As the owner of voice came closer, Sid and Ravi's eyes darted at that person. Wait! Why he has similar attire like Braja? Same shaved head, dhoti and kurta. The only difference: he wore yellow-clad. Unlike Braja's saffron ones.

And what amazed both Ravi and Sid should be the laughter into which that guy burst out. At first, this guy screamed at the top of his voice and now laughing?

Sid turned his attention back on Braja, who shot a friendly stare at that yellow-clad guy. Braja did have a calmed expression ruling over his face as if he knows this guy personally. What the hell is going on!?

"You scared them, Gopal!" Braja finally broke the silence, his voice held chastising tone.

"What!?" Gopal came running before Sid and Ravi. And when he set his eyes on them, he slapped his forehead and pressed his lips together in a thin line. "I'm extremely sorry guys, I thought you were regular students. You see, I yelled to scare Braja but the guy didn't even flinch!"

This added more to the glory of Braja in Sid's mind, but Gopal's face was plastered with anxiety. "You see, me and Braja we both are good friends. We crack jokes, we poke fun at each other, we eat together. Almost like how mundane friends do. But no, we are not mundane friends—"

"Gopal! Gopal! It's alright, chillax." Braja interrupted.

"Yeah that's fine," Sid said on behalf of Ravi as well.

Actually, Gopal was quite a sensitive person since he was aware of the fact that how easily people form an opinion about a spiritual person. He heaved a sigh of relief and talked with Braja about managerial duties of the temple.

"I'm extremely sorry guys," Braja said with a smile while looking at Sid and Ravi, standing up from his chair. "I'll be back in half an hour or shall we continue next time?"

There was no way Sid would leave this golden opportunity of having a person who can answer all of his questions. "That's fine, we'll wait."

Braja smile extended into a grin and his thumb slightly raised up, but it wasn't a complete thumbs up because he walked off quickly. While rushing out of the basement he glanced at his friend who posed a question before he could speak. "You know these new kids?"

"They are spiritual seekers," Braja replied gravely. "You should be there an hour ago. That Sid guy, he literally cornered me with his catch-22 question."

"Cornered you?" Gopal repeated, his voice was close to a laughter. "Well, it's very rare to see teenagers these days searching for the Absolute Truth."

"Yeah. He's very intelligent."—Braja's facial expression turned serious for a moment—"I think one day he'll be an inspiration to many."

*****

While Ravi busied himself in his cellphone, there was a bookshelf that made Sid got up from his seat; it was as if his legs dragged him towards the books. He skimmed over some titles of the books: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Beyond Illusion and Doubt, The Journey Home, Krsna, Hidden History of Human Race, The Science of Self-realization, and Mahabharat.

He eagerly pulled out Mahabharat and began reading it from the first chapter. Just within a few sentences, he was intrigued. He felt words were talking to him and he could visualize every scene in my mind, thanks to "don't tell, show" skills of the author.

He didn't even realize how forty minutes passed, still he was reading the book. It was only Ravi's interrupting that snap him out of his absorption. "I think we should leave, that monk must've forgotten about us."

"Mahabharat is amazing," Sid was still unable to tear his eyes from the book, but then his mind became alerted with what Ravi had said. Yes, he must've forgotten about them. "Well, let's wait for ten minutes if he doesn't come, then we'll make a move."

Sid's eyes traveled from Ravi to the chair to Braja's. He desperately needed his association because after all these years it was only Braja who could answer his questions. His mind replayed that scene when Braja broke free his catch-22 and a dim smile manifested on his lips.

If you'd interview Sid at this moment, he would have said: Alright, let me get this straight. I used to think my questions have such scintillating wit that nobody could ever answer it. I was pretty proud of it. But Braja proved me wrong. I seriously don't know this guy, but this monk's not an ordinary one. He's in this world but not of this world. Well, I'm not acting cocky here but I still have this doubt that there might some questions which Braja couldn't answer. Wish he could disprove me again, could he?

"OH MY GOD! LOOK AT THIS!" This was from Ravi, whose big shocked-ridden eyes Sid noticed first. "How can this guy even murder?"

Sid felt fear chewed his heart because he thought maybe Ravi got something suspicious about Braja. A wave of heat rushed from his stomach to his throat. No, seriously, after all this time even Braja came out to be one of those phony spiritual leaders? No! why this, why now?

"What?" he narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Ravi moved up closer to Sid and handed him the cellphone. It was a news article, title flashed on the mobile screen: A dentist murdered his wife, stabbing the knife in her stomach forty-two times. This gave relief to Sid that it wasn't about Braja. Phew!

He skimmed over some sentences and then looked at Ravi. "What's so ohmygoding about it? Negativity EveryWhere See: this is the full form of news."

"You didn't get it." Ravi hawked before speaking further. "This guy, he was our family dentist. You can't believe how skinny and polite this guy is. He was such a sweet talker. But gosh, he murdered his wife."

Now that's interesting. How can a skinny man murder his wife, who probably couldn't even kill an incest? Ravi must've misunderstood him.

