As the Citizen walked towards the divine tableau ahead, there was movement in the ranks of both armies. Curious-seeming soldiers were speaking in hushed voices, nudging each other into looking at him. There were other details too -- Arjuna's brothers nodded at him, his teachers smiled, his enemies frowned -- as he made his way through the space between the two waiting armies. Because this was one of the most popular chapters of the Itihasa, the temple ran it in limited subjective mode. The simulation was interactive enough to appear more than just a recorded experience.

Arjuna turned at the sound of the Citizen's coming. He smiled after staring for a moment and then turned his attention back to Krishna's giant form, which, the Citizen noted, showed no signs of recognising his presence. Just as well -- the Vishwaroopa was an aloof god.

So he stood by, as any other devotee would, and let Krishna speak at length about how karma, knowledge, and devotion could bring man closer to Him and how there really wasn't anywhere else to go anyway because He was the only eventual destination. Krishna told the confused Arjuna that his guilt and indecision were obstacles to overcome. He didn't matter, his family didn't matter, his feelings didn't matter. Only Krishna mattered. Krishna was everything.

As Arjuna fell to his knees and begged Krishna to return to his human form, the Citizen heard what appeared to be the sound of banging. Was someone at the chamber's entrance? The Citizen didn't think anything would interrupt the experience. An audience with the gods -- especially during chapter eleven -- was an honour reserved for those with outstanding credit scores. Even if the priests had somehow discovered that this week's chosen one was a Drohi radical as well as an adevist, the temple's ill-trained staff wasn't a threat. With the old man's hack in effect, their chances of getting in were effectively zero unless they called in the Dharma Sena and blew the door open.

The sounds grew muffled as the program compensated by making everything else louder. When that didn't work, it manipulated the acoustics of the chamber until the sounds were little more than distant thunder. For good measure, it threw in some lightning and an overcast sky as well.

By the time the Citizen turned his attention back to Krishna, the lord of the cosmos had shrunk back to human proportions and was speaking affectionately to a grateful Arjuna. Unaffected by the rapidly darkening sky, Krishna was telling Arjuna about the benefits of single-minded devotion to Him. The Citizen took a step forward -- it was almost time. He would have a two-second window in which to make his move after Krishna told Arjuna that meditation was superior to knowledge.

An ear-splitting thunderclap drowned out Krishna's next utterance. The Citizen fought the urge to turn around and see if the door had been breached -- he had to read the blue god's lips.

Krishna spoke. Krishna paused mid-shloka. Krishna blinked.

The Citizen moved towards Arjuna, causing the warrior prince to turn, smiling at first but then surprised, at the forceful shove. He fell, flickering soundlessly, and vanished before he hit the ground because the program had no viable scenario to depict the fall of a Pandava.

The Citizen took Arjuna's place and, heart pounding, turned to face Krishna as he gently opened his eyes and resumed speaking about the benefits of giving up attachments to the fruits of one's actions. He looked the Citizen straight in the eyes and said that his favourite kind of devotee was he who was compassionate and without an ego. The Citizen turned his head this way and that, and found Krishna's gaze fixed on him, the way it had been on Arjuna a moment ago.

Control!

He waved his hand about and though Krishna seemed to be momentarily distracted by it, he continued to say what he was supposed to, telling him about the importance of focusing only on Him.

Lightning followed thunder, momentarily silhouetting a giant shape in the distance -- Ganesha. But even his titanic presence did little to keep the Citizen from thinking about his impending arrest and all that was bound to follow. If he did not meet his end in a holding cell, he could look forward to being banished from the national web and his bioprint being put on the Blasphemy List to keep him from logging on anywhere within the sub-continent for the rest of his life. There was a reason the old man had spent the last decade in New Lanka. The only thing left to do now was to keep pulling on the thread he held until the puppet masters came tumbling out of the shadows from where they ran the Dharmic Republic of Bharat, or at least their present locations.

The program initiated a drizzle and some strong winds as the thunder and lightning got louder. The temple staff was really hammering the doors now. This was probably a good thing -- it meant the Sena was yet to be involved. Hammering at a problem wasn't really their thing. Their methods tended to be more explosive.

Krishna was about to start talking about the difference between nature and the self when the Citizen raised his right hand, stopping the blue god mid-verse.

It was time to stop listening.