Shambhala

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Book: Read Shambhala for Free Online
Authors: Brian E. Miller
. . ”
    “Go now , I said, before our clan has their way with you and scatters your body throughout the jungle,” Rakesh yells, turning.
    The trees again begin to shake, and the monkeys fiercely howl, hoot, and ha. Looking around, Paul begins to sweat.
    “Quickly come!” Bandar demands anxiously as the two swiftly run off.
    The sanctuary of jungle has turned into an asylum of monkeys that echoes out across the jungle. Dodging sticks and debris being thrown down, they quickly make their way out, finally stopping at a safe point just outside the shelter of thick trees.
    “I am sorry, but perhaps Rakesh is right. I mean in town you can find out who you are. They will help you there.”
    “Perhaps,” Paul says crouched over, hands on knees, catching his breath.
    “Forgive Rakesh, many years back his family was taken from him, children and wife, for what he thinks was for research or some sort of profitable amusement. We know little about where the humans take us, but it happens often. Rakesh has much bitterness toward man for this.”
    “No worries, friend. I don’t know what I expected to find there. From what I can remember and recall from my time in this world of humans, I can understand his concerns.”
    “What do you remember?” Bandar asks as they begin to walk.
    “I remember the world, and life in general, but can’t remember my life in it.
    It’s as if my past were a dream that upon waking I quickly forgot, yet remember the world around me.”
    “Well, in town I know you will find an answer,” Bandar consoles.
    “That, my friend, I am unsure of.”
    Suddenly Bandar scales swiftly up a tree, and with a loud thump a clump of green bananas falls next to Paul. Leaping down next to them, he rips one off and hands it to Paul, who smiles in thanks, noticing his enormous hunger. Sitting in the quiet solitude of the jungle, they finish the bananas. Paul gets up and makes his way over to a soft-flowing stream. Squatting down, he cups his hands, drawing water to his mouth and wetting his hair. Bandar squats down on all fours and, putting his mouth to the crisp water, softly sips. Looking up, the man smiles at Bandar and Bandar smiles back, remembering when they first met on the road.
    “I remember I saw you yesterday!” Bandar says with revelation.
    “Yesterday?” Paul enquires.
    “You were with another man sitting by the roadside. Perhaps you will find this man in town.”
    Racking his brain, he still remembers nothing, not even the previous day.
    Standing up, he rubs his face, noticing the warm comfort of the day’s sun that pervades the jungle. He thinks of how Bandar must feel comfortably secure in his little, warm, fur coat, as he begins again to walk on. Reaching a roadside that runs along the jungle, Paul notices that the hours of walking have left him with a blunt hunger that shoots a sharp pain to his head. “Can you muster up some more of those bananas?” he asks.
    “Be right back,” Bandar says, puffing up his chest, feeling proud to help.
    Sitting on a rock just before the road, Paul awaits Bandar, who quickly returns with some bananas. This time they are yellowish brown. Plopping them down, he runs back off into the jungle and quickly returns, holding a piece of tree that dangles small green pods among leaves.
    Paul picks the beans from the pods and thinks of how grateful he is that Bandar is there. He thinks of the difficulty he would have had trying to find food on his own. He imagines trying to scale up the steep trees in an effort to get some bananas and laughs inwardly. They finish up and sit for a while, resting from the long journey. Evening is soon upon them and the sun begins to retire behind the far hills.
    “It’s not far,” Bandar says as he rises up and leads the man across the road to a small path that overlooks the Ganga River.
    Seeing the town not far off, they proceed on. They arrive at the back of a strip of small restaurants and shops that rests at the beginning of the

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