The Divine Armor (Mystery): Chapter One + Synopsis
You would know me if you knew a bit about the epic, The Mahabharata. Even if you haven’t read it, you have perhaps heard mythological stories told to you by elders. I am Karna, son of Surya, the Sun-god. But this story is not about me; it is about Vasu Sen. If you have followed him since his childhood, as I have done, you would know him as my alter ego. He has just set out on a quest to find my Kavach-Kundal, the very same set of armor that was taken away from me by Lord Indra, 5000 years ago.
Yes, I am mighty proud of Vasu, and he prides himself too, for having grown in my likeness and addresses me as Mahapurush – the great man.
I have been traversing in this era – Vasu says it’s the beginning of the twenty-first century – to find a man who could quell my intrigue, who could get me a glimpse of my Kavach-Kundal. I needed to find a person sterling in character, resolute in pursuit, unflinching in the face of adversity, unbiased in reasoning, scientific in thinking, measured in actions, and compassionate to the human cause. Only such a person could deserve to find the Kavach-Kundal. Vasu seemed to measure up to my expectations.
No, I didn’t teach him all those traits. He turned himself into such a persona on the fiery lathe of life. Now, as I strolled in the lawn of his house, he reclining in stupor in his garden swing that swayed slowly in the morning breeze, I noticed how much he had grown physically, mentally, and spiritually, in the last three and half decades. Five years in the Army had made good what he once lacked in physique as a boy. As a matter of fact, at 47 he was brawny like the sportsperson that he was. A short mustache and combed back hair gave him the elegant look of a high-ranking officer of a corporate, which again, he was.
I replayed in my mind all those testing times Vasu has been through – born illegitimate, brought up in abject living conditions, being an object of ridicule during his formative years, his first love mocking him and forsaking him, he losing his job for telling a lie, he unearthing a treasure trove but someone else claiming it, he narrowly missing a medal in an international sports event, he getting superseded for promotion. All these pitfalls, which were not very different from those I had been through, had turned him into a resolute man with a balanced view of life. His circumstances had molded him into a confident and capable man, until finally, I must admit, he surpassed me in goodness and accomplishment. Whereas I had humiliated Draupadi with derogatory speech, Vasu took as wife a dishonored woman, and whereas I had gone down fighting Arjuna in the final battle of my life, Vasu emerged victorious in a life-and-death fight against terrorists. All these you would know if you have read the account of Vasu’s early life recorded in Karna’s Alter Ego.
I did nothing to make him what he is today. I merely walked beside him when he needed me, stood by him whenever he called me to. In reality, I was always beside him, though most times unseen, to see him fare through multitudes of tests that life threw at him. It took him 35 years to reach these lofty standards, and I must say I am impressed.
His question to me, when he was still in school, rang in my ears. “Mahapurush, did it hurt when you wrenched out the Kavach-Kundal from your body?”
“A bit,” I had assured the concerned little Vasu. But the pain had been far more than ‘a bit’. It was quite like skinning myself, tearing off the outer covering that had grown on me since my birth. I bled all over, but Indra also cured me. The scars were gone, but the Kavach-Kundal remained imprinted on my soul which no one could ever erase.
Vasu perceived my presence and opened his eyes. I could no longer contain my intrigue. I disclosed my millennia old curiosity to him: “Where has my Kavach-Kundal vanished, Vasu?”
He stood transfixed, staring at me and my bright white robe with adoration, as one does before a deity. He looked me up from foot to head and at each limb sent out a prayer. My bare feet, he bowed and touched; he took my hands and touched them to his forehead; at the mark of rising sun on my forehead he fixed his gaze and sent out a prayer unto Surya. He peered at the conch shell that hung by a sash from my shoulders. Through my locks of hair, he noticed my earlobes that should have been adorned with Kundals, and finally, underneath my silken shawl, he visualized my bare torso where the Kavach should have been.
“Mahapurush, I thought you always knew where it went after Lord Indra took it away from you.”
From his tenor, I could make out that he was plunged into the intrigue, as deep as I was. He yearned, as much I did, to set out on a quest for the Kavach-Kundal. But we had no idea where to begin our search from. Neither I nor anyone else, but Indra, ever got to know where the armor went. Indra hid it in some corner of the earth, never to be found. I told Vasu that I had made discreet inquiries. “Indra couldn’t carry it with him to Swarga, the Heaven. Before he could reach the gates of Amaravati, Surya, annoyed with him for divesting me of his gift, shone on him and irradiated the Kavach-Kundal that he was carrying concealed. So radiant was the effulgence from the set that everyone came to know what Indra was carrying wrapped in satin sheets. Brahma and several gods appeared there and asked him not to defile the heavens. ‘What you are carrying, O Indra, despite all its divine powers, is still a human body part, grossly lacking in sanctity to enter the heavens,’ advised Brahma. Lord Indra had to turn back from the gates of his kingdom.”
