A Happy Goodbye

by Casey 

      In the year 595 B.C. in India, a great thing happened. A thirty-five year old man had spent the past six years of his life traveling the whole empire after giving up his life as prince to find a more important life. He meditated under a tree all night, and became enlightened. He changed his name
to Buddha and started a new religion. But for his first follower, many significant things happened the day before.

     "Pavitra! Pavitra wake up!"

      A tall, bony girl was asleep in her bed until her little sister started yelling for her to get up. She sat up and swept the tangled mess of black hair from her face. Yogita, her sister, smiled when her eyes opened.

      "Pavitra! Mother said I could help you with carrying water! Come on Pavitra, let's go! I want to go to the stream!"

      Pavitra smiled at her sister tiredly, then rolled out of her bed and stood up. Their house was only one room big and barely enough room for the family, but it was all they could afford. It was like prison: four beds crammed together on one wall, a fire pit and cushions for seats in another corner, and a bathroom closed off by a screen.

      Yasti, her mother, sat by the fire pit eating breakfast. Pavitra almost threw up when she saw she was eating fish. Doesn't she know she could be eating one of our friends? she thought, remembering the people down the street that died of starvation. In Hinduism, they believed people that died came back as a different form, anything from the holiest man to the smallest insect. People were supposed to be vegetarian, for an animal could easily be their close friend. But her ignorant family still ate meat.

      "Good morning, Pavitra!" Yasti smiled as they entered the room. "While you two are getting water, can you look for your father too? He left this morning to hunt and he hasn't gotten back yet."

      "Sure, mother!" Yogita skipped out the door and Pavitra followed with the water jug.

      When they got to the stream, Pavitra gently laid the jug in to be filled and Yogita looked around for their father. Her eyes lit up when she saw him, lying on the ground.

      "Pavitra! It's Father! He must have fallen asleep! Let's go wake him up." Not waiting for her sister's response, she ran off to him. Pavitra waited until enough water was drawn, then followed Yogita to where her father lied. She walked slowly, letting the mud sink around her feet like quicksand. She had a feeling she didn't want to see this.

      She bent down to look at her father. He lay on his back in the mud. Can he breathe? she thought. What if he's not breathing? She turned over his hand and tried to feel his pulse. Nothing. Carefully, she lifted up his head, trying to see his face, but let go when she saw it.

      It was drenched in blood.

      Yogita hadn't seen the blood. "What happened to Father?" she asked. "He isn't moving. Why isn't he moving? Don't people breathe when they're asleep? Come on Father, wake up!" Yogita went on like this for about two minutes, and then ran back to the house. Pavitra just stood there frozen. She couldn't believe it, but it was true. Her father was dead.

      Yogita probably went back to the house to get Mother, she thought. She doesn't understand death. How did he die, anyway? Maybe the animal he was hunting charged him. Or maybe someone beat him up and left him to die. Why do people have to be so mean to us? Oh, I don't want to see the look on Mother's face when she sees him.

      Pavitra brought the water jug over to where Goral's body lay, so her mother would find it. Then she ran, forgetting she hadn't eaten breakfast. She ran out of the village, down the hard, rocky path, and into the city. Work would get her mind off of it.

     She loved the city. Its busy marketplaces, magnificent statues, and temples stretching to the sky were breathtaking to the girl that spent most of her life in the dirtiest place possible. It was too bad the city's inhabitants despised her and everyone else in her village. They were outcastes, untouchables, at the bottom of the Hindu social ladder. Slaves were treated better than them. It wasn't their fault they were born into this hated position, but they were always called sinful. They had to do jobs that nobody wanted, because they dealt with killing and the dead. The worst part: it seemed like every single outcaste except Pavitra liked eating meat and killing animals.

      Discreetly walking through the crowd, making sure nobody would touch her and become "impure", she entered the leatherworking hut. Her boss wasn't there yet, but the cowhide she had to work with was ready for her. Sliding her hands into huge cotton gloves, she began to work. Not actually touching the leather made her job a lot easier.

      When it was finished, she left them on the table, and then slowly crept out of the hut; if no one noticed she was in there, they wouldn't know she was an untouchable and people wouldn't glare at her. No one saw her. She sighed in relief and walked away.

