The sunlight slipped in stripes across the open-air floor of Tattva Bhawan, dappling through the dense branches of a massive banyan tree that stretched wide above them. Disciples sat cross-legged in a rough circle upon polished stone, their parchment scrolls curled by the breeze, the ink of early notes smudged by fingers not quite trained in stillness.
At the center of the gathering, with crimson robes that danced with the wind and a staff that looked suspiciously too elegant for discipline-use, stood Yogi Agnivesh—half mystic, half firestorm, and all unpredictability.
He looked at his gathered disciples like a tiger deciding which deer to chase first.
Yogi Agnivesh (twirling his staff):
"Welcome, o torch-bearers of confusion. Today, we will burn away your ignorance with the elements of the soul.
And if any of you forget what I say—I will assume your chakras are clogged and your parents lied to you about being gifted."
A few nervous chuckles. Maruti laughed like he'd already failed the class and was proud of it.
Yogi Agnivesh (grinning): "Now. First things first. Muladhara Chakra. Bottom of the barrel. Foundation of life. Which element rules it?"
Maruti (shooting his hand up like a child): "Earth! Strong. Like my thighs."
Yogi Agnivesh (nodding): "Yes. And like your brain—dense and unmoving."
The class burst into laughter. Ravi clapped Maruti's shoulder like he'd just been blessed and roasted in one breath.
Yogi Agnivesh: "Earth anchors. Earth supports. Earth doesn't ask your opinion—it just exists. Be like Earth, especially when your ex tries to talk you during meditation."
Pralay (quietly, to himself): "…what kind of classes did I sign up for?"
Yogi Agnivesh (suddenly pointing at Pralay): "You! Brooding eyes. What comes next?"
Pralay (blinking): "Uh… Svadhisthana?"
Yogi Agnivesh: "Good. Element?"
Naimisha (jumping in): "Water. Fluidity, flow."
Yogi Agnivesh: "Correct. Water is emotion, movement, adaptability. And like your love lives—dangerously unstable."
Ravi (muttering): "Explains why I cry during every breath-holding drill."
Maruti (mocking): "Maybe you're just leaking."
Yogi Agnivesh (grinning): "Leakage of the soul is a sign of a constipated aura. Fix it."
Ravi (deadpan): "Yeah, thanks for that diagnosis, Doctor Fire."
Yogi Agnivesh: "Speaking of which… Manipura. Chakra three. Element?"
Pralay (gaining confidence): "Fire."
Yogi Agnivesh (satisfied): "Yes. Fire. The internal sun. It fuels ambition. Digests food and failure.
And if it's overactive? You'll be the kind of person who dominates a group project and still complains about it."
Anand (dryly): "Sounds familiar."
Maruti (grinning): "I once burned my bed while meditating on Manipura."
Ravi: "You're the reason fire protocol exists in Nalanda."
Yogi Agnivesh (raising his staff): "Children. Behave. Or combust. I allow both."
He turned with a sweep of his robes.
Yogi Agnivesh: "Now. Anahata Chakra. Fourth. What lives there?"
Naimisha (confidently): "Air. The heart. The bridge."
Yogi Agnivesh: "Air. The silent mover. The connector of breath and truth.
Those who master air do not fight. They lift.
But those who abuse air become gossips. Worse than black magic."
Ravi (mock gasping): "Is he… insulting my aunt?"
Yogi Agnivesh (grinning): "If the aura leaks, the chappals squeak."
Pralay: "…What?"
Anand: "Just write it down. It's probably wisdom in disguise."
Yogi Agnivesh: "Next. Vishuddha. Fifth."
Anand: "Ether. Space."
Yogi Agnivesh (pleased): "Yes. Not air. Not sound. Space.
Where truth echoes without distortion.
Where your words become weapons or blessings.
Use it well, or you'll find silence more punishing than war."
He paused, then turned to Pralay.
Yogi Agnivesh (softly): "Ajna?"
Pralay (measured): "…Light. Awareness."
Yogi Agnivesh (smiling faintly): "Correct. The eye within the eyes. It does not see the world—it sees through it."
