Was Holmes a patriot of the firm he represented in different countries? He would hardly answer that he was. He was most likely interested in watching the resistance of national capital of a certain country against the international capital. And he many times caught himself at thoughts that he was far from supporting the last one. From the other side he understood well that the process of concentration the society’s productive forces, called the “globalisation”, was an objective process. It means that it goes in spite of the wishes of individual persons, even the most eminent statesmen. Neither Ehnaton, nor Ramses, nor Julius Caesar, nor Napoleon could stop it. All of them could either slow it down or speed it up. But with all this some conception of ruling this process always exists. Of course it was a subjective one, since in any conception the interests of certain persons are expressed.
But “little people”, as Prakash Kumar had called them, had no opportunity to express their interests in such conception of productive forces concentration and they moreover had no possibility to realize their potential human dignity. So what role did they play in this process?
Again and again Holmes searched for image necessary for classification the new phenomenon while the familiar shots from the film “matrix” hadn’t come back to his memory.
Of course! In this film all the mankind was a source of some specific type of energy for the machine “matrix”, something like batteries for its recharge. If to think clearly the position of the majority of people towards aggregors is the same – they supply aggregors with their energy, necessary for achieving aims of masters and managers of aggregors. Through the special system of “connections” people share their energy with aggregors and through the same “connections” aggregors and their managers influence on all “connected”. Thus all of them in this or that degree don’t dispose of themselves. “Connections” for different people can be different passions and hobbies: from various narcotics, starting with widespread tobacco and alcohol (Holmes himself had such sin), to pop-music. And so in modern mass media (television, radio, papers and magazines) there are all necessary meanings for influence over the “connected”.
It means that the row of terrible images in the “Matrix” is far from fiction and schizophrenic ravings. It’s the visualisation of the quite definite aggregor, which rules the Western regional civilization. And here in India Holmes met with some very old aggregor, for which do the hundreds of millions of “little people” served like “batteries”. And was this their mission? – It seemed that the organizers of the cast system hadn’t provided another mission for them…
Going to domestic airport of Bombay Holmes noted to him that nobody had showed him the “picnics” in India and hadn’t raised the questions like those that he had discussed in Switzerland and Spain. Why was he going to Puttaparthi? Why did he need to talk with Sai Baba? He had no answers to these questions, but probably one that he had given to Harvey as a joke. Though, was it a joke?
The plane had already taken off when Holmes noticed that both cabins were hardly one third full. Prakash Kumar explained that only solvent foreigners fly to the ashram by plane, but the majority of pilgrims travel by train. Nonetheless in Puttaparthi there was the airport of Sai Baba with one runway, and another one was constructing. The weather was fine; there wasn’t a single cloud on the sky and a wonderful view of the Indian Ocean at first and a flat part of the country later opened up before one's eyes. The small clean airport was situated between the hills covered with bright verdure. At one of them there was a crowd of meeting people: cars, cycle-cars – the whole set of services of any big Indian city. Prakash as a man of experience selected the wanted attendant. And then the selected car was let in the airport for taking the passengers and luggage.
This is about the only income of local taxi-drivers. Two times a week pilgrims arrive and two or three hundreds rupees (four – five dollars) is the fair profit for anyone, regarding the nearly total unemployment of the fifty-thousand-people town, – commented Prakash.
About fifteen minutes they drove the modern road by temples, the University of Sai Baba and other religious buildings. Then they achieved the ashram’s gate. From there they were to go on foot. The ashram like a big oasis was situated inside the crowded town full of shops, dirty streets runoff ditches and cheap hotels. Surrounded with stonewall it represented a striking contrast to the noisy and dusty town with its discordant and multicoloured crowd. Holmes and Prakash were accommodated in one of hotel blocks, located along the perimeter of ashram, in the western sector. They had to put on a white cotton shirt and trousers bought at local shop. After it Holmes and his satellite became indistinguishable from other pilgrims who were more than five thousands in the ashram.
One could say that on the small territory of ashram the whole world was represented in miniature. Delegations from different countries numbered from two-three to ten and more men and its members wore differential signs in the form of kerchiefs with national flags features. Holmes noticed that a price of living, food and clothes was purely symbolic; this suggested that the whole enterprise was obviously unprofitable. Evidently something was made there with participation of very rich sponsors.
Prakash got all necessary information about the ritual of meeting with Sai Baba and suggested to go to bed early after the supper. Suddenly somebody cautiously knocked the door of their room. Holmes looked interrogatively on his neighbour, but he shook his shoulders with surprise showing that he had invited nobody.
Come in, – called Holmes.
The door opened and a young man dressed in white pilgrim’s clothes bringing a folder with some papers entered the room. By appearance he was not more then thirty. He had swarthy face with slightly slanting black eyes and disarming amiable smile. Holmes decided that even if he hadn’t been an inhabitant, he most likely belonged to the ashram’s maintenance staff. But what had led him here?
Mr. Holmes, I beg your pardon for coming uninvited. I get know of your arrival from my friend in administration. My name is Grisha. I’m from Russia and have been living here about three years. I work as a translator for the Russian delegacies when Sai Baba invites them. It is a year since three Russians from Petersburg were here. Sai Baba received them on the first day, and you know that it is a quite rare thing. He had the hour conversation with them and suggested to continue it on the next day. Such thing had never occurred before it, al least while I had been here. I missed the first discussion because the tree guests from Petersburg were accompanied by one of the Russians who had been waiting them impatiently for three months. However even at the first meeting Sai Baba showed him his displeasure, and this was a great surprise for everyone, since Sai Baba was always extremely friendly to everybody. Thus the Russians called me to come with them to the second meeting and I was a witness of their discussion with Sai Baba. Many interesting and unusual had happened there, though I understood it only after my compatriots had left for Bombay.
They came to Puttaparthi in a month after the wreck of atomic submarine “Kursk”. They had their own opinion on the causes and consequences of that catastrophe and they probably wanted to check it at Sai Baba. They showed me the “picnics” from Petersburg’s paper “Chas Pick” as the illustrations of possible variants of events in Russia development. They said that you had those “puzzles” and had been occupying with them at least since 1994. I spent only two days among them and got knew so much new that I’m still under the impression of what I’ve heard. They didn’t say that you would come here, but for some reason I was sure that it inevitably would happen. And after “kamikaze”-airplanes had destroyed the WTC in New York I, frankly speaking, had been waiting for your arrival. And today on October 10, I saw your name in another arrivals report. I simply couldn’t but visit you. And so I’m here.