The Return of the King

    It was just another lazy weekend and I was busy browsing OTTs, with an indecisive dilemma running an infinite loop on what to watch. Sudhindra ji’s call brought me back to senses and I realized I’d have, as usual, wasted at least 30 min trying to find something to watch that would interest me!

“What are you doing right now?”

“Nothing important. Watching something interesting” **duh**

“Tej, I need a help. Lakshman ji is injured and we need a known old face in the colony to accompany our folks to distribute Sri Rama’s Phala Mantrakshate that has arrived from Ayodhya.”

With zero determination, I said Okay”. Sudhindra ji described the Do’s and Don’ts for a few minutes and disconnected. With a subtle cry of confusion, I met the other RSS Karyakarta in my locality, who was assigned to distribute the Mantrakshate that has arrived from Ayodhya, to all the houses in the colony. I thought it would just be another “visiting my homies” event. But what happened over the next four hours was a boomerang of emotions! At the end of it, I was feeling totally elated with all the varied emotions people displayed. All the insightful interactions, the stories, their belief, betrayal they experienced back in 92 and how people have been waiting for the return of Sri Rama in Ayodhya; It gave me a real picture of how big and collectively congenial this event is for Indian Hindus! One thing was very evident - Bhaarata is witnessing its first mega divine event since 1947. Read on.

An uncle, on hearing why we are there, got fully teary eyed, wiped his tears and recalled the story of how he, in his mid-30s, dared collect funds in the Muslim majority neighborhood to buy 50 bricks and sent it to Ayodhya for the reconstruction of Sri Rama Mandira. He took us to his Pooja room to show us “how he has been reciting Rama taaraka mantra” every day for the last 32 years. I, for once, thought, I may not have not seen the pious disposition of humility of Shabari from Ramayana, but this uncle’s faith is no less. Faith can indeed move mountains!

Another entrepreneur that we visited enthusiastically said that he has declared 22^nd Jan, Monday, a holiday for his enterprise and wants all his employees to celebrate the return of Sri Ram Lalla to Ayodhya. He urged us to bunk offices that day and do a grand Pooja at home. He also said that a Live telecast of the Prana Pratishtapana event has been arranged in the temple’s hall and we can gather together to celebrate there in large numbers!

I could feel the restlessness in the old lady, who said, my sister in Chennai phoned that she has already received the mantrakashate and I was waiting for you guys since yesterday. The Old lady’s husband lauded our efforts of doing this and called it a divine work. We could see him feeling fetter when he expressed his inability of not being able to join us due to a knee surgery that he had undergone recently.

Another doctor couple explained how the estrangement in the neighborhood grew with other faiths post the babri masjid demolition incident and how their love thy neighbors failed to look at things beyond the lens of religion. He further said “It has been 32 years now, I don’t care anymore and will happily celebrate on 22^nd Jan, welcoming Sri Rama, come what may!” He said “A meteoric rise is inevitable after a fateful loss and we all will witness that rise now in our country”.

Some offered monetary help assuming we are going to Ayodhya on 22^nd for the Prana Pratishtapana event, which we casually declined, while others happily agreed to at least lamp a few diyas on the day of consecration of Sri Rama. Some also showed us the stock of firecrackers to be burnt on the consecration day. Of course, there were some Haider Hindus, who shooed us away without even being courteous, but it is not even worth talking about them here.

While it was not surprising to hear many showering laurels on the man who made it happen – Our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, I was indeed very surprised to see families taking selfies with us, clicking pictures of us handing over the phala mantrakshate to them, offering sweets, coffee, fruits and displaying all forms of sweet hospitality. I couldn’t recall when was the last time people waited, took selfies and lauded strangers visiting their houses. I was glad to read similar stories on Social media as well. I could clearly see that this Return of the king event is re-igniting the penultimate dreams of billions of Indians; restoring the Rama Rajya in Bhaarata!

Indulgence in this activity is something I was glad I did not miss and will definitely remember for the rest of my life!  I came back home with a sheer satisfaction of happily exclaiming #JaiSriRam more than 1000 times.

And the old lady’s words are still abuzz in my mind - Raama Banda... Rama Rajya noo baratte (Translates to “The king has returned. The core ideals of virtue, morality and justice will also return to India).

Cant stop recalling Tolkein’s Poem from the Return of the King

 "From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”