© Sudeep Nair 2020

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First Published in June 2020

ISBN: 978-93-90030-86-6

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“If your way to success is blocked,
create your own way.”

To my mother Valsala Nair

and especially my sister Sapna Nair
without whom this book would have
never been completed.

iii
 Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters,

organization, places, incidents and events portrayed in
this novel are either product of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously.

v
 Contents
1. Beginning of the End / 1
2. The Fate of Two Souls / 9
3. A
 Parting Gift From
General Raghavana / 16
4. The Training Begins / 22
5. The Weird Dream / 30
6. The Ultimate Goal / 35
7. Test of Skills / 43
8. Scroll of Wisdom / 53
9. Scroll of Yogic Knowledge / 77
10. The Killer Asuras / 101
11. Karma / 120

vii
 ONE
Beginning of the End

I t was the longest night of the year. A pleasant breeze

of air cruising through the lands of Rudrabag
from south-west to north-east. Rudrabag, a quiet
place, is famously known to its neighbouring kingdom
as a land of warriors. It is not only peaceful but also
full of majestic and breath-taking sights. The kingdom
had a huge castle consisting of many towers and
battlements. The castle was at some distance from the
entrance gates and was covered with a beach on one
side and beautiful lawns, flowerbeds and vegetation
on the other. Inside the kingdom, there were many
barracks, stables and training grounds. The Kingdom,
itself was covered by land on three sides and with the
sea on one side. So, there are three main entrance
gates: northern gate, eastern gate and southern gate
and on the west side they have ports to dock as many
as  three hundred full-sized ships. The outside of the
kingdom is mostly covered by a dense forest in the
northern and eastern side, on the western side there
is a vast and deep sea, on the southern side they have
vast lawns and vegetation; mostly they grew spices.

1
 In the middle of the night when the moon was at
its pinnacle, the kingdom of Rudrabag was awakened
by the sound of battle drums coming from their
southern gate. Warriors of this domain are said to be
invincible with tallest of the walls surrounding the
entire kingdom from south to east to north, which
makes the task arduous to defeat them in their
territory. As the battle cry echoed throughout the city,
all available warriors started assembling outside the
southern gates with lightning speed, preparing to face
the unknown enemy that showed up at their gates in
the dead of night. At the horizon, the enemy’s army,
advancing towards the city gates, halted at a safe
distance to avoid archers until their King arrived at
the battlefield.
The King standing bare-chested in his balcony
gazing at his beautiful kingdom, is also startled by
hearing the battle drum beats; he keeps his calm, goes
inside his chamber and sees the Queen is in deep sleep,
so he gently kisses on her forehead without waking her
up, he goes to his armour room. King Thuroonan gears
up for the battle at his doorstep and leaves for the
southern gate on his horse. The King is a 6’3’ tall, well-
built and handsome man. He had a lot of experience in
the battle and he is not at all alarmed to go to battle, he
just worries about his wife and his unborn child.
He is greeted by his old friend and the Commander
of his army Purshottama on the way to the battlefield.
Tall and well-built as the king, even he has a lot of
experience in the battle as he and the King are best of
friends. The castle and the southern gate were at some
distance, so while going towards the gate the King and
the captain had a little heart to heart.
‘We are at peace with our neighbouring kingdoms
for over a hundred years. Who do you think would
attack us and that too at this ungodly hour?’ asks
Purshottama.

2
 ‘Let’s see who dares to challenge the might of
Rudrabag’ replied the King in a very calm voice. 
‘Either way I believe it would be great to go on a war
and show them, why they should not be messing with
our warriors.’ 
‘Is that pride, I’m hearing in your voice Purshottama?
I would still want to defuse this problem at our doorstep
with peace and go back to my wife who might go in
labour at any moment.’
‘Then, I guess the future father will be negotiating
for peace,’ said Purshottama with teasing smile on his
face. ‘Thuroonan, my King, whether you chose peace or
war, you do know that I will be with you as a friend and
as the commander of your army.’
‘I depend on you my friend,’ said the King with an
affirmation in his psyche.
As King Thuroonan arrived at the battlefield, he was
astonished to see that his kingdom was challenged by
the Asuras. Hundreds of thousands of Asuras standing
at a mere distance from the gates ready to attack the
kingdom. Fear struck the heart of the King, but he
was as calm as the still water in the lake. Putting his
hand behind his back he took a closer look at the asura
army.
‘Hey Shiva!’ exclaimed the King. ‘This is the first
time I am seeing them all work together. I think your
wish is coming to true Purshottama. It is going to be
a long night, but I still want to try to make peace with
them.’
‘Maharaj Thuroonan.’ captain Abhinav greeted the
King with his hand to the chest salute. A lean and
young boy not very well built, the youngest captain in
the army to be inducted at the age of  seventeen but
very well versed with the siddhi and a great weapons
tactician. Now twenty years old, very quickly he rose to

3
the rank of captain of the elite squad in the Rudrabag
army.
‘Captain Abhinav’ the King acknowledged ‘Tell me
the status of our army’
‘Our horse regiment, elephant regiment, chariots
and infantry division are all in position and ready to
attack. Our archers are also ready and positioned on
top of the southern walls under the command of Vijaya.’
Captain Vijaya, a very experienced commander in the
Rudrabag army, quite well trained in the ancient siddhi.
‘That’s good to know. Has anyone from the enemy
tried to contact us?’
‘No, Maharaj. They have been standing there and
have not made a move ever since they were assembled
at their spot.’
‘Who leads the asura army?’
‘General Raghavana.’ 
‘What! Raghavana! He is the wittiest tactician
and the greatest asura to face. Negotiation is out of
option now; we should prepare our tactics if we are
going to face Raghavana in this battle’ said captain
Purshottama.
‘I will still try to negotiate for peace with him,’ said
the King with determination in his voice.
‘Maharaj, your battle chariot is ready.’ Said Abhinav
The army of Rudrabag is standing in position and
is facing the asuras. Fear of fighting the asuras was
very much visible on the faces of the soldiers. King
Thuroonan still wanting a peaceful outcome demands
to talk to the leader of Asuras. Before going to negotiate
with the asura General, the King turned towards his
army and spoke,
‘Men, I know that you are afraid of these asuras,
even I am afraid to fight them. They look dangerous;

4
something that came straight out of hell, but we can’t
let our fears control us. Our Nation needs us right now
to protect it. We can’t let our women and children’s fate
be decided by our moment of panic. We are the brave
warriors of Rudrabag… We overcome every fear we
have… Nothing can stop us in claiming the victory over
these creatures... Let’s show this nasty asura, what are
we made off. Har Har Mahadev’
The soldiers chanted ‘HAR HAR MAHADEV…’ The
battlefield suddenly came to life with the roar of these
inspired soldiers.
Thuroonan climbed on his chariot and proceeded
to the centre of the battleground along with captain
Purshottama. Seeing that the King has arrived general
Ragahavan starts to make a move toward the King but
then decides against it and moves at front of his army
and halts.
We are a serene realm and we don’t wish to hurt
you. Leave and we will allow you to withdraw, yet in
the event that you make one stride ahead, we will be
compelled to crush all of you, there will be no detainees
taken, we will show no leniency.’ King Thuroonan
talked in an energetic and intelligible voice.
Quiet fell over the front line. Minutes after the fact,
the main word that resounded all through the front line
was ‘charge’, articulated by General Raghavana and the
principal wave of the asuras began to run towards the
human armed force. Seeing the asuras charge towards
the human armed force, King Thuroonan flagged the
archers to dispatch an assault. The archers at the
highest point of the wall were prepared to shoot the
arrows by the request from their Captain Vijaya.
Captain Vijaya took her bow and arrow, enchanted
the ‘Nath Sampradaya Shabar Mantra’ and in that
process transferred her chakra into the arrow,
converting her arrow into a secret supernatural weapon
called the ‘Dhoomrastra’.

5
 Vijaya got her weapon ready and fired it on the
first wave of the asuras, which on hitting the ground
produced smoke that blinded the eyes of the enemies,
suffocated them and rendered them useless in the
battle. As chaos spread across the first wave of the
asura, she ordered the archers to attack. The rain of
arrows started pouring on the asura killing and hurting
most of the first wave.
Looking at this sight, General Raghavana realized
that the rumours of warriors of Rudrabag were true,
that they were skilled with the  mantras, siddhis and
war tactics. He then decides to place the second wave of
asuras under the command of his trusted Commander,
Jalvag and orders them to attack the human army with
no mercy.
King Thuroonan saw the second wave of asuras
advancing under the commands of Commander
Jalvag, he gave another signal to his army to create
the  Padmavyuha. The army immediately set to
make two  Padmavyuha  to face the enemy. The
Padmavyuha  may be described as a  multi-tiered
defensive formation  that appears  sort of a  blooming
lotus or disc when viewed from above. It resembles a
labyrinth or multiple defensive walls. This is often a sort
of  Chakravyuha that has set of soldiers standing at
a distance  of one  hand, drawing up seven circles, a
formation very tough to interrupt.
The asuras engage the formation in an up
close and face to face combat but the formation of
the Chakravyuha brings the advancement of the asuras
to a standstill. As soon as a human in the formation is
dead or hurt, no longer able to continue in battle, he
was replaced by a new human to fight with and the
outer circle was always in a circular motion forcing the
asuras to face a new human with every combat and
passing of time. The Chakravyuha was giving a hard
time to the asuras to penetrate their defenses.

6
 Looking at the losing army of asuras Commander
Jalvag stepped forward; he proceeded towards the
left  Chakravyuha  and started breathing fire on the
defensive walls made by the humans, inflicting multiple
casualties on the front lines of the human wall. This
inflicted damages to the human lives in a very short
period and there was not enough time to replace the
wounded and dead in the formation, due to which
the  Chakravyuha started falling apart. Commander
Jalvag along with the asuras penetrated and destroyed
the first Chakravyuha.
As the first line of defense was compromised,
Commander Purshottama moved forward with his
forces to face Commander Jalvag. Commander
Purshottama using his  Samyama Siddhi  punched
the earth and shook the ground where Jalvag and his
asuras were advancing, the balance of the asuras were
shaken which gave enough time to Pushottama to reach
Jalvag. As the asuras started regrouping, Purshottama
started battling Jalvag fiercely with his spear. Both of
them were well trained and extremely good in combat
with spears and shield.
While the battle of Jalvag and Purshottama was
going on at one side of the battlefield, another asura
took the form of a monstrous elephant and started
wreaking havoc, killing a lot of soldiers in the process.
Soldiers in the front line were struck by fear; they
started panicking and were trying to run away from the
Elephant. Among all this chaos came a voice that said; 
‘Do not fear of this monster my men; I am here to
kill it for you.’
It was the voice of non-other than their beloved
champion Abhinav. Seeing Abhinav arrive in the
battlefield the soldiers in the front line calmed down
and made way for him to approach the elephant.
Using his  Madalasa Vidya Abhinav transformed into
a twenty feet tall giant, looking dead in the eyes of the

7
monstrous elephant; he mockingly waved his fingers to
challenge the asura. The monstrous elephant blinded
by his rage charged towards Abhinav with full speed.
They collided with such force that their collision
created a shockwave, which made the nearby men and
asuras to fall off their feet. Abhinav used his Siddhi to
increase in size and became a thirty feet tall giant, this
allowed him to easily pick the elephant up in the air.
He threw it on the asuras with such force that some
of the asuras were caught under the weight of this
monstrous elephant and killed instantly. The impact
of the crash on the elephant was so high that his skull
was cracked in two and it was killed.
The battle waged on and there were champions
on both sides fighting with all their might on equal
ground. It looked like the battle was not going to end
anytime sooner, neither side had an upper hand on
the other. The champions of Rudrabag were engaged in
the battle trying to think of a way to defeat the asuras
unaware of the asura’s real intentions. The asuras kept
taunting and kept them engaged in here and now of
the battle, as they received the instruction from their
General Raghavana.

8
 TWO
The Fate of Two Souls

W hile the war wages at the gates of Rudrabag,

the cries and screams of the Queen had calmed
down moments ago in the castle. The heir of
the kingdom was born. The Queen had given birth to
a healthy baby boy, A Prince. The Queen is the most
beautiful women in their region, she is 5’8’ tall and
well trained in the ancient arts of martial arts known
as kalarippayattu. The baby’s cry was loud enough
to wake up a sleeping giant. The Queen woke up and
asked to see the baby; her wet nurse brought the baby
to the Queen. The boy looked beautiful and he had the
same blue eyes just like her mother. Along with the
prince, another life came into existence in the same
castle to a faithful maid in a servant’s quarter.
As soon as the prince was born and given to the
Queen, Guru Malleshwara seeks to enter from the
castle gate. A thin man with long hair and beard,
hair tied up above the head, shaped like a mountain,
wearing a saffron-coloured piece of cloth wrapped
around the bottom, one end of the cloth going through
the only left side of the shoulder tucked around his

9
waist he was dressed like a typical monk around that
region. The castle guards bow their head in respect to
the Guruji who was looking aghast. He demanded to
see the Queen with urgency in his voice. The guards
stood straight and put their spear in front of the door
in a cross position not allowing Guruji to enter the
castle. The Guruji requested the guards that it was a
matter of utmost importance and he cannot be delayed
in getting an audience with the Queen. Even though
the guards were instructed to not allow anyone to enter
Queen’s chamber, the guards felt the Guru’s panic and
took him to the Queen’s chamber without any delays.
As he was on the way to the Queen’s chamber, he felt
the presence of another newly born child. He asked one
of the guards, who were accompanying him,
‘Was there anyone else, who was born along with
the prince?’
The guard nodded in a ‘yes’. The Guru asked the
guard to bring the child and the mother to the Queen’s
chamber.
Guruji was the only one who was granted entry to
the Queen’s chamber, greeted the Queen and requested
to take the boy in his arms. The Queen agreed and gave
the child to him. The boy was a bit heavier than the
normal newborn kids. The boy grabbed guruji’s finger
with a firm grip and exhibited strength. The Guru felt
the unique abilities of the boy and said to the Queen,
‘You have given birth to the Champion of the
Champions.’
The Guru continued, ‘What have you named the
boy?’ The Queen responded, ‘It would be an honour if
you give the boy, a name.’
The Guru thought for a while and said, ‘The boy
will be called, Rudra’, named after the Kingdom, the
Queen and the maids present in the room were very
happy with the name of the boy.

10
 The maid, who has also given birth to a baby boy
at the same time as the prince was born, entered the
Queen’s chamber and bowed to the Guruji and the
Queen. The Guru gave his blessings to both of them
and asked her to sit with the child. All the other
handmaidens were requested to leave the chambers
and guards were ordered to stand guard to prevent
anyone from entering the room.
Guruji started to explain the reason he wanted to
see the Queen and the maid with their child in such
urgency.
‘A few days ago, while I was meditating in the
forests, I had a vision that a child will be born on a
full moon night in the month of Bhadrapaksh. He is
destined to kill King Yakshasura and bring peace to
our lands.’
‘Is this the reason, our kingdom is under an attack
today? Are the attackers’ asuras? Do they want my
son? Do they want to kill him?’ Asked the Queen with
desperation in her voice.
‘Yes,’ said guruji.
‘Is there any way you could help my child survive.
My boy has just entered this world. I would do anything
to ensure my child’s safety.’ Said the Queen with fear
and tears rolling down her cheek.
‘My Queen, the reason I am here is to ensure the
baby’s safety as he is the future of this land. To save
the prince, you must do exactly as I say, then and only
then your child can survive.’
‘I will do anything to make sure my child survives
and fulfils your vision guruji.’ said the Queen.
‘Rani Aadhira, to save your child you must part
ways with him now. Give him to me; I will take him to
Maharishi Angiras. I will convince Maharishi to teach
the boy and give him access to all the godly weapons

11
that he possesses. It will be impossible for the asuras
to find him there. Rudra will be trained under their
supervision at all times. Once he turns eighteen, I will
tell him the truth about him and bring him back to the
kingdom to face his greatest enemy.’
Rani Aadhira was extremely happy to know that
her child will be directly placed under the supervision
of the Guruji and Maharishi. This plan ensured her
child’s safety also it will make him the mightiest
warrior, history has ever seen, with him learning the
siddhi’s directly by the Maharishi, there will be no one
who could equal to his strength.
The Queen agreed to the plan and said ‘It will not
be easy to live without my only child for eighteen years,
but I will endure this pain just to ensure that my child
lives and fulfils his destiny. I will wait for him to return
safely to us.’
‘And I know Maharaj will be happy to hear about
his son’s destiny. His child is the chosen one and he
has gone to train under you and the Maharishiji.’
‘No! Rani Aadhira, you cannot tell anyone that I
have taken the prince with me. Not even to the King.
If the asuras get this information about the child, they
might attack us in the forest and with our limited
resources and a handful of disciples; we might not be
able to protect the child by ourselves.’
‘Then, what am I supposed to tell the King about
his child when he returns from the battle?’
‘This is the reason she is here,’ said guruji pointing
at the handmaiden and her child. Guruji looked at
the maid and said, ‘Dear women, can you please give
your child to the Queen so that he could be raised as
a prince. I know the depth of the risk and the sacrifice
involved in this decision, but please do it for humanity,
do it for your kingdom, Rudrabag.’

12
 The maid is a patriotic woman and her family for
generations has served this kingdom. She was attached
to the kingdom and was ready to do anything for it. She
accepted the plea of the Guruji and readily gave her
child in Queen’s arm.
The Queen was moved with a selfless act of the
maid, knowing the risks and sacrificing her happiness
for the greater good of mankind and her kingdom. The
Queen asked her, ‘what is your name and where do
you work?’
The maid replied, ‘My name is Savitri and I work
at the lower levels of the castle and sometimes in the
garden.’
‘Well Savitri, from here on you will no longer work
in the lower levels or the gardens of this castle but you
will work here, on the upper levels as one of my maids
and you’ll help me to raise this child to become a fine
prince,’ said the Queen. There were tears of joy in her
eyes, she bowed her head in gratitude before the Queen
and said, ‘I have no words to express my gratitude, my
Queen, thank you very much for not separating us.’
The Queen takes prince Rudra in her arms one last
time, nurses him and with a heavy heart, tears in her
eyes and a smile on her face gives him back to guruji.
The Guru blessed both the women and their
children. As soon as he takes prince Rudra in his
arms, he senses the presence of some powerful asuras
that are coming towards them, he knew, he could not
engage with them and save Rudra at the same time.
So, he bid farewell to them and went out of the castle
through the window instead of the doors. The Queen’s
chamber was high above the ground level, but still, the
Guruji managed to jump from the window and land
on his feet without even a scratch to him or the child
using his enhanced reflexes and athletic abilities. As
soon as he landed on the ground, he started running
towards the northern gates.

13
 Moments later five asuras came in the Queen’s
Chamber through the door and saw the Queen, maid
and the child in Queen’s arm. One of the asuras said,
‘Let’s finish this quickly and go back home.’ Another
one said, ‘Not so fast, we are not some dumb asuras
that they can fool us with a decoy.’
Another asura, Dakini, pointing outside the
window said, ‘There is our price in the hands of that
Malleshwara. He is a strong sage but let’s see if he can
take on all of us together.’ The Queen shouted, ‘NO’
but before she could say another word, all the asuras
were gone in a flash, out from the window and started
chasing the Guru.
The Guruji sensed the asura’s chasing behind him,
so he increased his speed and lured them in the forest,
outside the northern gate, opposite to where the battle
was going on. The asuras were fast and were gaining
on him. The Guru realized this and hid in the bushes.
He cast some illusion with the help of his siddhi, the
illusion of fog, the forest getting thicker and the night
getting darker. The asuras saw an illusion of seven
different ways before them, not able to make from
which route the guru went through the thick forest;
they were not able to hear, smell, see or even sense the
presence of Malleshwara or the child. The asuras were
caught in the illusion and lost the trails of the Guruji.
Standing in the middle of nowhere the asuras
started panicking, they have failed their mission. One
of the asuras said, ‘If we went back without the proof of
killing the child, the King would kill us.’ Another asura
said, ‘I knew we should not have come to do such an
important mission. If it wasn’t for you, Razamok, the
King would have sent the elite team of Vikroza, they
are very well experienced and would have done the job.
What are we supposed to do now?’
‘Stop panicking, if it wasn’t for Razamok, we all
would have been dead by now, it is because of him

14
we all survive this far and I believe we will survive this
pandemonium too.’ Said Dakini; showing support to
the team leader.
Razamok started laughing hysterically and said,
‘Don’t worry; I devised a backup plan while listening
to you guys blabber in fear.’ He asked the others to
follow him and they vanished from there. Sensing that
the asuras had left, the Guru came out of his hiding,
dropped the illusion and ran towards his destination
towards the north.
The Queen was panic-stricken thinking about her
son and guruji’s safety. She called out for her guards to
go and check whether the Guruji is alright. But before
the guards could leave the chamber; all the five asuras
were standing in the room in a flash with a devious
laugh. The Asuras were quick to kill every last human
standing in that room except for the newborn baby and
the Queen.
Queen was holding the baby in her arms. Razamok
stepped toward the child, looked at him for split second
and stabbed a dagger through the child penetrating the
Queen. Razamok was a two-headed asura with double
the super intelligence. His both head was perfectly
synchronized with each other and was capable to talk
separately, but this time when he spoke, he used both
his mouth to talk at once, making him much scarier
when you hear him. Razamok said to the other asuras,
‘We will hand over the body of this child to King
Yakshashura. The King gave us an order to kill a child;
well here is a body to present to the King. He doesn’t
have to know that the dead child is not the prince and
in return, he’ll not kill us for failing the mission.’
The other asuras had no other choice but to agree
with Razamok’s plan and they took the body of the
child along with them to present it to their King. While
leaving the castle Razamok gave a signal to the General
Raghavana that their mission is over.

15
 THREE

A Parting Gif t
From General Raghavana

O n the battlefield, the fight between the humans

and asuras grew more intense. Everyone was
making a move to kill the enemy. King Thuroonan
got involved in the battle but General Raghavana was
at a distance watching the battle unfold in front of him
like a spectator. At a distance Raghavana could see
Razamok’s signal, indicating the mission was a success.
He ordered his army to retreat from the battlefield as
their original mission had come to an end. The asuras
on their General’s command started to pull out of the
battle.
Commander Jalvag gave a signal to the General
after getting almost all the alive asuras out of the battle.
The General took his bow and arrow, transferred his
chakra into the arrow and cast an illusion siddhi on the
arrow and fired it on the human army.

16
 The humans were rejoicing to see the asuras
retreat; they were happy to celebrate victory without
many human casualties. The arrow fired with
an  illusion siddhi  proceeded to cast an illusion of
shooting hundreds of thousands of arrows in the air
which blocked the moonlight to an extent. The humans
took cover behind their shields to protect them from
raining arrows, but as the arrow started to come down
and touch their shields; they noticed that it was just an
illusion of arrows which was creating no harm to the
human, the arrows were passing through their body
without causing them any harm. They soon realized
that it was fired so that it could serve as a distraction
while the asuras escape the battlefield. 
As the last of the arrows were coming down on
human; one arrow came towards the King and hit him,
stabbing his heart. Between all the other illusion arrows
there was one hidden real arrow that has just struck
the King. The King fell on the ground from his chariot
and started to bleed profusely. As soon as the King was
down; all the soldiers ran towards him. Commander
Purshottama started shouting to get medical aid at the
battlefield to no avail. All other champions were also
there surrounding the King. All of them were standing
beside the King but no one could do anything to save
him. Even after Purshottama desperate attempts to save
his friend, the King knew it was his time; while taking
his last breath in the arms of his friend, Thuroonan
requested him to take care of his wife Aadhira and their
child who is yet to enter this world. He barely managed
to say these words and succumbed to his injuries
unaware of the fact that he is now a father and the
incident that had already happened in the palace.
The King’s death gave the asuras a valuable time
to escape from the battlefield. There was mourning
in the battlefield as they have lost hundreds of men
and their noble King on this dreadful night. As the
men were coming inside their kingdom along with the

17
body of their fallen King and the soldiers, they were
informed that the Queen’s chamber was ambushed
by some asuras. On receiving this devastating news
Purshottama, Vijaya and Abhinav ran towards the
Queen’s Chamber.
They arrived at the Queen’s chamber only to find
dead bodies lying all over the place. Purushottam
spotted the Queen, went close to her and picked her
body up. She was bleeding but she was not dead.
She was rushed for medical help immediately. They
searched the entire place but there was no sign of any
child there, they thought that the asuras might have
taken the child along with them.
Purushottam called for the search party and ordered
them to look for the prince and the asuras. They have
been searching for the prince and the asuras for three
days but to no avail. The Queen woke up after three
days, still injured but she’ll survive. As the dagger was
not long enough, the Queen was able to survive with
some injuries. She called for Purshottama and told him
the truth about the Prince, Guruji and the attack of
asuras. The Champions who were devastated to see the
royal family at this misery, had hope again, hope in the
form of their Prince Rudra. 
Purushottam vowed in front of the Champions that
by the time Prince returned, they would have raised an
army in the likes of which no asuras have ever seen,
with them being more skilled in weaponry and war
tactics. 
‘In the meanwhile, we will keep searching for the
hidden hideout of the asuras and their King.’ Said
Abhinav, to which Purshottama and other champions
nodded.



