“Stop calling it a cult, mum! And stop calling me Beverley, I’m Vasanthi now”. Vasanthi didn’t like the defensiveness she heard in her voice as it rose to a squeak.
“Oh darling, I wish you’d just come home. You’ve had your fun now. I do get it… I had my spiritual awakening in Tibet when I was your age…” Vasanthi rolled her eyes as her mother continually
“… and I adored that time, but I came to my senses and I came home. Manchester University rang to confirm they’d hold your place in Computer …. “
Vasanthi slammed down the dusty black phone receiver. The community’s single point of contact with the non-enlightened world.
She began to reflect on what a good life she had created. From the moment Vasanthi walked the Celestial Life Café for a mango lassi, the good vibes beckoned. Permanently smiling staff embodied the café slogans to ‘release your cosmic energy’. Many a visit for a chat and a sticky sweet (and ok, the odd joint), convinced Vasanthi to experience the cosmic path.
Six months into celestial living and she could hardly remember her unenlightened name let alone her family or address. I have no need to go home now, thought Vasanthi, whilst simultaneously remembering she had given up any means to leave – her passport and money – as a commitment gesture. But that was hardly the point.
Her dhal and rice diet meant Vasanthi easily lost the stubborn weight she had always wanted rid of – ‘cosmic baggage’ her yoga teacher called it. She also noticed that her diminishing food portions coincided with the appearance of cracked fingernails, jutting collarbones and an increasing lethargy. But that spaced out feeling facilitated Vasanthi’s access to her higher mind. The odd fainting spell was just part of the enlightened life.
Doing daily chores in the meditative style helped Vasanthi from ruminating over the steady stream of unreliable boyfriends she had collected at university and on her travels. Now she was free to love everyone. On a spiritual level, this happened daily through community chanting and recruiting travellers from the café. On a physical level, well, the Friday night love ins were… intense. Mushroom tea, interlocking bodies and coconut oil led to some ‘high’ highs and desperate lows. Guru Veda reminded devotees that such lows signified a lack of celestial enlightenment, which would improve with guidance.
Gently swaying in the dusky breeze, Vasanthi felt a firm tap on her shoulder.
“Guru V would like to see in his private quarters”, reported Sachin.
Vasanthi felt an imaginary stone drop in her stomach. Her eyes glazed as she turned to face the beach. The fiery crimson sun melted into the horizon as Vasanthi walked trancelike into the warm sea. As her head sunk below the surface, her sari gently wrapped around her neck. Her eyes opened to a show of azure fireworks in slow and slower motion.
