MOKSHA

Written By :- Ashish Arya

LOGLINE – The journey of a simple young boy to become monster, killing
people, indulge in human organ trafficking, looses everything and finally
goes to the cremation ground to attain liberation.
GENRE – Crime, Fiction, Mythology
Plot -
Have we ever thought, what is life , what is its meaning and its purpose,
maybe we haven’t and the most convincing reason behind it is we get up in
the morning and go to work to fulfill our daily needs. We know, Purpose can
guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals, offer a sense of
direction, and create meaning.
And for some people, purpose is connected to vocation- good health,
satisfying work, family and friends responsibilities.
But, there are some people, who seek the meaning and purpose of life
through Spirituality and Religious beliefs. They thinks that spirituality help
them to establish a meaningful connection with something bigger than
themselves, which can result in positive emotions, such as peace, awe,
gratitude and acceptance.
So, this is the story of a young and simple boy Kashi , born and brought up
in Lucknow, completely unaware of the outside world, has seen many ups
and downs at his very small age, lost his grandfather, mentally harassed by
his own father, gone through ragging, bullying, beaten up to death by his
seniors and fellowmates during boarding school, lost his left kidney
unknowingly, murdered 3 policemen, tried to commit suicide several times.
Once Kashi finds himself near the cremation ground, after losing his
kidney, crying out loud, eventually meets his Guru Vimalnanda, an Aghora,
who claims to be the follower of Lord Shiva. He is on his path to attains
MOKSHA (Liberation). Kashi shares all his problems with him,
circumstances he has gone through, from losing his family to leaving his
house, he tells everything to him. Vimalnanda listens all his pain and
suffering and promises to help him out to find the true meaning of life and
its purpose. And how to get rid of all the problems. He teaches him about
spirituality, liberation. And Kashi asks him about Moksha and Aghora’s
concept and why he has chosen to live this filthy life and what is its ultimate
aim ? . Seeing the kid’s curiosity , Vimalnanda decides to explain to him…
Vimalnanda says -
Moksha, liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth, closely tied to the
concept of universal consciousness, in which one accepts the self as at
one with all existences. And he says, its the only way to attain absolute
freedom, peace, bliss and oneness with the Divine is to reach the state of
Moksha.
Now Kashi listens with more interest and asks him , how one can attain
Moksha ?

Vimalnanda continues explaining to him..

MOKSHA is a central concept and the utmost aim to be attained through
three paths through out human life :-
DHARMA – Virtuous, Proper, Moral Life
ARTHA – Material Prosperity, Income Security, Means of Life
KAMA – Pleasure, Sensuality, Emotional Fulfillment
Vimalnanda says to Kashi that there is something greater than this
concrete world we see. There is some divine source of energy which is
connected to our souls. We all have an intrinsic tendency to actualize
ourselves as fully as possible. This drive is very strong for some, and weak
for others. Based on our different personalities and natural inclination, we
tend to employ different practices like meditation, prayer, renunciation, etc.
As Kashi lost everything, he is wounded, not able to walk, nowhere to go,
he requests Vimalnanda to be his Guru and teach him lessons to attain
Liberation. But Vimalnanda refuses , and says to Kashi, that this is not an
age to get involved in these stuffs. He says to Kashi to only see and
observe these things and never think of practicing it. As Kashi is wounded,
Vimalnanda offers him to stay with him till his wound gets healed, and
promises him to take care of him at his best. And says him to see and
observe things that this community does. And if he still takes interest in
what they do, he will be his Guru and will teach him everything.
As Kashi stays with Aghori community, he sees and observes various things about this
community, different questions run through his mind like ,what is Aghora, why they dress like
this, why their hairs are knotted, why they live filthy life, why they eat human flesh , why they
use skull to medicate, what are their goals and a lot of questions...And gradually , he gets
answers of all of his questions from his Guru Vimalnanda
- The Aghori’s ultimate aim is to break the cycle of rebirth. To remove the fear of death,
they are found roaming near the Shamshan Ghat ( Cremation Ground). They do this to
remind themselves that death is the ultimate destination, no matter whatever they do in
their life.
- These are a group of vamacharic ascetic Shaiva Sadhus. They engage in post-mortem
rites. They often dwell in charnel grounds, smear cremation ashes on their bodies, and
use bones from human corpses for crafting kapalas (skull cups) and jewellery.
- Aghori believes to have sexual intercourse with dead bodies. They say the reason is
simply that they find purity in what is considered by the majority of people as filth. And
also, they say that, doing sex with the dead gives them supernatural powers.
- The Aghor gets the flesh from corpses floating down the river (never directly from a
burning pyre at a ghat ), which family members push in the Ganga river if they don’t
have enough money for cremation. And under the privacy of the new moon, they chant
mantras, make offering to Lord Shiva , and consume it.
After few weeks, Vimalnanda comes and sits beside Kashi and asks him, if his wounds gets
healed, he can go, and if he is still interested to do what they do, he can stay and be his
student. And Kashi chooses to stay and from this moment, The journey of Kashi to attain
Liberation begins. Liberation is beyond caste, creed, family or lineage. It doesn’t need name,
fame or form, its beyond of merit and demerit, which is above of the boundary of space, time
and materialistic objects.

