Promises of soul mates

“A woman’s loyalty is tested when her man has nothing, a man’s loyalty is tested when he has everything,” goes a saying. Be it a man or a woman, anybody’s loyalty is tested when the spouse is sick and terminally ill. The norm of the society is that a wife should automatically remain loyal in such situations and that the husband is entitled to it. But such lopsided logic does not affect some truly loving loyal men, who remain rock solid by their promise: “In sickness or in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us apart...”

He is a people’s man, loved by all. Beneath his gregarious fun loving exterior, there is a scholarly erudite person, there is a spiritually devout and ever helpful man and, most significantly, a doting husband, thoroughly loyal and steadfast in loving, cherishing and keeping up promises made to his dear wife.

While she was walking the line between life and death with failing health and a fragile heart ridden with many medical conditions, he remained a tending nurse, seeing in her a wounded soldier but not a vanquished one! While she was waging a battle with an uncooperative body, her soul and heart were being nurtured, encouraged and reassured by him – that she would complete her mission. Her goal to complete the translation of a powerful Sanskrit paean on Goddess Lalitha Devi, running into four bulky volumes.

As an author, she already had a repertoire of such gems, again thanks to the most supportive man in her life. Dependent on an oxygen cylinder for her regular breathing, she one day suddenly reminded him of his promise to take her to the temple on the seven hills, Tirumala, in her last days. He braved that in complete faith and brought her to the temple town from the Bay Area in the US, as a true soul mate who never let go of her whether in the rain or shine of life.

Every promise is built on four pillars: the grace and goodness not to forget it, the inner strength to uphold it, the truthfulness to not turn the promise into a lie and the power of love to accomplish it. And people who make good on their promises remain valuable wherever they are for they restore faith in humanity and human relations.

Amid the most knowledgeable ones and pious priests, the four sacred volumes were released in a finely organised event on Tirumala Hills. “My mother would have wanted everything exactly like this, right from the choice of flowers decorating the dais. I am sure she is smiling from above, or rather, she is smiling through my father’s smiles; they both are never separate.” As I heard their daughter’s words, my eyes filled to the brim and I paid my loving reverence to those exemplary soul mates.