18
 Meanwhile, as the asuras reached their kingdom
of Kanaka, Razamok held the body of the dead child
in front of the King in the crowded courtyard to show
them that they had succeeded in their mission. The
King saw the body in his hand, he immediately came
to know that Razamok is lying but without uttering
a word he left the courtyard. This was an unusual
behaviour of the King, Razamok noticed, but he didn’t
dare to ask the King.
Later during that day, the King Yakshasura called
Razamok in the garden area, where they were alone.
When Razamok entered the garden, he saw the king
gazing at a poisonous plant. King Yakshasura was 6’4’
inches tall, well-built where you can see every single
muscle in his body. He has a dusky complexion and an
extremely handsome face to compliment with. He had
hazel green eyes with a deep look, which made his gaze
look as if it cuts deep into one’s soul. He has a long wavy
shoulder-length hair and a breath-taking captivating
smile. The King was wearing blue angavastram, he
wore a gold crown on his head with rubies embedded
in it, kundal in his ears. He was decked with a necklace
fit for a king, a bajuband on his right hand and a
thick two-inch cuff made of gold in both hands with
gemstones. The site of King Yakshasura would make
anyone who laid their eyes on him to fall in love with
him madly and deeply.
Razamok slowly approached the king ‘My King’
Said Razamok completely mesmerized by the sight.
The King said, ‘Do you know, what this plant is?’
‘Yes, my lord, it’s the oleander, the most poisonous
plant’ replied Razamok with one of its head, while both
heads looking down on earth and avoiding directly
looking at the King.
‘Tell me one thing, what will happen to your head,
number one, if I make you eat this plant from your

19
head, number two?’ said the King looking dead at
Razamok’s face in a deep and calm voice.
Razamok was petrified, after a few moments, he got
himself together and said, ‘My King, I have only two
heads and two necks, and below that everything is the
same, if my one head eats the plant, the ultimate result
will be my death.’
‘I’m glad, at least now you have started telling me
the truth,’ said the King mockingly and continued
‘I know… the body of the child, you showed in the
courtyard is not of the prince, I know you failed your
mission.’
Razamok was astonished and with fear, in his
voice, he said, ‘My lord, we tried our best but my team
is so miserable, they are completely responsible for
this, they lost the child.’
‘I don’t care about your team, tell me Raza…mok…
what happened there?’ said the King in a demanding
yet calm and scary tone.
Razamok told the King the entire story that the
prince lives and he is with the Guru Malleshwara.
Hearing Razamok’s confession, the king started to
grow angrier. As his anger grew; his horns came out
on his head revealing his true form of Asura. His eyes
slowly turned from hazel green to blood red. A sight of
a true monster you do not want to provoke. Razamok
was petrified as this was the first time; he had seen
his king’s true form. He had heard stories about him
and he had been warned in the past to not anger the
king if he wants to live. At that moment Razamok felt
he would surely die in the hands of the king. His eyes
suddenly found the ground to be more interesting and
kept looking downwards.
‘Listen… Razamok, I am not concerned with a child
nor am I afraid of the prophecy. This petty human

20
can’t do anything to me. The reason I gave the order
to attack the humans was because of my brother who
believed in this non-sense, insisted to lead the attack
and kill the child. You failed one job that was entrusted
in you. You have to go back with your team and kill
the child and the guru Malleshwara and bring back
their bodies, until that day, you and your merry band
are banished from our kingdom. Do not dare to show
your face without completing your mission or I will
make sure to thrust down the oleander from both of
your necks and enjoy watching you die.’ said the King
and started walking towards the castle, his appearance
has started to go back to normal, he halted at few feet
turned around, looked at him and said, ‘and one more
thing Razamok, nobody should know about the truth
of the boy, even if any of your men spill the bean, you
know what I’m going to do with you,’ and the King went
towards his castle in his normal appearance.
Razamok knew he had no other option with him, so
he left the kingdom with his team to kill the boy and
the guru.

21
 FOUR

The Training Begins

T en years have passed since the battle between

humans and asuras. Since then the asuras have
gradually increased their attacks on villages
destroying their homes, eating their food or sometimes
even eating humans as their food. It appears as if the
true purpose of the asuras is to disturb the peaceful
life of the humans by any means necessary. There are
sages and champions from different kingdoms, who
face and even kill the asuras. The sages and champions
respond to a distress call from any villages.
It’s early in the morning; a young skinny boy
of age ten having radiance on his face was wearing
antariya and full sleeves light brown coloured t-shirt
made of cotton, filled his pot with fresh water from
the river and headed back to the top of the mountain
situated in the Nilgiri forest. A forest situated around
one hundred and seventy miles north of the kingdom
Rudrabag. Many tribes are living in this forest area,
all come under the kingdom’s protection. This forest
is home to a vast variety of plantation, animals and

22
different kind of medicinal herbs, but most of all this
forest is famous for its bluish flower known as Kurinji,
that gave rise to the name. While going back to his
settlement, he encounters a large python a few feet
away from him. The boy was scared so he stood as
still as he can without moving a muscle; the python
crossed the path glaring at the helpless boy. As the
python went on a different direction and away from
the boy, he relaxed a bit. He heard a familiar voice
from behind; ‘how long are you planning to stand
there looking at the python? People are dying of thirst
back at the settlement and you are enjoying the view
of python retreating.’
‘Sorry Guruji, but I was scared as the python
approached, I thought it was going to attack me,’
said Rudra.
Guru Malleshwara replied, ‘No my child, you
are wrong to judge the python. Unlike humans
and asuras, animals don’t attack until they are
hungry or in danger. It is the law of nature.’
While talking to each other the boy and the
guru headed back to their settlement. Their
settlement was atop of the mountain, consisting
of three small, simple, single-storey house, a
dormitory for the kids to sleep, a training ground
and a meditation ground & room.
As they reached their settlement, Rudra saw
his friends were waiting by a tree; he rushed there
keeping the pot at a hut, and his friends told him
that they were waiting for him to come. Sage Rishu
was going to teach them more advanced yoga
postures today. There were a total of ten students
including Rudra. All the kids are wearing the same
attire as Rudra’s.

23
 Keshav one of Rudra’s friend, a lean and quick
on his feet, excitedly said, ‘After learning today’s
postures, we’ll be ready to learn  mantras, siddhis
and chakra control. Oh God! I am so excited about
today’s lesson. After this, there will be no more
boring yogic class, where we have to make different
foolish postures and do stretching exercises.’
‘Calm down Keshav, we’ll only learn how to
balance our bodies more effectively; we have a
long way to go to learn mantras, siddhis, etc.,’ said
Karuna, to which she earned a playful glare from
Keshav.
‘Miss Know-it-all is at it again,’ Vikram said
smiling; this made others laugh and left Karuna
with an angry face.
In the meantime, Sage Rishu came over to the
meditation ground where the rest of the class was
standing. Everyone joined their hands in  Anjali
Mudra  and took blessings from him. Rishu said,
‘My child, Keshav, while I was coming here, I
overheard you. I know that you are very excited
about the  hatha yoga that is your class today. You
might do yoga for physical benefits. But yoga has
a lot more to offer from your deeper consciousness
to a higher awareness; yoga is everywhere and in
everything that you do in your day-to-day life.
Vedas recognizes there are many paths to the
divine, besides hatha yoga, there are four types of
primary yoga. There is Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga,
Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga.
According to Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of devotion,
you can experience divinity through devotion express
through singing, dancing and listening to praises of

24
the divine. The legends teach nine primary forms of
bhakti.
(1) Listening to God’s praise,
(2) Singing,
(3) Chanting,
(4) Rendering services,
(5) Worshipping a murthi,
(6) Paying homage,
(7) Servitude,
(8) Friendship, and
(9) Complete surrender of the self to the Divine.
According to Karma Yoga, the yoga of service, one
can experience divinity through selfless service. This
is done by acknowledging the divinity in everyone and
by regarding all one’s action as worship. The legends
say the best form of service is service that is performed
without being attached to the fruits of one’s activities.
One should go about as an issue of obligation in light
of the fact that by working without connection one
achieves the Divine. Like for example Karuna and
Anya enjoy cooking food and serving to us, they do
this because they enjoy doing the act and they are not
concerned with the outcome, this selfless act is a form
of Karma Yoga.
As per Jnana Yoga, the yoga of information, one
can encounter heavenly nature through contemplating
scriptural lessons to acknowledge truth from
misrepresentation, through viveka by encountering
inward information and knowledge one can separate
between the Eternal and Temporal. The syllable OM is
the Brahman, the impersonal absolute of our culture.
Realizing it, one finds complete fulfillment of all of one’s
longings.

25
 According to Raja Yoga, one has to cultivate the
mind before one starts the practice of meditation, it
devises in living a moral life, purification of the body
through hatha yoga and pranyama, detachment from
sense objects and concentration to prepare the mind
for meditation. At the point when the brain has been
prepared to stay fixed on a specific inward or outside
area, there comes to it the intensity of streaming in a
whole current, in a manner of speaking, towards that
point. This state is called Dhyana (meditation).’
‘There is so much to learn from yoga and we were
just concentrating on it like a physical exercise,’ said
Bana with complete astonishment.
Agreeing with Bana the sage explained further,
‘Yoga at a more significant level can be whatever
drives you to eternality. The four Yogas are not
totally unrelated of one another; a genuine Yogi
consolidates the various ways to deal with suit his
needs to understand the Divine!
At the point when the five faculties are stilled,
when the brain is stilled, when the astuteness is
stilled that is known as the most elevated state
by the insightful, they state yoga is this finished
stillness where one enters the unitive state never
to become separate again, on the off chance that
one isn’t set up in this state, feeling of solidarity
will travel every which way.’
All the students were in a state of awe, as
they were not expecting yoga to be of such great
importance. There was silence on the meditation
ground, and this silence was broken by Sage
Rishu.
‘So, today we’ll learn more advanced
yogic postures, so let’s start with  Chaturanga,

26
Vrksasana, Navasana, Bakasana, PinchaMayurasana,
Natarajasana, Savasana.’ Now let me show you all
the asanas that I just told you.
The Sage started with  Chaturanga, he
performed the posture and said this yoga pose
strengthens your arms, wrists and abdomen. It is
a good preparation pose for more challenging arm
balancing poses. The sage started performing the
yogic postures one by one.
Vrksasana, he performed the posture and
said this yoga pose may seem like another easy
posture but it is not a resting asana. Your back
should be aligned properly, your hips should be at
one level and since your stability depends on the
distribution of your weight on your standing leg
ensure you do while maintaining and improving
your balance.
Navasana, this yoga requires for one to be
stable (as a boat) which means, straight back,
chin looking forward, while knees and arms are
locked. This is not an easy posture. Through it,
you build strong abdominal and core strength.
Bakasana, this yoga pose strengthens the wrists,
forearms and abdomen while also stretching the
hamstring. Balance is crucial for this pose.
PinchaMayurasana  is an arm balancing yoga
pose. This particular one helps you with the blood
flow throughout the body; it calms your mind and
it strengthens your arms.
Natarajasana, this yoga present fortifies your
legs, improves parity and center quality while
additionally extends your shoulders and improves

27
your core interest. It is one of the most graceful
asanas.
Savasana, this yoga pose is one of the most
important postures. It is intended to revive your
brain and body after training while additionally
permitting you to move your regard for your
internal identity. The benefits are lowering your
blood pressure, calming you and allowing your
body to absorb all of the benefits you worked out
for.
After performing all the asanas and telling
them their benefits, the Guruji said, ‘You have to
perform these asanas and perfect them before we
could go any further. Your tasks are to hold each
asana for straight three hours and then perform
the next asana and hold it for three hours and so
on, anyone who is not able to hold for three hours
will not pass this class. Before going, let me tell
you the secret of getting the asanas correctly, you
have to practice a lot.’
All the students started practicing the different
yoga postures as taught by the Guruji. Some were
not able to get the posture right while some were
able to get the posture right but couldn’t hold it for
much longer. The students spent their entire day
practicing but they were not even close to holding
the posture correctly for even fifteen minutes.
The students practiced day in and day out,
they even helped each other just to get their
postures correctly. In a matter of just fourteen
days, these students got their postures correctly
without taking anyone’s help, now it was time to
test the endurance, only a few were able to hold
the posture for one hour. Meanwhile, Rudra was

28
able to get the posture correctly and was able
to hold the posture for more than two hours, by
seeing this other student were highly motivated
to perfect the posture and hold it for more than
three hours.
Finally, after thirty days, Sage Rishu decided
to take a small test of the students. Early in the
morning he called all his students and asked them
to hold the postures. Rudra and Keshav were
doing exceptionally well; few other kids were also
doing it properly. One student was finding it very
difficult to hold the posture but he was not ready
to give up either, his name was Vikram. Vikram
had lost his parents to an asura who attacked his
village when he was just five years old. Alone in the
streets crying beside his dead parents, Sage Rishu
found him and brought him here, since that day
the vengeance of Vikram has grown strongly and
had vowed to learn all the  siddhis from the Sage,
even develop his  siddhi  and kill all the asuras.
The Sage knew what Vikram lacks in the physical
abilities, he makes up in his mental abilities. He
was smarter than the other kids who were of his
age. The Sage looked at Vikram and gave him a
blank look. Vikram, although facing the challenge
with great difficulty he didn’t give up and passed
the endurance test. Rudra, Keshav and Vikram
were good friends. All the other students passed
the test, so the sage gave them the rest of the day
off.

29
 FIVE
The Weird Dream

A t the end of the day, Guru Malleshwara arrived.

The students got in Anjali Mudra, bowed to the
Guruji and welcomed him by saying ‘Namaste
Guruji.’
‘Guruji, you are three days late. You were supposed
to come early. Did you encounter any asuras? If you
did, did you kill it?’ asked Keshav.
Guruji smiled and said, ‘You students ask me a lot
of questions. I have just arrived. Let me freshen up. It
is going to be dark soon, you boys gather some woods
and create a bonfire, and then I’ll tell you a story.’
The students were excited to hear a story; they
gathered some wood and created bonfire, eagerly
waiting for the guruji. The guruji came out, sat at the
place near the bonfire and said, ‘This is a nice setup
that you have created, this means you all are very
eager to listen to my story.’
‘Yes, Guruji,’ said the class in unison.

30
 The Guruji responded, ‘So let’s begin. As I was
coming from the kingdom Trithan, an unknown person
came to me and said,’ 
‘Guruji, I have been searching for you for a few
days now, I am a peasant from the village Chakrud. My
villagers are possessed by an asura Dakini.’ 
‘How do you know that?’ asked guruji. 
The person said ‘My farm is just outside the village
so after working in the fields, I went back home there I
found my wife, daughter and son lying on the ground. At
first, I thought, they were all dead but when I examined
them, they all were breathing, they were unconscious,
but they were alive. I ran to the neighbours but they were
also lying on the ground, breathing but unconscious.
I went to another friend’s home but the condition was
same, then the asura Dakini appeared in front of me
and she demanded to see Guru Malleshwara or else
she’ll kill all the villagers in their dream. Since then I
have been searching for you until finally, I found you.’
Guru Malleshwara was a bit suspicious about the
whole story but after a repeated cry for help from the
peasant, finally decided to go and take a look. Guru
Malleshwara knew the asura as he had an encounter
with her before also; Dakini is always covered in big
grey coloured robe, having pointy teeth, eyes completely
black. A skilled assassin, one of her powers is she can
enter anyone’s dream and kill that person in their
dream and once the person is dead in the dream; they
are dead in reality as well.
‘As I entered the premises of the village, I felt a
strange feeling and a pungent smell. I went inside a
house and saw people lying on the ground, alive and
not yet dead, as the peasant was saying. I came out of
the house to ask the peasant, where is the asura, who
was asking for me. But in front of my eyes the peasant
fell to the ground and from behind him appeared the
asura, Dakini.’

31
 ‘It was very hard to track and bring you here,
Malleshwara. My King will be very happy with me when
I bring your head to his feet.’
‘After saying this she started attacking me in close
combat. I evaded most of the fist attacks but finally,
she was able to land a blow on my face, as soon as
her hand touched my face. I felt her entering in my
mind and my body falling on the ground. Instantly the
battles were happening inside my mind. Every blow I
was taking inside my mind, my body was feeling every
single pain. She started to throw her punches to kill,
she was not holding back even a bit. I was dodging
most of her blows, studying her every move. I used
my Maha Astra Siddhi and immediately a big wooden
staff appeared in my hand, using that I was able to
create some distance between her blows and me. Using
my siddhi, I was able to gather my chakra in my palm,
as I did that there was an  OM  symbol on my palm.
Using my speed, I punched her forehead with my palm,
so hard that she was thrown out of my head. I finally
woke up and battled her with the energy of my chakra,
but before I could land a killing blow, she just vanished
from there completely, her magic was down and all
the villagers were set free from their nightmares. But
because of her magic, all the villagers head was paining
and chakra flow was interrupted so I stayed back and
helped them to heal and that is the reason I was late to
meet you, folks.
‘Wow Guruji, you are amazing,’ said Keshav.
‘Can you teach us all the siddhi’s that you know?’
Vikram asked in an earnest.
To which the Guru replied, ‘I heard that you can do
the yogic postures with ease and for a longer time now.’
‘Yes, Guruji’ Vikram replied.
‘Then yes, I’ll teach you all the siddhi’s that I know.’
Guruji said, ‘Starting from tomorrow you are going to

32
learn the meditation techniques which in turn will help
you to learn siddhi.’
All the students were very excited. Guruji asked
them to go and sleep as they had to get up early in
the morning to begin their training in meditation. So,
all the students obeyed the Guruji’s order and went to
sleep.
After all the students went to sleep Sage Rishu and
Guru Malleshwara was talking.
‘Did you find him?’ asked Sage Rishu.
‘No, I could not locate his whereabouts.’
‘Guruji, here in the settlement, we tried to locate his
position through meditation but we failed. It might be
possible that he might have died and that’s the reason
we are not able to locate him for such a long time.’
‘Maybe you are correct, but I tried to communicate
in the other dimension and I could not find him there
also’
‘Maharishi Angiras is a powerful sage, if he wants
to, he can hide from the entire world and we will never
be able to sense his presence.’
‘Yes, Rishu, now you are going in the right direction,
I know this fact and that is the reason I have not
stopped searching for him.’
‘I understand Guruji, and neither will we stop
searching for him,’ said Rishu.
‘Tell me, how are our students performing in the
yogic classes?’
Rishu started explaining Guruji, how extraordinarily
Rudra was performing yogic postures, he will learn all
the meditation and siddhi’s quickly, and he’ll even be
able to create his siddhi. Guruji was very happy to hear
this, that Rudra was showing such great potential.

33
 Guruji said to Rishu that, ‘The story in which I
mentioned about asura Dakini. The asura was one of
the five asuras that went to Queen’s chamber to kill
Rudra ten years ago. She wanted to kill the child, which
is why she was searching for me. Their concern about
the boy shows us that the boy is still in danger and he
must be protected at all cost. We must not allow him
to cross the premises; if he goes out of the premises
he can get detected. We cannot allow him to die before
he completes his true purpose. He is our last hope in
defeating the asura King.’
‘But Guruji, we cannot save the child forever,
eventually he has to go out of this premises.’
‘Yes Rishu, but when he does step out of these
premises, let’s make sure that he can take care of
himself without the help of either of us.’
‘We have to teach him all the advance level siddhi’s,
mantra’s etc. so that he can protect himself and one
day he’ll be able to kill the Asura King.’
‘But he is just a kid; we can’t allow him to face the
Asura King alone.’
‘We have no choice but to trust the prophecy and
after all, he is the chosen one.’

34
 SIX
The Ultimate Goal

N ext morning all the students got up early, got

ready and came to their meditating ground.
As they came, they saw Sage Rishu was
meditating in a  Padmasana  posture under a Bodhi
tree.
Bana said, ‘Go on Dharya, wake him up.’
To which Rudra responded with irritation visible
on his face, ‘NO, you are not supposed to wake up a
meditator while he is in the middle of his meditation.’
‘Don’t get angry Rudra, I’m sure guruji knows it’s
time for our class and that we will be here to wake him
up,’ said Sanvi.
‘Let’s not fight here. Why not we get
into Padmasana posture next to the guruji,’ suggested
Karuna.
‘That’s not a bad idea; we can start with our class
with Padmasana. What say Rudra, we can at least do
that?’ said Vikram.

35
 All of them took their places in front of the guruji
and got in position but not even one was able to
concentrate. After some struggle, Vikram was able
to concentrate and he went in deep meditation.
Seeing Vikram, Rudra and Keshav tried but failed to
concentrate. After a long time, Rishu opened his eyes
and saw some were lying on the floor; some were sitting
with eyes closed only Vikram was meditating. Everyone
was trying to do something but couldn’t achieve much.
Rishu called everyone and greeted them saying, ‘You
all are late for your class today, and you all will be
punished. A thousand sit-ups for everyone’
Hearing their punishment all the students were not
happy but Keshav was excited and said to the other
students, ‘We shouldn’t be disheartened, rather take
this as an opportunity to do a thousand sit-ups, train
ourselves and become more stronger.’
Rishu was amazed and said, ‘Very good Keshav,
with this attitude you may be able to attain at least a
third class of warrior excellence.’ Happy but surprised
with his statement, Keshav asked, ‘What is this class
of warrior excellence?’ Other students also had a blank
face and asked Rishu, ‘Yes Guruji tell us about this
warrior excellence.’
As Sage Rishu was about to answer, he was
interrupted by another sage, he said, ‘Sorry to interrupt
your class Guruji but Guru Malleshwara wants to speak
to you urgently.’ After saying this he stood by the tree
patiently. Sage Rishu turned his attention towards the
class and said, ‘I beg your pardon students but I have
to go and meet Guru Malleshwara, when I come back,
I’ll answer your questions. For the remainder of the
class, please carry on with padmasana and once done
focus on completing your punishment. I will know if
you have completed your punishment sincerely or not,
so do not even think of cheating or skipping it.’ Rishu
got up and went to see the Guruji along with the sage. 

36
 The students were bored while trying to meditate
so they decided to do a thousand sit-ups, it was their
punishment and they had to do it anyways. Keshav
took the charge, came in front of the class and along
with other students and was about to start doing sit-
ups, that’s when Bana got up.
‘I’m bored, the sage is not here and I am in no mood
to finish my punishment as of now,’ said Bana while
stretching. ‘I am going to go explore for now. Aditya,
Dharya are you coming along.’
‘Yup, let’s go.’ Said both of them in unison.
‘You should finish the task before leaving, Bana. If
the sage knew, it might be trouble for you,’ said Rudra
warning them.
‘And who’s going to tell him? You? Just what I
expect from guruji’s pet. Do as you please Rudra, I am
leaving, for now, to do what I feel like.’ Bana left the
training ground with his two friends.
Sage Rishu reported to Guru Malleshwara, where he
learnt about another asura attack on a nearby village,
by guruji’s orders Rishu went to investigate about the
asura and if necessary, tackle the threat with extreme
measures. The kids practiced on their own and went to
sleep when their teacher didn’t show up to teach them.
Next morning the kids returned to their training
ground and to their astonishment they found Guru
Malleshwara instead of Sage Rishu. The kids greeted
guruji with Anjali mudra and proceeded to take a seat
close to Guruji. Guruji looked around and called Bana,
Aditya and Dharya. Bana shot an annoyed look to
Rudra and called him guruji’s pet before getting up and
moving towards the guruji.
‘Where were you yesterday when the rest of the
class was working on their punishment?’ asked guruji.

37
 ‘We got bored doing our assignment, so we thought
of taking a stroll in a nearby forest,’ said Bana with all
honesty.
‘It’s forbidden to go in the forest without permission.
Have you forgotten the rules we have here?’ Guru
Malleshwara asked with a hint of anger in his voice.
‘I believe due to your much-needed stroll, you have
not completed your punishment given to you.’ Asked
Guruji.
‘No Guruji, we haven’t. We were planning to finish
our punishment after class today,’ said Aditya.
‘Alright. As you said, please finish your punishment
after class today but instead of one thousand sit-ups,
you will be doing two thousand sit-ups.’
‘Yes Guruji, we apologize and we will finish our
punishment today,’ said Bana.
Karuna asked, ‘Guruji, where is Sage Rishu?’
‘There was an asura who was disturbing the peace
of the nearby village, so I sent him there to take care
of the situation. He’ll be returning as soon as things
turn normal there or the situation is taken care of.
Don’t you worry, I’ll be taking his class and teaching
you meditation techniques.’ said guruji with a smile on
his face.
Rudra said, ‘Guruji, Sage Rishu was supposed to
answer our question, I wonder if you could answer in
his place.’
‘Yes Rudra, I’ll try my best to answer your question.
Please go ahead and ask your question.’
‘Guruji, what do you know about this class of
warrior excellence? Can you please explain it to us?’
The Guru smiled and answered, ‘You kids are
growing up so fast. It’s already time for you to know
about the warrior excellence, huh.’

