Life is just perfect
We walked up this narrow mountain path, this adept and I. We walked in single file, he leading the way, in silence. We came on to a clearing on the side of the mountain and sat on a rock facing the valley below with thickly covered mountains on either side. We sat quietly watching the sun as it started to set. This young man, whom I had come to see, was young only in age but had the wisdom of the ages on his shoulders. From the valley below came an orchestra of bird song a magnum opus of nature.
I had sought his advice whenever I thought life’s problems needed a different perspective. I had come here hoping he would give me direction in my thinking. Over the last several months I had been pondering over several issues in our lives. One of them was the caste system. I had discussed it with several of my peers and seen different aspects of it. I cleared my throat, breaking the silence and said, “the caste system is really crippling our nation, it must be the root of all that ails our society”. He turned around and said, “So why don’t we just abolish the whole thing by a legal act?” It was a simple suggestion but took me a few minutes to understand the full meaning. “I don’t think that would solve the problem. We would probably carry on with the caste system in our private lives” I said.
“That really is the crux of the issue. The caste system may actually be the surface expression of a deeper malaise. If we remove the caste system, we will find for ourselves other lines of division. We already have such divisions. You are taller, I am shorter. She speaks Hindi, he speaks Malayalam. His skin is lighter in colour and he is dark skinned and so on. We will divide ourselves on communal lines. On the basis of religion, race, nationality or language.
All these may be facts. I may be shorter than you is a fact. The people from Europe are fair skinned and the people from Africa are usually dark skinned may be a fact. He speaks one language and she another may also be a fact. There always will be differences, that is only natural.”
We sat in silence hearing the bird song from the valley. The sun became an orange fireball as it sank lower on the horizon. The birds seemed to increase their calls claiming their territory as if saying “this is mine, this is mine”. There were a whole variety of calls from the double fluted tremolo of the wood pigeon to the whistles of the grey tits. The rust tinged rays of the dying sun cast a halo over the edges of the mountains.
“The differences are there,” he said turning from the sunset, “we convert the differences as a basis for differentiation and discrimination. We add attributes to these simple facts. These attributes make us believe that this race is superior or that religion is better. Sometime we even think at a more basic level, we see one kind physical form as being better than another”, he said.
Yes, there were differences, I could see that. Like the varied tunes of the songbirds we too have variety different races, religions, communities and voices. Like the birds’ territorial calls were we also calling out to say, “this is mine, this is mine”?
“The problem does not lie with this caste or that race, it lies with each of us”, he continued. I watched a flock of pigeons clumsily circle a large tree, their roosting site. “You see, at a fundamental level each human being wants to be different, wants to see that he or she is apart from the others. It does not matter in what way the individual is apart, but wants to see himself as different. And that leads to the feeling that this group is different from that group. That is, my group is different from their group. “
“When you see from the beginning of time, modern man has been around for but a tiny speck of time. And in that tiny speck each one us spends an even smaller fraction on this earth. In that molecular piece of time we want to leave our mark. It is as if we are saying “We were here””.
In that perspective, my life was but an atom compared to the mountain we sat on. Yet I was, like my group and other groups attempting to leave my mark for evermore. Kingdoms had come and gone, empires had faded into oblivion, people had built huge monuments to mark their place. Yet, in several cases we have no idea who those people were, where they came from or where they went. Their monuments have stood, somewhat ravaged by time as a mute testament to a group of unknown people. Every group today wants to stand out, be louder, claim more and mark their place. It is as if telling all of time, “I was here”.
The sun had set leaving behind a false twilight before the darkness of the night fell. We could see the stars twinkling in the dark blue-black sky. My friend got out the lantern from the bag he was carrying and in a slow deliberate process lit the wick. We sat in darkness except for the pool of yellow light from the lantern by our side.
“Why would I want to see myself as being different or apart from other?” I asked. “That happens because of a small line missing in our programme”, he continued, “We do not feel connected. There is a great feeling of emptiness amongst human beings because they feel disconnected. When we feel we are one with nature, we have our own place in the scheme of things then we feel connected. When we feel that we are not part of nature but apart then we feel we are not connected.
You see, it is like a huge jigsaw puzzle; we are a little piece in the whole picture. We are not the biggest piece, but we are there. Without us the picture would have a gap, then again if you saw only ‘our’ piece the picture would be incomplete”
“When we can see that all the pieces in this huge scheme of things are different and we are also but one piece, then where is the need to differentiate? You are different yes, however that is not the basis for differentiation or discrimination. If the caste system as we know it today is abolished, other such systems will take its place. So can you see that that system is not the issue, we as individuals are the issue. There will always be differences — differences based upon physical appearances, mental abilities, cultural mores, religious practices, money, colour of skin, talent, education, the list goes on. So let those differences simply be there and let us see that they are there. When I can see these as just mere facts and not add attributes to them, then I can see my little place in the mammoth jigsaw puzzle. I don’t need to differentiate. ”
“Let me put it another way” he said, “the tree is different from the bird, which is different from the mountain, which is different from us, right? So do we say that the bird is superior to the tree or the mountain has a better deal, just sitting there than the insect, which has to flit here and there for its food and safety? They are just different and have their roles to play. Similarly, there are differences among people and they have their role to play in that huge jigsaw puzzle. Once we can see that and internalize that, then there are no basis for differentiation or discrimination. There will only be differences, which is natural and is just fine.”
The mountains loomed as dark shapes on a starlit background. There we were two men sitting on a rock in this huge space of earth and sky. Physically we were so insignificant, we would seem like ants for someone who was looking down at us from the skies. Yet there we were playing our role in that huge jigsaw puzzle which we called nature.
I had always wondered what the purpose of my life was and where was I going? Like everyone else I had strived for being bigger, brighter and better. The calmness of the vast night enveloped me in a deep sense of well being and adequacy. I was truly a part of nature, I felt so connected and grounded. I had no need (at least for the moment) to strive to be different. All was one and everything had its place, life was just perfect.