Each morning began in a routine way: the Teacher and the student did special gymnastics and respiratory exercises. Teacher himself would prepare the vegetables, i.e., he would cut them into small pieces and offer some to Alid Faski Natva. He grew vegetables in his vegetable-garden; young man helped him in that, breaking up the earth. In the mountains there was a small grotto, where local residents would bring and leave flat cakes (bread) for them, covering it with stones. They would come from far away once per fortnight. Teacher himself went after the food, sometimes Alid Faski Natva would do it.
Once the Teacher took his student to one of the villages. The road was long... They entered the forest. They heard pleasant rustle of leaves in the crowns of the trees and the special noises, which indicated the presence of animals and birds. But once when the Teacher walked along the forest path, everything froze, absolute silences fell. After passing the forest, theTeacher and Alid Faski Natva came to a road, which lead to a village. A man with a seven year-old boy sat on the curb. It seemed that they had just came out of the same forest.
In the hands of the Hindu Alid Faski Natva saw a blood-stained knife, with he had just used to cut out an insect which got under his skin; apparently there were a lot of them in the forest. The same procedure was waiting for the boy as there was no other way to get rid of them. Only for a second or two the Teacher stood near the child, in order to examine his slender body.
The insects that were stuck in his body, began to come out by themselves from the wounded passages made by them. The man got on his knees and lowered his head in front of the Teacher till it touched the earth. The boy relived from his suffering looked with gratitude at the Teacher who was already leaving, and hurried to bow to him too.
Quietly they went further along the road. Locals, who walked in front of them, even though they could not see them, would feel the Teacher’s approach, stop and respectfully give way to the Teacher.
Palm trees grew along the road with large ripened yellow nuts on them.
Behind the palms there were rice plantations which looked pretty boring. Flooded by water, they created a dull picture. Sometimes they would see the heads of the wells which were used for watering the plantations. The work was in progress on the field. In some places they were harvesting the rice, on others they were busy with sprouts yet on others they were planting the seeds.
It was afternoon, the feeble structures of an Indian village seemed burnt out and wretched in the tough rays of the midday sun. Travelers approached one of the dwellings. Suddenly a Hindu man appeared on the road and invited them into his house by common gestures and bows. The Teacher and his student entered trough a low entrance lowering their heads. First Alid Faski Natva saw nothing: it was dark in the room. After adjusting to the darkness, he began to distinguish clay walls, ceiling made out of straws, rugs on the floor made of palm leaves, two rocks with pots and plates on top. The room looked very pore. Women stood at the table and eight children were sitting there. The host following his gests walked in and with a smile invited them to share their meal. He took a knife and cut the bread into even peaces. Indian people say that if a guest comes along during your mealtime, you need to share with him your meal. God sent this man. This food is his sacrifice. The host gave a piece to the Teacher and a piece to the student. The bread was gray and did not look appetizing at all. The table, on which it was cut, was not the best example of cleanliness. But the Teacher took the bread and Alid Faski Natva followed him without any hesitation. He understood everything... For him this was yet another lesson from the Great Teacher.
On the way back they went along the emerald colored clearing, surrounded by many yellow and dark-blue flowers. At the side in thick grass laid gigantic brown gaur (special species of large buffalos). It opened its eyes with difficulty and looked at the travelers. Gaur roared in a weak and sad voice which sounded ruther like a moan then got up shaking his head with two bent horns and moved towards the Teacher in an unsteady gait. The Teacher came up to the buffalo and stopped.
He looked so small next to a huge gaur. Buffalo trustingly stretched its snout towards him. The Teacher caressed its rough hot nose and scratched his head between horns. Gaur stood still and it looked like he was happy to stand like this for a long time. After being busy with the wild animal for a minute or two, the Teacher continued on his way. Alid Faski Natva followed him, and they entered the forest. For a second Alid Faski Natva saw that enormous gaur briskly walking along the clearing on his way out.
It became quiet in the forest as soon as the Teacher entered it as it was always the case.
Suddenly this silence was interrupted as trees began to crack, the sounds of falling trees and branches were heard and even the earth began to tremble.
Forest was thin, and Alid Faski Natva saw the entire herd of buffalos in front of them. They swept up everything on their way.
Their round eyes were burning on their ferocious faces. Even the tsar of the beasts - tiger – would look inferior to them at that moment. But the Teacher confidently continued on his way, without any intention to turn away. Unexpectedly the entire herd sharply took to the left, and reduced their speed by far. The road was free for the travelers.
Soon they entered a village, to be more precise the place, where the village used to be. Terrible picture opened up in front of them. . Nothing had remained of the large houses; small ones still were there, but in an appalling state. Domestic utensils were scattered everywhere. Few inhabitants, who still stayed in the ruined village, were gathering the remaining of the household goods. Misfortune had happened - this was obvious. But who caused it? No, this was not the herd of buffalos. Buffalos would never attack villages. Only later Alid Faski Natva saw the destroyer of the Indian village. It was an elephant tramp.