38
 Alright, I’ll explain it to you.’
According to legends, there are five classes of
warrior excellence.
1. Rathi: A warrior capable of defeating 5,000
warriors simultaneously.
2. Atirathi: A warrior capable of contending with 12
Rathi class warriors or 60,000 warriors.
3. Maharathi: A warrior capable of fighting 12
Atirathi class warriors or 720,000 warriors.
4. Atimaharathi: A warrior capable of fighting 12
Maharathi class warriors or 8,640,000 warriors.
5. Mahamaharathi: A warrior capable of fighting 24
Atimaharathi class warriors simultaneously or
207,360,000 warriors.
All the kids were very amazed and excited to hear
this, they were saying Guruji, ‘I’ll become a Maharathi
class warrior.’ Another kid said, ‘No, I’ll become an
Atimaharathi class warrior.’
The Guru said, ‘It is a difficult task to become even
a Rathi class warrior. It takes mastery over yoga and
mastery over meditation to achieve the first class of
warrior excellence. With utmost discipline if your body
and mind align together perfectly then only, you’ll be
able to achieve super speed, strength, endurance,
intelligence, etc. to become a powerful warrior. Your
mental and physical abilities should be enhanced
together, then only you’ll be able to achieve a Rathi
class.’
The Guru asked the kids, ‘So are you ready to
become an excellent warrior?’ 
All students in excitement and in one voice said,
‘Yes Guruji’.
Rudra said, ‘Guruji, from today onwards we’ll start
training very seriously to enhance our physical and

39
mental strengths so that one day each one of us can
achieve our desired warrior class.’
All the kids start training and meditating more
seriously and with a clear purpose in their mind.
Everyone wanted to achieve their desired goal.
That night all the kids had their usual supper, that
is, a bowl of vegetable soup and headed for their bed.
While lying on their bed, Rudra asked Vikram, who
was lying next to him,
‘What do you think, is it even possible to achieve
such a class of warrior excellence?’
‘Yes Rudra, I believe it is possible. If we train hard
enough, we’ll be able to achieve at least Maharathi
class.’
‘Yeah! But do you even know anyone who has
achieved a Mahamaharathi class warrior?’
‘I think Lord Shiva is a Mahamaharathi class
warrior.’
‘Of course, he is a Mahamaharathi class warrior,
he is a God.’
‘Yeah! Well, we have to at least start so that we
can reach somewhere; I believe I can at least reach the
Maharathi class warrior. But if you don’t start, you’ll
never know what you are capable of achieving?’
‘You are correct. I will train harder for the rest of
my days to achieve the highest class of warrior.’
‘For God sake, sleep, you two,’ said Karuna
annoyingly. Both of them stopped talking and started
some hand gestures teasing Karuna, before they went
to sleep.
After three days Sage Rishu got back from his
mission and reported back to Guru Malleshwara. He
had taken care of the asura by killing it and freeing the

40
villagers from its control. However, he received help in
doing so from a warrior from the kingdom Rudrabag.
His name was Abhinav, after helping the sage, Abhinav,
went back to his kingdom. He was coming from Gubani
Kingdom, on his way as he was passing by the village;
he heard the distress of the villagers and came to help.
The Guruji had a smile on his face and said, ‘Let us
train the kids to become a great warrior like Abhinav.’
Over the time, students learned to meditate
properly and their yogic training became more and
more intense. They were developing both their mental
and physical aspects of life. Guru Malleshwara
taught them on how to concentrate and develop
a siddhi. The students were quick to learn. All of them
learned kasina meditation. Kasina meditation is a form
of concentration meditation in which the mind is focused
on a mental object.  Dhyana  is the central meditative
practice in  kasina  meditation.  Kasina  meditation
intends to settle the mind of the practitioner and create
a foundation for further practices of meditation. The
object is being used to keep the mind focused whenever
attention drifts.
There are five important kasina as described by the
legends
• Earth 
• Water 
• Fire 
• Air 
• Space 
All students were instructed to meditate and
naturally, they will get leaned towards their element.
Rudra leaned towards the fire, Vikram and Bana
towards air; Karuna, Shakti and Sanvi towards water
and Keshav, Dharya, Anya and Aditya towards the
earth. They were taught when in need of how to call
upon their elements to help them.

41
 Rudra was very quick to learn, to manipulate
and even breathe fire through his mouth. Karuna
learned how to manipulate water. Keshav learned to
manipulate earth element but for Vikram, it was very
difficult to manipulate air, he was able to control a little
air element. Other students also learned to manipulate
their elements but no one was able to control
consciousness. Guru Malleshwara taught the students
to develop their first  siddhi  through concentration
meditation. Guruji instructed don’t force it but you
will be able to develop your first siddhi naturally. After
practicing for days and nights, for a long period of time,
the kids were able to develop their first siddhi.
Rudra learned ‘Vashita Siddhi’, an ability to bring
others under one’s control, but at this point, he
was able to control only animals, birds etc. Vikram
developed ‘Kamarupam Siddhi’, assuming any
form desired. Keshav learned ‘Anima and Mahima
Siddhi’, Anima means reducing one’s body to the size
of an atom and Mahima means expanding one’s body
to an infinitely large size. Karuna developed ‘Vasitva
Siddhi’, an ability to control natural forces. Bana
learned ‘advandvam’, an ability which helps in tolerance
of heat, cold and other dualities. Other students also
developed their first siddhi. Along with this Guru
Malleshwara taught them ‘Maha Astra Siddhi’, which
could manifest any mortal weapon from thin air as the
user desired in his mind.
The students started practicing and even teaching
each other their mastered  siddhi. With every passing
time, the students were getting stronger and stronger.

42
 SEVEN
Test of Skills

S easons passed by, the students were training and

getting stronger by each passing day. Rudra was
12 years old now. One chilly morning the kids
came back to their settlement after completing their
twenty-five km run from a nearby mountain. All of
them were exhausted but extremely happy to see Guru
Malleshwara, as they were seeing him after almost
ninety days. As they came close to guruji, all of them
got into Anjali mudra and greeted him, Keshav said,
‘Guruji, the next time you go on an asura’s hunt, we
would like to accompany you and help you to kill the
asura.’ The students in the settlements have not seen
an asura but they have heard a lot of stories about it
from the sages living with them. They knew an asura
can be very deadly and will not hesitate to kill them.
The guruji smiled at Keshav’s request and said,
‘OK but first let me check, how strong all of you have
become!’ 
‘Guruji, how are you going to check that, how
strong all of us have become?’ asked Rudra. 

43
 ‘By hosting a tournament! All of you will be
competing with each other.’
Everyone was very excited. They all were more than
ready to show their skills. Vikram asked, ‘Guruji, when
will the tournament begin?’ 
‘Tomorrow morning, when the first light touches
the ground, your tournament will begin. You can take
rest of the day off, take some rest and be prepared for
tomorrow’s tournament.’
All the students dispersed, some started preparing
for the tournament and some took rest.
‘I wonder what competitions are we going to have
tomorrow; what do you think will those be, Vikram?’
asked an excited Keshav.
‘I don’t know. All we can do for now is take good
rest and be prepared for the challenge that we will face
tomorrow,’ said Vikram.
Next morning all the students were more than ready
and came down at the training ground even before the
sun could shine. As the first light touched the ground,
the student’s face was glowing in excitement. Guru
Malleshwara and all the sages arrived at the training
ground. Sage Rishu informed the kids that their
competition will be a duel against each other.
 Then Guruji asked the students to get divided into
two groups, consisting of five students in each group.
So, the kids did and the groups were formed. Rudra,
Keshav, Vikram, Karuna and Sanvi formed team Rudra
and Bana, Aditya, Dharya, Shakti and Anya formed
team Bana. Sage Rishu brought different sizes of sticks
and gave it to both the group of students. The students
distributed the different sized stick among each other.
Now every student was having one stick each. The
sticks in a particular group were of different size.

44
 Guruji said, ‘Team Rudra’s stick will be matched
with Team Bana’s, the students whose sticks are of the
same size, will face each other. Before moving forward,
there are some rules that you have to follow strictly.
First, all students can use only wooden weapons to
fight, that too the blunt ones only. Second and most
important, no fatal blows to be used.’ Sage Rishu said,
‘Use this opportunity to understand your opponent
and to enhance your skills.’
All students agreed to the rules, Keshav was very
excited and he requested Guruji, that he wants to fight
first. The Guruji granted his request and his stick was
compared with Team Bana’s, his stick matched with
Aditya’s stick, so it was decided that Keshav will go
against Aditya.
Both the students were excited. Both of them came
in front of each other in Anjali mudra joined their
hands and bowed to each other. The guruji uttered the
word, ‘Begin.’
Keshav was swift to act and used his Maha Astra
Siddhi  and called for a wooden staff and started
attacking Aditya. Poor Aditya didn’t even have time to
use his siddhi to call upon any weapon; he was engaged
in battle with Keshav, barely able to avoid some of his
blows. The Guruji and the Sages were astonished to
see how quick Keshav was to use his  siddhi. Aditya
used Anima Siddhi and became small to the size of an
ant. Suddenly Aditya was in full control of the battle,
jumping and landing punches on Keshav. Since Aditya
was small and punching him fast from the various
direction, Keshav was very confused and couldn’t
figure out what to do next. All the students of Team
Bana were cheering and supporting Aditya. Rudra and
Vikram realized Keshav is in deep trouble and was not
thinking clearly.
Rudra shouted, ‘Calm down Keshav. You are
frustrated and not thinking clearly.’

45
 Vikram added, ‘Yes, we know that you can’t see him
due to his small size, but you can sense his chakra. So,
stop panicking, concentrate and focus on his chakra.’
Hearing these words from his friends, Keshav
calmed down; by focusing he was able to sense Aditya’s
chakra. Now Keshav had the upper hand as he was able
to sense Aditya’s chakra, he was successfully able to
avoid his attacks. Keshav even managed to strike down
Aditya in his small form a couple of times. Aditya came
to his normal form, but he was tired and nauseated
as he was struck on his head by Keshav. As soon as
Aditya was in his normal form, Keshav threw his staff
and started blowing punches to Aditya’s head and
abdomen. Keshav was fast in blowing punches; Aditya
was not even able to block his punch. After certain
blows from Keshav and the last uppercut, Aditya was
knocked out and the match was over.
Team Rudra was excited with their first victory and
Team Bana were upset with their loss. Dharya was
furious with this result, so he steps up and requested
to fight against whomever the opponent is, his twig was
checked with Team Keshav and Vikram was his match.
It was time for Dharya vs Vikram. Dharya was the hot
head amongst the students and of course, Vikram was
the smartest.
As soon as the Guruji said, begin, Dharya turned
into a bear and started attacking Vikram. Vikram
managed to avoid most of the attacks but Dharya being
in his bear form was extraordinarily fast and managed to
draw some blood from Vikram’s arm through his sharp
claws. Vikram tried and got some distance between
him and the bear. Vikram turned into a falcon and
tried to fly up in the sky but couldn’t fly much higher
because of the injured arm. He landed on a nearby tree,
turning back in his human form. Dharya tried to climb
the tree but as he saw Vikram in his human form, he
strokes the tree and Vikram came down falling. Dharya

46
got some distance between them and charged towards
Vikram to deliver one last tackle so that he could win
the fight. Vikram was cornered, seeing nowhere to run,
Vikram stood his grounds. He felt a strange gush in
his stomach that came to his hands. By using both
his hands, he blasted a very sharp wave of air towards
Dharya. So strong that even the bear was blown away
and thrown at some distance but the toll was too much
on Vikram, he was unconscious and fell on the ground.
Dharya turned back to human, injured with Vikram’s
last attack, gathered some strength and came towards
Vikram but he was still unconscious. So Dharya was
declared the winner. Rudra and Keshav picked up
Vikram and took him to their corner.
By checking the sticks, the next match was
between Karuna and Shakti. As soon as Guruji said,
begin, Karuna started fist fighting with Shakti, without
using any siddhi, just displaying her raw strength and
speed. But to Karuna’s surprise, Shakti was holding on
the fight without using any of her special abilities. As
Shakti got some distance from Karuna, she manifested
a spear and attacked Karuna rigorously. Karuna
manifested a shield to defend herself while defending
she managed to use  Vasitva Siddhi  and managed to
get her off her feet by weakening the gravitational force
around her. Shakti started to float in the air; Karuna
took the opportunity and knocked her off by throwing
a shield on her head. Shakti got unconscious after the
blow and fell. Karuna was the winner.
Next match was between Sanvi and Anya. Sanvi and
Anya used their siddhi and turned into tiger and lion
respectively. Taunting each other for a while and then
starting the actual battle, they scratched each other
pretty rough. Anya turned back to human form again
and used  Maha Astra Siddhi  to manifest a wooden
shield and sword. Sanvi was confident that she can
take her down in her animal form, so she didn’t change.
Anya fought bravely and tricking Sanvi got around and

47
on top of her, there she used her Garima Siddhi and
became very heavy, because of her weight Sanvi was
unable to breathe, and she passed out and came back
to her human form. Anya dropped her siddhi and got
down of Sanvi. Anya was declared the winner.
The last and final match was between Rudra and
Bana. Rudra and Bana came face to face with each
other. Rudra looking dead at Bana, observing Bana’s
movements; it was clear in his mind that the first
person to use a technique will be close to victory, so he
was figuring out a strategy. Bana was aware of Rudra’s
siddhi, so he was deceiving his strategy to fight him. As
Guruji said to begin, Rudra blew fire from his mouth
and created a huge ball of fire in the mid-air, throwing
at Bana. Bana evaded the huge ball of fire by jumping
up in the air. He used his siddhi and manifested a
wooden sword and charged at Rudra to attack him
but he was not there. Just as Bana landed, he was
thrown away by a blow of weapon on his back. It was
Rudra, who attacked Bana with his wooden Gada
(mace), which he manifested using his  Maha Astra
Siddhi. Bana retaliated and he started to fight Rudra
with his sword. Both of them were fighting brilliantly
with each other and there was not going to be a winner
soon. Rudra realized the situation, and he started
figuring out a plan to win this competition. Same
was the case with Bana, he was expecting Rudra to
blow another of his fire attacks, so he was planning to
evade that if in case he attacks with fire. Rudra looked
around and saw some monkeys on a nearby tree, so
he concentrated, using his  Vashita Siddhi, ordered
the monkeys to attack Bana. The monkeys under
Rudra’s control were looking weird with  tripundra  on
their foreheads but under complete control of Rudra.
The monkeys attacked Bana as they were ordered by
Rudra. Bana losing focus started to defend himself in a
very violent way and attacking these monkeys. But his
form was not enough to defend against the monkeys

48
and Rudra, so he used  Mahima Siddhi  and grew in
size about 20 feet tall. He threw away the monkeys
attacking them with just one wave of his hand. Rudra
regrouped with the monkeys. The sight of the monkeys
covering Rudra to protect him was just too terrifying
for Bana, but he stood firm and continued to fight.
Rudra stopped his siddhi on the monkey, as soon as
he did so, tripundra on their forehead vanished and all
the monkeys ran away. Bana was already exhausted
with the fight so Rudra also used his Mahima Siddhi
and grew to the size of Bana and using his mace again
started to fight Bana who was still carrying a wooden
sword. But after a few blows and lots of struggle Bana
finally gave up and fell on the ground. And Rudra was
declared the winner of this match. Both came to their
normal form. Rudra helped Bana to get up and go to
his corner.
The Guruji and the Sages saw that when the monkeys
were under Rudra’s control, they had a  tripundra  in
a very peculiar way, generally, it was supposed to be
three straight horizontal lines of the same size, but in
this case, it was three straight horizontal lines but in
different sizes, the sizes decreased from top to bottom
and the monkeys also had a  tilak  in between those
lines, red hot tilak. Now they all knew that Rudra was
using ‘Vashita Siddhi’ but generally the creature who is
under this siddhi does not have tripundra or a tilak on
their forehead. This was a specific case only available
to Rudra.
After the matches, Guru Malleshwara was
impressed with all the students, their use of siddhi
and intelligence in the middle of the battle. Even with
the siddhi that some of the students have developed
on their own. The sages praised all the students.
Their practice and hard work were very fruitful for the
students. The guruji gave them the rest of the day off
and ask them to relax and help each other to recover
from today’s wound and come back to training ground

49
the next morning. The students bowed in Anjali mudra
and went to relax.
That night Guru Malleshwara and Sage Rishu after
having their supper with the kids were alone at the
meditation room and were talking,
Rishu said, ‘Guruji the kids have excelled in some
of the siddhi’s that even we sages have difficulties to
master.’
‘Yes, indeed they have, we have some extraordinary
students. I have planned their next training module.’
Replied Guruji.
‘Oh! What have you planned Guruji?’ asked the
curious sage.
‘Tomorrow morning I’ll tell the training module to
all of you.’
Next day the students and the sages came to the
training ground were Guruji was already waiting for
them. The guruji asked the students to split in their
yesterday’s team and the students did, Rudra, Keshav,
Vikram, Karuna and Sanvi came at one side and Bana,
Dharya, Aditya, Shakti and Anya came on the other
side.
The guruji said ‘Team Bana you all fought very
bravely, without fearing your enemies, your team from
now onwards will be called as ‘Team Abhaya’. You all
are fearless warriors.
Team Rudra you all fought with your full might
and you were dangerous while using your tactics, your
team will be called ‘Team Agniprava’.
All of you have shown us that you are good at
mastering and even developing your siddhi. So, I have
decided to upgrade your training. The next lesson that
you will learn is teamwork. You have to work as a team
to survive on your own outside these premises and

50
away from the shadows of your Guruji’s. While on a
mission you have to look after each other and take care
of each other. With these words, your next training
involves you to move out of these premises, survive a
journey and come back.
Team Abhaya will go to the Temple of Gyaneshwar,
in the deserts near Pushkar lake and bring back the
Scroll of Wisdom and Team Agniprava will travel to
Sana-Leimayol, the Land of Gold, to the Temple of
Anvith and bring back the Scroll of Yogic Knowledge or
more commonly known as the Scroll of Fighting Spirit.’
All the students were excited and frightened at the
same time. The sages were shocked at the decision of
the Guruji. Rishu knew that Guru Malleshwara will not
take such a decision without knowing the repercussion,
but he had his doubts. Rudra asked, ‘Guruji, we don’t
know the way to the Temple of Anvith? How are we
supposed to search for a temple when we have never
left the settlement even for once?’
Guruji replied, ‘Finding your way to the Temple is
part of your training. As a group you are forced to take
a combined decision that is helpful not only to you
but it should be acceptable to your teammates also,
by this process even if you make bad decisions, you’ll
still have your friends to back you up and go through
that bad decision; by doing so you will develop your
Yogic Instinct. Even before you figure out what to do
about the certain situation your instinct will guide you
in taking the right decision.’
The students were taking some time to make up
their mind to go to the mission.
The Guru said, ‘Today by afternoon you will head
out to your destination.’
The students were dismissed; the sages started
discussing with the Guruji. Rishu said, ‘Guruji, with

51
your permission, one of us would like to go with each
team to guide and protect them from the dangers.’
‘It is a good gesture from all of you, trying to protect
the children but eventually they have to go out alone
and strive to live on their own. So why not they start it
from today?’ said guruji with a confident smile on his
face.
The sages still disagreeing with Guruji’s decision to
send them alone on their first mission made up their
mind to send the students.
The students had their meal (bowl of vegetable
soup) with the guruji and the sages before they head
out for their adventure. They took the blessings of their
teachers and went on to their journey. All ten students
went to their way together, until they reach a point
where they have to split and go to their separate ways.
They bid farewell to each other and went on to their
ways. Team Abhaya went towards the desert and Team
Agniprava went towards the mountain ranges. On their
way, they saw a village burning with very few survivors,
who informed them that this was the doing of a team
of asuras, who called themselves as the Vikroza. Before
they split, they went to another village named Ukwa,
both the teams decided after finishing their missions
they would meet here in this village and then head
back to their settlement together and if one team didn’t
show up in time, the other team will come looking for
them.

52
 EIGHT
Scroll of Wisdom

T eam Abhaya, wandering in the deserts searching

for the Temple; they were thirsty and out of water.
The students started searching for water but they
couldn’t find any water bodies or any villages nearby,
they could only see desert till their eyes can reach and
the hot sunny day was making them more and more
tired. Shakti saw a camel cart that was going on its
way at some distance. The cart had some pots and a
man on it. The team decided to follow the cart and ask
for help, so they started shouting and running towards
the cart.
As they were following the cart, they saw that the
cart came to a halt. They thought the man heard their
voice and stopped to help them but the man got down
from the cart and attended a boy who was unconscious
and lying on the ground in front of his cart. The man
sprinkled some water on his face from his water pouch,
the boy became conscious again. He gave him some
water to drink. At that time a camel that was hiding
in nearby rocks came close to the cart picked up a pot

53
using a rope that was tied on the neck of the pot and
again went and hid in the rocks.
The boy thanked the man and said he is alright now
and can go to his home on his own. The man offered
to drop him at his destination as he was going to the
same village, but the boy refused and insisted the man
to continue on his own, the man with a confused look
on his face continued on his journey. This entire act
was seen by Team Abhaya from a distance.
‘What a cunning man, he is…’ said Aditya in anger.
‘He even taught his camel to steal things out of
other people’s cart,’ said Anya pitting on the camel.
‘So, let’s teach him a lesson that he’ll never forget
in his life’ said Bana.
Bana shared his plan with his teammates to attack
the man and they moved swiftly towards the man
without making any noise. The boy and not even the
camel detected anyone coming close to them.
After the cart was gone the boy came to the rocks
where the camel was hiding and complimented her
act. ‘There’s my good girl, who knows how-to pick-up
stuffs out of other people’s cart.’ The camel nodded and
grunted in agreement. Both of them were laughing.
But the boy’s laugh disappeared as he saw Dharya
standing on top of the rock looking at him. The boy
shouted, ‘Who are you kid?’
‘His name is Dharya,’ said Aditya with a cunning
smile on his face.
The boy was shocked to see Aditya standing behind
him. No one could sneak up and come and stand
behind him earlier. The boy thought they were asuras
in the form of children.
‘I know ancient forms of fighting techniques. I’ll be
very dangerous to both of you.’ said the boy with fear.

54
 ‘What? You can’t even defeat Anya and she is the
weakest of us all,’ said Aditya and started laughing.
‘Who?’ the boy asked in a scared voice.
‘He is talking about me.’ Anya said angrily, ‘I’m not
the weakest in the team.’
Aditya and Dharya stopped laughing.
‘Why are you troubling me? I’m just a passerby and
I don’t have anything that I can offer you to spare my
life.’ said the boy with pain in his voice.
‘This camel’ pointing towards the camel Bana said,
‘Is it yours?’
The boy was petrified at this point of time hearing
Bana’s voice from the right of him. ‘How many of you
are there?’
‘Only five of us are there,’ replied Shakti standing
near Bana.
‘Please don’t harm me, I have not done anything
wrong.’ with fear in his voice the boy pleaded.
‘Bana asked you a question. Is this your camel?’
asked Shakti with a demanding tone.
‘Yes! She is my camel. Please don’t hurt her either.’
requested the boy.
‘We saw her take a pot out of the cart from the
backside, while you were unconscious in front of the
cart. We already know you were acting there. What
did you steal from that man?’ questioned Bana in an
eloquent tone.
‘The pot is full of water, you can see. If you want,
you can take the water. Just don’t harm us, please’
pleaded the boy.
All were shocked to hear the boy’s confession. ‘You
went through that entire act just to get a pot of water?’
Asked Dharya amazed.

55
 ‘Alright boy, why in the world are you stealing water
from other people? We know water is scarce here but
I’m sure you don’t have to steal it.’ Said Bana a little
annoyed on the boy’s act.
‘The lake in our village that used to provide us
water has turned poisonous overnight. I am an orphan.
I along with some other kids live with Amba Kaki, who
takes care of us,’ said the boy sincerely. ‘When we
woke up one morning, one of the villagers had died
due to drinking the water from the lake. From that day
onwards the merchants from our village keep going to
a faraway village just to get a pot of water to drink.
The village is very far away and it takes three days to
reach the destination. The merchants bring the water
pots and sell them to the rich people and there is very
little left for us poor people. The little water is not at
all sufficient for my family and I cannot see my family
suffer just for water. That is why I started stealing
water from those merchants; this is the best I could
do to save my family from thirst.’ The boy said with
honesty and guilt in his voice. ‘We are not rich. I don’t
have money to buy water from these traders. I figured
losing just 1 pot a day will not be harming them but
would be life-saving for my family.’ Said the boy with
tears in his eyes.
Bana looked at Dharya with a look that said he
doesn’t believe this boy’s story, before turning towards
the boy and speaking to him. ‘More lies, but I must say
you are a very good actor.’ Said Bana with disbelief in
his voice.
‘I am not lying or acting if you want you can come
with me to my village and see it yourselves.’ Said the
boy.
‘Alright. We will be coming to your village to verify
your story and if it turns out to be a lie again than say
goodbye to your precious camel as we will be taking it
with us,’ said Dharya to scare the boy.

56
 ‘I will take you to my village, but you have to promise
me that you will not be eating any of the villagers. We
are already going through so many crises,’ said the boy.
‘Why will we eat villager, who do you think we are?’
asked Shakti.
‘Asuras disguised in the form of children,’ said the
boy confused.
Shakti was amazed, ‘you think we are asuras?’
‘Yes,’ said the boy timidly.
‘You’re right, we are Asuras,’ said Aditya looking at
others with a look that said let’s play along with what
this boy believes.
‘Yes, that’s right we won’t harm you boy. Now take
us to your village,’ said Dharya looking back at Aditya
with a mocking smile.
‘Okay. I live near Brahma Ghat. If we start travelling
now, we will reach there in two hours,’ said the boy.
‘Lead the way,’ said Bana. 
‘You will be leading and your camel will be with
us in the back to make sure you don’t fool us and run
away,’ said Anya.
With a heavy heart the boy started to walk towards
his village, thinking what fresh hell he was in, and team
Abhaya with the boy’s camel started to follow him.
While walking Bana asked the boy, ‘What is your
name?’
‘Madhukar’ replied the boy looking down and
thinking if he was doing the right thing taking these
asuras to his village.
‘What happened? What are you thinking?’ asked
Bana sensing his nervousness.

