Vedantic Tales : The Discipleship
        of Ajay : The Osprey

He did not linger for applause, but circled the village, resting on the air, barely moving his wings. As he glided, he saw that a small boy, standing alone in a yard, was holding out his arms to him. Ajay flew to a low branch of a mango tree and from there looked down at the little boy, whose upturned face. was beaming with affection. His eyes were huge and as lustrous as a lake in moonlight. As Ajay looked into their depths he lost out ward consciousness and once again slipped for a timeless moment through a crack into an infinite Joy. When the moment passed and he was again centred in himself, he knew that his flying had always been and would ever be a celebration of a boundless Being, of which he and everything else were somehow, in some dreamlike way, connected parts. Of course! he thought. It has always been so. An almost overwhelming love flowed between himself and the village boy, who still stood with his arms uplifted. He flew down into those arms and was held close to the boy's bare chest. For another long moment osprey and boy were one. Then the boy opened his arms and with a slight boost gave Ajay back to the sky.

He flew on, scarcely conscious that he was flying; his wings seemed to be movements of the air itself effortless, unwilled. That night he roosted in a forest of the foothills, and at the first light of dawn headed toward the College. As he approached he saw in the distance, as he had seen almost three years earlier, small shining specks whirling against the backdrop of the rosy snow peaks. He knew now what they were his fellow students performing their dazzling acrobatics in the early morning sun, catching the light on their wings. 

[ Back ] [ Vedantic Tales ] [ Up ] [ Next ]