Gasping, he stopped and took several steps back. Suddenly the prospect of entering the tree didn’t seem too bad at all. He turned and began running back towards Sanaka, but the elephant’s charge was swifter. In no time, the beast had gained on Aman, who ran as hard as his body allowed, knowing that he was moments away from being trampled.

The sharp edge of the elephant’s tusk met the flesh of his back. But for some reason, he felt no pain. In fact, he couldn’t move a muscle. He couldn’t even turn around to see that the elephant too had frozen into a statue. Everything had turned black and white, and the wind had died.

Sanaka walked past Aman and, with a quizzical look, examined the elephant, murmuring, ‘So far from the sky.’ Then, with an exasperated sigh, he grabbed Aman’s collar and pulled him away from the elephant. He dragged Aman back to Nandana and stepped inside the dark mouth of the tree.

Colour returned to the world, and Aman saw the elephant resume its charge. But the tree’s vines closed just in time, shutting out the tusker, leaving it behind in a world that was no longer his. They were now tucked into the space between the tree trunk and the vines. Aman’s eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness.

‘Sanaka?!’ Aman called out, but there was no response. It was all too quiet. He could hear the slithering of tiny creatures. ‘Uhh . . . you there?’

‘The path is clear; the destination ahead in a circle,’ Sanaka said and smacked him on his head.

Aman’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he saw Sanaka going down rough-hewn steps into a tunnel under the ground. ‘What is this place?’ he asked as he followed, looking at their interlocking shadows cast by the lanterns on the walls.

‘Shreyan’s Tunnel—this is one of the few entrances. The first of the plain dwellers who found the valley, Shreyan, built it. It took him a year to dig his way in. Some of the others also entered this way.’

Aman was dumbfounded. Every answer of Sanaka’s threw up a million more questions in his mind. ‘There are others?’ he asked.

‘Indeed. The other Souls of Samsara.’ They had reached a passage after their descent.

‘Sanaka, what does that mean?’

‘You see, the valley has a divine tree, bigger than even Nandana. And all valley dwellers meditate under its shadow. Some of them compete with one another to meditate for the most number of hours. In return, the tree connects with the best of them, who become the Tapasvis. It uses the thoughts of the exceptional yogis to find like-minded individuals in the plains, who may or may not have a relation with the Tapasvi. But it matters not, for these Tapasvis are never allowed to meet the Souls. My task is to bring these Souls to the valley.’

‘My father!’ Aman recalled the gigantic tree in the photograph from the cardboard box. ‘So he was one of the Tapasvis?’