57
 ‘I cannot trust you, just on your words, that you’ll
not eat or harm any of my villagers’ replied the boy in
earnest.
‘Let me tell you a secret, we are not asuras,’ said
Bana with an honest smile on his face.
Looking at his smile Madhukar replied, ‘That smile
on your face is making me doubt you even more.’
‘We are just normal kids,’ said Bana with
seriousness in his tone.
‘What! I have never seen any kid sneak up on me
that efficiently. How can you do such stuff?’ asked
Madhukar with a surprise in his tone.
‘We are trained in an ancient form of Yoga and
Meditation. We even developed our own siddhi’s that
help us to do things that are either impossible or even
unbelievable to some people,’ said Bana.
‘Are you serious? You are just kids. I know mastering
a single siddhi takes years of training and practice to
perfect them. Don’t try to fool Me.’ said Madhukar.
‘OK, it’s your wish, if you want to believe it or not.
Just take us to your home, so that we can verify your
story,’ said Bana calmly.
         After straight two hours of travel the team
reached Brahma Ghat, it was a breath-taking sight of
a beautiful lake nearby and the sunset made it even
more majestic.
‘What a beautiful sight!’ exclaimed Shakti.
‘Is this the lake that has become poisonous, that
you were saying in your story?’ asked Bana in disbelief.
‘Yes, it is the same lake that I was saying about in
my story’ replied Madhukar in a low tone.
‘But I can see animals and birds drinking water
from the lake and it is not poisoning them,’ asked Anya
in a surprising tone.
58
 ‘Yes, the water in the lake is only poisonous to
human beings and not to the animals or birds, not even
the water creatures. Poisonous only to human beings,’
said Madhukar with sadness in his voice.
‘How is this possible, that the water can be poisonous
to humans and not poisonous to the animals?’ asked
Dharya surprised.
‘I don’t know… the elders in the villages prayed to
gods to help us but it was of no use, because of that
poison we have lost so many of our villagers. Many
came from other villages to help us fight our problem
but of no use, they even performed yajna to please the
lake God, but it was of no use as they died drinking the
water from the lake after the yajna.’ said Madhukar.
In disbelief, they moved ahead and came close to
Madhukar’s house.
Madhukar took them to his house and told them,
‘Here... see..., this is my house. Now spare my camel
and leave my village.’
‘We came here to see the authenticity of your story,
why are you in such a hurry to make us go,’ replied
Dharya in an angry voice.
Listening to the commotion at her door Amba
Kaki came out to see what was happening? She saw
Madhukar fighting with five kids. Little concerned she
enquired, ‘Madhukar, what is happening? Who are
your new friends?’
‘Nothing Kaki, they are not my friends, they are
some strangers I met on the way and I was helping
them with a way to their destination, they’ll be leaving
now,’ Madhukar replied. 
‘Namaste!’ Anya said to Amba Kaki. ‘We are friends
with Madhukar, do you live here with Madhukar alone.’
Anya enquired.

59
 ‘This, my dear is an orphanage. Madhukar lives
here with other less fortunate children who had been
abandoned at birth. Since I do not have any family, I
take care of them just like they are my family.’ said
Amba Kaki. ‘How do you guys become friends?’ Amba
Kaki asked Anya.
‘Well, Madhukar has been very generous to provide
us with water and he also gave us his camel to carry
us all the way here.’ Anya lied with confidence and a
smile on her face.
‘Madhukar is always like this, helping others in
need,’ said Amba Kaki with a glowing smile.
As the boy’s story checks out Aditya said, ‘We
should be leaving now.’
‘Why don’t you kids stay with us for tonight? It’s
already night time and it would be dangerous for you
kids to just wander around at night time at these parts.’
Said Amba Kaki. ‘Besides, any friend of Madhukar is
always welcome here.’
‘We appreciate you offering help, but we should get
going now.’ Said Shakti.
‘Do not worry kids. Stay with us for a night, get
the much-needed rest and you all can be on your way
tomorrow morning, and I am not taking no for an
answer.’ Said Amba Kaki before turning around and
inviting them to her home.
Shakti looked at Bana and the others wondering
if they should stay here for the night. Bana shrugged
and walked inside the house after Amba Kaki. Others
followed Bana.
‘Madhukar bhai is here!’ exclaimed a young girl
while running towards him.
‘Welcome home bhai. You must be tired.’ the said
young girl tugging on Madhukar’s hand.

60
 ‘Not now Bindu, we have guests and you must stay
as far away from them. Tell this to everyone else as
I do not trust them, just don’t let Amba Kaki know.’
Madhukar said before turning around and walking
inside the house.
Bindu was confused and could not make sense of
what her brother said. Suddenly she hears her brother
call her inside and runs after him.
The house was big enough to accommodate around
12 people. It had a veranda and in the middle of the
veranda, there was a tulsi plant planted like any other
house. Houses in this vicinity had in-built toilet and
bathroom which was something new that they came
across. On one side of the veranda, there were a couple
of kids playing. They all looked at team Abhaya and
came running towards Amba Kaki.
‘Amba Kaki, do we have new members joining us.’
asked a young boy looking curiously at team Abhaya.
‘No Rajeev, they are Madhukar bhai’s friends who
are just passing by this village. As it is late in the night,
they will be staying with us tonight.’ Said Amba Kaki.
She turned towards team Abhaya and said, ‘You
kids must be tired. Why don’t you go freshen up before
we serve food? Ganga will take both you girls to the
girl’s room and Madhukar shows these boys the boy’s
room.’ She gave them a warm smile and made her way
to the kitchen to prepare some meal for the traveller.
Shakti and Anya followed Ganga to the girl’s room.
‘So how do you know Madhukar.’ Asked Ganga. 
‘Oh, he helped us with directions and now Amba
Kaki is just being kind and letting us stay here tonight.’
Said Anya looking at the room she just walked in.
Shakti walked towards the washroom but could not
find water to freshen up; she came out of the washroom
and asked Ganga for water. Ganga provided a pot of

61
water and asked both girls to use the same very scarcely
as they have been going through the water crisis. She
also informed them that Madhukar has been tasked to
get water from the nearby village. As they kept talking
to Ganga, they realized that the village has been going
through water crisis fairly recently. 
         Shakti and Anya went back downstairs and
reunited with the boys, they told them what they have
learned from Ganga. They were discussing the things
they learnt from these kids, at the same time they were
interrupted by Amba Kaki as she informed everyone
that dinner was ready.
Amba Kaki made some delicious daal rice and little
vegetable soup for all. She served them first as they
were the guest in the house before serving to other kids.
Everyone was sitting on the ground and having their
meal, Bana and Dharya noticed how scarcely everyone
around was using water. Bana had trouble digesting
that such a huge lake near the house is completely
poisonous, it did not make sense the animals could
drink water from the lake and human could not drink
any water from the same lake.
‘So, what are you kids doing in this desert?’ asked
Madhukar.
‘We are searching for Temple of Gyaneshwar,’
replied Aditya.
‘We were directed that the temple is here in the
deserts, do you know where the temple is located?’
asked Bana.
‘Why are you searching for the Temple?’ asked
Madhukar curiously.
‘Our Guruji told to get a piece of artifact from the
temple, that’s why…’ said Shakti.
‘They still want me to think that they are not
asuras, that’s why they may be insisting on their own

62
story,’ Madhukar thought in his mind and spoke to
them, ‘No, I don’t know anything about the Temple of
Gyaneshwar.’
Amba Kaki came in and joined the kids with little
left-over food on her plate.
‘Why are you having so little food Kaki?’ asked
Anya.
‘At night I eat little food,’ said Amba Kaki with a
smile on her face.
‘There is not enough water to even cook food, that’s
why she is eating much less food because there is not
much left after giving it to the children,’ said Ganga.
‘We require water to do every day’s task, even
cooking food requires a lot of water but we don’t have
that much water, that’s the reason we have to cook
less food to save water.’ Amba Kaki said with sadness
in her voice.
Bana asked Amba Kaki, ‘Why is this village going
through water crisis? When we entered this village
today, I did see there was a lake nearby. Why not draw
water from the good side of the lake and use it? The
lake is huge, it can’t all be poisonous.’
‘We used to draw water from that lake before the
water there had turned poisonous. It has been a couple
of weeks now that the water is undrinkable. There had
been so many cases where people who drank water
from that lake had died due to poisoning. The elders
in the village say, that it might be the work of asuras.’
said Amba Kaki looking worried.
‘So, nobody ever attempted to defeat the asura
that is causing the poison in the water?’ asked
Aditya.
‘We did ask the warriors from a neighbouring
village to help us, but they concluded nothing,

63
that no asura is causing poison in the water, but
the water has turned poisonous by itself,’ said
Amba Kaki.
‘And you believed them?’ asked Shakti.
‘They are the warrior clan who know siddhi’s
and stuff, they are said to know the presence of
asura if they are nearby. So, we have to believe
them.’ Said Amba Kaki.
‘This warrior clan have you ever seen them
doing any sort of siddhi’s?’ asked Bana.
‘No, we have never seen them do siddhi’s
in person, but we have heard they do.’ Said
Madhukar.
‘They could be fake as well, you never know.’
Said Aditya to Bana.
Bana turned towards Madhukar and said.
‘Why don’t you take us to the lake tomorrow? We
want to inspect the lake ourselves.’
‘Okay, I will take you to the lake tomorrow
morning. You can inspect the lake and then
continue with your journey and don’t come back
again to our house.’ Said Madhukar.
Team Abhaya agreed to this decision and they
all continue to eat their dinner. After the dinner
was over, they help Kaki to clean up and went to
sleep.
The next morning, team Abhaya got up early,
got ready and was waiting for Madhukar to take
them to the lake. The lake was at a walking distance
from the orphanage. It took them twenty minutes
to reach a point at Pushkar Lake that was away

64
from the village. It was one of the biggest lakes
that they have ever seen. As the team reached
at the desired point on the lake, they could feel
something was not right. 
They felt a foul presence which was disturbing
their peace of mind. Shakti could feel this energy
coming from inside the lake. Whatever was inside
the lake had a very strong negative presence.
Bana decided to shoot arrows in the water to see
if anything comes out of the water. Using his Maha
Astra Siddhi, he manifested bow and arrows and
shot the first arrow which went deep in the water
but nothing seems to come out. He kept shooting
arrows at different places but to no avail. ‘I think
this asura know how to conceal itself. It will not
be this easy to get him out,’ said Bana
Aditya using  Kamarupam Siddhi  took the form
of a falcon and flew high in the sky to take a
look round the lake, to see from above if there is
something hidden from their sight, but it was of
no use, so he came back to his friends and turned
back to his human form.
Seeing at the astonishing feats performed by
the kids, Madhukar was baffled. He has never
seen anyone using any sort of  siddhi; he has just
heard about things that certain people are capable
of doing.
‘Let me see if this asura is good at hiding from
me,’ said Shakti with confidence in her voice.
With her control over water element, she
dipped her hand inside the water on one side,
trying to feel the life forms present in the lake. In
between the lake, she could see something trying

65
to move and get away from where team Abhaya
was standing. She concentrated all her energy at
that spot and tried to pull the creature out of the
water with all her might.
As Shakti tried to pull this creature out of the
water, it triggered its anger. There was a roar that
everyone in the vicinity heard. The creature came
out with visible anger on its face. This creature
was twelve feet long and it had a crocodile-like
head with horns on each side of the head and
crocodile-like small legs, its body resembled of a
snake and it had a long tail, it had red coloured
terrifying eyes.
‘What kind of asura is this?’ remarked Aditya.
‘It is not an asura, it is a monster known
as Makara and it is generally found in the sea, as
it is a Sea creature,’ said Makarand.
‘How do you know about it?’ questioned
Dharya.
‘I have read about it and Amba Kaki used to
tell us stories about this monster. I thought it was
just a myth,’ said Makarand.
‘Well, your myth just came to life. Can you tell
us about how to stop the wrath of this monster?’
asked Anya.
‘No… You cannot, nobody can… When you
see a Makara, you just run for your life.’ Said
Makarand.
‘Who dares to disturb my peace,’ said the
enraged monster.
‘Peace, you do not even belong here. Leave this
lake and go away at once,’ said Shakti angrily.

66
 Aditya, Dharya, Shakti and Anya were on guard
as they saw the creature. Madhukar was terrified,
so he went a few steps back and hid behind a tree,
to protect himself from the monster.
‘How dare you order me to leave this lake?
I’ll destroy you in a blink of an eye,’ replied the
monster angrily.
‘You can try but it’ll take a lot more time
than a blink of an eye to destroy us,’ said Shakti
mockingly.
‘Who is Shakti talking to?’ asked Dharya.
‘Don’t know, she must be hallucinating, maybe
she is so scared of the monster that random words
are coming out of her mouth,’ replied Aditya.
As they were about to ask Shakti, they saw
the monster charging towards them, so they stood
their ground to face the monster.
Hearing Shakti’s mocking comment, the
monster charged towards the kids and came out
of water. As Makara came close to them, Bana,
Dharya and Aditya used  Mahima Siddhi and grew
in size approx. 15 feet tall. Using their Maha Astra
Siddhi, Bana manifested sword and shield, Dharya
manifested spear and a dagger, Aditya manifested
two one-sided axes one in each hand and they all
prepared for a fight. As soon as the creature came
on the land, Shakti using her control over water
element caught one of its hind leg and Anya using
her ability to control earth element caught the
other hind leg.
Dharya tried to poke his spear in the monster’s
body but the tough scale made it difficult to

67
penetrate the skin. Bana understood that, by
going head-on with this monster, they will not
be able to defeat him. Bana saw how effectively
Shakti and Anya were using their techniques to
pin the creature down.
Bana threw a heavy rock that was nearby to
smash the head of the monster but the monster
was just scratched by the rock as it was moving
very rapidly trying to free himself from the grip
and avoiding any projectile thrown at him.
Bana screamed, ‘Aditya, Dharya pin that
monster down.’
Dharya using his Kamarupam siddhi turned
into a 15 feet tall bear, throws himself on the
monster to pin the monster down at one place.
Aditya using his Maha Astra siddhi manifested
spears and stabbed it at each side of the ground in
a cross position to pin that monster’s neck. He sat
on the monster and held the spear in its position
so that the monster could not move his head.
‘Someone please help me!’ Shakti heard a
scared child-like voice in her head. Startled she
looked around to see from where the voice was
coming from. 
‘Guys, I think there is a kid stuck somewhere
asking for help. We need to help him once we get
rid of this monster,’ said Shakti.
‘What are you talking about?’ Anya replied
concentrating on keeping the other leg of the
monster captured.
‘I heard a kid pleading for help; loud and
clear. How can you guys miss that?’ said Shakti
somewhat losing her concentration.

68
 ‘Shakti, don’t lose your focus and we did not hear
any kid asking for help,’ said Aditya angrily.
Shakti was pretty confused at this point. She knew
she heard a kid asking for help, so she decided to
focus on the voice to see where it was coming from.
She was good at multi-tasking which allowed her to
keep the monster pinned at its place and concentrate
on the voice she heard. She closed her eyes and
started concentrating on the voice, she suddenly felt
a connection building up with the monster right in
front of her and soon realized that the monster was
more scared of them then they were scared of the
monster. She opened her eyes startled as she was able
to understand and speak with the monster in her head.
She was pretty shaken from what she heard.
‘Ah guys, I think I know where the voice came from.’
Shakti said with some doubts.
‘What are you talking about?’ Anya said with
annoyance.
‘ARRRRGGGGHHHH.’ Roared Dharya to show his
annoyance on shakti’s interruptions.
‘I don’t want to die; I want to go back to my mother.’
Shakti could hear the kid crying.
‘Don’t worry kiddo, I won’t let anything happen
to you,’ Shakti said tapping the leg of the monster in
assuring manner, as she touched her leg; she came to
know about her tragedy telepathically. ‘All you have to
do is stay calm and don’t move,’ She said while sharing
a bit of her chakra to calm the monster.
Shakti started looking for Bana to let him know
what she has discovered. Right in front of her, she saw
Bana raising a huge rock to smash this monsters head.
‘BANA WAIT… DON’T DO THAT.’ Shouted shakti,
letting go of the monster’s leg. As she let go of the leg,

69
the monster did exactly what she had asked and did
not move an inch.
Bana stopped in his track and looked at Shakti,
surprised. Rock still raised above his head. 
‘Don’t kill the monster she is just a kid who has
been separated from his mother.’ Said Shakti.
Bana threw the rock on the ground and heard the
monster whimper a little. ‘Oh yeah. How can you be
sure that this thing here is a kid? Does this look small
to you?’ Asked Bana trying to be sarcastic.
‘Just because it’s huge doesn’t mean it’s not a
kid. All animals and monsters, in this case, could be
different. They might age differently,’ said Shakti a
little annoyed by Bana’s stupid question.
‘This might sound strange, but I can hear her and
I spoke to her, she is lost and scared. We ought to help
any soul that asks for our help, isn’t that what we
learned in gurukul,’ said Shakti.
‘HER?’ asked Bana with his eyebrows raised.
Ignoring Bana’s comment, Shakti continued to
explain. ‘She is a sea creature. She was chasing some
fish that were going upstream, without realizing she got
so far from her family that she had no idea where she
was. She just kept swimming upstream with a hope
to find them but it got her here in the lake and she
was stuck here. She has been secreting poison just to
keep herself safe as a defensive measure. This poison
doesn’t harm any water life, but it’s a potent threat to
any land-dwelling creature.’
‘Why should we believe you,’ said Bana.
‘Let me show you that this creature does not mean
any harm to anyone here.’ Said Shakti. She turned to
the others and asked them to release their grip and let
go of the monster.

70
 ‘Are you out of your mind Shakti, you do release
the difficulties we have gone through to capture him?’
said Aditya annoyed.
‘Arrrggggghhhhh.’ roared Dharya in agreement
with Aditya.
‘Guys. If you trust me, let the creature go. After all,
it was me who got this creature out of the water. And
it’s she, not he,’ said Shakti.
Reluctantly they let the monster go. Dharya was the
last to get up from the monster’s back. As instructed by
Shakti, Makara did not move a muscle and was sitting
at the same place even after he was free. 
Shakti walked up to the monster and started
tenderly stroking her head, speaking a comforting
word to her. ‘Don’t worry child, we will help you unite
with your mother.’ 
The monster is much calmer now started to open
up to Shakti and refused to leave her side. Looking at
this event unfold, right in front of them, Bana agreed
that this monster can indeed be a child and they all
decided to help send her back to where she belongs.
Bana looked for Makarand and found him hiding at
the top of the tree. ‘What are you doing up there, come
down now.’ Bana said in a commanding tone.
Makarand saw everything that happened and was
extremely scared, but listening to the commanding
tone of Bana he came down at once. As he fell from the
tree he came face to face with Makara. He stood there
petrified, unable to speak or hear anything.
‘Oh, for God’s sake! Makarand can you even hear
me?’ Bana questioned very annoying. 
‘Is there any stream that leads up to the ocean,’
Bana asked shaking Makarand for the fourth time and
dragging him a little away from the creature.

71
 ‘yy yeah… th… there is a stream that meets in the
ocean on the other side of the lake.’ Said Makarand,
eyes still glued at the monster.
Bana walked up to Shakti and informed her that
there is indeed a stream in this lake that connects with
the ocean. ‘Can you guide her to the stream, give her
the direction to the ocean and come back,’ asked Bana.
‘Comeback?’ asked Shakti surprised. ‘We need to
help her in finding her family; I promised her that I will
help her to meet her mother.’ 
‘As much as we want to help her, don’t forget that
we are on a mission and we cannot deviate from it at
any cost.’ Said Bana. ‘Guiding her to the streams which
lead to the ocean will also help her meet her mother.
Trust me on that.’ Bana assured Shakti.
‘Alright... how about this, I will go to the oceans
with her and you all can carry out your mission and
I’ll meet you guys at our settlement. In this way, we
will not be deviating from our mission and we will be
helping this poor creature as well.’ Said Shakti.
‘Shakti, as much as I hate to say this but we need
you to complete our mission; I cannot let you go on
your own. We are a team, but we can only help the
monster cross the stream and then she has to find her
way.’ Bana said definitively.
Disappointed that she was not able to help the
monster all the way through, Shakti agreed and said
she would guide the monster up to the stream. As she
was about to leave, Dharya offered to go with Shakti,
which she gladly accepted.
Shakti guided the monster to the stream and with
her inner voice spoke to her. ‘This stream will lead you
to your mother, just keep following it. I am sorry that
I will not be able to come all the way through with you
as my friends also need me here, but I promise that

72
we will soon meet again.’ She caressed the creature
affectionately for one last time before asking her to go
on her way.
‘Thank you.’ The creature said before going down
the stream.
Once the creature has gone on its way, Dharya
turned into a human-size eagle and carried Shakti to
where others were going.
Meanwhile, Bana, Aditya and Anya were getting
ready to search the Temple of Gyaneshwar.
Makarand said, ‘Thank you so much for your help.
You guys not only help us villagers but you help the
monster also and because of you the water in this lake
is again drinkable. You are most welcome in our village,
in fact, all of you should come back to our village, you
will be well appreciated.’
‘We have no time for all this, your Thank You is
well appreciated but now we have to leave as we have
to find Temple of Gyaneshwar,’ said Bana in a casual
tone.
‘Hahahahaha…’ Makarand laughed.
‘Are you insane, what are you laughing at?’ asked
Aditya with a puzzled face.
‘This man has lost his mind and now he is laughing
like a mad person. I think we should start running,’
whispered Anya in Bana’s ears.
‘Sure, we can outrun him,’ said Bana with a
cunning tone.
‘I thought that you were all asuras, I believed you
guys. Hahaha…’ said Makarand catching his breath.
‘OK, so we are not asuras. So, this is why you were
laughing at us?’ asked Anya annoyingly.

73
 ‘No, not at you but myself; how can I be fooled by
little kids?’ Makarand exclaimed.
‘Because we are kids with extraordinary abilities,
that’s why.’ said Bana calmly ‘Now if you don’t have
anything to say we would like to be on our way.’
‘I know the way for the temple you are searching
for.’ Makarand said in a confident voice.
‘What? Then why you didn’t tell us about this
when we were at your house last night’ said Aditya in
a shocking tone.
‘As I said earlier, I seriously thought that you were
asuras and you were going to eat my village people,
that’s the reason I said, that I don’t know the temple.’
Makarand said in a high tone.
‘Please Bana, let me kill him… please…’ pleaded
Anya hearing Makarand’s reply.
‘Do you know the way to Temple of Gyaneshwar?’
asked Bana threatening Makarand.
Scared of Bana, Makarand replied, ‘Yes, and as a
goodwill gesture to save my village from a catastrophic
event, I’m willing to help you.’
‘If you know the location than lead the way, but
if you try to trick us, then this will be your last day,’
Bana said in a firm voice.
Makarand leading the way, Bana, Aditya and Anya
was following him.
Shakti and Dharya caught up with others on the
other side of the lake, while hovering above, in the sky,
they saw a temple. Both of them came down to their
teammates.
Shakti spoke, ‘Guys, there is a temple up ahead of
us and I think it might be the Temple of Gyaneshwar.’

74
 ‘You are correct, Shakti,’ said Aditya, ‘our
friend here, Makarand, knows where the Temple of
Gyaneshwar was all along and he didn’t tell us because
he thought we were asuras.’
‘You may be right Makarand and once we get
our hands on the scroll, then we will eat all the
villagers,’ said Dharya and started an evil laugh.
‘Please, Stop Dharya… he already knows that
we are not asuras, we just told him,’ said Anya
annoyingly.
They reached the temple. It was huge and a
sight to behold, the temple was made of marble and
precious stones, the temple sanctum sanctorum
holds the statue of four-headed Brahma. The
temple is governed by a group of  Sanyasi (ascetic)
sect priesthood.
As the kids approached the steps of the temple,
they were greeted by the Sanyasi.
‘Welcome! to the Temple of Brahma Dev,’ said
one of the priests.
‘Thank you guruji,’ said Bana and everyone
bowed in Anjali Mudra to the priests showing
their respect.
On Kartik Poornima, a festival dedicated to Lord
Brahma is held when large numbers of pilgrims
visit the temple, after bathing in the sacred lake,
they are allowed to enter the temple and take
blessings from Lord Brahma. We saw you kids
got rid of the monster and the problem that we
were facing for quite a long time. Please accept
our most humble gratitude.
The kids accepted their gratitude,

75
 ‘Why did you come to the temple?’ asked one
of the priests.
‘We are in search of the Scroll of Wisdom,’ said
Shakti.
‘What… the Scroll of Wisdom… Did Guru
Malleshwara send you kids here to get the scroll?’
asked a curious priest.
‘Oh yes… Yes, he did send us to search and
bring back the scroll.’ Aditya replied in earnest.
‘Haha… good old Malleshwara. Alright, kids
come with me and I’ll give you the scroll.’ Said the
priest and took them in the Temple.
The kids went inside the temple and were
mystified to see the statue of Lord Brahma carved
out of milk-white marble. It was a stunning sight.
The statue was at least 15 feet tall.
The priest went inside a room in the temple
and brought back a scroll, before giving it to the
kids; he made them promise that they will open
it in front of Guru Malleshwara. The kids agreed
and took the scroll, they took the blessing of the
priests and bid farewell to their friend, Makarand,
and head back to the village Ukwa.

