Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya

(The hunter in the wilderness of Sansara)

By Simon Nawagaththegama

(Part 20)

The following day, the Tree Spirit noticed that the Hunter descending the mountain carrying some burden upon his shoulders. The drummer’s daughter was still unconscious. The Hunter carried her over his shoulder and went his way, measuring long, determined strides with his long legs. When he reached the foot of the mountain, he picked up the gun and walked deep into the jungle. He took her to the place where he had first set eyes on her, the rocky outcrop in whose depths lay the treasure of the southern end of the jungle. He laid her down and went to a nearby stream. He scooped some water into his hands, went back, sprinkled it on her face, and observed her stir, release a whimper and roll over on her side.

The Hunter stood on the rook and surveyed the forest beneath. He saw the bones of Fatty and Skinny lie in a heap at the foot of a tree. He saw also a bundle of clothes, a coconut shell and an axe.

He heard the Bahiravaya and the Naga King creep up behind him, whispering in consternation. He did not turn to look at them. He did not cast one glance at the drummer’s daughter. Instead he walked quickly and with purpose into the jungle, measuring giant strides as was customary for him.

He walked at quite a fast pace and for a long period of time. The pace and distance finally exhausted him. He stopped and looked around as though trying to understand what destination beckoned him and provoked him to walk this far and at this speed. He placed his hand on a tree trunk and caught his breath. He panted, his nostrils flaring like those of a massive wild boar. Since this didn’t allow for sufficient air, he opened his mouth and breathed deep.

There was enough and more time to go back and attend to the Hamuduruwo’s needs. He sat down at the foot of a tree and made himself comfortable, as though he had taken cognizance of this fact. Since he was sweating profusely, he ran his fingers through the thick hair that covered his body and scratched himself again and again.

A large set of questions he found difficult to understand started circling his head. Thereafter these questions began banging against his body. The Hunter was extremely perturbed by all this. He scratched himself all over with increasing fervor.

He remained seated thus until the Tree Spirit called to him sometime in the early afternoon. The Tree Spirit also seemed quite weary.

‘I looked for you. I searched everywhere until I almost dropped in utter exhaustion.’

The Hunter looked at the Tree Spirit, even as he continued to scratch himself. The Tree Spirit had walked across the jungle in the hot afternoon. A different set of questions began rubbing against and then falling off his body.

‘Alright, alright. I finally found you, didn’t I? I didn’t come to inform you that things have come to such a pass that I can’t spend even one moment in my abode. I already told you that our Hamuduruwo is moving step by step to ever higher states of perception and insight. I came looking for the Hunter to convey a message from the Hamuduruwo.’

It was impossible for the Hunter to believe that the Hamuduruwo had sent the Tree Spirit this far with a message. Nevertheless he continued to listen in silence to the messenger.

‘Long before our Hamuduruwo left his kutiya approached the Esatu Tree in whose branches I have made my abode, I climbed down. I knew I would get no rest up there. The Hamuduruwo stood there, surveying the jungle. I saw him murmuring to himself. I heard the Hamuduruwo say something like this:

‘“The Hunter must go back. The Hunter must go back again and again and leave the drummer’s daughter who he brought here upon his shoulders back to where he found her. He must then return.”

‘I came all this way to convey this message to you,’ the Tree Spirit said and then looked intently at the Hunter, trying to make out what the recipient of the message was making of it all. The Hunter, however, remained silent and still. The Hunter understood exactly what the Tree Spirit had said and for this reason, the sense of unease that had clung on to his body disappeared. It was this issues that had in fact troubled him all day. The Tree Spirit had explained the dilemma. Thereafter none of it appeared as ‘problem’ to the Hunter.

The Tree Spirit remained there, peering into the face of the Hunter. He wanted to know the Hunter’s response. He stood there watching, as though expecting the Hunter to pick up the drummer’s daughter and carry her back with him.

The unusual curiosity evident in the Tree Spirit’s gaze and expression began to make the Hunter uneasy. He got up therefore, picked up the gun and calmly walked towards the rock. He walked and as he walked he decided he would suffer all and that he would with firm or infirm mind remain with the Hamuduruwo until the Hamuduruwo ascends to the supreme state of Arhat.

He remembered a vow he had made a long time ago: ‘From now and throughout the sansaric journey, I will remain loyal to the Hamuduruwo. It had been only those words that had once been disjointed and meaningless sounds that had later come together as something coherent and got etched in his mind.

The Hunter continued to walk as though it was impossible to walk away from these words. He walked towards the foot of the mountain as though he had gathered all questions and problems, put them all into a sack and had tied its mouth tightly, not leaving room for one question or problem to escape out and trouble him.

Such was his unwavering focus that when he went to the Indalolu tree to leave the gun, he did not notice that two Palu trees nearby had been completely uprooted the previous night.