Chapter 5: The Wish Beyond Liberation

As soon as the memories surfaced, they slipped away like sand through open fingers. The wars, the gods, the divine avatars—they faded into nothingness, retreating beyond the reach of thought. All that remained was his choice.

Perhaps that was the only thing beyond karma, beyond attachment, beyond the endless cycle of cause and effect. His wish—formless, untouched, unsolid. A choice that existed outside the bounds of fate.

But when had he made it? Not in a lifetime bound by flesh, nor in a body that carried the weight of memory. No, this choice was not made as Adi, nor as any of his past selves. It was made in a state beyond existence itself, in a moment when he was neither man nor soul, neither alive nor dead.

He had been pure consciousness—unburdened by desires, suffering, or joy. No past, no future, no name. Only a single choice.

Buddhist philosophy spoke of spirits caught in the endless cycle of Samsara, bound by karma, reborn again and again until they attained enlightenment. But this was different. He was not a wandering spirit seeking liberation. He had been given a choice—a wish—not as a reward, but as the culmination of something far greater.

"What did I do in that life to be granted a choice so grand?" he wondered.

There were stories of divine beings who had been given similar choices. Hanuman, the eternal servant of righteousness, had been offered liberation but had chosen to stay, to serve the divine until the end of time. He had received his wish, but even he had to wait—for the dissolution of all things, for the cycle to reset, for his purpose to be fulfilled.

But Adi's wish was different. It was not tied to a god, nor to a cause. His karma had given him the strength to make the wish—but not the means to fulfill it. That, he would have to seek on his own.

Every seeker, every enlightened soul, every sage who had renounced the world had sought the same thing—eternal liberation, moksha, the end of suffering. But Adi had chosen otherwise. He had turned upstream, against the flow of all things, seeking something no other had dared to seek.

"Why?" he asked himself. "Why did I choose this eternal suffering? A cycle beyond time?"

But even as doubt crept in, he steeled himself. He knew the answer.

He wanted to explore. To see. To experience.

To reach the top—and beyond.

Not for power. Not for greed.

But for something else entirely.

To know the freedom of choosing.

To know what it felt like—to be different.