76
 NINE
Scroll of Yogic
Knowledge

T eam Agniprava reached the base of a mountain,

they saw the sight of never-ending mountainous
range; the place they reached was very peaceful.
The sun shining above them and the cool winds blowing
made them relaxed after such a long journey.
‘Oh, what a lovely sight,’ said Keshav.
‘You love to live in the forest,’ asked Sanvi.
‘Yes, I do love the forest and if it was up to me,
I would never leave this place,’ replied Keshav with
enthusiasm.
‘Guys, nobody is staying here and don’t forget our
mission, we are not here to stay,’ said Rudra mockingly.
‘Maybe after completing our mission we’ll come
here again sometimes,’ said Vikram frivolously.
‘Yeah, maybe we can come here again,’ said Karuna.

77
 Suddenly the team heard a girl’s voice, screaming
and asking for help. The team immediately responded
by going towards the direction of the voice and saw
that a pack of wolves had cornered a young girl in the
woods and was about to attack her. The look on the
girl’s face clearly showed how terrified she was, yet she
was ready to fight for her life with all her might.
All of a sudden, she heard a voice.
‘Don’t worry and don’t even move a muscle, we’ll
take care of the situation and get you out of there
without a scratch,’ said Rudra in a calm manner.
The girl saw Rudra, from a distance, coming
towards her and she thought, ‘Why is this child coming
here now both of us will die.’
Rudra using his  Vashita Siddhi  controlled all the
wolves and ordered them to go away in the forests. The
wolves obeyed Rudra’s command and went away in the
forest without harming anyone.
‘What did you just do?’ asked the girl astonished.
‘I used vashita siddhi to control the wolves and
commanded them to return to forest without harming
anyone,’ said Rudra.
‘You did what?’ asked the girl even more confused.
‘Huh, I used vashita siddhi…’
‘I heared you when you said that for the first time,’
said the girl cutting Rudra. ‘what is vashita siddhi?’
‘It’s a technique used to control other life forms and
make them do what you want them to do,’ said Vikram.
‘You guys are just kids; how do you know how to
use them. My father said you have to be old enough to
learn any kind of siddhi,’ said the girl.
‘We get our training from our guruji, we started
training at a very early age,’ said Rudra.

78
 ‘Okay, that’s great,’ said the girl and she thanked
them for helping her out and saving her life.
‘What is your name?’ asked Karuna.
‘Shia, daughter of Sudev.’
‘Hi Shia, might I say that you are very beautiful,’
exclaimed Keshav.
‘Hmm… Thank you, little boy. What exactly are you
kids doing in this forest?’ asked Shia curiously.
‘It’s the same question, we want to ask you? What
are you doing in this forest?’ asked Rudra.
‘I’m from the Kukizo tribe, we reside here and this
forest belongs to us,’ said Shia.
‘If this forest belongs to your tribe then where are
your people when you needed help against the pack
of wolves and I’m not a kid, I’m a grown man,’ said
Keshav annoyingly.
‘I was out for a stroll, I did not realize that I came so
far away from my home, that’s when I encountered the
pack of wolves,’ said Shia ignoring Keshav’s comment.
‘Guys, I sense something or someone is approaching
us,’ whispered Vikram.
‘I should ask you, what you kids are doing in this
forest?’ asked Shia.
‘We are in search of a temple,’ said Rudra.
         There were five arrows shot at Team Agniprava
from different directions, all five kids using their speed
easily managed to avoid getting hit from the arrows. As
they regrouped to see what has happened, men from
the Kukizo tribe had surrounded them.
‘STOP!! Don’t hurt them,’ shouted Shia.
‘Ok, then let’s take them as a prisoner and let the
chief decide what is to be done with them.’ said one of
the soldiers.

79
 ‘Alright then let’s see how they can take us,
prisoners,’ said Sanvi.
‘No, let us play along and see if the people here can
help us locate the temple we are searching,’ said Rudra
to the others.
So, the kid’s hands were tied with ropes and
brought inside the village of Kukizo tribe. The kids
were placed in the centre of the village where everyone
can see them. Half the tribes were against in punishing
the kids and half the tribes were ready to punish the
kids. They were waiting for their chief to come and take
the decision.
A broad brooding man entered the centre of the
village. He was taller than every villager standing there.
He was wearing a fur coat that made him look even
more beefy. He had big nose and big ears which made
him look goofier. He had green eyes. He had a shoulder-
length long black hair which was tied neatly in a braid
and a beard thick enough to cover his mouth and neck.
The villagers started to give way as he moved towards
the little prisoners, he saw in front of him.
‘Stand aside… The Chief is here…’ one of the guards
announced lazily. 
The chief shot him a look; if looks could kill, this
would be the one. The guard straightened up and
bowed to the chief in Anjali mudra. He saw the kids
tied with ropes standing in the middle and the crowd
surrounding them, half of them had stones in their
hands ready to punish the kids. The chief called for the
soldier who caught them.
‘Why have you caught them and brought them here
in our village?’ asked the Chief.
‘They were trespassing in our forest,’ said the
Soldier.

80
 ‘Hmm… I see… Why were you trespassing in our
forest?’ asked the chief looking at the kids.
‘Sir, we were searching for the Temple of Anvith.
That’s when we came across your forest’ said Rudra
with respect.
‘That’s it!! Leave the kids at once and show them
the direction towards the temple’ said the Chief.
Hearing his decision, the crowd began viciously
booing the chief. Even some soldiers were against this
decision.
One of the soldiers named Yaima said, ‘They were
even talking loudly and without respect with the
princess. Are you still letting them go?’
‘Is this correct Shia?’ asked the Chief.
‘Yes father, but it was not their fault, they didn’t
even know that I’m a princess,’ said Shia.
‘The temple is sacred to us; we just can’t let anyone
to enter the temple’ insinuated another soldier.
‘Kill them… Kill them…’ some men in the crowd
started to chant.
‘Yes, we should kill them for our entertainment,’
said someone from the crowd.
‘Please… Stop saying malicious, objectionable, or
defamatory things about them, they saved my life from
a pack of wolves and you want to kill them just for
your entertainment?’ asked Shia angrily looking at the
crowd.
There was silence in the gathering, everyone was
ashamed of themselves.
‘If they saved our princess life, then they must be
treated as a warrior,’ said one of the villagers.
‘Free them… free them…’ the villagers started
chanting.

81
 And the soldiers had no choice but to free the kids.
All the kids looked at each other, went and stood near
Shia.
‘Relax, there is no need to worry. Once they have
accepted you, they will never harm you,’ said Shia to
the kids.
‘Yeah, that may be the case but we’ll take our time
in trusting them,’ said Vikram.
‘Why?’ asked Shia.
‘Because we just saw the crowd didn’t even obey
your Chief properly,’ said Rudra.
‘Yeah, I know. It may be because my father just
became the Chief and some people are having a hard
time in accepting my father as their Chief,’ said Shia.
All kids exclaimed in unison, ‘WHAT!!’
One of the elder villagers said, ‘Let’s have a feast for
our guests to honour them and show our respect, with
your permission my good Chief.’
‘It requires great strength to stand against your
fears and these kids have shown that they may be
small in age but in courage, they are big as a beast.
They shall be treated as warriors, so let us prepare for
a grand feast to welcome these warriors in the Kukizo
tribe,’ said the Chief.
All agreed and started preparing for a grand feast
for their guests from a distinct land and the kids
retreated in the palace of the Chief with Shia. After
freeing the kids, the Chief went for a walk in the woods
along with his ten loyal and most trusted guards. Shia
brought the kids to her manor, that was majestic, a
grand residence fit for the Chief.
Vikram asked Shia, ‘What were you telling about
the Chief, that he just became the Chief. Can you
please explain the situation to us?’

82
 ‘Before my father became the Chief, my grandfather
was the head of the Kukizo tribe. My grandfather died
just a month ago while fighting an asura who tried
to attack the villagers, while they went for farming
on their farm. In the fight, my grandfather killed the
asura but he was injured so much that he succumbed
to his injuries. After my grandfather was gone, the
responsibility fell on my dad’s shoulder to take care of
the village, and I think that he is not ready to take the
responsibilities and while some villagers are happy to
see him as the Chief, others are jealous of him, they
want someone else to become the Chief, someone like
Yaima,’ said Shia.
‘OK… So, if he is not interested then he should give
someone else to take charge from him, like that Yaima
fellow,’ said Keshav.
‘No, it can’t be done. Only my father has the
knowledge of  Trishul Shabar Mantra, the knowledge
was kept in our bloodline only and passed on to one
generation to another.
‘Trishul Shaabha… What?’ asked Sanvi curiously.
‘Trishul Shabar Mantra, it is a mantra used to
manifest a powerful weapon, a weapon consisting of
the powers of lightning and thunder, that can destroy
any life form that it comes in contact with,’ said Shia.
‘That sounds interesting, can he teach the technique
to us?’ asked Rudra.
‘Weren’t you hearing properly Rudra, it is a
technique that is passed on from one generation to
other generation, and in the same bloodline. It is a
much closed guarded technique’ said Vikram.
‘I know… I heard that but the technique that she
is talking about, sounds so interesting that I wanted to
learn it at once’ said Rudra disappointingly.

83
 ‘Yes… It sounds something that we can use in the
battlefield against an asura if we ever encounter one...
I too would love to learn it’ said Keshav.
‘Yeah!! Count me in too. I don’t want to be left behind
in the battlefield. I too want to learn this technique’
said Karuna.
‘All of you are such stupid kids,’ said Shia mockingly.
‘Yeah! I know’ said Vikram and Sanvi in unison and
both started laughing.
‘Alright, when my father gets here you all can ask
him personally if he can teach you this technique.
I wouldn’t guarantee much but get ready to be
disappointed big time…’ said Shia mockingly
‘We’ll not be disappointed; you don’t know the
convincing power of Vikram, he’ll talk with the Chief to
teach us the technique,’ said Rudra.
‘Hey… Why me?’ asked Vikram annoyingly.
‘Because you are the only one who can make an
excellent argument with the Chief and make him teach
us the technique,’ said Keshav winking at Rudra.
‘Yeah, it’ll be like the old days when you convince
the Guruji to make us learn the Maha Astra Siddhi at
a very young age,’ said Rudra winking back at Karuna
and Keshav.
‘I remember the incident, a bit differently…’ said
Vikram pretty confused.
‘We know if anyone of us can convince him, then
that person is you Vikram’ added Sanvi.
‘OK… Alright… I’ll try to talk to him’ said Vikram
irritatingly.
‘Shia, what is the right time to talk to your father
about this technique?’ asked Vikram.

84
 ‘So, if I know my father correctly then NEVER is the
perfect answer,’ said Shia pitifully.
The kids were talking and laughing in the courtyard,
they saw the Chief has arrived at his palace. The Chief
looked towards the kids and came to meet them.
‘Hi there, I didn’t meet you properly earlier because
of all the drama probably. Now can we reintroduce
ourselves?’ asked the Chief.
‘Hello Sir, my name is Rudra and they are my friends
Vikram, Karuna, Sanvi and Keshav,’ said Rudra with a
big smile on his face.
‘Greetings kids, I’m the Chief of the Kukizo tribe,
we are one of the oldest tribes that have settled in this
forest for centuries,’ said the Chief.
‘WOW, this is very exciting to know that your tribe
is so old,’ said Keshav.
‘My child, I haven’t told anything exciting about my
tribe yet,’ said the Chief and they all started laughing.
‘Can you please tell us more about your tribe?’
asked Vikram casually.
‘I will not tell you anything, but you have to tell me
what are you kids doing here in this forest and where
are you coming from and what do you want from the
Temple of Anvith?’ said the Chief.
‘Sir, we are young trainees, we train under Guru
Malleshwara in his settlements, our training is about
to end, that is the reason our Guruji send us to find the
Temple of Anvith, from there we have to collect a Scroll
of Yogic Knowledge,’ said Vikram in one breath, as he
was afraid of the Chief.
‘OK… So, you are all students and in search of the
temple, but why are you all alone, why is there no guru
accompanying you in your quest?’ asked the Chief.

85
 ‘Maybe because we have learned and even develop
some of our siddhi and we can take care of ourselves
and each other,’ said Rudra.
‘What kind of siddhi have you learned?’ asked the
Chief curiously.
‘Like this,’ said Keshav and manifested a sword out
of thin air and showed it to the Chief.
‘Ahh… great, so you know Maha Astra Siddhi, what
else do you know?’ said the Chief.
‘See this’ Rudra draws the Chief’s attention
towards him and starts to blow fire from his mouth, he
intentionally keeps the flames under control and does
not blows a very big fireball but blows a little one.
At this point of time, the Chief is impressed by the
kids and their abilities.
‘We guard the Temple of Anvith with all our might,
but you kids may be having a good cause, so tomorrow
morning Shia will lead you to the Temple and you
can collect your scroll from our priest if he allows you
to collect it,’ said the Chief and started to go in his
chamber.
‘But Sir we would like to know more about your
tribe…’ Vikram just mumbled the words in his mouth.
‘Hey… what does he mean, if the priest allowed us
to collect the scroll,’ asked the curious Rudra?
‘As you know, we are here for many centuries, but
the priest has never given us that scroll, ever, even
though we had great warriors but still the priest say
that one day a man will come and the priest will come
to know that they have to give the scroll to him,’ said
Shia.
‘Oh, man… we are not full-grown men that mean
we’ll not get the scroll that means we’ll fail our mission

86
that means we’ll lose to Team Abhaya’ said Keshav
annoyingly.
‘Don’t fill your mind with negative thoughts, Keshav.
We will get the scroll and learn the Trishul Shabar
Mantra from the Chief as soon as Vikram makes his
moves,’ said Karuna.
‘No worries guys, you will meet the Chief again at
the feast that time you can try and ask him to teach
you the technique of Trishul Shabar Mantra and we will
go to the Temple of Anvith, there you can talk to the
priest and convince him to give you the scroll,’ said
Shia with a big teasing smile on her face.
‘So, now what can we do?’ asked Sanvi.
‘If you want to come with me, I’ll show you the
village’ suggested Shia.
The kids went with Shia and had a look at their
beautiful village located between three mountainous
regions. There was a river flowing beside the village
from one of the mountains, the river never dried up in
any season. It was a big village, everyone was engaged
in a different task like some of the families were into
agriculture, some families were into hunting business
and some were in producing silk from the insect. Some
families had a rich heritage of being a soldier and
serving the Chief’s families for centuries. The kids liked
the region and most of the people liked them. Before
the end of the day, they came back and were going to
get ready for the feast.
‘Shia, give them our attire so that they can blend in
with us properly,’ said the Chief.
‘Oh, father… I didn’t see you there… I’ll give them
the finest attires we are having’ said Shia.
Their clothes include brown leather tops, brown
pants, and a cloak with fur details to protect them from
the cold at night.

87
 All the kids dressed up in the finest attires of
the Kukizo tribe and came for the feast in the village
centre. Musicians were playing and the women folks
dancing at some distance. The kids were amazed to see
the types of food served to them at the feast. Keshav
and Rudra even went and touched the food just to see
if they were real. Karuna and Sanvi went and started
dancing with the women folks in their traditional dance
steps. Vikram and Shia were standing near the bonfire.
‘Why are they acting weird, haven’t they seen food
before?’ asked Shia.
‘We have, but the only food we ate was a bowl of
vegetable soup, we never had anything else for food,’
said Vikram.
‘OK… weird kids from strange lands… What kind of
vegetables did you have?’ asked Shia curiously.
‘All types of vegetables,’ said Vikram.
‘So, you never had eaten meat before?’ asked Shia.
‘What is meat, princess?’ asked Vikram in a royal
manner.
‘When we hunt a deer, we eat them, that is meat
and it is very tasty,’ said Shia.
‘You mean to say, you hurt animals just to eat
them, like tigers,’ asked Vikram showing disbelief.
‘Umm… Yes’, said Shia looking at the dumb
expression of Vikram.
‘Never, we have not eaten meat before,’ said Vikram.
‘OK… but I can see your friends trying meat for the
very first time’ said Shia.
‘What? Where?’ asked Vikram.
‘Look, there at the food table,’ said Shia.

88
 Both Rudra and Keshav sensing the weird taste of
the food, spat out the meat. The locals started laughing
and gave them water to gargle and wash their mouth.
‘Stand aside… The Chief is here…’ one of the
guards announced. Everyone welcomed Chief and he
responded politely. The Chief came and stood near his
daughter Shia.
‘Hello again, Sir’ greeted Vikram.
‘Hello… I hope you all liked our small village and
I have to say, all of you look very smart in our tribe’s
dress, tomorrow morning my daughter Shia will take
you to the Temple of Anvith,’ said the Chief.
‘Thank you, Sir, for your kind generosity and
hospitality,’ said Vikram.
‘Good… boy, if there is anything else that I can do
for you please don’t hesitate to ask,’ said the Chief.
‘Sir, there is this one thing that I wanted to know,’
said Vikram innocently.
‘What is it? Please tell me,’ asked the Chief.
‘Sir, we wanted to learn the Trishul Shabar Mantra,’
said Vikram.
There was silence in that place, all the guards were
looking at the boy as if he was about to die. Rudra,
Keshav, Karuna and Sanvi came and stood by the side
of Vikram, in a gesture to protect him from them. The
Chief broke the silence.
‘You kids saved the life of my daughter, I will always
be in debt to you, I will teach you the mantra but you
just lack the ability to learn it, you are not yet strong
enough to learn a powerful mantra,’ said the Chief.
‘WHAT…? How can we lack the ability to learn the
mantra?’ questioned Vikram.

89
 The Chief explained, ‘The mantra that you are
asking to learn is a very powerful mantra and only the
people with certain abilities can learn the mantra.’
‘What kind of abilities are you talking here?’ asked
Keshav.
‘The mantra deals with the power of lightning, and
to control that power and use it properly, one has to
have proper control over fire element,’ said the Chief.
‘Rudra can use the fire element,’ said Vikram.
‘I said control over fire element and just not the
user of the fire element, both the things are different,’
said the Chief.
‘Sir, I can control the fire element. It is my base
element,’ said Rudra.
‘You do not understand properly, I just cannot
teach anyone about the mantra,’ said the Chief and
stormed off the feast and went towards his palace.
Shia ordered everyone to enjoy the feast and went
behind her father. Vikram, Rudra and the team started
to follow Shia.
‘No, please don’t follow me. I need to talk to my
father alone,’ said Shia and went after her father.
The kids were standing there dumb folded.
‘Father, why are you being so rude to our guest?’
asked Shia.
‘I am not rude, I tried to explain them but they
are a never-ending question bank. I cannot take this
anymore,’ said the Chief.
‘Is it about the mantra or you are afraid that you
cannot pass it on to me because I’m a girl?’ said Shia
angrily.
‘What… No… I never thought about that,’ said the
Chief.

90
 ‘No… please don’t lie to me father. I am fourteen
years old now and you have not taught me any mantra
yet, I have heard that the mantra is given only in
our bloodline and that too only boys can possess the
mantra,’ said Shia weeping.
‘That is not correct my child, I just wanted to
protect you, you don’t know the world out there is
very dangerous, asuras, beast, monsters etc. roam
around the land and the asuras kill people just for
their pleasure. My sole intent is to save you from such
horrible trauma. You know how much I love you, my
child, I just want you to be safe,’ said the Chief.
‘Father I wanted to learn all the siddhi’s, I wanted to
go out on adventures and I wanted to be self-dependent
but instead I have, guards every time following me and
keeping me safe,’ said Shia.
‘Guards follow you to protect you from any dangers.
Your protection is everything to me after I lost your
mother; you are everything to me, my child. What can
I do to mend this daughter?’ asked the Chief hugging
her girl tightly in his arms.
‘Father, I want you to teach them the Trishul Shabar
Mantra, even if you can’t teach them all, then at least
teach Rudra, please,’ requested Shia.
‘OK. My child if this is what you want, then I’ll
teach the boy, the mantra,’ said the Chief.
Shia continues to hug her father more tightly, cried
and thanked him for his generosity.
The next morning a guard went and woke up the
kids early in the morning.
‘Get up… the Chief is calling all of you out and he
specifically asked for Rudra to come out at once,’ said
the soldier.
The kids got ready and went out to see the Chief,
to their surprise both the Chief and Shia was already

91
waiting for them. As soon as they reached there, the
Chief asked them to follow him and the guards were
not to follow.
The Chief took the kids and went up the mountain
through a narrow passage, after reaching the spot on
the mountain he called Rudra.
‘Child, today I’m about to do a thing that has not
been done in my family, and never in the history of
Kukizo tribe,’ said the Chief.
Rudra with a blank face watched the Chief.
‘I’m about to teach you the Trishul Shabar Mantra,’
said the Chief.
‘What? Are you sure, you want to do this, I mean
if it does not have to go out of your bloodline then it is
fine with us, we don’t want you to break the age-old
tradition of your Kukizo tribe?’ said Vikram.
‘I have thought about it, but now I feel it’s time to
teach other people this technique,’ said the Chief.
‘Thank you so much, Sir,’ said Rudra.
‘and who better to teach this technique then the
kids who saved my daughter’s life,’ said the Chief.
The Chief continued, ‘I can only teach the technique
to the one who can control the fire element. I saw only
Rudra can manipulate the fire element, so I’ll teach
him this technique.’
‘OK… it is an honour to learn this technique from
you,’ said Rudra.
Rudra turned around, looked at his friends and
said, ‘I will learn this technique and teach you all, once
you are ready to learn this powerful mantra.’
‘We know you will teach us the technique, Rudra,
now go on and learn the technique,’ said Keshav.

92
 ‘And yes, learn quickly we don’t have all day to
spend here,’ said Karuna mockingly.
Rudra went towards the Chief. The Chief was
standing at a cliff and looking at the clouds above, he
said, ‘Look above, what do you see?’
‘I can see that there are a lot of clouds today and
the sun is not visible at all,’ said Rudra.
‘Yes, my boy, when this technique was taught to me
by my father, it took me three years, just to learn the
technique and many years to master this technique,’
said the Chief.
‘Really, three years to learn a single technique!’
exclaimed Rudra.
‘When we use this technique, there are clouds
in the sky, thundering and lightening followed by a
storm. But today the clouds are just right it is as if the
nature, itself, wants you to learn this technique,’ said
the Chief.
‘Well I don’t have three years to waste on one single
technique, so let’s start learning so that I can be on
my way to meet our friends,’ said Rudra stretching his
arms and legs.
‘Let’s start,’ said the Chief and taught him
the Trishul Shabar Mantra, how to say the mantra and
manifest the weapon. The Chief even showed him and
manifested a trident running with lightning all over the
tridents body.
‘Once you manifest the weapon, you just have to see
the target and throw it towards them and the weapon
will never miss its target. The weapon can destroy any
being except any divine entity. If you don’t want to
strike anyone after calling upon the weapon, you can
send it back,’ said the Chief.

93
 The kids were awestruck to see the magnificent
weapon in the hands of Chief.
‘Now you try,’ said the Chief and went back, came
towards the kids.
Rudra started mumbling Trishul Shabar Mantra and
concentrating very hard to manifest the weapon.
‘He can do it,’ said Karuna with confidence.
‘Don’t be disheartened to see that your friend is
not able to manifest such a powerful weapon on his
first trial. After all, it took me three years to learn the
mantra properly and manifest my first weapon.’ Said
the Chief.
‘Yeah, we heard you the first time, but I have a
strange feeling, other than you if someone can do this
then it is this boy,’ said Shia.
With his concentration and strong will power,
Rudra managed to manifest an arrow with the
lightning running over the arrow’s body, just as the
Chief manifested the trident.
The Chief didn’t believe his eyes that a boy just
used Trishul Shabar Mantra and manifested a weapon
in his first-ever try. The Chief was impressed with the
boy.
‘Hey, this is not the weapon you manifested,’ said
Rudra holding the arrow in his hand and looking at the
Chief.
‘That’s fine everyone manifest different weapon in
the first try,’ said the Chief.
‘You did it, my friend,’ said Vikram applauding for
him.
‘You are the first person to learn this mantra in
just one try. This is a very impressive power you are
possessing.’ said the Chief.

