Skip to main content

Master



When my problems bogged me down, I approached Guru.

“No one, not even God, can solve your problems unless you want to solve them yourself,” said Guru.

“But…” I was shocked.  I went to him for help because I wanted to solve my problems, didn’t I?  Why is he speaking as if I didn’t want to solve my problems?

“Most people are in love with their problems,” Guru said as if he had read my mind.  “The drug addict, for example, loves drugs and don’t want to leave them though he may say he wants to kick the habit.  What withholds him from kicking the addiction is precisely what led him to the addiction.”

“A sense of emptiness?”  I asked because I had faced that sense time and again. 

“Is there anything better than emptiness in life?” asked Guru.  “Weren’t all the Mahatmas searching for emptiness?”

“People can’t bear emptiness,” I blurted out.

“Precisely.  That’s why they fill their life with things.  And when things fail to satisfy the real inner need, they look for alternatives like drugs.  And drugs perplex your neurons.  Upset your consciousness.  You find yourself in somebody else’s shoes.  You enjoy that.  You enjoy walking in somebody else’s shoes without any obligations.”

Being in somebody else’s shoes without any obligations is a wonderful idea, I thought.  It’s a kind of transmigration of the soul. 

“Escapism,” said Guru.  “People want to escape.  Though there really is nothing to escape from.  Ultimately we have to fall back to the same reality which is nothing but the world before you and its demands.”

“Which is very mundane,” I thought aloud.

“The world is mundane.  What else do you expect?  Haven’t you learnt history?  Have you seen paradises or utopias opening up anywhere though your leaders may have promised them in their election manifestoes time and again?  2014 CE is no different from 2014 BCE.  Except for the attachments like electricity and gadgets supported by it.  But the social structure was the same now and 4028 years ago.”

I got stuck with that number 4028.  But I realised soon that if I added 2014 CE and 2014 BCE I would get 4028 as long as I didn’t think like a mathematician for whom pluses and minuses neutralise one another.  I also realised that the Egyptian pyramids were constructed more than 4028 years ago.  The Indus Valley Civilisation originated more than 4028 years ago.  The Greek civilisation can take us far beyond 4028 years.  Civilisations.  Were those people any worse than us?  They too worshipped some gods, drank wine, built monuments or whatever they thought were great, some enslaved some others ...

How are we different from them?  Except that we built better gadgets?  As time goes forward we will build still better gadgets.  Will the world be any better?

“Will man be any better?  That should be the question.”  Guru has a way of interrupting my thoughts.

“Know you are a master, and you are one,” continued Guru.  “Know you know the answers to your problems, and you get the answers.”

Otherwise you search for answers in granite gods or preaching Babas or tranquilising drugs, I thought.


“No one can solve problems of someone who looks for solutions outside,” said Guru. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. KalpanaJune 28, 2014 at 9:14 PM

    Very profound. I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JayantaJune 28, 2014 at 10:50 PM

    Guru justified being the Guru. He showed the right way...Liked the conversation..

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 29, 2014 at 11:28 AM

    Profound. Very well narrated. A depressive person is also in love with his own depressions as it gives a meaning to his/her life. Something I have always observed in melancholic people.. and it also allows me to observe myself if I start falling into the same trap..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2014 at 11:53 AM

      I too have noticed it. People seem to fall in love with their problems. Perhaps that's one way of making their life bearable!

      Delete
  4. UnknownJune 29, 2014 at 11:38 AM

    loved the conversation :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sunshine-struckJune 29, 2014 at 12:31 PM

    Great thoughts here. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Donna BurmanJune 29, 2014 at 12:32 PM

    Yes, all the Mahatmas ultimately sought emptiness.. For what more can be important than attaining peace with yourself? Profound indeed..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2014 at 1:09 PM

      Enlightenment is emptying the self of superfluous attachments, isn't it?

      Delete
  7. Lancelot QuadrasJune 29, 2014 at 1:55 PM

    People can't bear emptiness...
    How true...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2014 at 6:48 PM

      ... And how they choose to fill it matters a lot.

      Delete
  8. ManiparnaJune 29, 2014 at 2:46 PM

    The conversation is a profound one and how true is is that common people can't bear 'emptiness' in their lives..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 29, 2014 at 6:49 PM

      "Nature abhors vacuum," as the saying goes. In fact, how one fills that emptiness determines one's meaning in life.

      Delete
  9. Abhijit RayJune 29, 2014 at 7:28 PM

    Totally agree. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Vinay NagarajuJune 29, 2014 at 8:51 PM

    He he :D.. People in love with their problems! Interesting one :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2014 at 8:35 AM

      If people were not in love with their problems, there would be very few problems in the world. King Lears and his daughters continue to live with their illusions and delusions.

      Delete
  11. Issac WritesJune 30, 2014 at 1:34 PM

    Wonderful....Search for God within....and you will find him...;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2014 at 6:29 PM

      I don't believe in God; I believe in Truth and that too relative truths. Yes, we should discover those truths, our own truths, and they are within.

      Delete
  12. RajeshJune 30, 2014 at 5:03 PM

    Good one. I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownJune 30, 2014 at 5:24 PM

    Does it happen that you know what your problem is, you know the solution too but you are just not ready/capable or fear to execute it. Like agreeing to what the Guru said is different than abiding it...Just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 30, 2014 at 6:31 PM

      No doubt, Shewta, sometimes we know the answers/solutions but are incapable of acting... There are times when external help (counselling, for example) is of immense help. My post is a philosophical look at the theme rather than psychological one.

      Thanks for sharing your thought.

      Delete
  14. UnknownJune 30, 2014 at 11:55 PM

    So skillfully written. :)
    I am so impressed by the way it is written.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 1, 2014 at 6:26 AM

      Thanks, Namrata. What happened to you - not writing these days?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pranita a perverted genius

Bulldozer begins its work at Sawan Pranita was a perverted genius. She had Machiavelli’s brain, Octavian’s relentlessness, and Levin’s intellectual calibre. She could have worked wonders if she wanted. She could have created a beautiful world around her. She had the potential. Yet she chose to be a ruthless exterminator. She came to Sawan Public School just to kill it. A religious cult called Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] had taken over the school from its owner who had never visited the school for over 20 years. This owner, a prominent entrepreneur with a gargantuan ego, had come to the conclusion that the morality of the school’s staff was deviating from the wavelengths determined by him. Moreover, his one foot was inching towards the grave. I was also told that there were some domestic noises which were grating against his patriarchal sensibilities. One holy solution for all these was to hand over the school and its enormous campus (nearly 20 acres of land on the outskirts
9 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
19 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Nakulan the Outcast

Nakulan was one of the many tenants of Hevendrea . A professor in the botany department of the North Eastern Hill University, he was a very lovable person. Some sense of inferiority complex that came from his caste status made him scoff the very idea of his lovability. He lived with his wife and three children in one of Heavendrea’s many cottages. When he wanted to have a drink, he would walk over to my hut. We sipped our whiskies and discussed Shillong’s intriguing politics or something of the sort while my cassette player crooned gently in the background. Nakulan was more than ten years my senior by age. He taught a subject which had never aroused my interest at any stage of my life. It made no difference to me whether a leaf was pinnately compound or palmately compound. You don’t need to know about anther and stigma in order to understand a flower. My friend Levin would have ascribed my lack of interest in Nakulan’s subject to my egomania. I always thought that Nakulan lived
16 comments
Read more