'Give me water': a new birth

Prakriti sits by the well in the blazing sun. She tells her mother she is doing penance for the one whose call reached her: 'Give me water.'

When the monk asked her for water, she warned him that she was a chandalini: her touch would pollute it. He answered that, as he was human, so was she, and that all water that cools our thirst is holy.

For Prakriti this was a new birth. Her caste was 'drowned' in that water; she learned that even her service counts with God.

Her mother is frightened. She fears the monks' power, scolds her daughter's recklessness, and urges her to keep to her narrow place in society.

Prakriti sings of a flower of the earth longing to serve. Her mother reminds her of the prince who once admired her beauty; but Prakriti says the prince saw only prey, while Ananda saw her as a person. Respect has given her a new life.