94
 ‘Thank you, Sir, for teaching me the mantra,’ said
Rudra.
‘Son, I want you to use your weapon, throw it at
that tree but face at the opposite direction and shoot in
the opposite direction,’ said the Chief.
‘Are you alright, the tree is in the east side and you
want me to shoot in the west direction?’ said Rudra
pointing at the west.
‘Yes, and while you do that, you think about hitting
the tree, that same tree and nothing else. Use your
focus and imagine hitting that tree in your mind and
shooting the arrow in the west direction,’ said the Chief.
‘OK,’ said Rudra and manifested a bow using
his  Maha Astra Siddhi  and aiming towards the west
side, as said by the Chief, he shot the arrow thinking
of hitting the tree in his mind. The arrow went in the
west direction for some distance and suddenly took a
sharp U-turn in the midair and went and hit the tree,
the arrow passed its lightning into the tree, breaking
the tree into two halves.
The kids were amazed by seeing the power of the
weapon.
‘Use this weapon very responsibly my child and
don’t ever misuse the weapon on anyone. See to it that
no innocent life is lost because of this weapon,’ said
the Chief.
‘We promise to use this weapon in a time of crisis
and very responsibly. I promise you that no innocent
life will be lost because of this weapon,’ said Rudra.
‘Well, you are free now, actually I thought that you
would take much time to learn the mantra,’ said the
Chief.
‘Really, I never doubted myself nor my teachings
of the Guruji. I came prepared to learn this in just one

95
hour and to be back on our track to go to the Temple of
Anvith’ said Rudra
‘Your confidence level is out of this world, boy. I’m
so glad that I met you in my lifetime’ said the Chief with
a bright smile and hope in his eyes.
‘Even I’m glad that I met you, Sir and I thank you
from the bottom of my heart to teach me this wonderful
technique, you have put me under your debt by teaching
me this technique, that was so closely guarded by your
entire family and the technique was to be passed in
your bloodline only,’ said Rudra.
‘You saved my daughter’s life that is the best thing,
you did to me. I was in your debt and now by teaching
you this technique, I have repaid my debt to you,’ said
the Chief.
Rudra smiled and asked, ‘When can I manifest a
trident like you?’
‘…soon, my child,’ said the Chief.
‘Shia…’ called the Chief.
Shia came and asked, ‘Yes father.’
‘My daughter, please take our guest to the Temple
of Anvith in the mountains,’ asked the Chief.
‘Yes, sure father and thank you very much,’ said
Shia with a big smile on her face.
The Chief grazed her daughter’s head with love
and said, ‘Now, go show them the Temple and come
back soon before dark, take rest properly because from
tomorrow onwards you will start training.’
‘Alright father, I’ll be back soon and I’m more than
ready to be trained by you,’ said Shia with sparkles in
her eyes.
Everyone came to Rudra and congratulated him
for learning the mantra so quickly. Rudra very humbly

96
accepted their praises. The Chief went from there to
the village and Team Agniprava went to the Temple of
Anvith lead by Shia.
After about two hours of journey, Team Agniprava
reached their destination.
Their destination was a very beautiful place, blue
sky above, green grassland below and a white-golden
coloured tall temple placed perfectly on the mountain.
The temple is built in an octagonal figure while the
roofs are in the pyramidal form. There was positive
energy radiating from this place.
‘What a wonderful place this is,’ said Sanvi.
‘Mind-blowing sight,’ said Vikram.
‘The temple looks amazing,’ said Keshav.
‘Please come and meet the priest of the temple,’
said Shia.
Just outside the temple, the priest greeted and
said, ‘What is the Chief’s daughter doing at the temple
and that too at this time?’
‘Guys, he is the pujari of the temple and my dad’s
friend,’ said Shia to her friends.
‘Namaste Pujariji,’ everyone said in unison and
greeted the Pujari in Anjali mudra.
‘Namaste’ the Pujari responded.
‘We come from the settlement from a place far from
here,’ said Karuna.
‘I know child, from where you are coming and why
have you come here,’ said the Pujari.
‘What?’ all the kids were surprised and in unison
they replied.
‘Do you know why we came here?’ asked Rudra.

97
 ‘If yes, then please tell us why are we here?’ said
Keshav.
‘You are here for the sacred scroll of yogic
knowledge,’ said the Pujari.
Everyone was astonished to hear the answer.
‘Oh God! How did you know about this?’ asked
Keshav.
‘That is not the correct question? Are you ready to
receive the Scroll? is the right question’ said the Pujari?
‘Yes Pujariji, we are ready to receive the scroll,’ said
the Team.
‘Then come on in and get the scroll,’ said the Pujari
and asked them to follow him inside the Temple. But
during this conversation Vikram was unusually silent
and just standing there, he didn’t even go inside
the temple, he was sensing another positive energy
approaching him.
Rudra, Keshav, Karuna, Sanvi and Shia went inside
the temple. Vikram was standing outside and adoring
the beautiful sight that was in front of him, suddenly
he saw something coming out of the clouds, Vikram
was astonished to see a long snake-like creature with
horns, it didn’t have any wings but still, it was flying
above the temple in a zig-zag manner.
Rudra and Shia came out of the temple to get
Vikram and caught a glimpse of the creature’s tail
before it disappeared in the clouds. Vikram tried to
explain it to them but failed.
So, Shia said, ‘It is the legendary creature, that her
people talked about and seeing one of them is considered
to be very lucky. The person who sees this creature is
considered to be chosen by the Gods to do great deeds
in this world. That creature is called Pakhangba.’ 

98
 Vikram was very glad to hear, but Rudra interrupted,
‘I have seen that creature’s tail, even I am chosen by
the Gods.’ 
But Vikram ignored him as he was very happy to
see the creature and hoped to see it again. Vikram tried
to take its shape with his kamarupam siddhi, but it was
of no use he couldn’t take the shape of that creature.
He told himself that one day he will either take the
shape of that creature or ride one of them.
Rudra with a concern in his voice asked Vikram,
‘Are you alright, buddy? Can we go inside?’
Vikram replied, ‘I’m fine, let’s go inside and tell our
friends what we just saw.’
Shia, Vikram and Rudra went inside the temple.
They took the Scroll of Yogic Knowledge from the Pujari.
‘Take good care of the Scroll and open it in front of
the Guruji only and don’t try to peak the Scroll on your
way back,’ said the Pujari.
‘OK, Pujariji,’ said the Team and Shia in unison;
took the blessings of the Pujari and left for the village.
The Team and Shia reached the village with the
scroll and went to the Chief’s house, the Chief was
impressed and asked them to stay for the night and
leave for their settlement in the morning.
The team readily, gratefully accepted the offer.
Vikram saw a wooden carving of the Pakhangba in
the Chief’s house; when no one was there in the room
except Vikram and the Chief.
Vikram asked, ‘What is this artifact?’
‘It is a mythical creature called Pakhangba, it has
great powers, some says it can even control the weather
and the flow of winds,’ said the Chief.

99
 ‘Has anyone seen this creature before?’ asked
Vikram.
‘It is a mythical creature, no one has seen it before,
but my grandfather used to tell me that his grandfather
has seen this creature. It is believed in my family that
the  Trishul Shabar Mantra  was given to him by this
creature,’ said the Chief.
‘Oh! I’m so glad that you shared the information
with me, thank you, sir, for telling me all this’ said
Vikram with some tears in his eyes.
‘Now go and sleep tomorrow you have to go on a
long journey,’ said the Chief and Vikram obeyed his
command and went to bed.
Next morning the kids woke up early, had their
food, took the blessings of the Chief and bid farewell
to the Kukizo tribe & Shia, went on their way to meet
their friends with the scroll in their hand, happiness in
their face and hopes in their mind.

100
 TEN
The Killer Asuras

A fter making a long journey team Abhaya reached

near Ukwa village in the afternoon. They set up
their camp in the forest waiting for their friends.
The next evening team Agniprava arrived near the
campsite, they were very happy to be reunited with
their friend and to see each other unharmed after
such a long journey as it’s been so many days. Team
Agniprava took shape of a falcon and sat one each on
the trees surrounding the camp.
Team Abhaya were all given duties to carry out.
Dharya was on guard duty, Anya and Shakti were
tasked to search for food. Aditya had just gotten wood
for lighting the fire and have gone back to fill their water
bags from a nearby stream. Bana was preparing to
light a fire and noticed the presence of team Agniprava
approaching them.
‘You took your own sweet time reaching here?’
questioned Bana while tending to a fire he just started
to cook their meal. 

101
 Team Agniprava got down from the trees and took
their human forms.
‘It’s been too long that we have seen each other.
How are you my friend?’ asked Rudra greeting Bana.
‘We are doing great. What about you guys?’ asked
Bana.
‘We’ve been amazing’ replied Keshav inspecting the
nearby scenery.
‘Where is everyone?’ asked Vikram looking around
as they are not to be seen anywhere near.
‘Carrying out their duties,’ said Bana tending to the
fire.
‘Oh look, who just arrived…’ said Shakti to Anya as
they were getting back to the campsite with a handful
of fruits they found in the forest.
‘Did you guys get the Scroll of Yogic Knowledge? It’s
good to see you guys again,’ asked Shakti arriving at
the campsite, greeting everyone with a smile. 
‘You bet; we did. What about you, did you get the
Scroll of Wisdom?’ asked Keshav
‘No, we did not get the scroll’ replied Aditya entering
the campsite with water bags sighing sadly.
‘There is a big monster guarding that scroll. We
tried our best but I guess we will need your help in
getting the scroll’ said Dharya with all seriousness
walking past Rudra and sat next to the fire. 
Bana, Shakti and Anya were trying hard to control
their laughter.
‘Then let’s go and get the scroll from the monster,’
said Sanvi with enthusiasm.
‘Relax, they are lying, they have the scroll,’ said
Karuna walking up to where the girls have gotten
ration just now.

102
 ‘Oh, come on Karuna… we had her’ said Dharya
laughing.
 ‘OK, well if everyone knows the truth, then I guess
I should say that we got the scroll,’ said Aditya. Bana
and Shakti burst out into laughter.
‘Come on guys, leave her alone,’ said Anya.
 ’So, how was your journey?’ asked Rudra.
‘It was good, we faced a monster of the lake’ replied
Dharya.
‘Did you have any encounters with any monster?’
asked Shakti.
‘No not at all,’ said Keshav.
‘Wait, did you guys have any encounters with any
asuras during your quest?’ asked Bana intrigued. 
‘No, we didn’t encounter any monster or any asura
in our quest,’ said Rudra.
‘Isn’t it weird that we didn’t encounter any asura
during our quest?’ asked Shakti.
‘Yes, it is weird and that too when we heard so
much about the asuras from our Guruji and sages,’
replied Vikram.
‘I’m just glad that we are all safe,’ said Keshav.
‘Yes, and no one is hurt and we all completed our
mission,’ said Shakti.
‘Uh, guys… is this all you got in the forest. You
do know ten people need feeding and these fruits are
nearly not enough,’ questioned Karuna.
‘Yup, we do know that. We couldn’t find much food
in this forest.’ Said Anya nonchalantly.
‘Alright, so what do we do now?’ asked Karuna.

103
 ‘There is a village nearby; we can have our food
there.’ Suggested Shakti.
‘That’s not a bad idea; let’s go to the village for our
dinner.’ Said Dharya.
Everyone agreed. Bana put out the fire he had built
while others started packing their stuff to make a move.
‘Just so you guys know, we have not completed our
mission as of yet,’ said Vikram.
‘You are correct, but the hard part is over,’ said
Karuna.
‘OK, let’s just not waste our time here and move
ahead,’ said Bana once everyone was packed and ready
to move.
‘It is going to be dark soon, let’s find a place to
settle in the village and we will continue our journey
tomorrow morning,’ said Rudra.
‘Over there… I see smoke’ remarked Anya.
‘And where there is smoke… there might be people
and food’ said Dharya.
‘And where there are people… there might be a
tavern where we can eat and sleep for the night’ said
Keshav standing on a top branch of the tree.
‘Then let’s go there and stay for the night,’ said
Bana and everyone agreed.
As they entered the village, they saw some of
the villagers standing nearby. They approached the
villagers asking them if there is any place nearby where
they can have food and a place to rest for the night. The
villagers informed them that there is a place nearby
which can help them with their needs and gave them
the direction towards the tavern.
The kids thanked them and following the directions
given to them, reached their destination. On arriving at

104
the tavern, they saw a long unoccupied table so they
went and sat there. Rudra and Vikram went ahead and
ordered a bowl of vegetable soup for all before coming
back and sitting with the others.
The owner of this tavern is a middle-aged woman.
She saw a bunch of 12 years old sitting on their own,
she approached them and asked. ‘What are you kids
doing here all alone? Where is your guardian and where
are you coming from?’
‘Hello, Mam… We were just passing by this village
and heading towards Nilgiri forest, we were out here
to…’ Rudra was interrupted by Bana.
‘…Our guruji asked to go to the Gyaneshwar temple
and take blessings and we had to do it individually as
part of our training. Vikram here is the leader of our
group,’ said Bana.
Vikram shot a confused look at Bana, shrugged his
shoulder and smiled brightly at the lady.
‘Yes, he does look like he could be the responsible
one here… but where is your guruji? Why is he not
accompanying you in your trip?’ asked the lady.
‘Our guruji said we are old enough to travel on our
own now and this trip is a part of our training,’ said
Shakti.
‘Yes, this is the reason I was appointed as the leader
to make sure we complete this trip and go back to our
gurukul unharmed,’ said Vikram indulging a little too
much in the role of leader given to him.
This time everyone shot him an exasperated look.
Vikram was smirking at everyone else.
‘Okkaayyy, let’s say I believe you guys. But at times
like these, you should not be travelling alone. Where
are you staying?’ asked the lady.

105
 ‘We were hoping we could get rooms here to stay for
the night and we will be on our way tomorrow morning.’
Said Karuna.
‘Unfortunately, we do not have any empty rooms
available at the moment,’ said the lady.
‘Ohh! So, is there any other tavern we can stay?’
asked Anya.
‘Honey, this is a small village and we are the only
tavern available here. This is the reason we normally
never have our rooms empty.’ Said the lady.
‘Is there no way you could help us we are nothing
but a bunch of kids without any guardian and we are
in dire need of a room,’ said Keshav with as much
innocence he could.
Looking at Keshav, Dharya who was sitting next to
Keshav also made puppy face at the lady to convince
their innocence.
The tavern lady fell for their act and said. ‘Ohh well,
I cannot let a bunch of kids be out there on their own
at night. I can let you stay in the stable. There is plenty
of hay stacked in one corner; you can use them to sleep
for the night.’
‘Thank you so much, kind lady,’ said Keshav and
Dharya.
The lady smiled at them and walked into the kitchen
to serve them their food.
‘So, you guys agree that I am your leader…’ said
Vikram cockily.
‘Only at adversities like these, where we can’t tell
people much about us.’ Said Bana.
‘Good enough.’ Said Vikram, leaning back and
acting all cool.
After a couple of minutes, their food was served
to them, a bowl of vegetable soup as ordered. It was

106
the tastiest and they never had eaten such delightful
vegetable soup ever.
‘This is the best vegetable soup we ever had.’ Said
Keshav still digging into his soup bowl.
‘I agree, this is the best soup ever.’ Said Dharya
without looking up and continued to eat his bowl.
‘Imagine having this soup every day for the rest of
our lives. It will just be delightful.’ Said Aditya enjoying
his bowl of soup.
‘Karuna, Sanvi, Anya and Bana you guys should
learn how to prepare this type of such delightful soup.’
Said Shakti.
Everyone agreed in unison. The tavern lady was
talking to a gentleman at the nearby table when Karuna
approached them.
‘Excuse me, mam… We love the vegetable soup
served to us. Would you be kind enough to show us
the recipe to prepare such a delight?’ Asked Karuna. 
‘I am glad to hear that you liked our humble
preparation of this soup. It is nothing but some
vegetables and the trick is to add the correct spices for
it to taste this good.’ Said the tavern lady.
‘Oh! Could you let us know which spices to add?’
Asked Anya. 
‘We add a specific spice that we only get from the
kingdom of Rudrabag. Unfortunately, this was the last
batch of spices we had and until we get more spices
from Rudrabag we will not be able to prepare the soup
again.’ Said the lady.
  To this, Keshav asked, ‘if you are out of stock of
spices, why can’t you go to the Rudrabag Kingdom and
get another batch of spices?’

107
 The man replied, ‘The way to Rudrabag is through
the thick dark forest, where recently there have been
quite a few attacks of the asuras. So, our merchants
are scared of going to Rudrabag.’ 
‘If there are Asuras on that route, then why can’t
you take another route to the kingdom?’ asked Vikram.
‘Other routes are very long and it will cost us a lot
to transport spices from those routes,’ said the man.
‘Yes, but you will still be able to transport them,’
said Bana.
‘If I do that, it will increase the cost of spices tenfold,
and if the cost spikes this high, people will start to
avoid buying spices at such high rate,’ said the man. 
‘Then why don’t you call any guru’s or warriors
from neighbouring kingdom to help you?’ said Sanvi.
‘We have sent a couple of messenger birds with
a request to help us with this asura situation but we
have not received any reply as of now nor anybody had
shown up to help us,’ said the tavern lady.
‘If that is the case, we can help you by taking care
of the asura and clearing the way to Rudrabag, where
we can get such delicious vegetable soup,’ said Dharya. 
The old man did not believe a word they said and
asked sarcastically with a mocking smile, ‘You kids can
help defeat the asuras? Don’t kid yourselves… What
can you do?’ 
‘We can do a lot of things that you can’t even
imagine.’ Said Aditya with the same mocking tone as
the old man.
‘Oh really! Like what?’ asked the old man.
The kids looked at each other, Keshav got up;
wiped the smile off his face and using his Maha Astra
Siddhi manifested a sword walked up the old man and
held his sword on his neck.

108
 ‘Do you believe us now, or you still have doubts.’
Asked Keshav looking dead in the old man’s eyes.
Everyone in the tavern stopped what they were
doing and was looking at the commotion going at this
table.
‘Stop it Keshav. You are scaring this old man.’ Said
Bana relaxing at the table with a mocking smile.
The old man was petrified and it took him a few
seconds to register what happened.
Scared for his life the old man said, ‘You kids are
not ordinary.’
‘I’m glad you realized that.’ Said Keshav withdrawing
his sword and taking a few steps back.
 ‘You have mastery over some sort of siddhi.’ Said
the old man calming down a little. ‘My name is Bhanu
and I’m a very rich merchant from Rudrabag, I came
here days ago with the supply of spices, but my supply
wagon was destroyed by the asuras. There were five
men with me, all of them killed by the asuras, I barely
managed to hide from them and made my way to this
village. For the last twenty-one days, I’m stuck in
this place. If you could help me to get out and reach
Rudrabag, I’ll give you handsome rewards.’
‘What type of rewards are you talking about?’ asked
Aditya.
‘I… I... I can give gold and silver, whatever you
need. I did mention I am rich.’ Said the old man.
‘We don’t care about gold or silver; they are of no
use to us,’ said Sanvi.
‘If you guys are not interested in gold and silver
than I can give you the spices that you need,’ said the
old man a little desperate for help.
‘Now you are talking, we might make up our mind
to help you,’ said Keshav walking back to their table.

109
 Rudra, Bana and all the others huddled up to
decide whether they will help this man.
‘I think we should help this man; he might be in
real trouble,’ said Rudra.
‘He did sound genuine and desperate for help,’ said
Karuna.
‘So, it’s settled then,’ said Bana.
Everyone agreed to help the old man and the
villagers except Vikram who was in a two-state of mind.
‘No, it’s not settled. As much as we like to help
them, don’t forget we are still on our mission and we
ought to go back to the gurukul as soon as we can.’
Said Vikram.
Vikram wanted to help the old man and the villagers
but he wanted to obey Guru Malleshwara’s instruction
also and go back to their settlement with their scrolls.
But Rudra and Keshav tried to convince Vikram in
helping the needy ones.
‘Vikram, we understand that we have our mission
to complete but aren’t we taught to help the ones in
need,’ said Rudra.
‘Yeah and what would guru Malleshwara say when
he hears that we had a chance to help the needy but we
refused it,’ said Keshav with sincerity. 
‘As much I hate to admit it but you guys are right.
We should help them first,’ said Vikram with a sigh.
‘So now it is settled, we all agree to help the
villagers. Although we had our separate missions, we
had not encountered any asuras during our journey. It
will be great for us to encounter an asura and defeat
them,’ said Bana.
‘Yes, that’s correct, Bana. We have not encountered
any asuras in our mission. It would be great to

110
encounter an asura and test our skills against him or
you know her,’ said Rudra.
‘Yeah, whatever it is, I’m ready to fight the asura,’
said Dharya with eagerness.
‘OK… I guess it is fair to face one asura before
heading back home,’ said Aditya
‘Hmmm… it’ll be a learning experience for all of us’
said Shakti.
‘As long as all of us are together, no asura can beat
us,’ said Karuna.
‘And if anything goes wrong, we’ll just bailout,’ said
Anya.
‘Good news for you, old man. We agree to help you
go back to your kingdom,’ said Keshav.
The old man thanked them and said they will leave
for Rudrabag first thing in the morning and they should
get some rest before they commence their journey.
 Word of this event spread through the village like
wildfire. Every villager was happy as somebody had
agreed to help them resolve the asura issue they all
have been facing for quite some time now. The old man
was short of proper supplies to commence the journey.
The villagers readily pitched in by providing them with
a supply wagon and four horses as this was all they
could have done to help them.
The next morning, both teams and Bhanu gathered
at the gates of the Ukwa village to start their journey. 
‘Those are some good-looking horses you have
there,’ said Bhanu.
‘This is all we could have done for you in this little
time. Hope this journey is a fruitful one and hope to see
you again,’ said the tavern lady.
Bhanu and the kids thanked villagers and set out
to their destination.

111
 As they will be encountering Asuras on the way,
Vikram came up with the strategy to make sure they
do not lose to the asura. For travelling, the four horses
were used by Rudra, Keshav, Bana and Dharya.
Vikram transformed into an eagle and flew above the
pack to survey ahead of them and let the team know of
any upcoming dangers. The rest of the kids hid under
a big blanket taking the shape of a heap of spices and
the old man riding the supply wagon. So, the formation
was the old man riding the supply wagon. Four horses
surrounding the supply wagon and Vikram in the form
of an eagle; flying above the pack keeping an eye on
them from the sky.
As the cavalry arrived at the mouth of the dense
forest, they saw half-eaten bodies of men lying on the
ground. They stopped for a while, looked at them and
moved on anyway as they were determined to put a
stop on this atrocity.
‘This is outrageous!’ roared Dharya with visible
anger and annoyance.
‘They are far from being inhuman,’ said Keshav
disgusted while looking at the dead bodies.
‘I am going to make sure that this Asura will pay for
what it had done to these innocent people,’ said Bana
with surreal calmness and expression on his face that
scared his friends and Bhanu.
‘You see that head lying there. It belongs to one of
my horsemen who accompanied me here to sell our
spices,’ Said Bhanu while holding back his tears. ‘They
protected me, that’s why they are lying there and I am
still here… alive.’
‘You can rest easy old man; we will not let anything
happen to you or our friends,’ said Rudra. ‘We should
keep moving.’
They went further inside the forest; as they were
advancing; out of nowhere a spear came flying and

112
landed in front of them. The cavalry stopped at once
as there was a big bird-like creature standing right in
front of them. It was Garda, an eagle-like humanoid
creature.
‘He must have thrown the spear,’ said Dharya.
‘No, that creature is not having any arms, instead
it is having wings, just look at it properly,’ said Bana a
little annoyed.
‘Maybe, but I have a feeling that he is not alone,’
Said Rudra inspecting his surroundings.
‘Good! Perhaps there is a chance, that you kids can
defeat them,’ said Bhanu. 
Bana said in a confused voice, ‘Wait, are there two
asuras?’ 
The old man replied, ‘The last time I had an
encounter with them, I counted three asuras.’ 
‘OK, so there are three asuras and ten of us, we can
easily take them down.’ Said Keshav. 
An arrow was shot from a nearby tree and it hit
the eagle flying above them. Eagle fell as soon as it got
shot by the arrow while falling down the eagle changed
to Vikram. As Dharya was nearby he ran towards the
falling Vikram and caught him, not allowing him to hit
the ground. Vikram was lucky that the arrow hit his
arm and did not pierce through his heart. Before even
starting the battle, one man was down in a matter of
seconds. 
Out of the shadows from the trees emerged a
panther-like woman. She came in front of them and
said in a crazy tone, ‘Ahhh! The boy is still alive... I
missed my shot...’ 
‘No worries Chitraka, you will get more chances
to kill the boy,’ said Uraga, who was a snake-like

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humanoid creature, while picking up the spear from
the ground that he threw at the cavalry.
‘How can you not see that arrow rushing towards
you?’ said Keshav irritatingly.
‘It was very fast and I barely managed to avoid the
hit,’ said Vikram.
‘Yeah, but it still got you and you are injured,’ said
Keshav.
‘Relax, not everyone is as fast as you, Keshav,’ said
Rudra.
‘How can he relax, we are one man down, and the
battle has not yet started,’ said Dharya.
‘Calm down, you don’t see it yet, but the battle has
already begun, we are still nine of us and they are just
three, we can take them down,’ said Bana.
‘Where are you kids going in such hurry and that
too with your grandfather?’ said Uraga with a trickle of
drool leaking from the corner of his mouth. 
‘We have come here to put a stop to your terrifying
act,’ expressed Rudra in his ultimate anger.
All the kids came out of the wagon and gathered
around. ‘Oh! These creatures are like half animals and
half-humans,’ exclaimed Karuna. 
‘Yes, but why can’t they be cute animals?’
questioned Shakti in a sarcastic manner. 
All the kids circled each other and started devising
a plan to defeat the asuras. 
‘These kids are such jerks; I’ll enjoy killing and
feasting on them,’ said Garda. 
Uraga said, ‘That is all fine, you can kill all of them,
but these are just kids and they should be afraid of us,
they must be making plans for their escape. Garda and
Chitraka be ready to block their way from all sides.’

