When I saw the eternal baby
Many years ago, on a summer afternoon, I was wandering through countryside, searching for the eternal truth.
I saw a water well. I thought of washing my face with fresh groundwater. A bucket, with a rope tied to it , was already there. I lowered it into the well.
When the bucket touched the bottom of the well, I heard the water splash. I started pulling it out. I pulled and pulled. When it reached within my eyesight, I saw that there was no water in it. There was a baby in it, a newborn baby whose eyes were shining like jewels and lips were stretched into a smile.
A chill travelled through my spine. The rope slipped out of my shivering hands. The bucket started falling back into the well. When it hit the bottom, I heard the baby giggle.
I stood there frozen for a while. Then I slowly backed away from the well. My logical mind was racing to find an explanation. I looked around. A man and his wife were coming towards the well to fetch water. They were carrying their own bucket.
I watched apprehensively as they drew water from the well. No baby came in their bucket.
My logical mind concluded that the baby was my hallucination. I approached the man and requested for water. He gladly gave. I washed my face and took a sip.
“This water is other-worldly,” I remarked.
The stranger smiled and said, “Indeed, it is.”
I asked, “This well seems very old. Is there any folklore associated with it?”
He replied with a smile, “Long ago a pregnant woman had fallen into it and died. After that human beings have stopped using it.”
What did he mean by ‘human beings have stopped using it?’ Were he and his wife not human beings? Were they supernatural beings?
I left that place in a state of bewilderment.
Years later, this incident became fresh in my memory when my invisible Guru spoke the following words of wisdom:
“Your inner being is like a deep well. There is an eternal baby living inside it. Let your eyes close and the baby’s eyes open.”
