"Why did you allow him to participate in that debate competition?" Gopal, a fellow monk and Braja's best friend snapped. "How long has he been practicing spirituality? One year? Two years? Not even a full year!"

"You know I don't go about ordering anyone around," Braja said, he wasn't looking in the eyes of his friend but the floor.

"But this time you should've!" Gopal raised his forefinger along with his voice. "We have no idea what the boy could say, he can mess up or worst become deluded."

Braja parted his lips to speak but stopped when a young boy came running. "Braja! Braja!" The young boy, Omkar, stopped running when he reached the monk and put his hands on his knees, wheezing and spluttering.

Braja sprang up and held the boy with shoulders. "What happened, Omkar?"

Omkar stuck out his cellphone at Braja, it was streaming live telecast of debate competition held in Manor Hall. The brown pupil of Braja's eyes reduced in size to focus on the bright video. "Give it to me," he said and sat on the ground. Gopal and Omkar bent on their knees and leaned forward to watch the video over Braja's shoulder.

"Oh Krishna," Gopal exclaimed, "Sid is face to face with that shrewd doctor. Please help him, Lord."

Braja didn't say anything, somewhere within in his heart he trusted Sid. With a grave look, three of them kept on watching the video.

*****

Sid stared back into the penetrating look of Dr Nayak, the boy didn't blink and stood tall. Their eyes were already debating with each other; however, not a single word came out for verbal battle.

The audience felt their tummy couldn't hold the excitement. Not everyone, however, kept the same enthusiasm. The fans of invincible three couldn't stay saints, half of them began to say chaff.

"Now a kid will save them from the hall of shame," someone scoffed with a burst of laughter.

"He's just a boy." "Go home, kid, mama's waiting!" "It's not a child's play, off you go."

All this slander didn't sunder Sid's confidence, but a lingering rage formed in his heart which he nipped it in the bud. His gaze, however, couldn't resist from falling on boohooers, some presented him with a press-lipped smile; a few sported cold look, their nostrils wheezed during the exchange of glances. The boy could tell they stored nothing but contempt for him.

"Kid, I must say you have commendable courage," Dr Nayak, at last, broke the silence which felt like an eternity. A grave but confident look plastered on Sid's face. "So what do you have to say?"

"Oh!" Sid felt a burning desire to share his journey. His eyes professed naivety of his heart. "I follow the teachings of Lord Krishna, you see. I was having my journ-"

"Which means," the doctor interrupted by sticking out his palm at Sid. "You are going against Shrutis, the direct word of God, as I explained earlier."

The doctor went on to quote several verses from Shrutis.

"They know Me as the unborn, not begotten, without beginning. The Supreme Lord of the worlds." [Yajurveda 32:5:3]

"He cannot be seen, neither above, nor across, nor in the middle. He is beyond grasp. No image is true to His form." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:19]

"His form is not visible. The eyes cannot see Him." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:20]

"God has no parents or Lord." [Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:9]

Sid skipped a beat, it was as if his life-giving organ constricted with fear. This one almost got me, he thought, that's a heck of an argument one wrong move, and I'm trapped. His fingers came in contact with his palm, and it was already sweaty.

"If you say Krishna is God, how come he had taken birth? Besides, he was a human-like us, but God can't be seen. If you think Krishna is Supreme Lord, then why he has parents? Shrutis don't approve such a person as God, maybe Krishna's descendants turned him into a god." Dr Nayak stopped verbal gymnastics to wear his iconic smirk. A flush of pride flooded his heart, but there was also a tinge of pity for the boy.

Sid felt a ball like strangulation in his guts, but it came under the control with a few calm breathing. It was his time to shine or embrace defeat. He raised his forefinger in the air and pressed his lips together in a thin line. When he pulled open his lips to speak, it made a "pap," sound. "Um, can I get a couple of minutes to analyze your questions?"

An outburst of laughter came from everywhere, Dr Nayak's head went gracefully back as he belly-laughed. "Don't take too long, kid," he said.

Okay, think, think! A blurry image of Braja brushed away the boy's mind and the surge of confidence ran through his veins.

So overall questions that Dr Nayak raised indicates the complexity of Vedic scriptures. The doctor has done nothing but fiddled with the philosophical concept called arthapatti in Sanskrit. It means presenting two contradictory things to highlight higher truth, but at the same time, it doesn't mean those two things are wrong.

For instance, Ravi doesn't eat throughout the day, but still, his weight is increasing. Pause for a moment and think how do you make of that?

Now this situation can trigger one's intelligence to conclude that Ravi must be secretly eating at night.

Does this mean Ravi not eating throughout the day, wrong? Does this mean his weight is still increasing, wrong? Both statements are correct, but at the same time, he is secretly eating at night points towards the actual truth.

At this point, however, Sid can't quote any verse of the Bhagavad Gita to disprove all of the questions Dr Nayak raised. The Shruti and Smriti argument will nullify the authenticity of Gita because it's technically a Smriti as being part of Mahabharata.

"Dr Nayak, I'm afraid the premises of your Shruti and Smriti argument is erroneous." The boy declared boldly.

"What makes you say that?" Dr Nayak's voice shook a little but almost undetectable.

"It's because Shruti and Smriti are one. To say one is lower and the other is superior, that's gibberish."

A vein in Dr Nayak's temple pulsated, the words came like an insult. Do you mean to say the infallible one is wrong? Impossible!

Sid went on to quote several verses from Shrutis exactly in Dr Nayak's style.

