“Quick! Pull him out of the rubble,” cried Diya.
“He seems to have been beaten up badly. Ah, tired of mob lynching these days!” exclaimed Lavan.
While both Lavan and Diya were carefully pulling the man out, Lavan suddenly stopped. His face turned pale.
“Hurry up! We can’t let him lose his life,” said Diya. Lavan looked into Diya’s eyes as if to ask, “in spite of knowing who he is?”
“Be true to your name,” reminded Diya.
Diya and Lavan were beautiful butterflies in a land faraway called Kalpavriksha. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. Marked with rainbows and rich flowers, this little kingdom was home to innumerable butterflies. Right at the centre of this flowery butterfly delight was a glowing tree, Kalpavriksha, after which the kingdom was named. It yielded twelve different types of fruits every month and its leaves healed nations. It was the residing place of Alpha under whose care and protection the kingdom functioned. Every creature owed their life to Alpha. None had seen the Alpha but those who had experienced his invisible presence and healing were a ‘light’ apart from the rest of them. Diya and Lavan belonged to them.
“You should have left him to his own fate! It was Alpha’s befitting response to all that he had done,” said Lavan with a rather triumphant tone. Diya smiled, “You mean an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? Then you and I would have long been dead.” They quickly move the injured man into the ambulance and return home.
Diya and Lavan were the sons of Thunder. (Yes, she called herself the firstborn son!) Thunder, the chief of caterpillars, was the black sheep of his own tribe. He preyed on his fellow caterpillars and turned them in as baits for fishing. Diya and Lavan were a bait to the baits, and the duo played hand in glove with their father. Far from being light and salt, they were thunder and lightning to their herd, wreaking havoc among them.
None had seen the Alpha but those who had experienced his invisible presence and healing were a ‘light’ apart from the rest of them.
One night, as they were walking through the lanes trying to source some gullible caterpillars to become their fishing baits, they became prey to their own folly. They were trapped and taken hostages to become baits the next morning. For the first time in life, they stared at death. Looking back at their lives, all they found was deception and death. With guilt-struck hearts, they yearned for forgiveness over safety! As if it were a miracle, suddenly they found themselves suspended in the air. “Is this an answer to our prayers?” they thought. Even before they could sigh in relief, they realised they were in a far worse position than before—in the claws of a bird. Death was at their doorstep. By now, they had lost all hope. To their utter shock, they were dropped right at the door of their house, perhaps the claws gave away. Was this coincidence or providence? Was it by chance or a planned choice? The sequence of events to the point of predators leading them to safety was too extraordinary to be termed luck.
Both Diya and Lavan stayed home for a while, recovering but more so introspecting. It was a time of solace and seclusion with deep reflection and perspective. Those warm rays of the Alpha were life giving and transforming. They had always been there but, for the first time Diya and Lavan realised and reciprocated in repentance. It was a transcending time. There was an unstoppable change—an outpouring of love and a righteous hatred for sin. But even more, they were filled with the power and presence of Alpha himself! Before they realised, the metamorphosis has had its way. The crawling caterpillars had angelic wings. They were transformed into butterflies!
Staring into Diya’s eyes, Lavan’s past scrolled before his eyes. He turned to look at his wings.
“You sure know where to look at,” said Diya. “These rainbow-streaked wings on you are a sign of Alpha’s reconciliation. Then why condemn the hurt?” asked Diya.
Lavan kept calm as his heart battled with the truth.
Diya gently held his hand and whispered, “For what we couldn’t do in darkness we are now able to do in light! Go, bind the broken-hearted, set the captives free and comfort those in pain. You and I are the salt and light to this world.”
Lavan shrugged his shoulders off and exclaimed, “This world is too big for me to handle!”
“Then, let’s begin with your world,” asserted Diya.
“My world is my closet. That’s the introvert me. I can shine in my closet but not in the squares; I can be the salt at home, but not at large!” replied Lavan.
Looking back at their lives, all they found was deception and death.
With a warm smile Diya asked, “You mean your closet is beyond Alpha’s reach? Shine the brightest, you’ll go the farthest; be the saltiest, you’ll save many a worst.”
“Save where? At home?” asked Lavan.
Diya was nostalgic as she recalled how she held her baby brother for the first time. She narrated to Lavan what their father said, “Here is Lavan, your brother, the most precious and expensive like the salt to the Romans! He will heal many a wounded and you Diya will dispel darkness!”
“I quite didn’t understand then but it all makes sense now!” she exclaimed. “So, save here right from home,” replied Diya. “Take the closet with you or make the world your closet!” she affirmed.
Walking out of Lavan’s room as he kept thinking, she sang:
“Whatsoever you do, to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. When I was hungry you gave me to eat, when I was thirsty you game me to drink, when I was naked you clothed me.”
Diya paused as she reached the door and looked back. She whispered to Lavan, “Now enter into the home of my father for today we have saved the one who had almost killed us years back. And yes, the bird that picked us up back then was Alpha’s salt, not our predator! Even the wild can turn mild with Alpha, just like you.”
