Prakash has not the faintest notion of what this is all about. But he nods all the same as though he has understood every word. Once the swami leaves, there is an exodus of guests. Prakash is all set to leave with them when Sumitraben’s eyes hold him back. They signal him to sit down. As he lowers himself on to the mattress, his hand goes to the string of rudrakshas round his neck. ‘Don’t take that off,’ Sumitraben whispers, addressing him for the first time in the familiar singular. She closes the front door on the last guest. She goes around the room switching off all the lights except one. She touches a panel on the wall across the room. It revolves slowly. The scroll with Sanskrit shlokas disappears and a mirror hidden on the other side appears. Sumitraben goes down on her knees behind Prakash.

‘Gaze upon your beauty now,’ she whispers. ‘These eyes, these long lashes, these delicate nostrils, these bow-shaped lips . . .’ Sumitraben touches every part of his body with her cool fingertips, as she names it. ‘This chest.’ She runs her fingers under his kurta. ‘These arms.’ She unbuttons his kurta. Prakash swivels his head around to look at her, petrified.

‘Why do you look like that? Nobody will disturb us.’ She laughs. Her fingers caress his chest. ‘If you desire to go beyond the body, you must first enter the body, get to know the body. When you are released from the body you are free to go in search of your soul. This is Swamiji’s teaching.’

Prakash’s kurta is now unbuttoned. ‘Look at yourself. Know yourself,’ she says. He can’t. She rises and slowly, methodically sheds her clothes. Prakash lowers his eyes in embarrassed confusion. ‘No, you must not deny this knowledge.’ She laughs again. ‘You can only know your body through another body. That too is unavoidable.’

Sumitraben stands before him completely naked. Even in his confused, embarrassed, deeply ashamed, yet excited, state Prakash notices that there is not a single wrinkle, scar or blemish on her body. She kneels before him, lifts his face and says, ‘Look, how beautiful my breasts are.’ She lifts his hands and places them on her breasts. ‘Your hands are burning. My breasts are cool. Your body is trembling. Mine is still. This is the result of knowing your body. When you know yours through mine, you too will reach this state.’

Sumitraben begins to undress Prakash. He forgets himself little by little. All the upbringing that has come with him from Shingne, falls to the ground with his clothes.

‘Now you are pure male and I am pure female.’ Lowering her mouth to his ears she whispers, ‘You are Shiva and I am Shakti. You are Purush and I Prakriti.’