BABA WALKED AHEAD and Rudra followed on the beach. Blondie was with them. Boy and Girl had gone out to some place but they would return, like they so often did. Blondie never left Baba and Rudra’s side. It was four in the morning. Baba had prayed all through the night and Rudra had been busy with the housework and preparing packets of food for the brood. Once a week he prepared the weekly ration of food for his brood and put it in the cold storage and every day heated the contents of the packet for their lunch and dinner. Rudra then prepared chai and chillum. After Baba and he had finished the tea and smoked the chillum, they went for their walk. There was nobody around. The beach was theirs and it was pitch dark. The sky was filled with clouds and the moon was not to be seen. There were hardly any stars visible in the sky. There was a slight breeze and it was warm. The sea had withdrawn and Baba sat down with Rudra in front of Him. Blondie sat between both the men, facing Baba.

‘Baba, tell me more about prayers?’

‘My idiot child, when you sit to pray assuming that this is the last time you shall get the opportunity to pray, the intensity of one’s prayers will increase to another level. Beta, when one leaves the body is something between The One who controls destiny and who keeps an account of the breaths one has taken. Our lifespan is not determined by the number of years but by the number of breaths. Each being has a particular number of breaths to his or her account. Dogs pass over mostly by the age of fifteen and then there are turtles that live over a hundred years. Dogs are perpetually panting and use their quantum of breath faster. The yogis manipulate their life span by manipulating their breath.’

‘Thus, first and foremost, focus on your breath and make the breathing calm. Then you sit for prayers and pray as though it is the last time you shall have the privilege to pray ever again, then the quality of your prayer, the depth of your prayer, the intensity of your prayer, the yearning in your prayers, merged with the calmness of your breath, shall create a powerful vibration of purity and focus, which shall reach The One that we pray to. The call from the very depths of our being, shall be heard for sure, this I assure you, My pickle-headed child.’