Birth of God

It was in the dim light of twilight that homo found himself trapped, on a branch of a tree in the thick forest.

All that afternoon, he was on a wild chase of a deer. Clever and skilled, though he was in stone slinging, that creature had proved itself more adroit than himself. It had skipped all his trajectories and he had lost all stones in the leather bag on his waist. As he searched for a few more amidst thick growth around, the smart deer vanished behind the chunky bushes.

As homo was gazing in vain to find its traces; he could see two glaring eyes in the grove. He ran and the beast jumped out of the thicket. So the chaser was transformed into one being chased. He fled at his best into the open for a while but knew that it was impossible to outwit the cunning and speedier tiger. It dawned on him that only rescue for him would be a tree. He madly rushed towards a tree on the side and stated climbing, barely avoiding the wild animal; although it did succeed in tearing off his leg just above the ankle. He screamed in pain and could barely raise himself at a safe distance with his left foot            bleeding profusely. He thought he would faint; but with deep breath he clenched his teeth and clamped his arms around a branch and lay there panting.

The tiger was waiting for him to fall below. After a while, he got a bit more alert and could climb a bit further and rested there, panting. He thought himself lucky that the beast was not a panther that could have chased him up the tree.

As homo lay there for an hour, it started getting darker and yet darker. It was then that he heard that hissing sound from somewhere nearby. In faint light he could see something crawling – a cobra? With fright he looked around and found a creeper just a bit away. He madly crept to grab it and swing himself. Long that it was; he could rope it up and jump over to another branch, hardly escaping a fall down below. The left foot pained severely, but he could not afford to pay any heed to it.

And there homo lay   in the darkness of night with no moon and acute hunger chewing up his belly. The clouds in the distant west had become thicker and were looming overhead in dark and gloomy sky. It was then that it started drizzling. It was then a downpour, which went on increasing and eventually it burst out in torrents. Fully wet and weak, he shivered with every blast of the cruel, shrill and howling wind on that winter night.

His mind added to the physical plight with the thought that, all the traces he had left behind, to reach back to his cave would be washed away with the heavy downpour. He had already lost his sense of direction in his mad chase of the deer as also of the tiger for him.

He did not know when he went in deep slumber in his miserable destiny, and dreamt of a ghastly end to his life, surrounded by skeletons dancing in ghoulish steps of death. Strange and fearful dragons were spitting out red flames of venom. His thoughts had stopped and he had the only feeling of deep set fear, in his entire being.

In that mental and physical state of his being, dawn slowly started creeping. The clouds had partially cleared and the first rays of a distant Sun gently started sweeping away the veil of darkness. In that dim light, his eyes opened in a nearly cadaverous body. There was no thought, neither any feeling of awe nor fear of death. It was a state neither of life nor death. He just glared emptily at sky, slowly getting brighter with passage of time.

Through the thicket of branches he saw distant clouds, slowly getting visible. Their color slowly started getting formed. First a light grey, the a bit white and then yellow, and then light orange, dark orange, light red and then at last fiery red with first rays of Sun penetrating the horizon within his reach. And through that cluster of clouds, a shape like the fiery eye of a huge being slowly started forming. His being arose from the deep loneliness and started experiencing presence of a distant but enormous being. There was only an eye there surrounded by a scarlet mass without any cognizable shape.

And through that enormous eye, golden rays popped out, telling him something. The message they delivered was not in words that his conscious mind could decipher. It was a message that could only be experienced – not understood. He got charged with that novel experience and could visualize his being slowly creeping back from non existence to life. His limbs started getting sense of life slowly creeping back. His pain in the hurt leg was gone. He started crawling down the branch and then down the trunk of the tree and started walking senselessly in a direction without any aim or desire.

Some unknown force was just forcing him to walk, walk and just walk. The Sun had risen now and the eye of that enormous being had disappeared. The clouds were swept away by a gentle breeze. He knew not where he was going. He was drifting in trance, driven by some unknown force. His surroundings did not mean anything to him.

And then they started appearing familiar to him. The shapes of green trees and rocks started meaning something that was known to him. He realized that he was approaching his familiar abode – his caves. He started running in joy now, though limping a bit on account of pain in his left foot.

Pretty soon, he found himself surrounded by his folks- his dear wife and his kids and his friends and neighbors. After the hugs and cheers and food and drinks, he started narrating his fate last evening, his tryst with destiny and his miraculous escape from death. The memories of his savior with a single, large eye and enormous crimson body were distinctly clear in his mind.

Homo thanked that unknown, shapeless being, whose bright golden eye had given him his life back. Homo called Him a God.

That was when God was born. Since then God is living in all human minds forever.