Finding Elixir of Life

Sham S. Misri

Suraj a very rich man - had lot of money, so, he never worked. One day he thought of illness and death. He knew everybody died finally. He thought of living a long life and not to die. He had heard of a king who had also wanted to escape death. The king wanted to live for a long long time. He told his friend Jagu to get the elixir of life about which he had heard from his grandfather. So Jagu set out for a journey with lot of money to find elixir of life. As Jagu never returned the king as usual died one day. The people were worried as to what happened to Jagu. The people now told Suraj that Jagu had gone to heaven and become a god to protect the saints. They also told him that the saints knew the secret of the elixir of life. He went up to the mountains to find the saints but failed. Finally he heard of the temple dedicated to Jagu where saints would worship the god Jagu, who had once set out to find the elixir of life. Suraj found this temple on the top of a hill and went inside and began to pray. He prayed for several days begging Jagu to help him find a saint who could fulfill his wish. One midnight Jagu told him, “To get the elixir of life, you would have to become a saint yourself. Since, you are a lazy man and used to comfort you cannot become a saint, as saint’s life is quite tough. Now that you have prayed I will send you to a place where no one ever dies. “This place was called “Land of Never ending life.”

With this Jagu gave Suraj a paper magic mat which was folded, and told him to sit on it. The magic paper rose high in the air. Suraj flew high in the air until he reached land of never ending life. He walked around the country and met people who lived there. The people were rich and had everything to eat. Suraj decided to stay there- and set up his business there. Time rolled on. The strangest thing Suraj found was that no one could remember anyone ever dying or getting ill. Suraj was very happy to see it all this. He thought the people living there would be the happiest people on the earth. But this was not true. People were bored and tired of their long life. Things were the same year after year. The people living there had heard of the Heaven which they could enter only after dying. So, many people wished very much to die for a change.

Suraj thought that these people were very strange. He thought that he was happy in the land of Never ending life- as he always took pleasure in the idea that he would never die. After many years things were different for Suraj. After living there for many years he began to fall homesick and got bored. He wanted to go back into his own country where it was possible for the people to die. Now Suraj remembered Jagu. He requested him for help. Soon the paper mat appeared before him. He sat on it flying high in the air. There were clouds and rain. The paper mat got wet and fell into the sea along with Suraj. He cried for help. He saw huge sharks coming towards him. He cried as loud as he could for Jagu to save him.

Suraj woke up and found himself on the floor in the lonely Jagu temple. He had fallen asleep while praying and all his adventures, -the paper mat, the land of Never ending life, and the rain and the sharks had been nothing but a dream.

A light came towards him with a message “In answer to your prayers, Jagu sent you a dream and you could see the land of Never ending life. But you begged to go back to your country so you could die. Then Jagu made you fall in the sea and sent sharks, so you could die, but you did not really want to die, and you cried for help. Then you woke up here. So you see Suraj you don’t want to live for ever, and you don’t want to die also. So the best thing for you is to go back to your home and lead a good life.’