivid holograms to drive home the point, instead of a lengthy audio version. He had spent considerable time sequencing the holograms to maximise the impact. At the end, if clarifications were sought, he was ready with convincing arguments.

The first projection showed a typical, multi-level R & D facility in action. Here, he had played a hi-tech trick - each one of the gathered luminaries would see his / her image doing the work they did in that environment. He had included a heavenly background score to sharpen their attention to details. 

The second projection showed them jumping up in joy and excitedly patting colleagues' backs, after sharing a breakthrough. The heavenly music gave way to a heart-throbbing beat. The faces in the audience broke into broad smiles, re-living the glorious moment. 

The third projection took everyone to a mass production facility, ending with the product getting packed for delivery. Here, Chitragupta had cleverly used sounds of machineries and human voices to add depth to the content. Each and every one of the invitees got tele-ported and looked transfixed at the activities, depicted in front of them.

The fourth projection was horror personified. Chitragupta hoped to let loose a tsunami of guilt, sorrow and despondency and to reduce them to mere human wrecks. Large-scale devastation, loss of life, a sea of refugees in view, with each one of the responsible inventors/manufacturers finding himself/herself standing amidst the ruin. As expected, this really shook the very foundation of their collective conscience with guilt and repulsion. When the projection ended, sobs, cries and wailing sound punctured the silence. Chitragupta allowed time for this agony of awakening to seep, pool and overflow.

Having completed a blitzkrieg, he dangled the life-extension lure and demanded them to change focus to produce self-annihilating armaments. He gave them a mandate that such cutting-edge technologies also should expire as soon after the first batch reached a war zone. Chitragupta did not anticipate what followed next. Instead of standing ovation, the entire assembly, unable to speak, stood up with bowed heads, sobbing and nodding acceptance.

Yamadharmaraj’s struggles with the stack of issues did not lead to any solution. On the other hand, a mound of pending issues of departed souls made him antsy. At one point in time, he wanted to seek Chitragupta’s help, to deal with one stack or the other. He dismissed the thought when it struck him that as Brahma’s preferred go-to entity, Chitragupta cannot be drafted to assist.

Chitragupta had a leisurely walk, after dismissing the assembled luminaries and packing them off to earth. A rare interlude of serenity devoid of pressing issues. He eagerly awaited Bramha’s arrival at his abode. He had good news and in turn would like to hear his travelogue.

Back home, by force of habit, Brahma looked at the space above his abode. He was surprised, out of his skin, to see Chitragupta, ambling along without a care in the universe, and noted the magical disappearance of the ominous cloud. He could guess the tangential answer Chitragupta would give, “What appears, shall disappear.”

He called both Yamadharmaraj and Chitragupta to let them know, that the ominous cloud had a message for him and that was why he suddenly felt like going away for some time. In addition, he wanted them to know that only to divert their attention elsewhere, he gave them some work. He said, “Yamadharmaraj, the stack of issues you were left with have no solution. So don’t think that you have failed!” 

He looked at Chitragupta and said, “You did what you had to do. Remember, the war fronts, we visited. If your solution works out, more time would be spent in innovating than destruction!”

He continued, “Chitragupta, your ‘Nothing can be hidden below the deepest point in Ocean or kept above the farthest distance in space’ is incorrect. I met my predecessor in the depth of the ocean and looked at my successor taking shape, in a different moulid, in the deep space. A New Avatar to oversee the changing order in the cosmos!