The Ascetic Who Wept and Then Danced

A master who could leave his own body at will weeps, and then dances, in the instant before trading his old form for a young one. What do the two feelings mean?

An aged ascetic has the yogic power to leave his own body and enter another. Longing for youth, he prepares to abandon his worn-out form for that of a boy who has just died, and at the last moment he weeps aloud and then dances. The Betaal asks why. You judge first, then the king does, and the answer is the truest thing the cycle says about change.

The Burning Ground

Across the ash the king walked, the corpse on his shoulders once more. The Vetala settled behind his ear and told the chapter's strangest tale, and its most tender.

The Ascetic Who Changed Bodies

In a city of Kalinga there lived a wealthy brahman named Yajnasoma, who had one beloved son, Devasoma, gentle and gifted, and who died of a fever at the age of sixteen. And in the cremation ground of that same city there lived an old Pashupata ascetic named Vamasiva, worn to the bone by age and long austerity, who had gained through his practice a rare and secret power: he could leave his own body and enter another.

Watching the grief-struck family carry young Devasoma to the burning ground, the old ascetic felt his own great age lie heavy upon him, and a longing rose in him to be young once more. Here, in this fresh sixteen-year-old body, was his chance.

He waited for his moment. And then, at the cremation ground, in the instant before he made the leap, he did a strange thing. He wept aloud, bitterly. And then, at once, he danced, with the gestures of pure joy. And only then did he leave his own old body where it stood, and by his power enter the body of the dead young man, which rose up alive. He told the grieving family a false tale to explain the boy's return, and he cast his own abandoned old body into a ravine, so that he could never go back to it.

The Betaal's Riddle

"So, king," said the Vetala. "Here was a master who could shed a body like an old coat and step into a new one. And yet, in the very moment before he did it, he first wept, and then he danced. Why? Why the tears, and why the dancing, from a man about to gain youth again, and powers greater than any he had ever held?