114
  The plan was ready, so the kids looked at the asuras
and Rudra said, ‘We will give you one last chance to
leave this place and go away and swear never to harm
any humans again in your entire lifetime.’
The asuras started laughing at the pathetic request
of the kids. They were still laughing when Dharya turned
into a bear and attacked Chitraka, Aditya followed
turning into a big bad gorilla. The laugh vanished out
of the remaining asuras face as they saw the sight, but
before they could do anything Bana turned into a tiger
and Keshav turned into a lion and attacked Uraga.
Karuna, Shakti and Anya turned into an eagle and
attacked Garda taking the fight in the air. While the
asuras were kept busy, Rudra, Vikram and Sanvi tried
to figure out a way to defeat the asuras.
Rudra said, ‘These asuras must be killed here and
now so that they will not be any trouble in the future.’
Sanvi replied, ‘Are we seriously going to kill them.’
‘Not killing them will be the biggest mistake of
your life. Especially, when I can see that you have
the potential to easily complete your job’ Said Bhanu
expressing his aghast.
‘I think it’s time to use the teachings of the Chief
and kill these asuras,’ said Rudra looking towards
Vikram.
‘I don’t think you have to use such great weapon
every now and then, if we start to lose the battle then
you can use the secret weapon,’ said Vikram.
‘Look there, you guys, I don’t think that we are
going to lose at all,’ said Sanvi.
‘Your friends are holding on their own quiet
exceptionally. Never in my entire life I have seen kids
battle asuras and hold on their own so well,’ said
Bhanu with excitement.

115
 ‘But I truly believe the teachings of our guruji and
our Guruji have taught us to forgive even our greatest
enemy,’ said Sanvi.
‘Yeah, but the foes that we are facing is no ordinary
monsters, they are heartless and merciless asuras,’
said Vikram.
‘If they were given the chance to leave us or kill us,
we would not see the sunset,’ said Rudra.
‘Listen to your friends and stop arguing,’ said
Bhanu.
‘Sanvi, there is no point in arguing about this
matter, it is decided that we will kill these pathetic
asuras and set an example that they should not mess
with the human settlements again,’ said Rudra with
fire in his eyes.
Meanwhile, the asuras were fighting the hardest
battle of their life, so they tried every trick they had
in their bag to win the battle but the kids were able to
counter every move they were throwing at them. Sanvi
was still adamant in convincing the boys to spare the
asuras life.
‘You have forgotten the teaching of our gurukul,
you have power over them so you are not hesitating
to take your own decisions, forgetting the words of
guruji,’ said Sanvi.
‘Why are you hell-bent to spare the lives of these
asuras?’ questioned Rudra with anger.
‘I am not demanding to spare the lives of these
asuras but I want you guys to not forget your teachings
and take a decision honouring the teachings of our
Guruji,’ said Sanvi.
Vikram suddenly realized the words of Guruji
when they were about to start their journey.  ‘As a
group, you are forced to take a combined decision that

116
is helpful not only to you but it should be acceptable to
your teammates also, by this process even if you make
bad decisions, you’ll still have your friends to back you
up and go through that bad decision; by doing so you
will develop your Yogic Instinct. Even before you figure
out what to do about certain situation your instinct will
guide you in taking the right decision.’
‘Talk some sense to her, Vikram,’ said Rudra
irritated.
‘It all makes sense to me now and I’m on her side,’
said Vikram looking at Sanvi.
‘What, now you are taking her side?’ asked puzzled
Rudra.
‘What are we going to get by taking their life? Who
are we to punish them for their deeds?’ asked Vikram.
‘What? I don’t know’ said Rudra.
‘Who has given us the rights to punish them for
their deeds?’ asked Vikram.
‘They have killed too many people to set them free,
death is their appropriate punishment,’ said Bhanu.
‘Even so, they should be given a chance to change
their way of living,’ said Vikram.
‘Why are you both taking their side,’ asked Rudra.
‘As a team, we have to take a combined decision,
and we are not willing to take their life,’ said Vikram
‘They should be given at least one chance to change
their life,’ said Sanvi.
‘OK, I agree with you guys,’ said Rudra finally
calming down.
‘I knew you would listen to us,’ said Sanvi.
‘You are right, even they deserve a chance to get
their life on the proper track,’ said Rudra

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 ‘Now you have another massive task,’ said Vikram.
‘What is it?’ asked Rudra.
‘Please convince our other teammates,’ said Vikram.
All the asuras were tired of fighting the kids,
so they regrouped and begged for mercy. All kids
surrounded the asuras without coming back to their
normal form. Only Keshav came back to his normal
form and manifested spear in a blink of an eye and was
about to attack Uraga, he was interrupted by Rudra’s
voice. Rudra requested him not to kill the asuras, but
to show mercy to them.
‘STOP Keshav, don’t kill them,’ said Rudra yelling
at his teammates.
‘What? Why not?’ asked Keshav.
‘Show them mercy and let them live,’ said Rudra.
‘Are you out of your mind, why should we show
mercy to these asuras?’ questioned Keshav.
All the kids came back to their normal form.
Bana was extremely angered by Rudra’s request
and said, ‘You saw the corpse of the men, women and
children lying at the entrance of the forest. How can
we show mercy to such monsters? You are asking for
impossible thing to do; we cannot accept your request.’
Rudra said, ‘Isn’t forgiving others, one of our
lessons that were taught to us by our Guruji.’
Hearing these words, all of them came to their
senses. They asked the asuras to go away and never
to come near any human settlements and not to eat
humans ever in their remaining lifetime. The asuras
got up thanked them for not killing them and gave their
promise to never kill any human. The asuras went
away.

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 Bhanu standing at a distance looking at the kids
in astonishment, as the kids were picking themselves
up after a hectic fight, said, ‘I had my doubts on you
kids, even if you know siddhi, it is difficult to defeat an
asura. But you kids did it with such ease and made
them look like a bunch of idiots. I’m really glad that I
met all of you in my lifetime.’
Everyone was looking at the old guy as he was
praising them; they helped each other to shake off any
injuries and wounds that they got from the asuras
during their battle.
Vikram in pain cried, ‘Can we go now, I seriously
need some medical attention, my arm is feeling numb.’
Bhanu had some medical aid with him, he gave it to
Vikram and Rudra helped Bhanu in tying bandages to
Vikram’s hand. Vikram was at ease after applying the
medicine to his injured arm. Aditya asked Vikram to
travel in cart with them and to take care of his injured
arm, to which Vikram obliged happily.
‘Make sure you do not move your arms much until
we find a medical practitioner to take a good look at
your injury,’ said Bhanu.
He then turned toward others and said with
excitement, ‘Next stop, RUDRABAG!’
Everyone saddled up on their horses and the
rest took a seat on the cart and headed towards the
kingdom Rudrabag.

119
 ELEVEN
Karma

A fter travelling for three days, on one afternoon they

reached Rudrabag. The kids were astonished by
seeing such a magnificent sight of the kingdom.
They saw the huge gates of the kingdom; the gates were
of such great heights, but still, they could see the dome
of the temple and the palace from afar. They entered the
kingdom through the northern gates, they passed by
heavy security but as they were with Bhanu and they
were kids, the security didn’t interrogate much and
allowed them to enter the kingdom. Bhanu took them
to his house. Being a successful businessman, Bhanu
was able to build a luxurious house for himself and his
family. As they approached his house, the children saw
a huge gate built in front of the magnificent house. The
house was two storeys tall and was built in half an acre
of land. There was a huge garden in the front yard and
their little forest in the backyard. 
As they entered the house, there was a huge veranda
like you see in any other house. In the middle of the
veranda, there was a tulsi plant to worship, Bhanu’s
wife was offering prayer to the plant and was watering

120
the plant while they entered the door. Looking at
Bhanu entering the house, his wife was delighted and
ran towards him. She embraced him as he returned
home after a long time.
‘I was so worried about you, the news of asura
attacking your regular business route has spread in
the entire kingdom as a wildfire. I am so relieved to see
you come back without any scratch’ said Leela with a
gust of emotions flowing through her.
‘You don’t need to worry my dear, I am as tuff as an
iron nail and nothing will happen to me,’ said Bhanu
escorting the children and his wife inside the house.
‘Who are these children?’ asked Leela puzzled.
‘Let’s first get inside the house; I’ll answer every
question you have. Look this boy needs medical
attention urgently’ said Bhanu walking inside the
house.
His house was as beautiful from inside as it was
from the outside. Bhanu called for his servants to help
take Vikram in one of the guest rooms so he can lie
down. He took a look at Vikram’s injury. Vikram was
looking much paler than before. 
‘I need an ayurvedic medicine practitioner now.’
Shouted Bhanu with utmost urgency.One of the
servants ran to fetch one. Hearing the commotion
Bhanu’s oldest son came down to see what was going
on.
‘Father, you’re home!’ exclaimed Mohan looking
relieved. ‘We were so worried about you when we heard
of the recent attack of asura on your regular route to
Ukwa village. I have already raised a request at the
Queen’s court to send warriors to fight with the asuras
and save you.’
Bhanu was happy to see his eldest son, he embraced
him and said, ‘Don’t worry my son, I was well protected,
those asuras won’t be a problem anymore.’

121
 ‘What do you mean father? We have been trying to
contact guru Malleshwara to help us fight with these
asuras who kept harassing us, citizen.’ Mohan said
looking around the room. He saw a couple of kids that
had accompanied his father and one was lying at the
bed hurt. ‘Are these kids also a victim of those asuras?’
asked Mohan showing pity to Vikram.
Bhanu smiled and said, ‘No they are the ones who
saved me from asuras. They helped me get back home
safely and in this process, this poor kid got injured so
we have to help him.’
Mohan was confused by what he heard his father
say. ‘I do not understand they are just kids. How will
they defeat asuras all by themselves?’ asked Mohan.
Bhanu looked at his wife who was by his side ever
since they have entered the gates of the house; she too
had a confused look on her face. He explained to them
about what had happened since the day he left for his
business and how these children were not just any
ordinary children; they have defeated not one but three
asuras all by themselves at such young age. Mohan
and Leela were both astonished and impressed at the
same time.
Meanwhile, the servant came back in the room
with Bhanu’s youngest daughter who was studying
ayurvedic medicine and was an apprentice to one of
the well-known practitioner in the village.
‘Father, I am so glad to see you return home safe.’
Arpana ran towards Bhanu and hugged him tightly.
‘I am happy to see you too my child,’ said Bhanu
still hugging his daughter.
‘When Raju showed up at the clinic and informed
that you were back and someone was hurt in the house,
I came as soon as I can,’ said Arpana looking up and
down at her father to make sure that he was not hurt
in any way.

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 Sensing her uneasiness Bhanu laughed and said.
‘I am fine my dear, nothing happened to me, but this
child here has been hurt. He was shot by an arrow. I
have used the medicine that you have given me to help
him but he still hasn’t recovered much. Can you take
a look at him?’
‘Sure father, I will try my best to save him,’ said
Arpana as she walked up to Vikram’s side. She
examined Vikram’s wound without any words.
‘Will he be alright?’ asked Keshav anxiously.
‘Yes, he will be fine, he was lucky enough to be shot
at the hand and the arrow had only grazed him so the
wound is not that deep. We will need to keep changing
his wound’s dressing frequently to make sure that it
does not rot and I would recommend this young man
here to not move his arm much if he wants to heal
faster, take as much of rest as you can and in a week
you will be able to move your arms as per your liking.’
‘Thank you, ma’am, but I won’t be able to wait for
a week for this wound to heal. We need to get back to
where we came as we are already on a mission that is
not yet complete’ said Vikram a little annoyed looking
at the other kids.
‘I agree, we will have to get moving very soon,’ said
Bana in a serious tone.
‘If that’s the case then you can be on your way in
next two days,’ said Arpana still changing Vikram’s
dressing.
‘Is there any way we can leave by today.’ Asked
Vikram.
‘Not if you want to use that hand again.’ Bluffed
Arpana. ‘Look just rest for two days and you can be on
your way and if you are worried about your mission,
you shouldn’t have gotten hurt in the first place. Now
just be a good kid and listen to your practitioner.’

123
 ‘I think we should listen to her.’ Said Anya.
Everyone looked at her as if she said something
absurd… ‘Uhh... But...’
‘Hear me out before you guys say anything.’ Anya
said cutting Karuna mid-sentence. ‘All I am saying is,
we are borne to be punished anyways when we get
back. I’m pretty sure guruji has figured out that we
deviated from our mission, so let’s just wait in this
town for two more days, till the time Vikram’s hand
heals and we can go back.’ Said Anya.
‘How are you so sure that Guruji knows we have
deviated from our mission.’ Said Shakti 
‘Well, I just have a feeling.’ Said Anya.
‘Just because you have a feeling, we should waste
two days,’ Said Dharya smirking sarcastically ‘Silly
Girl...’
‘Silly or not. I would suggest you listen to her as I
strongly recommend you commence your journey after
two days.’ Said Arpana.
‘I think we should just listen to the practitioner and
leave after two days. As much I want to complete this
mission, I also want to make sure that you are okay.’
Said Rudra looking at Vikram. 
‘I agree, let’s just wait for two days.’ Said Karuna
tired of hearing all the argument going on.
‘We’ll need to find a place to stay if we are staying
in this town.’ Said Shakti.
‘We’ll go find a tavern to stay.’ Said Aditya looking
at Bana and Rudra. Bana and Rudra nodded in
agreement with Aditya.
‘Hold on. Why do you need to find a place to stay in
this city? You all can stay here with us. As you can see
my house is huge enough and I don’t think I’ll have a

124
problem finding you guys a couple of rooms here.’ Said
Bhanu a little sarcastically.
‘We don’t want to be a burden on you.’ Said Vikram.
‘Nonsense… You all have saved my life and got me
home safely, At least let me be a good host to you kids
while you are here in my city and let me thank you all
properly. After all, you are my guests in this kingdom
and there is a saying here that goes like; Atithi Devo
Bhava’ Said Bhanu.
‘What does Atithi Devo Bhava mean?’ asked Sanvi.
‘It means, guests are treated as Gods,’ said Leela.
‘We appreciate the gesture but...’
‘I’m not taking no for an answer.’ Bhanu said
cutting Rudra in mid-sentence. Bhanu walked to the
door and called for a helper to get rooms ready for the
kids.
‘Thank you for letting us stay here.’ Said Karuna.
‘Oh, it’s my pleasure dear…’ Said Bhanu with a
smile. ‘Now that you are staying here, I would suggest
you all to go out and see our magnificent city. You can
start by exploring the markets here. Inside the kingdom,
you can see many greenhouses, gurukuls, hospitals,
temples, playgrounds for children, big grounds to hold
tournaments, barracks, stables, training grounds, etc.
On the west side of the kingdom, you can find beautiful
beaches.’
‘Yes, we would love to see this beautiful city and we
would like to head out now,’ said Bana signaling Aditya
and Dharya.
‘OK… but guys be back before the sunset’ said
Rudra.
‘There’s our signal to move, come on girls,’ said
Karuna and all the girls went to a different direction.

125
 ‘Hey, at least wait for us to come,’ said Keshav
waving his hand.
‘No, you go with Rudra,’ said Shakti.
‘At least all of us should stay close to each other, just
in case something happens…’ said Rudra concerned.
‘Don’t worry, nothing will happen, we’ll explore and
come back soon?’ said Sanvi before joining with the
girl’s gang.
‘Well it’s just you and me,’ said Rudra looking at
Keshav.
‘And, what about Vikram?’ said Keshav.
‘Don’t worry about me… and I’m in no position to
come with you guys. You go on and explore the city
without me’ said Vikram.
‘Are you sure, we can take care of you and we can
even take you with us to explore the city. If you wish to
come with us,’ said Keshav.
‘I can provide you with a cart to explore the city if
Vikram wants to join the tour,’ said Bhanu.
‘No Sir, you are already doing so much for us and
we don’t want to trouble you more,’ said Vikram.
‘Oh, my boy, for you it’s no trouble at all,’ said
Bhanu with a smile on his face.
‘Thank you so much sir but I don’t want to explore
the city, rather I would like to take a nap for a while,’
said Vikram.
‘Ok, as you wish, it’s your loss,’ said Keshav.
‘Alright, if you want to take rest, then its fine with
us, we’ll bring back a souvenir from the city for you,’
said Rudra while walking away from Vikram along with
Keshav.

126
 All the kids head out to explore the market. To
their surprise, the market was just 10 mins away
from the house. As it was the centre of the city, the
market stretched in vicinity of around 1 km. It had
various shops that included precious gemstones to
spices to eateries to daily household items. There was
not a single item than you could imagine and it was
not available in the market. Due to its vast varieties to
offer, the market was always bustling with the crowd
and many street vendors. Kids went on their separate
ways to explore the market.
‘Hey look, those clothes in that stall look unique,’
said Anya.
‘Let’s go and check it out,’ said Sanvi.
All the girls head out to the clothes stall. At a little
distance from the girls Dharya, Bana and Aditya were
inspecting pottery stall. Dharya could smell something
delicious from another stall and started to follow the
smell.
‘Where are you going?’ Asked Aditya.
‘Someone is cooking something delicious. I’m going
to go check the food stall out there.’ Said Dharya.
‘Wait for us.’ Said Bana and both Aditya and Bana
started following Dharya.
On the other side Rudra and Keshav were exploring
the market. While walking through the market, Keshav
saw their reflections at one of the stalls and was
astonished to see someone like Rudra walking on the
other side.
‘Hey, that kid looks just like you.’ Keshav said
pointing at Rudra’s reflection at the mirror stall.
‘Really!! The kid next to him looks like you…’ Said
Rudra confused.

127
 They walked towards the stall and started looking
at their reflections. Rudra moved his arm and so did
the reflection. 
‘I have never seen my reflection in a solid object.’
Said Rudra.
‘Yeah… what kind of magical object could this be?’
Said Keshav.
‘This magical object is called a mirror…’ Said the
stall owner rhetorically. 
‘Hmm… Mirrors, what else can it do besides show
our reflection?’ Asked Rudra.
‘Nothing at all… and this is not a magical object;
you kids don’t understand sarcasm at all.’ Said the
Stall owner rolling his eyes.
‘HAHAHA very funny…’ Said Keshav.
‘These are very huge mirrors. Do they come in a
smaller version?’ Asked Rudra.
‘Yes, of course, you can get these in all shapes and
sizes but at the right price.’ Said the stall owner. 
‘Can we get these in a size that could fit in our
pockets?’ Asked Keshav. 
‘Yes, you mean this pocket mirrors…’ the owner
picks one of the smaller mirrors from his stock at the
back of this stall and shows it to the kids.
‘Yes, this is it.’ Said Keshav.
‘Oh, that’s great... This mirror could be yours in
just two silver coins.’ Said the owner.
Keshav was looking for coin pouch in his pocket
but couldn’t find it. 
‘I can’t seem to find my coin pouch; do you have
any coins with you?’ asked Keshav to Rudra.

128
 ‘No, I had given the coin pouch to you.’ Said Rudra
‘And I gave it to Vikram…’ said Keshav.
‘Ohhhh!’ Said the boys in unison upon realizing
they left the coin pouch with Vikram at Bhanu’s house.
‘Sir, it appears we do not have any coin at the
moment with us. Is there any way we can still get this
mirror? It is a gift for our friend who is very sick,’ asked
Rudra
‘If you can’t pay, you can’t have the mirror.’ Said
the owner taking the mirror back from Keshav.
‘Oh, come on! There has to be a way to get this.’
Asked Keshav.
‘Yeah, there is… you need to pay the coins. And if
you don’t have any, then get lost and stop wasting my
time,’ said the stall owner rudely.
‘This is not how we talk to kid here,’ the kids heard
a lady’s voice say to the stall owner.
‘But, My lady… These kids don’t have any money to
buy the mirror and they are just here wasting my time,’
said the owner bowing in the Anjali mudra to the lady.
‘I know, I was here all along… and I was listening
to the conversation. Even though they don’t have any
money, this is not the way you talk to the kids,’ said
the lady.
‘But… My lady…’ 
‘Just give them the mirror. I’ll pay for it,’ said the
lady cutting the owner in mid-sentence.
‘Thank you, Ma’am.’ Said the kids in unison.
‘Here take the mirror and give it to your sick friend.
I heard your conversation and I know that you kids are
not from here, so where did you come from and what

129
are you doing here in this kingdom?’ asked the lady
while walking away from the stall along with the kids.
‘Yes, we are not from here. We are here with Bhanu.’
Said Rudra.
‘Why did you come here?’ Asked the lady
‘We heard that the spices in this kingdom areunique
and very good to cook some delicious meals. So, we
were here to check it out.’ Said Rudra.
 ’Okay, but you are just kids. Is there anyone with
you who is old enough to buy you all the spices?’ asked
the lady.
‘No Mam, all of us are just kids and Bhanu is giving
us the spices as a gift,’ said Keshav.
‘All of us, how many of you are there?’ asked the
lady.
‘We are a group of ten kids. Nine of us are exploring
the city and one has injured his arm and is resting at
Bhanu’s Mansion.’ Said Rudra.
‘Alright, Ten of you guys huh… So, which kingdom
do you come from?’ Asked the lady.
‘We do not…’
‘There you are Captain; it is very difficult to find you
when you are in your disguise.’ an approaching guard
said cutting the kids in mid-sentence and bowing to
the lady.
‘What is it soldier, what news do you bring?’ said
the lady.
‘The Queen has asked for your presence at once.’
Said the guard.
‘Alright, I’ll be there.’ The lady said to the guard.
She turned towards the kids and said, ‘It was nice
meeting you kids, take good care of your injured friend
and enjoy your stay at Rudrabag.’

130
 They bid farewell to each other and went their
separate ways. Rudra and Keshav explored the market
a little and saw Bana, Dharya and Aditya standing at
a food stall. They walked up to them and joined them. 
‘What are you guys doing?’ asked Rudra.
‘Eating... Duh…’ said Dharya with his mouthful.
‘I mean what you guys are eating?’ asked Rudra.
‘This lady here made some delicious kebabs out of
a bunch of vegetables,’ said Aditya savouring his plate
of kebabs.
‘This does look delicious; we want some too…’ said
Keshav.
‘So, order.’ Said Bana.
‘Yeah, but we forgot our money pouch with Vikram.’
Said Rudra.
‘We are not paying for you.’ Said Bana playfully.
‘Oh, come on guys, we are hungry too. We’ll pay
you guys, once we are back.’ Said Keshav eyeing at the
kebabs.
‘I’m just kidding, eat whatever you want,’ said Bana
laughing.
Rudra and Keshav order their plates of kebabs and
all five boys were enjoying the dish. They had some
delicious food that they have never had before. The
girls were fascinated with the clothing pattern and
jewellery’s pattern, but they didn’t have enough money
to buy anything. They left the stall a bit disappointed.
Once the sun started to set, all of them headed back to
the Bhanu’s house pretty happy to see such beautiful
market for the first time. 
Upon returning to the house, Bhanu introduced
the kids to the rest of his family. Bhanu has three sons
and two daughters. Everyone was sitting at the veranda

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looking at the beautiful sunset from his home. The kids
shared their experience with Bhanu and Vikram.
‘Here, we got something for you.’ Said Rudra
handing Vikram a pocket mirror.
‘What’s this? I can see my reflection in it…’ Said
Vikram curiously inspecting the mirror.
‘There is a device to see our reflection?’ Asked Bana
looking curious.
‘It’s called a mirror.’ Said Rudra enthusiastically. 
‘where did you get the mirror?’ Asked Vikram.
‘We got it from mirror stall in the market for two
silver coins.’ Said Keshav.
‘How, you left the coin pouch here with me?’ Said
Vikram confused.
‘A kind lady helped us get this mirror when she
heard that this mirror was a gift for an injured friend.’
Said Keshav.
‘People are generally kind here.’ Said Bhanu.
As the sun has set completely, Bhanu asked one
of his servants to serve the vegetable soup for supper. 
The medicine practitioner of the city came saw the
condition of Vikram, applied some medicines on his arm
and wrapped it with a fresh bandage. The practitioner
advised him to take rest for at least three days.
Till that time Bhanu had told all the story to the rest
of the family about the asura and the kids defeating
the asura and saving him and an entire village from
destruction. By hearing the story, the family members
treated the kids with the utmost importance. They
served them the best vegetable soup. The kids were in
heaven after eating such tasty food.
‘Thank you so much for this delicious food Sir. You
have been very kind to us.’ Said Karuna.

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 Bhanu smiled and said, ‘At least I can do this much
for people who have saved my life and helped me get
back home.’
Bhanu turned to one of his servants and asked
them to arrange for a comfortable bed for the kids to
sleep in. Bhanu’s family and the kids spent some time
talking to each other. The kids started to feel sleepy
and were ready to go to bed and end their day.
‘Sleep well kids, tomorrow morning I will take you
all to see the sacred temple in the kingdom. It is one of
the marvelous structures that you will ever see.’ Said
Bhanu.
‘We look forward to it.’ Said Rudra
They all retreated to their comfortable beds to sleep.
As they were tired, they fell asleep as soon as they hit
their bed.
At midnight the battle drums echoed again in
the entire kingdom after twelve years. It was as if the
history was repeating itself. Again, the warriors rushed
towards the southern gates and started assembling the
army to square off against the enemy. The enemies as
expected were the asuras. 
General Purshottama geared up and arrived at the
battleground he was briefed by Captain Abhinav. 
‘Sir, why are they here again after twelve years?’
asked the Captain.
‘I have no idea, but this time we will make sure that
they will not get what they want and they will pay with
their lives for what they did all those years ago.’ Said
the General with bitterness.
‘Captain Vijaya is on top of the walls of southern
gates, waiting for your orders,’ said Abhinav.
‘Are the soldiers ready to face the enemy?’ asked
the General.

