Neetan's problems that till now had deeply disturbed Ruchika's mind began to become less disturbing after the visit to Dr. Ram Prasad's Treatment Centre. She felt happy that Neetan's didn't seem to be a case of split personality. And she thought she need not take the idea of a relationship from a previous birth seriously.

She said to herself: "All I have to do is to take him away to some distant city, or even a far-off country, and make sure that he and Shubhangi never cross paths again. Let the souls that have parted remain parted," she muttered within her lips and chuckled mischievously.

One day, Kritika called and told that her uncle had returned from his visit abroad. Ruchika prepared herself to say that she had dropped the idea of pursuing the matter, but then she changed her mind and said, "Please fix up an appointment with your uncle."

Ever since the start of the Shubhangi episode Ruchika had observed a slight change in Neetan. Her feeling that something was brewing within him became a belief after Kritika talked about previous birth relationships. "Was some old memory waking up within Neetan's soul?", she began to wonder. Would it be better to bleed it out with the help of Kritika's uncle and make Neetan free of some knot within his soul?

Next Sunday, Ruchika took Neetan to Kritika's uncle's house for what she called a pooja. The old man in his mid-eighties had long white hair and was dressed in kurta and dhoti. His face had a glow typical of pious Hindus who take saatvic food and spend long hours in meditation and purification of the mind.

Ruchika addressed the old man as uncle. Uncle lived all alone in his small but neatly maintained house. There was no sofa or chairs in his room. But there was a rug spread from corner-to-corner over which there was a mattress with pillows lying here and there. The Uncle sat on the ground and made Ruchika and Neetan sit on the ground too. A general conversation was followed by a meditation session, and in the course of the meditation session, the Uncle gradually took Neetan into a trance and made him lie down. Ruchika sat watching with great curiosity and interest.

The Uncle softened and deepened his tone and moved very close to Neetan. At a certain stage he told him to go back in time and halt when he encountered some unpleasant experience or memory. Neetan's face developed slight contortions as if he was travelling through a path where he encountered pleasant and unpleasant experiences. At times, a very pleasant expression would appear on his face and at other times his face seemed to become tense. Then, in very mild tones he said: "It is painful".

"What is painful?" asked the Uncle.

"It is the pain of burning. They are burning me."

"Who is burning you?

"I think it is the angels. There are thousands of others around me. I can make out that the angels are burning the sins of our past lives to prepare us for our next life. It is a strange feeling. There is no physical shape, no physical body. Just a sense of presence. The burning causes severe pain, but the relief from sins gives a very pleasant feeling. I can't describe it in words."

"Can you tell how long ago it is?"

"Yes. Curiously, as a soul I have a very sharp sense of time --- much sharper than I have as a physical being. I know this is exactly 132 years ago."

"OK. Now move back further till you come to a point where you feel more severe agony than this."

Again Neetan's closed eyes began to tighten and relax. After some time he said: "Now I have come to 1274 years ago. I am a cow-calf. About an hour ago, I was swallowed by a python when I was sitting under the shade of a tree in a field. Some people saw me and attacked the python. They killed the python, but they did not take me out, leaving me for dead. Now I am badly suffocated. It is extremely painful!"

"Move further back," said the Uncle, "and halt only when you feel real sharp agony."

The contraction and the relaxation of Neetan's closed eyes became more severe. He seemed to be looking at something with great focus. Suddnely his lips began to tremble. It appeared that he wanted to say something but was not able to say. Tears began to trickle from his eyes and the muscles of his face twitched badly. Unable to control himself he said, "They are going to kill Charu!"

"Who is Charu?" asked Uncle.

Neetan did not answer that question and went on: "They have put a garland of flowers around her neck. An old man with a white beard is holding a glass bottle with a blue liquid. I want to save her, but I can't. They have tied me to a pole. They are going to kill Charu! I won't let them do this!"

Neetan's entire body trembled. His muscles became tight as if he was trying to break free of chains in which he was bound. Tears flowed from his eyes like a flood during rains. There was sweat on his face.

Ruchika burst into tears and moved to an adjacent room. Uncle realised that it was time to terminate the session. In his deep voice, he said several times, "Relax and come back". And as he saw Neetan gradually regaining hold over his body and mind, he went to where Ruchika was.

Ruchika clung to the Uncle as a disturbed child does with her father. Through her tears, she said: "I don't want this to be continued."

The Uncle said, "I can understand. A wife would naturally be disturbed to see her husband in such mental agony."

"No. It is not the mental agony. It is the mental agony for another woman!"

"How do you know," said the Uncle, "that Charu was not his mother?"

Ruchika wiped her tears and looked at the Uncle as if trying to read his mind. At this juncture, Neetan came and said, "Oh God! I went off to sleep."

Ruchika was thoroughly shaken. She did not stay for a moment. She said, "Uncle, It is lunch time. I have to go home and cook. We'll take leave."

"Some other time, may be," She said as a formality, although she felt sure that she would never come back --- so shattering had been her encounter with the past!