"You know, the funny thing is. He was vegan, never even tasted the meat. Never tried alcohol or cigarettes. Practically no bad habits. But this article says he chopped his wife's throat like a butcher."

Ugh, that's gross. Vegan are supposedly peaceful people, how can that murderer commit such horrendous crime? Sid even heard of a popular quote of vegans: Don't talk about love and peace when there is a dead animal on your plate.

"He used to woke up at six in the morning without failed. The article says that he used to have daily conflict over money with his wife. Yesterday after murdering her, he kept her head on his lap for four hours. And then he surrendered himself to the police."

"Alright." Sid had a light bulb. "So anger and greed for money made him do that."

"But what led him to blew a fuse? As I said he's skinny, in fact, just a knock in his face was enough for his wife to protect herself—"

"He must be having some psychotic disorder." Sid rubbed his chin. "Are you sure he didn't have any bad habits?"

The lines of strain became visible on Ravi's face as he did think a bit before replying. "I think he was choleric."

"That's it!" Sid felt a conclusion hit his brain. "Let's say he had a fight with his wife and then to cool down he looked for a stress buster but didn't find one. Due to this he couldn't control his anger and thus blew his top."

But Ravi didn't appear impressed because what his best friend said here was an inference to the best explanation or abductive reasoning. Good try Mr. Sherlock Holmes but not this time.

"Just because there is no other explanation." He flashed a smirk.

There were several connotations in the smirk of Ravi. What Sid studied from that smirk was an expression which says, "And you claim Bhagavad Gita has answers to all questions." Another expression says, "You may have a witty logic, but not this time."

Sid felt his temples were pounding and throat was tight, some way or other he felt obliged to answer Ravi's all queries. But this time he was unsuccessful. What feared him the most was Ravi may become agnostic again.

He parted his lips into two to admit that there are certain cases which are unexplainable—

"I can answer this question based on Bhagavad Gita." Braja's voice snapped at Ravi and Sid. Whoa! He's back with another dynamic entry. "You see, Bhagavad Gita 2.62 to 63 explains the whole cycle: A person develops an attachment to the objects which give sense pleasure, it can be anything. From such attachment lust forms, and when it is not fulfilled then anger arises. Anger gives birth to delusion and it leads to the bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one can summon destruction upon self or others." Braja took a pause here. "If you read those verses carefully, you can understand the whole psychology."

Sid and Ravi nodded convincingly. It has to do with intelligence. If the murder's intelligence could have activated at right time, things won't be the same for him, Sid thought.

Braja continued. "When we're angry on someone we want to harm the person so bad, but we refrain ourselves from doing anything stupid because our intelligence prompts us. You'll be in prison, it prompts us."

"So how do we strengthen our intelligence?" Ravi asked.

"Gita 3.42 explains it: The working senses are superior to dull matter; the mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and the soul is even higher than the intelligence. So we have to understand that we're not our physical body but an individual soul."

"Cool." Ravi cut in. "That elucidates everything."

Braja just didn't stop there he went on explaining how there are three tier realities to our existence. He stood up from his chair and then walked at the chalkboard. White letters stood out clearly on the blackboard: first, gross body; second, subtle body; third, the soul.

"Gross body," he said, turning back, "is made up the earth, fire, air, water, and ether. Subtle body of mind, intelligence, and false ego. Soul has three eternal constitutional elements: eternity, knowledge and bliss."

Sid experienced a light bulb in his head. Now he could make sense of his out of body experience that he had. And also why people unconsciously chasing after eternity, knowledge and bliss because it's their nature as souls. No one's looking for peace because the ultimate goal of life is to be happy.

When they say "look within" it refers soul. He knew it very well now. But then reality punched him in the face. About how people are kept in darkness about the knowledge of soul. They are indoctrinated into believing life is once, everything ends with the body. How can the world be exposed to this reality?

One big question, however, battered his mind. Why in the world the education system want us to believe that we are our bodies but not the soul? How wonderful it would be if an individual start identifying oneself as soul first, not as Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Indian, American or anything. There would be truly world peace, the most sought after phenomenon which is not yet actualized.

"Well what you've preached seems so logical," Ravi said gravely, "and it's like the new dimension of knowledge. But then why do you people have this caste system? Low-born, high-born thingy?"

Sid's heart skipped a beat and his eyes locked at his best friend. He didn't believe Ravi could ask that question. His face contained a fleeting worry Braja may not be able to answer this most controversial question. A part of him, however, chastised him why he has to doubt Braja's competence always when again and again he proved his knowledge?

Wow, wow. Again we're flirting with controversy, Sid thought sarcastically. The caste system has been one of the most disgracing parts of Vedic religion, or is it just misinterpreted? He remembered a verse from Bhagavad Gita which says that it's based on one's karma and nature, but his head couldn't come up with the right answer.

His eyes drifted at Braja, who was smiling calmly, ready to get into an exhaustive explanation. He hopefully gazed at Braja for the answer.

*******

A/N: Gosh! It took me so long to write this chapter. But I hope it lives up to the expectations. I'm trying to add Bhagavad Gita's wisdom on questions Sid had earlier which were unanswered. Please vote and do comment on this chapter.