KASHI , young , simple boy, was grown and brought up in Lucknow, completely unaware of the
outside world. He lost his mother and elder sister in an accident few years back. He lives with
his strict father, who is doctor by profession and his grandfather, who is an Alzheimer patient.
Apart from school and studies, KASHI spends most of his time with his grandfather, taking care
of him, everyday before going to school, he reads newspaper loud out for him so that he doesn’t
feel isolated. And whenever his grandfather goes out and is lost, he always tries to find him out
from somewhere.

But one fine night, when KASHI enters into his grandfather room, he sees that his grandfather is
lying on floors, his legs are wrapped up with the wire of the stand fan. Blood is coming out from
his head. And he is behaving like a mad man , crying out loud , tearing newspapers by his
mouth, tearing his own clothes and he is not able to recognize even his own grandchild. KASHI
is shocked , doesn’t know what to do , how to react. But all of a sudden KASHI’s dad enters into
the room and asks KASHI to leave the room and go to his own room. KASHI doesn’t ask
anything as he is afraid of his father very much.
After few hours, KASHI’s dad enters into his room, and Kashi asks him in fear about the health
of his grandfather. His father says that he is alright. And instantly without informing anything,
asks Kashi to pack his stuffs because he is going to Boarding School tomorrow morning in a
nearby city. Before he could react , his dad leaves the room.

Next morning, Kashi is ready with his stuffs, asks for permission from his dad to say goodbye to
his grandfather, but his dad doesn’t react and tells him to sit in the car.

Now he comes to boarding school, where he takes several months to adjust himself in that
environment. In boarding school , he faces various hurdles like, ragging, bullying, beaten up by
his seniors and sometimes by his own fellowmates. He has no one to talk, no friends , whom he
could share the pain and suffering of him. Dad never visits him, missing his grandfather
company makes him sick. He understands the meaning of life and loneliness. These few years
have a very bad influence on his mind as well as his soul. He is broken from inside and out.

After few years, when he returns his home, he directly runs towards his grandfather’s room , he
sees all the things from this room are scattered , dust everywhere , and grandfather is not there.
He asks the old caretaker about his grandfather and he says that he has gone long ago. His
eyes are full of tears, holding his grandfather specs, his watch, missing him badly, and while
watching all these things, in the middle of the scattered stuffs, he sees a phial which contains
some pills and on that phial it is mentioned that taking overdose leads to damage of brain cells.
He is shocked because his grandfather was taking these pills for so long. He understands that
his grandfather was not suffering from Alzheimer but he was unwillingly forced to take drugs by
his dad. He realizes that something is wrong with his dad., why anyone would do that , kill his
own dad and his family.