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 ‘Yes Sir, the horse regiment, elephant regiment,
chariots and the foot soldiers are ready and in position
to square off with the enemies,’ said the Captain.
‘No, that is not the question son, are the soldiers
ready to face the enemy?’ said the General looking
dead into the Captain’s eyes.
‘Boys are all well prepared and are ready to take
on any threat sire,’ said the Captain with utmost
confidence.
‘Take care of the Queen’s chamber, make sure no
one enters.’ said the General.
‘I have placed the most elite soldiers at the Queen’s
chamber for her protection and nobody can sneak up
on us this time,’ said the Captain.
‘You also go and be at her side and protect her at all
cost,’ said the General.
‘No Sir, I’ll be at your side and fight the asuras,
besides I don’t think that the asuras are that dumb
that they’ll use the same strategy twice and attack the
palace,’ said the Captain.
‘I hope that you are right,’ said the General.
They heard the asuras chanting General
Raghavana’s name as the battle cry.
‘I want to talk to our soldiers’ expressed the General.
‘Come this way Sir,’ said the Captain and took him
at the front of the formation.
The General facing the soldiers said, ‘Men I know
that you are scared of these monsters, but this time
we will put an end to this monstrosity and we will
take revenge for killing our beloved King Thuroonan,
for killing our newborn Prince and placing our Queen
to near death bed. This time it will be them, who is
going to pay for their sins. You have been preparing

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for situations like these. You have the blessings of the
Gods for facing these Asuras. All of us have a God inside
them, and this is the time to use our inner strength to
overcome these outer demons. It is the time for their
defeat. It is time for our victory. Adi Kollu, Har Har
Mahadev.’
All the soldiers started enchanting the battle cry,
‘Adi Kollu, Har Har Mahadev!’ in unison.
The roar of the battle cry was so loud that the sound
of the asuras wassuppressed by their voices. This time
the enemy was well prepared but so was the human
army. They didn’t have their King to aid them in the
battlefield but this time unknown to them they had ten
little help who were there in their kingdom.
The battle raged on and everyone was engaged in
the battle. The kids got up hearing the battle drum and
were discussing among themselves whether to help
the kingdom or to keep a low profile as the Guruji had
guided them to do at the time of adversities around
them.
‘This is not our battle; we are not supposed to
engage in it,’ said Vikram firmly.
‘We know that; but, how can we ignore that the
battle is happening at the door of this kingdom,’ said
Aditya.
‘Yes, we must help this kingdom and the men to
win against those asura,’ said Dharya.
‘I agree with Vikram, this is not our kingdom and
we should not meddle with this kingdom’s problem.’
Said Karuna.
‘For once I agree with Vikram and Karuna.’ Said
Shakti. ‘We tried to help this old merchant and it got
Vikram injured. If we help in this war… I don’t want
to imagine what might happen.’ Said Shakti and little
shaken.

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 ‘Think positive Shakti… nothing will happen and
don’t let that fear stop you from helping people in
need.’ Said Anya.
‘There is a war waging at the door of this kingdom,
with our help they might be able to win.’ Said Keshav.
‘I will not allow any of you to participate in this war.
I am the designated leader and you all will obey me.’
Said Vikram with authority.
‘You were just made a leader so if there is any
adversity, we can blame you.’ Said Sanvi blatantly.
‘And this is the adversity that I’m trying to save
you all from.’ Said Vikram a little annoyed at Sanvi’s
foolishness.
‘People of this kingdom are standing at the brink
of devastation and you want us to just sit still and do
nothing?’ Asked Rudra angered by Vikram’s decision.  
‘Yes.’ Said Vikram.
Rudra was about to speak when Bana interrupted
him and said. ‘Look; Vikram, you can stay out of this
war. You are injured anyways. I have my say in this
as well and I say that I will be helping them even if it
meant disobeying you.’ 
‘Bana is not the only one who will be disobeying
you tonight. I am going too. If I can do anything to save
these people, I will be doing it.’ Said Rudra standing
next to Bana.
‘You can be a good leader and punish us later or
rat on us to Guruji if you want but we are going to help
them.’ Said Bana. They turned around and started to
leave the room.
‘Wait up guys, I am coming too…’ Said Keshav
catching up to Rudra and Bana.
Vikram was standing at his spot dumbfounded.
Aditya and Dharya looked at Vikram shrugged their

136
shoulders and ran after the three catching up to
them.
Sanvi, Shakti and Anya looked at each other and
came to the conclusion that they will join the other
boys and left the room avoiding Vikram’s glare.
‘I should probably go and make sure that they
are all safe and help them if they are in danger.’ Said
Karuna.
Vikram sighed and said. ‘No, you stay here and I’ll
go help them.’
‘Vikram you are already injured and not in the
condition to go fight a war. If you left this place you
are fighting my friend and I can’t let that happen.’ Said
Karuna.
‘At least let me keep one person safe in this group,’
said Vikram exasperatedly. ‘If you’d stay here, I will
have one less person to worry about.’
‘I can’t stay back when I know I can help. I will not
stop you from going after them because I know you will
go anyway. So instead I will come with you to make
sure that every one of us is safe.’ Said Karuna.
Vikram and Karuna were the last ones to leave the
room and join their friends in battle.
Rudra, Bana, Keshav, Aditya, Dharya, Sanvi, Shakti
and Anya were jumping and running on the rooftops
through the entire kingdom to reach the southern gate.
Some people were looking at them from their windows
wondering, how the kids were able to jump and run
over the rooftop with such high speed. The kids finally
reach the wall of the southern gate. At the gate the
soldiers saw the kids running towards them, blocking
their way one of the soldiers said, ‘Hey, this is no place
for kids to be running around, go back to where you
came from.’

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 ‘We are here to assist you in the battle, Sir…’ said
Bana.
‘You… will help us… are you all out of your mind…
This is not some game that we are playing, this is a real
battle… now run along and go back to your parents
before I capture you and throw you in prison,’ said the
soldier. 
‘Move aside kids, make way for our soldiers to pass
by,’ said another soldier pushing Bana to one side.
Bana got angry as he was pushed by the soldier
and was about to hit that soldier for pushing him.
Rudra caught him and said, ‘We do not quarrel with
the soldiers here, we are here to help and not to harm
them.’
Bana looked at Rudra with his eyes blazing with
anger. Rudra held his glare till the time he calmed
down. Bana walked aside shrugging his hands off from
Rudra’s grip.
‘Guys, I can see there are people on top of this wall.
We should go there and see,’ said Shakti looking at the
top of the wall.
‘That is a good idea anyways these guys don’t need
us down here. Let’s see if the soldiers above require our
help,’ said Keshav and using his Kamarupam siddhi
took the form of a falcon and started flying on top of the
wall. Looking at him others also took the form of falcon
and followed him.
They reached the top of the wall and got back to
there normal form. They walked a little ahead and were
caught by the soldiers.
‘What are these kids doing here, how did you get up
here?’ asked the soldier astonished
‘Ma’am, we are here to help you fight this battle
against the asuras,’ said Aditya.

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 ‘You guys should see this,’ said Dharya looking at
the army of Asuras.
‘Oh My God!’ exclaimed Sanvi placing her hand on
her mouth.
Bana and Rudra were shocked to see so many
Asuras gathered together at one place and were
standing there motionless. 
‘Just go back home, you kids are wasting our time
here,’ said one of the soldiers.
All the kids were pretty shaken up with the site;
but gathering their courage up, they repeated that they
were there to help and will not take no for an answer.
‘They are pretty adamant, take them to the Captain,
let her decide what should be done with these children.’
Said one of the soldiers.
They were taken to Captain Vijaya. Upon arriving,
the captain immediately recognized Rudra and Keshav
from the market place. 
‘What are you kids doing here?’ asked Captain
Vijaya.
‘We have been saying this for the umpteenth time,
we are here to help… but no one’s letting us help them.’
Said Dharya a little annoyed.
Captain Vijay shot Dharya a look as he was being
rude and said, ‘Listen you…’
‘Ma’am, please ignore Dharya’s rudeness, he is one
of the dumb wits with us,’ said Anya cutting Captain
Vijaya in mid-sentence.
‘It’s you, Ma’am, from the market place today,’ said
Keshav. 
‘Yes, it is you.’ Said Rudra recognizing the lady. 
‘I recognized you too. So, these, I believe are your
friends? You said there were ten of you, but I can only

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count eight here,’ said the captain looking at each one
of them.
‘If I know my friends well, the other two must be on
their way here,’ said Rudra.
‘You there, you said you are here to help… can you
see the battle going on there? They are not humans we
are fighting with, but an entire army of Asuras. May I
ask how are you planning to help us in this situation?’
asked the captain pointing at Dharya.
‘Like this…’ said Bana smirking at the captain,
he took the form of a falcon and flew straight into the
battlefield.
Dharya and Aditya also turned into a falcon and
followed Bana into the battlefield. Captain was shocked
to realize that they were not just any ordinary kids as
they knew how to perform siddhis. 
‘Come on guys, our friends need our help in the
battlefield. Let’s go,’ said Shakti. 
Shakti, Anya, Sanvi and Keshav they all went into
the battlefield and started fighting the asuras. Before
leaving for the battlefield Rudra said to the captain,
‘Our friends are going to come here, please allow them
to stay and let them help us out, to take down these
asuras.’
Rudra also joined the battle with his friends. All of
them were using their Maha Astra Siddhi and started
to fight with the Asura’s.
Bana was the first one in the battlefield, he had
manifested sword to battle the asura, Aditya manifested
double-sided axe, Dharya manifested long spear,
Keshav manifested long steel staff, Anya manifested
bow and arrow, Shakti manifested sword and shield,
Sanvi manifested two hammers, one in each hand,
Rudra manifested a big mace. 

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 As these kids started fighting with Asuras, Vikram
and Karuna searching for the high grounds from where
they can see the battle and guide their friends went to
the southern gate walls where they met Captain Vijaya.
‘You there, are you both with these other kids,’
said Captain Vijaya pointing at their friends on the
battlefield.
‘Yes Ma’am, we are with them,’ said Vikram.
‘Hey, Shiva! There are so many asuras to fight
with… I’m going to help my friends in the battlefield’
said Karuna and transformed into an eagle and entered
the battle alongside Dharya.
‘No, they are using the wrong tactics, at this rate
they will never be able to defeat the asuras,’ mumbled
Vikram. Vikram stood there for some time desperate
to devise a plan, looking at the asuras he was thinking
hard for a way to defeat these monsters; he was
analyzing every move of the asura’s army, that’s when
it finally hit him. 
Vikram connected with his friends telepathically
and asked them to use  Mahima Siddhi  to become at
least forty feet tall and then use their  Maha Astra
Siddhi to attack the Asuras with their big weapons. All
kids were astonished to hear Vikram’s voice in their
head but they ignored and followed his instructions.
Rudra was happy to hear Vikram’s voice; he
looked at Keshav and gave him a knowing smile which
conveyed the message.  See, I said he’d come to help
us. Keshav returned a smile to Rudra.
From the other side of the battlefield, Abhinav and
Purshottama noticed a bunch of kids transform into
giants. To their surprise, these giant kids were fighting
along with the army of humans.
All the kids followed Vikram’s instructions and
transformed into 40 feet giants manifesting weapons

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fit for a giant. For a few minutes they were dominating
the battlefield, Rudra using his giant mace looked
like unstoppable. But their dominance was short-
lived. They were overwhelmed with the army of Asura
attacking them from everywhere.
Jalvag saw this scene unfolding in front of his eyes;
he wanted to bring down the kids. He manifested his
bow and shot an arrow that injured Bana, he shot
another one which injured Keshav. Dharya was taken
down by a bunch of asuras coordinating their attacks.
As Vikram saw his friend was injured he asked them
all to return to the wall. All of them came back to their
normal size and retuned back to safety. Jalvag on the
other side managed to reduce the distance between
him and Rudra, he blew fire on him but to his surprise,
the fire didn’t even harm Rudra. 
Rudra understood that Jalvag is a strong asura and
he couldn’t attack him directly, but as he was about to
attack the asura captain, Rudra heard Vikram’s voice
telepathically asking him to immediately come back at
Vikram’s position. As soon as he heard the request,
Rudra turned into a regular falcon and flew towards
Vikram at his top speed.
Vikram saw Rudra approaching him, he ran towards
him and started to tell him that he has come up with a
perfect plan that if executed correctly will bring an end
to this war immediately and the humankind will win. 
‘Vikram that is a very good plan; I am ready, let’s
do this,’ said Rudra looking proud of his friend’s quick
wit.
Vikram nodded and manifested an arrow with
his Maha Astra Siddhi, ‘Now, turn yourself into small
and hold on to this arrow,’ said Vikram.
Rudra used his Anima siddhi and turned into a
size of an ant and got himself latched on to the arrow.
Taking that arrow Vikram ran towards Captain Vijaya.

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 ‘Ma’am, here take this arrow and fire it at their
leader without missing a mark, even if this arrow didn’t
hit the leader, make it fall as close to their leader as
you can,’ said Vikram.
Captain Vijaya was astonished to be ordered
around by a kid, but she did what Vikram asked her
to do. She took her bow and shot the arrow at General
Raghavana. To make sure that the arrow does not
miss its mark, she cast an illusion siddhi on the arrow.
In mid-air, the arrow grew in numbers so much so it
blocked even the moonlight. As the arrow hit the asuras
it passed right through them, General Raghavan saw
through the illusion and realized where the real arrow
was, it pierced the ground just a few feet away from the
General’s chariot. As the arrow hit the ground, Rudra
came out of the arrow, came to his normal size and
fired another arrow, which was made of Trishul Shabar
Mantra. The arrow went straight through General
Raghavana’s heart, immediately killing the General.
As the General was falling from his chariot, Jalvag
caught the falling body for his general and gave orders
to the asura to retreat. Once Rudra shot the arrow, he
took the form of small falcon and returned to the wall
where his friend was standing along with the captains.
Captain Jalvag took the General’s body and went back
to their kingdom.
All the humans were happy and cheering for
their victory. They thanked the kids for helping them
defeat the asuras. All the kids were having a sense of
satisfaction in their hearts heart. General Purushottama
along with Captain Abhinav came at the wall where the
kids were standing with captain Vijaya.
Captain Vijaya saluted her General and bowed in
Anjali mudra. 
‘Who are these kids, where did they come from?’
Asked the General.

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 ‘These kids are not from here, they are from…’
Captain Vijaya realized she also did not know where
the kids are from. ‘Where are you kids from?’
The kids were all thinking hard trying to come with
a made-up story so they do not have to reveal who they
are.
‘I can tell you, where they are from,’ said the Guru
approaching them.
‘Guru Malleshwara…’ said General Purushottama
bowing to the guruji in Anjali Mudra. Everyone standing
there bowed to the guruji even the kids.
The colour from the kid’s faces was drained as soon
as they saw Guru Malleshwara standing there. They
were petrified with fear and were unable to utter any
words.
‘They are my students, who went on a mission, that
I gave to them, quite sure away from this kingdom,’
said Guru Malleshwara sarcastically; while looking at
the kids.
‘They were trained under you, Guruji?’ asked
General Purushottama astonished.
‘No wonder, they were so great in the battlefield,’
said Commander Vijaya.
‘They have not completed their training yet,’ said
the Guruji.
‘Both of our teams were successful in retrieving the
scrolls from the temples, Guruji,’ said Rudra.
‘That is good to hear, But I do not recall asking you
all to have a detour once retrieving the scrolls,’ said
guruji looking right at Rudra.
Rudra immediately stopped explaining himself
and was suddenly fascinated looking at the ground
embarrassed.

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 ‘Guruji, none of us were injured during our mission,’
said Sanvi.
‘Then why can I see a bandage on Vikram’s arm?’
asked Guruji.
‘Oh, that is altogether a different story,’ said Sanvi.
‘Come on now, just keep quiet Sanvi and let us
talk,’ said Karuna.
Everyone started laughing at Sanvi and she got a
little annoyed.
‘Can any of you, explain to me how you ended up in
this kingdom when your mission was away from here,’
asked Guruji.
‘Guruji, we were just trying to help a man in need
to reach his home and his home happened to be here
in this kingdom, that’s why we came here,’ said Bana.
‘Yes, and they have the most delicious food here,’
said Dharya.
‘Guruji, that man was very generous and offered us
food and shelter to stay for tonight and we were going
to come to our settlement by tomorrow morning,’ said
Vikram.
‘I’m glad to hear that you took a detour to help a
man, but you shouldn’t have faced the asuras in the
battle,’ said Guruji.
‘But Guruji, you have taught us to help the people
in need, at this time the human army needed our help,
so we just couldn’t stay at our home, when we knew
that we can help them to turn the tide,’ said Shakti.
‘They are very brave kids, I can see that you have
taught them well, Guruji,’ said the General.
‘Indeed, even though you were not supposed to be
here, you came here. This is the way of the universe,
you were exactly at the place where you were needed

145
to be, and whether you know it or not you kids have
managed to defeat one of the most powerful asura,’
said Guruji.
‘And for this, we’ll be always in your debt,’ said the
General.
‘This is the time that you know the truth about
your past, Rudra, come close to me,’ said Guruji.
Upon hearing guru Malleshwara, Rudra was
confused but he still obeyed his guruji and stood next
to him.
‘Rudra…’ The general looked at the kid confused
and then looked at the smiling guruji and asked. ‘Is he
the one?’
‘Yes, indeed.’ Guruji answered to the general before
addressing the army.
‘Soldiers of Rudrabag, your prince has returned to
your kingdom, Rudra, son of King Thuroonan, is your
prince,’ said Guruji holding Rudra’s hand.
‘WHATTT…’ the kids exclaimed in unison. They
could not believe what they just heard their guruji said.
‘I can’t believe I was in a presence of a prince,’ said
Dharya
‘Shut it,’ said Bana.
Rudra was standing there dumbfounded still trying
to process what he just heard. He is the prince of this
kingdom which he had seen for the first time in his life.
Guruji must be mistaking him with someone else.
‘Ummm… Guruji… Are you sure you are not
mistaking me with someone else?’ asked Rudra audible
only to guruji.
‘No, my child. You are their prince. I had promised
your mother that I will keep you safe until you were of
the appropriate age and bring you back here for this

146
kingdom’s salvation. But I guess it is time for you to
return to your home,’ said guruji.
There was a wave of excitement and joy among the
soldiers, their prince had returned to their kingdom
after twelve years. This had brought new hopes in the
mind of the soldiers. They started chanting, ‘Rajkumar
Rudra ki jai ho.’
Words spread like fire in the kingdom that their
prince had returned. Everyone came out of their houses
to welcome the prince. The soldiers and the citizens
were very happy that their prince had returned to them
after such a long time.
The news of the prince’s return has reached
queen Adhira. She was extremely happy; tears of joy
breaming from her eyes. She wanted to see for herself if
the rumors flying through the city that the prince; her
son is back, so she ran to the palace entrance.
As she reached the entrance, she saw a bunch of
kids entering the palace along with guruji. Her mother
instinct made her recognize her son immediately.
Guruji saw the queen approaching them, he asked
the kids to bow to the queen in Anjali mudra. The queen
was unable to take her eyes off of her son. Seeing that
guruji had a smile spread across his face.
‘Queen Adhira, he is your son,’ said guruji pointing
at Rudra.
Queen Adhira kept looking at Rudra affectionately,
she approached her son and hugged her, tears still
flowing from her eyes. ‘I have been waiting for my sons
return. Thank you guruji for keeping my son safe and
bringing him back to me.’
‘Mo… Mother,’ Said Rudra a bit hesitant.
‘Yes, my son. I am your mother,’ said queen Adhira
not letting Rudra go from her embrace.

147
 There were tears in everyone’s eyes seeing the
mother and son reunite after such a long time. Just
by looking at them, the kids, villagers and even the
soldiers were having tears of joy in their eyes.
Queen Adhira finally let Rudra go from her embrace
and turned towards the guruji. She bowed to the guruji
in Anjali Mudra and said. ‘Thank you guruji for saving
my son’s life and bring him back to me safe.’
‘It was my duty to keep this kid alive.’ Guruji said
with a smile on his face. He blessed queen Adhira and
Rudra for a very happy future.
Everybody in the courtyard was happy to have
their prince return to the palace, their eyes were moist
looking at mother and son bond.


King Yakshasura had a perfectly normal day; he

started his day with Meditation. Later he visited his
barracks for sword practicing, where he met his swords
master and had a good practice session. On his way
back into the palace, the king stopped at the market
where he was just observing the daily routine of his
subject. The king was not in his kingly attire but a
normal khaki coloured angavastram that he wore while
practicing. Even with his godly looks, he blended into
the crowd as one of his subjects. He wandered through
the stalls and stopped at one of the fruit vendors. He
took one of the apples and started munching on it. 
‘Hey, don’t you dare take my fruits without paying
for it.’ Said the fruit vendor.
Yakshasura stopped eating and said, ‘I am not
obliged to pay you any money. This all belongs to me
and I can take whatever I want.’
Hearing this angered the fruit vendor, he came
close to the king and pushed him away also snatching
the apple, the king had been eating. 

148
 ‘Who do you think you are, this is my stall and my
fruits. Nobody here has the right to eat one of these
without paying me their cost. Not even the so-called
petty king of this kingdom,’ Said the fruit vendor
extremely angry, not realizing that he was talking to
the king.
Hearing this angered the king so much that he
slapped the vendor so hard that it dislocated his jaws.
Some of the soldiers came running to see the commotion
happening in the market place but stopped as soon as
they saw their king. They bowed to the king but kept
their distance. The fruit vendor realized that he spoke
so rudely to their king himself, he immediately came
on his knees and begged for forgiveness; but it was
too late for him as the king was had been annoyed on
him. The king’s face came closer to the vendors face
looked at him with his bloodshot eyes; he grabbed the
vendor’s hair and dragged him to his palace.
In one of the king’s torture chambers, he tied the
poor fruit vendor and sat there watching the vendor
get tortured. He changed into the purple angavastram,
looking like a godly king that he is, went to see the
vendor get what he deserved.
‘Sudhraka, why don’t you peel his nails off? One-
by-one,’ said Yakshasura delighting in the vendor’s
pain and each streak of scream.
‘As you say, my King,’ Said Sudhraka and started
to peel the nails off the vendor.
The screams of this vendor were music to the king’s
ear. ‘I am having a really good day, what about you?’ he
asked the fruit vendor with an eerie smile.
‘AAAAhhhhhhhhh…’ came the response of the
vendor as another of his nails was getting peeled off.
The King laughed like a maniac and kept enjoying
his show. 

149
 ‘My King,’ One of the guards came running into the
chamber and hurriedly searched for the king, he found
the king sitting at one side of the room. The guard
hurriedly saluted the king and bowed down to Anjali
mudra.
‘My King, your presence is requested at the great
hall; Captain Jalvag is back and… General Raghavan…
you should come to see this.’ Said the guard avoid
looking at the ground avoid the king’s eyes.
With this odd behaviour of his guard, King
Yakshasura felt something was not right. He got up
and walked out of the room and started to go towards
the great hall. As he entered the great hall, he saw
Captain Jalvag standing in front of a corpse that was
laid right in the centre of the hall. He approached his
captain. Jalvag kept avoiding the king’s gaze, which
made the king even more suspicious. The king couldn’t
find his little brother anywhere, so he asked captain,
‘Jalvag, where is Raghavana?’ 
Jalvag looked at the king for a brief moment then
avoid his eyes and glued it to the ground and said, ‘We
had no idea there were kids in the battleground who
are well equipped with various siddhi’s.’  
King Yakshasura was starting to get angry, as his
anger grew his true form started to show. His eyes
turned blood red and his horns grew longer on his
head. He looked like a demon that was sent on this
earth to rip your soul apart. 
‘Where is my brother?’ Asked the king in an eerily
calm voice.
‘One of the kids transformed himself and came very
close to General Raghavana’s Chariot before we could
realize he fired an arrow and it hit General Raghava…’
Jalvag stopped saying what he wanted to and looked
at the corpse.

150
 King Yakshasura, looked at Jalvag and then looked
at the corpse right in front of him and asked one of
the guards to unravel the face. The corpse belonged to
General Raghavana, as the king laid his eyes on the
face of the corpse; his anger tenfold his nails started
in talons and his horns starting flaming indicating the
level of anger he felt at that moment. King Yakshasura
was so angry he ripped the guard who unraveled the
face of the corpse in half with his bare hands.
The king felt devastated and extremely angry
looking at his only brother’s corpse. His eyes were
brimming with tears and anger at the same time. At
this moment revenge was the only thing coming in this
mind.
He looked up from his brother’s corpse to Jalvag
and said: ‘Call Team Vikroza, NOW…’
…to be continued

151