Even Maruti went still.
Yogi Agnivesh (lowering his voice): "And the last?"
Anand (quietly): "Sahasrara. Crown. No element."
Yogi Agnivesh (nodding): "Yes. It is beyond tattva. Beyond matter.
It is where sound ends. Where breath ends.
Where you do not speak because… there is nothing left to say."
Silence, this time, was natural.
Even the wind had quieted.
The banyan above them whispered.
Yogi Agnivesh (calmly): "Your elements are your maps.
But a map means nothing if you do not walk it.
So today… we walk."
He tapped his staff once on the stone floor.
Yogi Agnivesh (smiling): "Prepare yourselves. The next hour… will be pain. Beautiful, elemental pain."
Ravi (groaning): "…I knew it. This was a trap disguised as a lecture."
Maruti (stretching): "Can I punch the Earth chakra again? I liked that one."
The disciples were still catching their breath from the elemental lecture when Yogi Agnivesh paced to the center of Tattva Bhawan again. His crimson robes shimmered in the breeze, and his voice dropped slightly—still thunderous, but now edged with gravity.
Yogi Agnivesh (raising his staff): "And now that I've burned these basics into your brains with enough metaphor to fill three lifetimes…
Let's speak of what's ahead."
He planted the staff with a thunk into the floor.
Yogi Agnivesh: "One week ago, this very university shook—literally—with the force of uncontrolled power.
Naimisha's flare, Maruti's might, Pralay's almost-summoned God Stone… and of course, Yogi Arjun's intervention.
These are not stories. These are warnings."
He looked at each of them, fire in his voice.
Yogi Agnivesh: "And what's coming next—the Mani Exam—isn't just an assessment.
It's a gate. And some of you will walk through it.
Others… will be burned by it."
That hung in the air like an unsheathed blade.
Pralay (turning to Ravi, frowning): "Wait. What is the Mani Exam?"
Ravi (about to answer, but cut off): "It's—"
Naimisha (calmly, cutting in): "It's the selection exam. The top performers—only a handful—are chosen by the Acharya's council.
Those who pass are allowed to travel… to the Bodhi Tree."
Pralay blinked.
Pralay: "The… Bodhi Tree?"
Before Naimisha could reply, Anand turned slightly, his voice carrying a subtle pride.
Anand (smoothly): "The Bodhi Tree isn't just a relic, Pralay.
It's the origin of all God Stones. The essence of divine energy.
They say its roots tap directly into the breath of the cosmos.
The stones are not made… they are born from it."
Maruti (grinning): "It's like the universe's forge. Except greener."
Anand (ignoring him, continuing): "And we're fortunate. The Bodhi Tree exists somewhere within Aryavarta—our very nation.
But no one can simply walk to it.
The way is sealed—hidden through a teleportation barrier.
And you can only cross that path with a Scroll of Teleportation."
He leaned back, arms folded, the corners of his mouth lifting with a trace of superiority.
Anand: "Four such scrolls exist in the world.
One is held by Nalanda itself."
Pralay (quietly): "…Is that the same scroll we've been hearing about? The one that might've been stolen?"
A flicker of tension passed over the group.
Ravi (serious now): "No one knows if that rumor's true.
If it is… it's the first time in decades—maybe centuries—someone's succeeded in stealing from a scroll-vault."
Maruti (raising a brow): "Or lived long enough to brag about it."
Naimisha (measured): "But we don't have to panic.
There are four scrolls.
And Nalanda's is accounted for.
If one was stolen, it wasn't ours."
Yogi Agnivesh (nodding): "Correct.
And it is our duty as Nalanda's future—not just warriors, but guardians—to ensure that knowledge like this is not only preserved, but protected."
Ravi (leaning to Pralay, whispering): "You really picked a fun time to enroll."
Pralay (softly): "Fun's not the word I'd use."
Maruti (cracking knuckles): "Whatever this exam is—I hope it has punching."
Anand (calm): "It has more than that.
Only those the Bodhi Tree accepts can even touch a God Stone.
