I had a lengthy conversation with KR on topic typical of our conversation — the decline of the dharma. Just when I came out of it the horror of negligence struck me… But I walked through the crematorium like vikrama uttering the guhya mantra.

“Every day men watch others like them die, yet they believe they might live one”.

We flew out on the high path borne. No yakShiNi was with us, yet we soared transcending the sAgara-s and dvIpa-s. We moved back and forth in time and space as though none of it limited us. We stood high above the stone building we had frequented in the days of bhoga. That mAyA jAla that had wrecked us on the one day in the ekAdasham came upon us like a spider’s web. We were reminded of the sand-cockroach caught in the large nephelioid spider’s web, with a kleptoparastic male having a ball of a time. We now evaded it soaring away and then diving back like a sand-piper. We came face to face with guhyasomA; she too had arrived there on her long flight. We were lost in her embrace–every moment of it was like draught of tIvra soma, the limitations of space and time had ended. I saw the bhallUka that ambushed me in front of all on that fateful day in the ekadasham, when kulu~ncha putra hurled a spear at me. But guhyasomA capable of parAkAya-pravesha entered the body of both the bhallUka and kulu~nchaputra at the same time and neutralized them.

With our arms wrapped around pretty guhyasomA, like the roots of an ashvatta tree, with our minds merged into one we advanced to the the great circle of the shmashAna. We drank the soma from the graha of the shining moon. Around us in the reflection of the white graha we saw bones and corpses. Some burnt, some waiting to be burnt and other reduced to ashes. Like the king of the kuru-s on his last walk we walked surrounded by the air of mR^ityu – the smell of oxidizing proteins permeated the air. But we were accompanied by guhyasomA, with the masses of her hair like the monsoonal clouds stretching over the parched bhAratavarsha, exciting in us the rasa-s like parjanya the indra-gopaka-s and nIlaparvata-s. The light reflecting of the upAmshu cup falling on her breasts stirred us from within with the force of ana~Nga, even as a timi~Ngala agitating the high seas. The sweet smell emanating from guhyasomA was like the gandha-vAha blowing the unguents of indra’s svarga with a bevy of apsarA-s. The cup of soma dipped down to pour the oblations to the deva-band led by shatamanyu. For a moment the sky stood in stillness at the point of the saMdhyA. guhyasomA closed our eyes with her soft palms that felt like the balm of the ashvin-s.

At that point the AkAsha above and the chid-gagana became one. We enfolded guhyasomA and a tremendous energy entered us -our age vanished and we became young again – there was light but no luminary. We attained the state of varuNa propping up the nakShatra of the day in our system. I said to guhyasomA: “I am the mayUkha of viShNu, you are the AkAsha. I am free from the limitations.” In that AkAsha only one luminary then rose on the Eastern rim- she was bhAnavIkaulinI. guhyasomA said to me: “Behold me O bhArgava, Let the chit receive the reflection of the avyaya-s and let the manas not screen it. Behold me and let the unfolding happen in the chid-gagana” The krama of thirteen kAlI-s fill the revolution of time– The essence of rasas that induce ullAsa flashed all at once with the emergence of each kAlI. For a moment we saw the glory of the the 13 devI-s, all conjoined with the bIja prefixes and the ambA pAda suffix.