KASHI, without taking anything from his house and without telling anyone, moves out from his
house, lot of things running through his mind, thinking about his mother and his elder sister ,
which now he thinks, weren’t killed by any accident but his dad intentionally did something cruel
with them. As he is moving out , he reaches Lucknow Junction, he enters the platform, sees a
train (New Delhi – Howrah Exp via Varanasi) standing on that platform, people are gathering to
get into the train, without thinking anything he gets into the train. Try to find the seat, but couldn’t
find it, because it is already overcrowded. Somehow he manages to stand near the washroom
area, and after few stoppages, people are less, he feels tired so he manages sleep under the
basin near the washroom.

After few hours, at the midninght, train stops at Varanasi Junction, he wakes up and he feels
hungry and thirsty, since he has no money, drinking water is the only option left for him, so he
moves out from the train to drink water from the platform tap water. While he is drinking water,
two men wearing masks , come and ask Kashi for help, they promise to Kashi that if he helps
him then he will get some food in return. Kashi agrees to go with him.
After 3 days, Kashi wakes up , tired and weak, and he finds himself near the crematorium
ground, the sun has already gone down and it is nearly dark, he sees corpses are being buried
over bonfire here and there, some people with almost no clothes are dancing , a man sitting and
meditating with the human skull in his hand, some of them smoking something from a pipe
which is made of woods, some people are covered himself with human ash. Skeletons of
human and animals are spread here and there

He feels scared, and doesn’t try to talk to anyone. As he feels tired , weak and filthy , he thinks
of taking bath in the river. As he removes his shirt, he sees a dark line of cut around his back to
his stomach, and still now fresh blood is coming out from that mark. He starts crying out loud.

One of the men (Vimalnanda) comes to him and sees the dreadly wounds , he understands that
someone has stolen his kidney and thrown him here to die.
NOTE :- Vimalnanda is an AGHORI , follower of Lord Shiva and he has been practicing it from
the last 11 years. Before that, he was a high school teacher, who got accused of a crime that he
never committed. He was accused of harassing his own student. He was prisoned for 5 years
and after that he never returned home.

Vimalnanda promises Kashi to take care of him till his wound gets healed. He proposes Kashi to
stay with him. Kashi has no other choice but to stay, so he agrees to stay with him for the next
few weeks.
After few weeks pass, Kashi gets more interested in Vimalnanda ways of living, meditation and
everything he does, he feels a sense of satisfaction and peace in that environment and he
decides to stay there for long and learn all those things which they do. Vimalnanda comes to
see Kashi that his wounds got healed or not and asks about his name, his family, where he
lives , so that he could help him to find out and reach at his place. Kashi tells him about
everything he has gone through, losing his family , grandfather and his psycho dad. And Kashi
requests Vimalnanda to let him stay and he also urges to learn aghora’s rituals and practices.
Initially Vimalnanda refuses, but seeing his determination, he agrees and says that he will teach
him everything about this community , and give answers to all of his questions like why they
don’t live with the society, why they choose to live like that , why they considers everything as
an illusion. Vimalnanda says that this practice makes him free from everything , and one day he
will meet the supreme God Lord Shiva. Then he will get the salvation (MOKSHA) , the salvation
from life and every relation that he has made.

9 YEARS PASSED
Kashi, now adult, long beard, knotted hair, complete black attire, covered his face with human
ash, holding chillum in his hand, thinks what he was and how he came this far, reminiscing
everything like when he first tasted the human flesh, when he smoked marijuana for the first
time, how he drank alcohol from the human skull.
He adapted everything like meditation, rituals , prayers , cultures from his guru Vimalnanda
- He consumes human flesh
- Smokes marijuana from chillum
- Covers himself with human ash
- Meditating on a corpse
- Sex with the corpse to burn all his desires
- Drinking alcohol straight from a human skull
In a very short span of time , Kashi achieves various knowledges about the Aghora’s culture.

Few days later…

Kashi is meditating with a corpse and offering prayer to Lord Shiva, he sees a few men comes
and throws two kids there and they ran. Flashback strikes his mind how he was gone through
the same few years back. He says sorry to Lord Shiva for stopping the prayers in the middle,
and he starts following those two men….and by following him, he reaches to the same place
where…..
As he follows..
SEASON 1 ENDS HERE