Coming of Age ( Part 2 )

The boy put on a thoughtful look. The priest thought he was finally paying attention, when he saw him turn a page in the picture book. The middle aged man nearly popped a vein.

This situation had been going on for the entire morning. When he was a child, the boy used to be so attentive. But when he grew up, his gall has risen. Truly. Daring to peruse folk drawings in class! If this child was still a prince, the priest would've unceremoniously picked him up and given his butt a thorough whacking. Unfortunately, he was a king now and he was also long past the size where he could be picked up.

Disregarding his teacher's blood pressure as well as the panicked aura of his personal servant, Vajradandaka drawled in a leisurely manner, "I dunno Aacharya. Look at that bloody Yuga-dheera. He's really getting on my nerves. I heard he's rather cruel too. So he should be a villain, surely."

Yuga-dheera was the once in a generation prince of the Sun kingdom, Pranaya. He was the man who headed the trade coalition formed between the four major kingdoms when he was just seventeen. He was also the one to make sure the coalition didn't lose momentum. Five years ago, he even turned it into a temporary alliance of the four kingdoms in order to wage war against the mountain kingdom of Abhaya. Though the campaign was a failure, the unprecedented nature of the alliance still shook four corners of the drylands.

"Yuga-dheera is a prince and the successor of Pranaya!" the priest finally lost it. "How in the world is a common Kshatriya qualified to judge him? If he really is a villain, other Kshatriyas with divine blood will deal with him. This is natural order! Why are you making useless arguments without paying attention in class?" he nearly shouted. Being angry was not good for his internal samadhi, but having a king for a pupil is definitely not easy.

The young king frowned a little, straightened up a little. But just a little. "So you are saying, no matter how many atrocities the divine awakened commit, the common people should endure it?"

If it wasn't for his trip to the mainland two years ago, Vajradandaka would have never asked this question. All the dark and disgusting schemes the royal families in the drylands employed were only directed at each other. They are each more sanctimonious than the other when claiming themselves as god, so they would never harm the common citizen. It was hard to find any villains here. But in the mainland, though very few divine awakened exist, there were plenty from the divine bloodlines who acted like true villains.

"It is impossible for an evil person to manifest the divine even if he has the bloodline," the priest said flatly though. "Your Majesty may spare this poor priest and not be so absurd next time," he added, a little miffed.

Though Vajradandaka's typical teenage instinct was to throw out some facts, he yet paused for a second. Mainly because it was disrespectful, but also because he realised that while there are many evil people from divine bloodlines in the mainland, not one of them had actually awakened divine powers. And of those who did awaken them, while they were not always on the side he expected them to be, they were not actually committing any evil. However, they were still very few of them that he knew of, so he couldn't say for certain.

In the drylands, there's no difference between the two. Everyone who has a divine bloodline awakens at some point in life and those that don't are the royalty of Rtadhara on whom no divine attack shall work. But Vajradandaka realised it was not the same everywhere else. In the mainland, there are hundreds of divine bloodlines, but the rate at which they awaken was pitiful.

"So none of the mainlanders awaken divine powers because all their morals have gone to dogs?" Vajradandaka muttered, mainly to himself, but the priest still heard him.

"That's not necessarily true," the priest said in response, "It could be because their bloodlines have thinned and they have not attended any rite of passage ceremony in the land where Rta flows."

"Rite of passage ceremony?" Vajradandaka paid attention this time, nearly giving up on his juicy sugarcane. But just nearly. "You mean the ceremony that happens when I come of age?"

"Naturally. Earlier, all the kings of the land used to attend this ceremony and would pour libations over the reigning Aditya in prayer. The Aditya would then sanction each of them a divine bloodline so that they could continue ruling their kingdom. The dryland kingdoms naturally still keep up this practice, but the mainlanders have forgotten about it. This caused their bloodline powers to regress, making it hard for them to awaken."

"So simple?" Vajra's eyes widened. He slapped his head in recognition. "I knew the Hangi king is superstitious, but I never knew this was the exact reason. He was afraid I would refrain from giving him the divine sanction!"

The priest huffed in irritation. He did not like to discuss political matters with his student, but when the pupil is king, some things are unavoidable.

"How is it simple? You would be channeling divine powers for the entire world in a few weeks when the ceremony takes place. And I still see you here chewing your sugarcane and looking at lewd pictures in class! Where's your concentration? Where's your dedication? You realise you are the king of the world, don't you? You are Martanda, the Aditya designated by the heavens to look over the mortal world!"

Vajradandaka unwillingly put away the sugarcane and sat up straight. Fully this time. "They are not lewd pictures," he explained morosely, "The artist is describing events taking place in the temple capital of Manas, so he used some of the backdrop there…"

"Do I look like I care!" the priest finally yelled. Also fully. "Put them away! I am deeply unsatisfied by your performance today. You had better answers when you were a child!"

"You mean conventional answers…"

"I mean answers that took the guru's intentions into consideration when a question is asked. Now pay attention!"

And so the question answer session continued until dusk fell and Vajradandaka's brain was fried. He felt that the Aacharya was right. Things were a lot simpler when he was a child. He didn't know that Yuga-dheera was possibly evil. He hadn't taken part in the struggle of the barbarians either, so he didn't know anything about tactics a common warrior can use against the divine awakened. Everything was as the Vedas say when he was a child. But every year since, he began to wonder if their truths could be interpreted in a different way. Ethics class had started to become a mighty headache.

Vajra knew that the Rajaguru wasn't being mean. He was preparing him to be the medium through which Rta flows during the ceremony. The Adityas have all had deep and varied relations with Rta. Rta is natural order, truth or even rule as far as humans are concerned. Understanding her is of paramount importance to any Aditya because without her cooperation, it would be impossible for him to rule the human world.

The priests of Rtadhara do not care how large or small the state is. In their eyes Rtadhara means the land where Rta flows and that encompasses all the land where humans live. So what they care about is this tradition of befriending Rta. Every time a king or his heir comes of age, the ceremony of pouring libations over his head basically gives birth to the spring of Rta. The birth of this spring is what gives rise to order and peace in the world. Therefore, it was an extremely important occasion that no heir of the nation was allowed to take lightly. Vajra remembered, when his brother was at that age, he was sequestered for an entire month by the priests and was constantly baptized by teachings day and night. But that was because he was a doofus and didn't pay attention to the lessons when he was a kid. Last year, Hayagriva who was currently next in line to the throne underwent the same thing. Vajra even heard he was beaten when he refused to keep his back straight and not fall asleep during the lessons. Kshatriyas were not allowed to retaliate against Brahmins. Poor thing. Vajra and his sisters had a lot of laughs at his expense back then. But Vajra was not laughing now. His brain was seriously fried. How was this process supposed to be 'making friendship'?

As soon as he got out of that little temple, Vajra got on his horse and rode away to a palace bath on the other side of the royal grounds. It was an indoor bath made for the princesses actually. It's interiors were quite feminine and luxurious.