'He probably used his spiritual energy in resonance with the earth element. At least, that's what I think,' Raktaa answered with slight uncertainty.
There was no pressure in the wave that had just washed over them; rather, it phased through them, vibrating their whole body and the earth beneath them. But the feeling of weakness had completely gripped some of the students, making them kneel. Shambhu was still standing along with most of the students.
"Stand up, Protectors. I just checked your resonance with the earth element. Looks like some of you have an excellent affinity with it." He spoke after taking a look at those who were on their knees.
" All of you, will start your official training today. But first, you need to choose your weapons." Guru Rudra entered the Ràkshá Kendrà after saying this.
The students, though, were still in a daze from the experience earlier and couldn't move.
"What are you waiting for? Come inside." Guru Rudra's voice boomed from inside the building.
The students came out of shock and entered the building in haste. They saw a painting of a man wielding a big long sword on the front wall of the entrance hall, who was in a downward striking pose.
And after moving to the sides, they noticed each wall had such figurines holding different weapons in different poses. Guru Rudra led them to a grand hall, where different weapons were put on big racks or were hanging on walls. They were placed in an orderly manner. The first rack was of swords, of various shapes, from a sickle to a straight sword, having blades from normal to that of a saw. The second was of spears, from bladed spears to tipped spears, one-sided to two-sided and of different designs. Then there were hammers and maces, from big to small, from flat to spiked. Then there were non-ordinary weapons, like axe blades, spears with axes, and different kinds of blades like Dao, some chained weapons, chakras, and what not. The last rack was of shields, of different shapes and sizes. The students were eyeing weapons with different expressions. Some, like Vajra, had reactions as if they had found treasure, and others were just admiring the different weapons.
"You can choose two weapons from here. But not from the 4th rack," Rudra ordered. The students immediately moved to pick weapons of their choice. Vajra picked a six foot long big golden mace with a red handle, Daru picked a black hammer just as big as Vajra's mace, Sandhya a big long sword, Swarnaa a normal one handed curved sword, and Nikumbha picked an over 7 foot long spear. All the other students were also picking their weapons but Shambhu stood where he was.
"Don't you need a weapon?" Rudra asked him with a curious look.
"The weapons I want to take have either been prohibited by you or are not present here, Gurudeva (simply means teacher)," Shambhu replied.
"Hmm, which weapon did you want to take?" Rudra asked curiously.
"I generally fight with fists, so a gauntlet as the first weapon, which is not here," Shambhu said thoughtfully. "And as a secondary weapon, I wanted to take Urumi, the whip sword, but it's not allowed," he added after confirming the name of the sword with Raktaa.
"Raghu, bring this young protector a gauntlet of his choice," Rudra called in a loud voice.
A man clad in all black clothes appeared beside Shambhu with a bag of gauntlets of different sizes and colours. Shambhu chose one of them which fit him and was black in colour.
"What is your name, protector?" Rudra asked.
"Shambhu, Guruvar," was the reply.
"Shambhu, we do not give weapons which are hard to master unless one has awakened at least the first chakra. And Urumi is highly unpredictable. But why do you want it?" Rudra explained and asked, still curious.
"Because it is unpredictable, Guru ji," Shambhu said with slight hesitation.
"Being unpredictable. A good reason indeed," Rudra nodded to himself.
All the other students had already come back and were standing behind Shambhu.
"You will practice with your weapons for at least two hours every day," Rudra said while looking at them. "There will be sparring sessions weekly, and people with the most improvement will be rewarded. Now come with me to your real training grounds."
Guru Rudra led them to a big open yard-like area behind the building. This yard was big enough to be called a field, but there were mud walls around it. The whole yard had no flooring, only clean ground, and the far side of the yard looked like it had been ploughed.
"This is where you will meditate to awaken your first chakra," Rudra started his lecture.
"The human body has five chakras representing pancha mahabhutas (five primordial elements). The Earth is the first of them, and the Chakra of the Earth Element is called Dhàritrí Chàkrà." He stopped to see their response.
"Isn't Dhàritrí our planet?" Nikumbhas asked with a questioning look.
"Yes, and this name is given to it because this planet bears us and works as a base. But since earth is the base element of it, we call it Earth in daily life. And the first Chakra works as a base for other Chakras and your body, thus called Dhàritrí."
"Now, sit in Padmaasana (lotus position). It might hurt, but that's what you are going to be if you aren't strong—hurt."
He then started speaking in a monotonous voice.
"The Dharitri Chakra is located at the bottom end of the spine. And below it, PRÁNÀ generally resides. It is the spiritual energy or power that is needed to be raised and merged with the Chakras in order to gain power." He stopped to take a look at the students. They were looking at his face with utmost seriousness.
"But for every Chakra, you have to fuse your PRÁNÀ with the elemental energy of the chakra. And for that, you need to understand and feel the PRÀNÁ of the element itself," Rudra said.
"Do the elements have PRÁNÀ, too?" Sandhya asked.
"Yes, but not like us. Different elements have different Spandana. You can also call it pulse or vibration. Once you start feeling this pulse and start resonating with it, then you can fuse your PRÁNÀ with it," Rudra answered.
"So what is the first thing to do?" Seeing that nobody was going to ask, he continued.
"To feel the elemental pulse or energy," Daru spoke as if he was questioning.
"No, the first stage is to feel your PRÁNÀ and mould it to become able to merge it with the first Chakra," Rudra spoke.
"We use specific resonating sounds for different Chakras to mould and raise PRÁNÀ. The resonating sound of the first chakra is LÀM. Now produce the LÀM sound while focusing your whole mind and consciousness on the base of your spine and try to feel an energy that rises from there and goes upward. This is the way to feel your PRÁNÀ and raise it to Dhàritrí Chàkrà," Rudra ordered, and all the students started the meditation.
'Just pretend you are doing it. Do not actually do it,' Shambhu heard.