"The Rig, Sama, Yajur with the Puranas and all the gods residing in the heavenly planets." (Atharva Veda 11.7.24)

"O Maitreya, the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas, as well as the Itihasas and the Puranas, originate from God." [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.10]

"In this way, all the Vedas were manifested along with the Upanisads, Itihasas, and Puranas." [Atharva Veda: Gopatha Brahmana, Purva 2.10]

"Thus, the Itihasas, Puranas, Gathas and Narasamsis became favorable to him." [Atharva Veda 15.6.10-12]

"Venerable sir, I have studied the Rg, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva, and also the Itihasas and Puranas, which are the fifth Veda." [Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.2]

"Indeed, Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the names of the four Vedas. The Itihasas and Puranas are the fifth Veda." [Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.4]

"One who thoroughly studies the Vedas along with their six limbs and the Itihasas and Puranas becomes a true knower of the Vedas." (Vyasa-Smriti 4.45.)

"The Itihasas and Puranas are Vedas." (Taittiriya Aranyaka 2.9)

Hardly anyone was there whose eyes didn't double in size. A numbing silence fell over everywhere. Some couldn't even resist getting past, "Oh boy," from their mouth since Sid sounded like a sage from ancient India. Many couldn't register the gravity of those verses, but they rule out the premises of Shruti and Smriti argument posed by Dr Nayak.

Dr Nayak felt his left hand began to shudder and it reminded him the words of Stan: you tend to shake your limbs when you're worked up. Oh and this time it was his hand. The argument that Sid presented rammed through the doctor's labyrinth. But the debate was not over yet, was it?

"Good, I must say your knowledge is laudable," he said with a fake smile, his words also dripped with false confidence. "But, my boy, how do you explain the part which says God is formless, why do billions of Hindus worship God with a form? Isn't that contradicts Vedas?"

Sid smiled. "Ever heard of cherry-picking? Anyone?"-the boy also shot a glance at the audience-"Cherry picking is a logical fallacy of pointing out data that confirm a fact while ignoring a significant data that may contradict that fact-"

"What!?" Dr Nayak couldn't hold his fake smile, it replaced with a frown. "You mean to say my arguments have logical fallacies?"

What nobody observed, but there was one man whose face turned grave. Dark as a gloomy night. It was Stan. Sid jutted out his bottom lip and nodded. He went on to quote another series of verses.

"God appears in both ways-as the formless Brahman and Supreme Personality." [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.1]

"Sahasrta Pratima Asti - O Lord, you have thousands of forms." [Yajurveda 15.65]

"Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance formless Brahman, Supersoul or Supreme Person." [Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.11]

"Wherever the Vedic scriptures state that God does not have a form, they imply that His form is not subject to the blemishes of the material energy; rather, it is a divine form." [Padma Purana]

"I am unborn, and My transcendental body never deteriorates." [Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 4.6]

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that is." [Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 9.11]

"Those who know Me not think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to lack of knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme." [Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 7.24]

A burning rage formed in Dr Nayak's heart, he felt to snap at Sid who quoted Smriti (Puranas and Bhagavad Gita), but he couldn't do it because the boy shrewdly recited verses of Shruti to prove the authenticity of Smriti. He ... he felt trapped, can't deny or counter. The Shruti and Smriti argument, which always brought him glory, made powerless by a boy. A kid?!

Sid looked across the audience and caught a glimpse of Ronit who presented him with a thumbs up. A sense of pride began to wash over him. He smelled victory. But it wasn't the time to let his guard down - not one bit.

"Yes, Vedas indeed say one cannot see God," Sid addressed his audience and not just opponent. "But it is only through love one can see God. Lord Krishna, Himself says in Bhagavad Gita, chapter eleven, verse fifty-four. 'My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly.' It's your love that makes this possible. That is what Bhagavad Gita teaches, the most brilliant book of love. The Krishna Love."

"Have you seen God?" Someone said from the audience.

Sid turned to face the owner of that voice but couldn't figure out who it was. "Nah," he said to the public and placed his hands on his waist. "I'm not like your regular religious joe, you see. I'll make God come to see me."

The spasm of titters came all the way from the stomach and rumbled all around. Some even whistled, while others couldn't help but applaud.

"Just shut it!" Dr Nayak raised his voice to simmer down titters that gave him jitters. "Quit horsing around, I'm the infallible one. I'm not going down, not so easily."

Sid sent a piercing look at Dr Nayak, whose plastic look was wearing off. "Of course, I'm here to debate not to preach," the boy said. "However, no human is infallible."

Dr Nayak didn't just stop there, he kept on spitting out a few more philosophical issues which he "thought" was complicated, only till Sid answered them tactfully. The boy took on every question and pulverized Dr Nayak's enthusiasm and pride. The only words get past his mouth was, "That's gibberish. People! Just see how tactfully this boy is explaining away my questions." But the truth was Sid answered all of them, it was the doctor who didn't want to accept.

The host barged in finally to cool down heated debate. "I think it's time to choose the winner. C'mon, make some noise for Dr Nayak."-The audience gave a good cheer-"What about this young man?"-The audience couldn't hold themselves from breaking out in a loud noise-"I think we have a winner, we have, we have, and I couldn't believe this. The winner is..." The host paused dramatically, it was hard to say no one in the Manor Hall who didn't become all ears and slightly rose above their seats. "Doctorrrrrr Nayakkkk!"

**********

A/N: Wow, I think my Super Saiyan writer form has been unlocked. I love these quick updates. I hope you, readers, as well. Please vote and share in your precious thoughts in the comment box.