The scroll just gets you there."
Pralay (half to himself): "So even if I make it through… the Tree itself decides?"
Yogi Agnivesh (hearing him, smiling): "Oh, yes.
The Bodhi Tree is alive, Pralay.
Not with leaves… but with memory.
And it remembers your truth.
When you stand beneath its roots, it will know what you are.
Whether you're ready… or just pretending."
The wind blew gently across Tattva Bhawan. The banyan branches above rustled like they understood what was being said.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then—
Maruti (stretching): "I hope it remembers that I'm a very nice guy."
Ravi (grinning): "It'll probably remember your snoring first."
Naimisha (smirking): "Or the time you tried to eat the ceremonial offerings."
Maruti (genuinely confused): "They were fruits! What kind of sacred fruit comes with mango chutney?"
The group laughed—lightly, but with a sense of unity.
Only Pralay remained quietly focused, eyes narrowed, voice steady.
Pralay (inwardly): "The Bodhi Tree.
The Stones.
And the truth I was sent to find…"
The group had only just recovered from the weight of the Bodhi Tree conversation when Yogi Agnivesh suddenly stood taller, the usual mischief in his eyes giving way to something far more profound.
He stepped back into the center of Tattva Bhawan, now silent except for the wind through the banyan leaves above.
Yogi Agnivesh (voice softer, yet commanding): "Since we speak of God Stones, and what it means to earn one…
Perhaps it's time I show you what such power looks like.
What it feels like.
And what it costs."
He reached behind his back and slowly unslung his staff—long, dark sandalwood, burnished with years of touch and power. At each end of the staff, two golden rings shimmered—etched with mantras so fine they almost pulsed like veins.
The disciples leaned forward.
Yogi Agnivesh (quietly): "This staff… was the last gift I ever received from my wife."
A brief pause.
Even the birds seemed to fall silent.
Yogi Agnivesh (with a faint smile): "She crafted it herself. From a tree that only grows once every two hundred years… in Naglok."
His hand brushed one of the golden rings gently, like remembering her fingers.
Ravi (whispering to Pralay and the others): "I heard… his wife was from Naglok.
One of the seven mystics. Her eyes could summon rain."
Maruti (whispering back): "That explains the thunder in his walk."
Anand, unusually focused, leaned forward, eyes narrowing at the shaft of the staff.
Anand (pointing): "Wait. That—there's a stone embedded near the grip, isn't there?"
Yogi Agnivesh didn't answer.
He only smiled.
Then, he turned the staff in his hand—and the orange gemstone, previously dull and warm like amber, began to glow.
Not shimmer.
Pulse.
Like a living ember beneath crystal skin.
The orange light deepened into molten gold, illuminating the entire Bhawan floor in hues of dawnfire.
Yogi Agnivesh (clearly now): "You see correctly.
This is my God Stone."
He stepped forward. The wind stilled.
Yogi Agnivesh: "It is known as the Agni Stone—blessed by Agni Dev, Lord of Flame.
One of the first stones ever awakened by human hands."
Then—
He tapped the base of the staff to the floor.
A sharp clang.
And the world changed.
Suddenly, Tattva Bhawan was cast in brilliant flame.
It wasn't heat.
It wasn't smoke.
But it was everywhere—fire that danced across the floor, climbed the walls, curled over the ceiling beams like serpents of sunlight. The banyan tree glowed—but did not burn.
Anand's eyes widened.
Ravi dropped his notebook.
Maruti took an involuntary step back.
But nothing was catching fire.
The flames moved—but chose nothing to consume.
It was as if the very essence of fire had come to attend a lecture.
Yogi Agnivesh (his voice echoing, layered with divine resonance): "This is what it means… to bear a God Stone.
Not just power—but harmony.
Not destruction—but command."
He walked through the fire. His robes didn't flicker.
Yogi Agnivesh: "Each God Stone carries the essence of a Deva—a god.
That essence lives… within us."
He raised the staff again, and as he did, the flames rose, curling into spirals, coiling around one another like celestial serpents.