      Pavitra slowly walked through the city, taking in every moment she wasn't avoided. She could relax and enjoy the freedom of not being an untouchable, at least not in the eyes of the city people.

      But then she ran into Jugnu.

      Jugnu was a Brahman, the holiest caste. He was also the meanest Brahman known. Everyone thought he'd become a pig in his reincarnation for the many sins he commits, but they still respected him, mostly out of fear. He could look at anybody, no matter what they were wearing, and know what caste they were part of.

      "Well, what do we have here?" He had caught Pavitra praying at the statue of Nandi, the sacred bull. "An outcaste?" Pavitra didn't notice him at first. She was praying that she would become a Brahman in her next life; that she could have the freedom of not being hated, that she could pull off this illusion more often. "Oh, please! Someone help me! I looked at an outcaste! I'm impure!" That's when Pavitra looked up. A crowd had formed and people were glaring at her.

      They started yelling at her. "What are you doing?! You don't deserve to pray! Your people eat cows, not worship them! Now we have to destroy the statue you made unholy!" Pavitra's heart sank. She got up, looking at the ground, and ran. People kept shouting at her, but she still ran.

     She just ran and ran until she was out of the city. She collapsed outside her house, in front of the door. No one was home. Yasti probably took Yogita to plan the funeral. She could get some privacy.

      Pavitra walked in and laid her back on the wall, letting her mind set itself straight. I have to do something. There is no way I could live another day like this. Every day is the same as the last. I don't want to eat meat. I don't want to be hated by most of the world. I don't want to live in the poor village. I want to leave. Now.

      She got up, sadness resting in her heart, determination caught in her mind. She changed out of the dhoti and blouse she wore every day and put on her grandmother's sari, her prize possession and the only thing of value she owned. She quickly ate a few of the vegetables she would've had for dinner that night, took a last look at the house she knew all her life, and whispered goodbye. Then she ran.

      Out of the village, down the hard rocky path, and into the city she ran. Pavitra figured people would stare, but she was wearing a sari, not peasant clothes, so they wouldn't label her an outcaste on the spot. She past Nandi, the bull she prayed to earlier, and Jugnu, washing his eyes out to "purify" himself. She past the leatherworking hut, and saw her boss walking out with the sandals she made. Pavitra briefly wondered what he thought of them, but erased the thought from her head. It wouldn't matter.

      Out the other end of the city, through the farms, and to the river she ran. People in the fields watched her, staring confused at the thin girl with dark tangled hair wearing a blue sari and running barefoot. Pavitra ignored them. They didn't and wouldn't matter to her.

      She reached the river, turned right at the bank, and continued running. The scrub gave way to a forest. She would've loved to stop and look at them, but she couldn't stop running. It's not like she was a decent runner, or she liked it, but she kept running. Running would let her escape, whether she reached a new clan and joined them as a higher class, or died. Pavitra just kept running.

      Until she tripped over a tree root.

      When she came to, morning had arrived, and a man stood over her smiling. "Good morning," he said. "Are you alright?" He seemed unusually calm to her. She slowly sat up, rubbing her head where she hit the dirt. "You seem troubled." She nodded. "I might have a solution to your problems." She smiled. Something about him was different from the people she used to know. They were all rigid and set on their ways. He was relaxed and not worried about anything.

      And so, on that day, Buddhism was invented, and soon many followed the religion. It didn't have a rigid caste system, and everyone was equal. But Pavitra was the first follower, and the cruel life she had before was gone.

Author’s Note  

            Ancient India is a wonderful civilization that gave many things to the modern world. But the two most important would be Hinduism and Buddhism, two of today’s major religions. A Happy Goodbye takes places in the year 595 B.C., approximately when Buddhism was started. However, Hinduism existed for many years before it, and at the time of the story, it completely controlled the lives of its believers.

            Hinduism was made up of four main castes: Brahmans, the highly religious monks, Krishnus, the rulers and warriors, Vaisyas, the farmers and merchants, and Sudras, the peasants.  People had to work, live, and marry within their own caste only. The castes also had specific rules on what they could and couldn’t eat. Hindus believed in reincarnation, when someone’s soul is born again after they died, so they believed any animal could be a friend or neighbor that died. The holiest castes were completely vegetarian and the least holy were allowed to eat all meats.

~ Casey

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