“Did he then dig deep and push it into Patala, the Underworld?” asked Vasu.
“He wouldn’t be so foolish. If the demons of the Underworld found it, they would let hell loose on heavens, divest Indra of his throne and rule over the gods.”
It only meant that the Kavach-Kundal was stashed away on earth, in some spot known only to Indra. The secret location has remained a matter of speculation in all the worlds: the world of gods, of humans, of rakshasas, of gandharvas, of pitris. Indra has taken every measure to keep his secret, even from gods, forever protective of his throne that he is. He has even dispelled thoughts of it from his consciousness lest someone read his mind.
“But why do we need to find it now, Mahapurush? Let it rest where it lies.”
That was just the kind of question I expected from a rational, reasoning mind. Vasu should be right in his thinking. Why disturb the potent armament that has been lying peacefully for so many millennia? But he lacked the ability to foresee the future. The human world was nearing self-destruction. Weapons no less in potency than the Brahmastra proliferated in the hands of unwise despots. Such weapons could only be deterred by more such weapons, which they called nuclear missiles. In my time, powerful celestial arms remained with the gods and only the deserving, who had earned the merit, could invoke them for one-time use, after which the weapons returned to the gods.
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SYNOPSIS
This is a story of the quest for the Kavach-Kundal (set of armor and earrings) worn by the legendary warrior Karna in the Mahabharata. The action unfolds in the present time, but the story premise is rooted in a legend from the epic. The armor had celestial powers had provided invincibility to Karna. God Indra had tricked him and taken away the divine set; that’s how Karna lost his final battle against Arjuna. It is not known what Indra did with that set afterward.
(Does one need to be acquainted with the Indian Epic MAHABHARATA to follow this novel? NO. The above paragraph is all that one needs to know. The story is a mystery – a quest for an ancient, all-powerful armor – set in the present time.)
Vasu, the protagonist, sets off to find the set, donning which he should be able to bring peace on earth by fighting terrorists. The spirit of Karna (who is the narrator) guides Vasu through the search. The quest leads Vasu to the Himalayas where he comes across a friendly guide named Chhetri, who helps him in mountaineering. Later, he finds a Yeti who is believed to be holding an ancient treasure, possibly the Kavach-Kundal. After considerable battle of wits, he manages to get it, but it turns out to be only one earring instead of the whole set of armor. It appears Indra had separated the components and had hidden them in four different sites. (Unknown to Vasu, he is not the only one who has an interest in this quest.) With a clue from the Yeti, Vasu heads south to Rameshwaram, where he gets to know that a great scientist has already found the other piece of the earrings. Soon enough, the scientist is kidnapped by a gang. It turns out that the gang leader is none other than Chhetri. The ransom is the pair of earrings plus a considerable sum of money. Vasu joins hands with the police in a covert operation and rescues the scientist, who then hands him over his piece of the earring.
The next leg of his mission takes Vasu to Dwarka on the west coast. He traces out a sunken city off the Gujarat coast, where he locates the back-plate of the armor, guarded by mermaids, but not before he subdues a gang of underwater swimmers who have managed to follow him there. That leaves Vasu to find the final and the most important component, the breastplate. He reaches the famous Sun Temple at Konark on the east coast. The 760-year-old ruins of the exquisitely carved monument intrigue Vasu – Why was there never a deity in such a majestic temple? Why did no worship ever begin in the shrine? Why was it not restored when it collapsed? Did the king construct the temple to bury a secret treasure? Chhetri is back; he tempts Vasu with a box full of gold, power and physical pleasures, to trade with the components of the Kavach-Kundal he has unearthed so far.
It transpires, towards the end, that Chhetri is not truly an antagonist, but a spiritual master deputed by Lord Indra to impose hurdles and temptations on the path of Vasu. The underlying rationale here is that a true seeker will find the Kavach-Kundal, while bounty hunters not pure of heart will fall by the wayside.
There is an element of mysticism throughout the story. In every successive step of the search, Vasu transcends a notch in spirituality, such that on the final leg of his quest, when he discovers the breastplate, he is so transformed that he would rather let the armor rest there as it has done for five millennia than disturb it. In the end, it is not exactly about finding an armor hidden somewhere, but about locating it within oneself. The discerning reader should be able to spot the monomyth in my hero’s journey.
THE CELESTIAL ARMOR is somewhat comparable to Dan Brown’s DA VINCI CODE, in that both are quests by a modern day protagonist for a divine object said to hold infinite powers, and that the antagonists initially appear to be helpful but are intent on grabbing the object for themselves.
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