He has to go now but he also doesn't wish the community know and feel his absence. He leans at the window
and wonders.
Later that evening an old man
enters the monastery. Azzha couldn't see his face properly. Azzha gently helps
him sit down. The old man asks Azzha, what happen? He responses with his plan
to visit Thimphu but wishes the community doesn't know about it. The old man
keeps quiet for a while and shares his idea with Azzha.
Next morning Azzha Galong
informs the villagers that he will be meditating inside the monastery for a
period of two months. No one will be allowed to enter the monastery till the
meditation period gets complete. He informs the villagers that the meditation
is for the well-being of the village and the villagers. The villagers were pleased
and they show their willingness to help him.
The villagers were informed to
bring hot water and soup made of nettle plants only ones a week and only after
the sun sets. The old man had told Azzha that the offerings will be eaten by
him to make the villagers believe that Azzha is inside the monastery doing the
meditation. Azzha Galong packs his bag on the same evening and gets out of the
monastery form the back door. The fake meditation begins on the following day.
In Thimphu he meets with his
monk friend who immediately takes him to his well-off monk friends and their
gala time starts again. This time the excitement is more. Azzha and his friends
visit night clubs in casuals, bluff in plain English and flirt with women in
bars.
One night on the bar counter,
Azzha meets with a young woman. She is married but her husband is working
abroad. She buys a drink for Azzha and the distance between them slowly became smaller. Soon she starts taking him out on her own expenses. He is groomed well,
paid well and fed well too. But he was abused as well. One morning he finds
himself sleeping in a drain. He could only remember the woman forcing him to
drink bottles after bottles of alcohol on the previous night. The feeling of embarrassment forces him to immediately head towards his village- the place where
he is highly respected and worshiped.
He manages to reach back to
his village and to his monastery a day before the meditation period gets over.
It is a moonlit evening when his enters the monastery. His prayer-bead and his
prayer books lay down untouched. He slowly sits down and gets into the
meditation posture. After an hour, the morning sun rays penetrate through the
window holes and touch his skin. He opens his eyes. He hears his people praying
and murmuring outside the monastery. He opens the door and he finds the
villagers engross in preparation to celebrate the successful completion of the
meditation of their only monk- Azzha Galong. The elder ones are busy praying
under a mad-shift hut.
As he steps outside the
monastery he finds a pile of notes written in his own handwriting. He gets
taken aback on looking at the notes. The notes were messages to the villagers
regarding the progress of the meditation and his health. Azzha walks out to
search him in the gathering but the old and destitute man is nowhere to be
found. He knew it must the old man who wrote the messages too because he
promised to eat the offerings made. Azzha really wanted to meet him and thank
him not because he helped in letting him go to Thimphu but for making the
meditation look real by eating the offerings and for keeping the faith of his
villagers alive by writing the notes on behave of him.
Just as he looks down with
deep resentment he finds a line on the ground made by a small stick. The line
runs towards the tall tree next to the small stream that rushes behind the
monastery. He walks towards the tree and when he reaches under the tree he
hears a familiar voice. It is the voice of Aggay Sangay who had expired in his
absence.
Aggay Sangay confesses that it
was his soul which came that evening when Azzha had planned to leave for
thimphu. He also confesses that the notes were written by him to keep alive the
faith and believe the villagers have on Azzha Galong. Among all the
confessions, Aggay Sangay informs that it was he who had found azhha Galong as
a baby in a forest nearby and helped him grow into a monk. And the old man also
informs Azzha that gods in the heaven has told him that he will attend his
salvation only when Azzha whole heartily starts again to serve the purpose of
his life- serve the community as a monk.