Yogi Agnivesh: "I do not summon flame. I do not cast fire.
I remember it.
I know it.
It is part of me."
And with that—he brought the staff down again.
The flames vanished.
All at once.
No smoke. No ash. No scorch marks. Only the faint scent of sandalwood and something older—something cosmic.
The students sat in stunned silence.
Until—
Ravi (whispering): "Okay. Yeah. That's way cooler than setting my robe on fire during chakra drills."
Maruti (awed): "He made fire listen to him. Like… a pet."
Naimisha (calmly): "No. Like a prayer answered."
Anand (quietly): "I've only read of control like that in myths."
Pralay, meanwhile, said nothing.
His eyes were locked on the Agni Stone, and in his chest, his own ring pulsed once—gently. Almost as if in recognition.
Yogi Agnivesh looked at them all, now gentler.
Yogi Agnivesh: "This stone is not a weapon. It is a promise.
Given to me by fire.
And I swore I'd only use it to protect… to inspire.
Not to conquer."
He replaced the staff across his back, and for the first time since the class began, the air felt warm not from chakra—but from truth.
The silence following the vanishing fire lingered, as if even Tattva Bhawan held its breath.
Above, the banyan branches whispered again, slow and deliberate, their leaves glowing faintly from the echoes of flame that had passed through the air only moments ago.
Yogi Agnivesh stood tall at the center, now once again just a teacher—though for a brief moment, he had looked like something divine.
He surveyed his disciples. No jokes now. No riddles. Only the warmth of deep instruction.
Yogi Agnivesh (steady, resonant): "Each of you may walk the path to the Bodhi Tree.
But the stone you receive—if the tree finds you worthy—will not be random.
It will be… true."
He stepped forward, gesturing openly with both hands.
Yogi Agnivesh: "The God Stone is not a reward. It is a mirror.
And it reflects the chakra you've mastered, the element you embody, the truth you've lived."
He tapped his chest softly.
Yogi Agnivesh: "In my case—Core Flame Chakra. Manipura.
I spent years stoking it—through breath, tapasya, fire meditation, battle.
And when the Bodhi Tree finally opened its eyes to me…
It gave me Agni. The Fire Stone.
Because it saw me not as a seeker of fire—
But as its brother."
The air trembled at his words. Not from power, but from the weight of what was passed down.
He looked around the circle again—Anand, proud and focused. Naimisha, calm but still flickering with deeper currents. Maruti, hiding his reverence behind jokes. Ravi, thoughtful, absorbing everything in silence. And finally—
Pralay.
Yogi Agnivesh's gaze rested on him longer.
Yogi Agnivesh (softly, almost like it was just for him): "And then there are those…
who do not seek the stone…
but are chosen by it before they even understand their own light."
Pralay blinked, caught between awe and uncertainty.
Yogi Agnivesh (continuing): "Pralay.
Since you already bear a God Stone, the question is no longer if you will be chosen.
The question is: who will you be… when it awakens fully?"
Everyone turned toward him. Pralay felt the pulse of the ring beneath his robe, gentle… and warm.
Yogi Agnivesh: "You must now ask yourself:
Which of your chakras calls to the stone?
Which element stirs when you hold it?"
He stepped back once more, and his voice grew formal again, like the closing of a sacred text.
Yogi Agnivesh: "For the rest of you—prepare.
Your training begins tomorrow.
The Mani Exams are no longer theory.
The path to the Bodhi Tree awaits those whose souls are aligned, whose elements speak, and whose chakras burn clean and true."
A beat of silence.
Then, with his usual fire returning to his grin—
Yogi Agnivesh (loudly): "Class dismissed.
Go eat something. Or someone. Preferably with consent."
The students stood slowly, most still in awe. Scrolls were rolled with trembling fingers. Robes adjusted absent-mindedly. Even Maruti forgot to crack a joke.
But Pralay lingered a moment longer, his eyes drifting to the flame-carved staff now strapped once again to his teacher's back.
And deep inside his chest—
His ring pulsed again.
Not with power.
But with a question.
[End of Chapter]