Scene 10
(Outside Surya’s room. Enter Yama and knocks at the door. Surya is not inside. Yama waits outside the door. Enter Surya.)SURYA: Yama, what do you want? Is there something wrong?
YAMA: Father, I have something to tell you.
SURYA: Why are you so frightened and sad? What is wrong, my son?
YAMA: Father, I have been cursed.
SURYA: By whom?
YAMA: By my mother.
SURYA: Oh, well, don’t worry. What did she say?
YAMA: She said I will be crippled; my right leg will be paralysed.
SURYA: Don’t worry. She is your mother. A mother’s curse does not come true.
(Yama’s leg is already swollen and painful. He cannot move it at all.)
SURYA: It is very strange, but it seems that her curse has come true. Well, don’t worry, my son. Your mother was angry with you for some reason, but I shall cure you. (Using his occult power he cures Yama’s leg.) My son, I have always heard that a mother’s curse on her children will never come true, for the lives of her children are dearer to her than her own life. I can’t understand why your mother’s curse affected you. Even if you did something wrong, something very serious, still she is your mother. For her to curse you and for her curse to come true is very strange, very strange. There must be something wrong.
YAMA: Father, shall I tell you the secret?
SURYA: What is your secret, my son? Tell me.
YAMA: Father, you have the deepest love for our mother, Sanjna. But I must tell you that she left us long ago. She was afraid of you. Your brilliance blinded her. Your fiery looks burned her. Your very presence tortured her. She could not bear your power and your brilliance, so she asked her handmaid, Chhaya, to take her place and be our mother. Now she is living in the thick, cool forest. We did not tell you because we thought that you would bring our mother back and then she would die. But today I saw my step-mother, Chhaya, giving sweets and gifts secretly to her own children. I got angry and threatened to kick her. When I said this she cursed me, and her curse came true because she is not my real mother.
SURYA (stupefied): Sanjna is gone? My beloved Sanjna has left me? I have been giving all my love and affection to an impostor? Yama, Yama, my son, what shall I do? I must have my darling Sanjna back. But I do not want to hurt her. I do not want to burn her with my fiery presence.
YAMA: Perhaps, Father, there is someone who will know how to diminish your fiery power. Then Mother can come back to you.
SURYA: You are right. Tell Vayu to search the entire universe until he finds someone who can diminish my light.
YAMA: Yes, Father. I shall tell him.
(Exit Yama.)
