DARKNESS shrouds the space. A young girl lies on the ground in a plain frock, then awakes when moments pass and looks around to see naught in the space. She walks in what she perceives to be “front” for she can neither discern forward nor backward nor up nor down nor left nor right. She can neither see nor hear nor touch nor smell nor taste nor sense. Yet she is able to trudge through the sea of primordial matter.

When a long time passes, she then perceives light in the distance. She runs to the light, but it moves farther and farther from her. And as she chases it, arms emerge from the darkness and seek to grab and pull her into it. She runs faster to evade them while stumbling and tumbling along the path but never stopping.

Then the light stops and suddenly grows much larger, and the bright effulgence irradiating from the point halts the wayward from approach. She holds her arms and evades its gaze, for she cannot bear to set her sight on it. Then the light becomes gentle, and she discerns it. The light envelops the darkness, and all brightens to clarity.

She looks around and sees clouds. She looks at herself and the ground but sees no shadows. And she can see a myriad of suns all about in the distance as if her sight could pierce through the endless sky and behold all with perfect vision.

A being approaches her. That being floats and possesses four arms with long multi-colored robes, beckoning her to follow, and she grabs its hand and walks with it through the clouds. On the path are many other beings of various likeness, some tall, while others are short. Some possess many eyes while others possess none. Some have many arms, while others have but two. Some even have wings, but never does she see any that possess more than six. All of them are adorned in various colors, and the many hues brighten under the effulgence of the suns.

They live without a care in their vast gardens and domains that stretch to the horizons unbounded, where milk and liquor and all sensory pleasures flow beyond the heart’s content. A whole society dwells within the clouds, one of people who are both like and unlike the ones she knows. To the sky she can see an endless array of stars, luminous and radiant, and the forms of which from the single smallest speck of their being she can perceive from afar.

The being points out to her all the various sights of the realm and what it is, but the girl cannot make much of what the being says. But she knows that she feels calm and contented, and that alone is enough for her.

Time passes, and they reach a series of large circular projections, rotating in front, above, and below. The being says to the child that these are gates and if the child so desires, she may pass through them. Yet it also states that were she to go through, she could never come back for the path leads to a primordial source, higher, nay, highest, that knows all, sees all, and experiences all. It exists beyond any comprehension, and to one without a state to comprehend, it would look like nothing.

The girl looks to the being and shakes her head. The being smiles and is glad at her decision, then takes the girl back along the path. The girl, however, does not see any of the beings sporting about their domains nor any of the delights that flow across the realm.

Upon reaching the edge of the clouds, she looks down but sees nothing. She feels as though she is being pushed from behind and falling into nothingness. And then, she awakes.

She looks around her and sees some illuminated plants in a clearing in a vast forest. She now remembers she came here on account of being called by something.

She had followed the trail to reach here, whereupon a voice had told her to sit down in the clearing. A mortar and pestle had appeared before her, and the being had told her to take the illuminated plants by her side and mash them. She did so, and the being then told her to consume the pulp, and upon doing so, she had fallen unconscious. After remembering, she hears voices from outside the forest and follows them home while the being smiles and waves to her, unbeknownst to all.

The boy awoke, and he rubbed his eyes. He looked to his side to behold a man with six ears and two horns. The boy’s eyes grew wide, and a smile spread across his face.

“You are awake, good!” said Athruyam. He bowed to Tūmbṃār and said, “Welcome, small child, to my home!”