"Words, and what are they? Nothing."
Nothing, they repeat.
"And everything."
Everything, they say after me.
It’s a chorus of meaningless words. Chants of a hidden cult. Oppressive to the followers and strangely sovereign to the leader. My slaves repeat all I say. They think like me, they act the way they are supposed to. They shut their brains when I want to be the superior one; they clone my being when I take a break. But slaves they are. They have no will. No freedom to have will. My reason sees no reason in other beliefs, my love believes in no other love to co exist.
"They are just a few letters jumbled up in in-ordinate sequence. They fly in the air. You only have to listen with the right obsession to hear their meaning, feel their moods. And then, they are masterful creations, encompassing your thoughts till your entire life revolves around them. And you believe in the totality of that universe, even though you think you know there is many more out there. You think they are important, and they might well be, but you make them your god. You think no more. You think no less. And you become a slave to them. A slave to the slaves. And you feel elated."
They bob their heads in unison. They are listening to me. Already falling victim to the Charmer of Words. They are listening, not realizing that I am doing exactly what I am telling them. They are making me their leader, without thinking about the trick. They feel on top of the world as I addict them to my words. Their world has already started shrinking till I am in the centre.
The feverish expression they all bear in their eyes is haunting. Only I can see this. They are content being my slaves. They want to hear more, necks straining forward, vainly trying to hear if I mumbled something they didn’t attend to, little doubts of their incompetence already settling in the meagre brain cells. I have made a world for myself. My circle of followers has grown with a mere mumbo jumbo of letters. A B C D E… I may as well be just repeating the alphabets for all they can understand…
"Love. What is that?"
What?, comes the predictable question
"Nothing"
Nothing! Chants, chants…
"And everything!"
*Silence*
This time, no slave of mine repeats after me. I have lost what I had for a billion years in a single word. I no longer have their respect. I am no longer their master. They have suddenly found my identity. I am just a human being. Weak. Frail. And sadly, mortal.
They have all been bitten by the forbidden. They no longer preach the rosy view. They no longer remember the quivers, sudden lurching of the heart and the unexplainable weakening of their knees. The stopping- and- then- the- sudden- gushing- out- of- their- breath has now been labelled as a disease. I see the change in their eyes. Still red, the holiness has vanished. Their look has changed. I feel unworthy. I feel touched.
"… And everything disastrous." I try as an attempt to salvage my post. I have to feel divine, sacred, righteous
*Silence*
"… And it leads to mental instability"
*A few murmurs*
"… And heart break and in- competency"
*Necks craning again*
"… And all such matters should be discarded. For we are the superior race, we reject such absurd philosophy. Love is nothing but a mere proclivity of body chemicals"
Yes! Bodily chemicals, I can hear them now.
"There should be no such word. Let us reject all affiliations. Lust is what governs us and lust is what we have vowed to rebuke…"
Rebuke!, I have been accepted back again.
They start clambering around me, crawling near my feet, touching my hem. I have won again. I am consecrated again, sacred, blessed. And at what cost? Nothing. Love is not the foundation of the universe. Love is not what I thought it was. Why not just rebuttal all things based on love? I get to be celestial, don’t I?