You won’t com across one of those very often, but when you do beware, they are very dangerous. They are being outcaste from the herd normally for their weakness. When they get old it becomes very hard for them to carry their tasks, they weigh normally about fifty kilo each and so they can not catch up with the heard. In rage they would destroy anything what gets on their way. No one can predict where this furious beast would appear tomorrow. It was not clear if there were any human casualties but the destructed village looked horrendous. The Teacher looked at what was left of the village, bypassed it and got into the forest. Alid Faski Natva did not know where the Teacher was taking him and he did not ask. When the time will come – he will know.
There was one more village they were passing by; Alid Faski Natva saw it from a distance. Little children were playing near the huts, woman were busy with their chores. At the edge of the forest people which were working stopped their work when they saw the Teacher and followed him with their eyes. In a few more moments the forest which was normally not disturbed by any loud noises was shaken with a tremendous crack of falling branches and small trees; then in their view an elephant appeared, it was walking fast carelessly making its way through the forest with its strong body. For the first and for the last time Alid Faski Natva saw such horrible event. But there was no fear: he watched it as if it was in the movies, as if it was not happening with him as if he was an outside onlooker. Suddenly the elephant has stopped as if he was forced to do so by an invisible force. The old giant could not understand what stopped him. He turned his head and saw the travelers and if they were ordinary people nothing in the world would have saved them. The elephant raised its trunk but made no sound and then quietly lowered it back. It was hard to see its small eyes but it stared at the travelers without taking its eyes of them. His yellow tasks looked frightening even now when the elephant stayed put without any possibility to act out his aggression. Certainly it was the influence of the teacher. Alid Faski Natva looked at that minute at the Hindu people and got shocked by their behavior. First they froze in a pose the appearance of the elephant caught them in, then as if they received a kick start they started running towards the nearest village.
The Teacher and Alid Faski Natva calmly passed the elephant continuing on their way. It did not move. But the placidity of the mad elephant was temporary: when the Teacher would get further away from it, it was quite possible it would continue on its rampage destroying villages and killing people. The people of the nearest village were lucky that the Teacher got on its way and stopped it. Perhaps after being stopped the elephant would change its direction and the village would be saved and even if that would not happen at least there would not be any human casualties as the people were already warned and they would have time to get away from this feral beast. It was a good lesson for Alid Faski Natva. The Teacher could stop the elephant’s aggression not only for a few minutes; he could stop him being aggressive forever. He did not do this and his student understood; what is predetermined by God is not suppose to be changed.
Everybody heard about famous Indian elephants, there are a lot of them on the vast territory of India. Indians train those animals to become helpers for them; especially they use them when a strong physical force is required. Therefore apart from feral elephants which live in herds there are some trained ones. As a rule they use them to clear forests. In India there is not enough land for farming which is why from time to time there is a need to clear the forest for plantations. Once the Teacher with his student visited one of those clearings. Huge tree trunks were already cleansed from brunches. Indians like ants thoroughly gathered the branches at one spot so they could be taken away. The huge trunks of the trees could not be moved without machinery but the machinery could not get into a place like that, so the elephants were irreplaceable. With ease they were lifting up huge tree trunks and piling them up in one spot. Elephants are quite obedient and normally do not create any problems, therefore two people are enough to watch over five-six elephants.
The work on the clearing was fully in progress. One of the elephants lifted a steam of a tree with his trunk, balanced his load and then slowly walked towards the road. On the same path there were other two elephants walking with their load, the others were returning back after they left their load alongside the road. It was a lot of work to do. There was no need to watch over them as they worked progressively and rhythmically. So the Hindu people were not watching them they had plenty of their own work to do. It was around noon time so it was quite hot. Elephants and people were rather tiered but continued working. At the edge of the clearing two people appeared – the Teacher and his student. The workers did not notice them and also did not notice that one of the elephants, who were returning back from the road to get another stalk, walked directly towards the clearing where the Teacher stood. In the same manner all elephants one by one approached the Teacher. Workers finally had noticed the disappearance of the elephants. They were astonished to see the elephants leaving their work. They rushed to the elephants yelling at them. By that time the elephants were all gathered around the Teacher reaching their trunks out to him. The yes of the Teacher were shining with kindness. He was stroking the elephant’s trunks which were reaching out to him and smiling. Alid Faski Natva saw that the elephant’s eyes which were hazy before were becoming brighter and brighter. The workers who arrived to the scene by then, watched motionlessly. Alid Faski Natva saw in their eyes not only amazement but also confusion. They looked at the Teacher like little kids that did not know what to do. The Great Teacher slightly slapped the elephant that approached him last, made a hardly noticeable gesture with his hand and elephants peacefully turned around as if receiving a command and went back. The workers were still standing and looking at the Teacher as if waiting for a sign from him. The Teacher just looked at them and they quietly without saying a word turned around and followed the elephants. When one of the workers turned around to look at the amazing people at the clearing there was no one there. The Teacher and his student suddenly disappeared in the same way they appeared. At least that was what the workers thought whilst they have noticed that the elephants started moving faster with their load as if the day has just begun.
