Trickster on the banks of Maa Ganga

 

Mutterings from rishikesh: 

A woman ascetic with a brass kamandal tried to plunder money...she approached like a realised mother, all made up of course and asked for money.....she asked food for five of them. 'We are five matajis, so 20 rupees for food for each of us' she says. These are navaratra days, so I give her 100 rupees without bargaining...she probably thinks that I'm a sitting duck for cheating...meanwhile she took a thief's peek into my modest wallet as I took money to give her...I want to move but she puts her hand on my head... trying possibly to play some energy or magical trick ..sort of hypnotic meanouvre so that she could plunder more money...I have enough energies in my head...she starred shivering 😂..'Please take out two notes from your wallet. I take a vow in the name of Ma Ganga that I will give them back,' she says. And already she is tying a mauli dhaga on my wrist asking, 'Are you married?' I'm not interested in her queries about my matrimonial status. 

I don't have change in my wallet but since she has taken a vow in the name of Ganga Maa while standing on her banks, I give her two 500 rupees notes expecting her to return them...the moment the notes landed in her claws she folds them in her fist..the way she holds them makes it sure that they are in her greedy talons not to be returned. Now I realise the tales of thugs who take money and play the magic trick of making it disappear with the clap of a hand. 

I remember an incidence from early youth in the village. A street magician took 100 rupees from my friend and a clap and the money vanished. He had a lovely python and a flute to add to the charm of his street show. Now 100 rupees of those times were a big issue. So we manhandled him, his pagri fell. One guy was just ready to break his flute on his head. That's when the poor magician realised that Jatland isn't suitable for magic tricks. And the money comes out of his gullak. He holds the python's mouth, pries it open, puts his hand in and draws out the money. Imagine the smartness. Magic money goes into the python's mouth!!

'We will go to kedar with the money,' the female thief in saffron says. To me it's not about money. It's about taking a false vow in Ma Ganga's name. I don't know what Ganga Maa thinks of me but I feel I'm Her ardent devotee. I shamed the woman for being a liar, looting money in the name of Ma Ganga. I got really angry and in no nonsense terms asked her to return the money as promised. Somehow she hasn't been able to make the money vanish. Good that she hadn't a python with her. Somehow her trick of making the money vanish failed. Maa Ganga's blessings! 

She gives back one note, like I'm plundering her. I am firmly against such a shame sadhu...so I point my finger at her and asked her to return the other note as well. She is trying to make me feel ashamed for getting angry, for losing control of myself just about money. Why should I be. I'm not a saffron clad saint to be ashamed of my well deserved anger on cheats. With a broken heart she hands back the other note all crushed due to the pressure of her talons. ' I was just checking your manas for money,' she says as if I had failed her test of my desire for worldly things like 500 rupees notes. 

Then she tried to give me a Rudraksh bead. I told her I don't need anything from her. Neither her blessings, nor her bead. I don't want at least from those who tell lies in the name of taking vow of Ganga Maa. Had it been a male sadhu I would have snatched away even the hundred rupees. But these I left with her as a grace mark for her being a woman.

But Maa Ganga knows how to spin her lovely magic and change mutterings into musings.

I'm walking sullenly about cheats on the banks of Maa Ganga. But She is such a kind mother. She knows how to uplift the spirit of Her child. I'm walking in the crowd and suddenly see the autistic girl I wrote a story about...a few years back I saw her with her parents on the banks of Maa Ganga. She looked so unjustifiably deprived of her slice of joy among all that festival aura... and with tears in my eyes I prayed so sincerely for her during my entire stay at that time...and wrote a long story of blessings on her...she is a woman now...I had prayed for the faith and health of her parents so that they could help her in her journey for as long as possible because nobody can take care of a special child like her parents. And there I see them carrying her in a wheel chair in the busy bazaar...she looked healthy and beautiful...she is a young woman now...her parents in good spirits and healthy, happily carrying their responsibility... imagine out of thousands Maa Ganga presented them before me ..to let me know that She remembers my prayers of this family...