A short story...

THE LAST SIGH

The region that I speak of was a dreary valley in some unknown land, by the borders of an unknown river where the restless waters played against the rocky bank, and there was no quiet there nor silence. It lay on the boundary of a dark and horrible forest where the tall primeval trees swayed their branches in an eternal to and fro motion while creaking and moaning. The ancient trees did cast a dark and quivering shadow on the gigantic weather-denudated monoliths that lay hither and thither by the river bend. The blue moonlight embraced the whole landscape and tenderly played with the eternal water. The strong breeze added mystery and charm to the scene. In that desolate place, where not even an insect wandered, sat a pensive, handsome and yet fragile young man on a rock facing the river and feeling the breeze on his face. He was the last of the humans.

A bloody nuclear war among the powerful nations of the world had exterminated the species. It was a total annihilation that none had escaped save this pensive man who during the time of war was at a far away corner of the Russian Steppe - a few stretches of land untouched by the war. But he has known it all- the fury, the war, the destruction. It had been a year since then but time had stopped for the man who had sat there on the same rock for the past one year -neither sleeping nor eating, only watching the ever flowing waters, feeling the fleeting breeze and learning from the sky. He sat there still and contemplated eternity and infinity; he saw before his eyes the whole human history and life of a man - the innocent infancy, the joyous childhood, the romantic youth, the decaying old age and finally death, the complete dissolution of everything. His mind looked for the meaning and answer to this cosmic riddle. If everything was to be this way then why was he still alive?

A dimensionless point forms an infinite universe and an infinitesimal forms the ceaseless flow of time. From a single point emerges googols and googolplex of other points whose different harmonics form the music of creation. In this great stage what is the role of man? Why life, if it has to end so abruptly? Is there an end to all these? Is it even real or just some scary phantasma? Can he ever know the unknown? Can he ever find peace? His mind strained for an answer. But the more he tried to see it, the further the truth seemed to fly from him; at last it all seemed futile __ hollow. The whole human species trying to justify itself though this man failed; was the whole humanity some big joke played by some heartless fiend? Nature mocked the hapless man with a cold scorning scourge of air that left him shivering. Finally he gave up trying.

The moon hid its face behind dark threatening clouds and the weather became rough with gusty winds agitating calm waters. But still the man sat motionless with a vacant mind when all of a sudden with a tremendous flash of lightning in the horizon the hymn flashed upon his mind

"Sarbadharman parithyajya mamekan smarang braja"

That was it! It was the answer. Complete truth cannot be discovered or comprehended by any amount of knowledge or willpower. It can only be given by the divine when the search for it ceases. Once this realization dawns, the self melts away and the final obstacle in the path of complete knowledge is removed. The soul transcends the limits of the body, space and time and dissolves into Brahma in a state of perfect peace, tranquility, knowledge and endless joy. It is at this point that humanity ends its journey and attains enlightenment.

"Brahmabhuteprasanatma na sochati na kankhati".

It was at this moment that a golden smile spread across the handsome weather beaten face of the man and a soft voice from within whispered to his mind; slowly it grew louder and filled his heart and mind and whole. It soon spread outside and all of nature reverberated with it. Slowly with a brilliant heavenly radiance the man disappeared into nonexistence.

The wind blew and the river gushed forth as always and still the word echoed endlessly:

Oooom….