JOIN USIn this era where food for the soul seems to be in vogue, I too am acquainted with Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’ with the universe as the paramount theme, sublime metaphysical writers like Paulo Coelho, Robin Sharma, etc. The late Judith Bennet’s concept of the cosmic personality also had fired my imagination. Can such an individual exist or is the conception just an ideal, I wondered. I craved for a piece of the cosmos for myself; in any form — an ethereal experience, a cosmic chum, anything.
I was expecting my friend Ashley to come. Our camaraderie is as old as the hills. The door bell trilled. She walked in and unwrapped a sumptuous home-made chocolate cake. She cut me a piece which I bit into daintily.
Ashley didn’t know any of my other friends and neither I hers. The time to ruminate on the inevitable had come. Who was this enigma that I encountered time and again? A stranger at the beginning of our amity, yet not a stranger. She was a patron of beauty — she seemed like Venus or Aphrodite, a saviour like Florence Nightingale or Mother Teresa, a teacher in prudence and values. Ashley practiced detachment: she was immersed in the glory of the world yet not drowned in its tears. Was she a mirage or a medium of the occult? Was she a whiff of tantalising perfume or the silvery flow of river by moonlight?
Was she air, water, fire, earth or ether? Truth dawned on me. My friend was the most harmonious balance of all five magnificent elements of the universe. She had been my guiding star who had helped me learn the magic of aesthetics, love, empathy and detachment, leading through myriad examples. She could belong to any one of us — yet she was free. She was a cosmic personality.
“A penny for your thoughts”, Ashley interrupted as she offered me another sliver of cake, smiling sweetly.
“No thanks, Ash”, I said smiling back “I’ve already had a helping of the cosmic slice”. Then I both laughed and cried indulgently at her puzzled expression.