The scene is a circus tent. Mathaichan is seated behind two mod boys. A band is playing lending the scene a festive mood. There come elephants, horses and infantry, followed by clowns. It’s a colourful march past. There stands a majestic, caparisoned elephant. It holds aloft a skimpily clad beautiful girl in its trunk. She displays her shapely body to the audience with a plastic smile on her lips.
As the elephant come into full view, the two boys jump out of their seats. They have to have a closer look. One was a prospective veterinary student. Entranced by the elegance of the elephant, that would put even Guruvayur Kesavan to shame, he jerks awake his friend, seemingly lost in thought, and asks, “Buddy, didn’t you see that elephant?”
Suddenly woken up from the trance, the buddy asked, “Where the hell is the elephant?” he saw only the damsel.
“You, Mathaicha, do you get the point?”
‘Guru wishes to say something. Mathaichan holds back his comments and sharpens his ears to listen to Guru’s words.’
“Hai, we see only what we wish to see and hear only what wish to. There are many stimuli around us.”
‘What does that mean?’
Light is a stimulus. Eyes are the receptacles of the brain ready to receive light and the content and images immersed in it.
‘That is…’
The image of Guru’s face aglow in light falls on your eyes. This bald head and French beard passes on to your brain through your eyes. There occurs a computerization. Guru’s face gets imprinted on your mind. Likewise there are ears to receive sound, nose to receive smell and tongue to feel taste. Among such sense organs which is the largest?
Dazed, Mathaichan wriggled his hands.
‘Now, what do you feel?’
Pain and pressure in the hands. Which is the sense organ spread all over the body that apart from pain and pressure can also perceive heat and cold?
Its skin. In Latin derma.
Through these five senses we perceive the world around us. Who can receive and store up all these inputs surging in?
So we take what we need and reject the rest.
What we wish is what we need and what we don’t we reject. When you contemplate one person alone you take every one pass by for him, don’t you?
Suppose you think up an idea that most of the cars in Trivandrum are white. When you go out you would search out and find only the white ones. You’d ignore the rest.
If you ask someone listening to a three hour political speech what you understood, he’d say, “I heard Achu Ammavan would win.” He forgot the rest. What he wanted to hear stays in mind.
Do you the story of Sankaran who came from a village to see the capital city?
Sanakara, what all things did you see there? People asked him on his return.
Secretariat. There are three or four jackfruit trees on the eastern side of the building. What a lot of fruits on them! And that too of the best variety! Nothing else made an impression on his mind.
Pappachan who accompanied him and knew a little English chipped in, “there are so many buildings belonging to one Mr.Tolet. He was referring to the ‘To Let’ signboards.
All these are partial, inessential enunciations.
‘Guru, why do you scare this Mathaichan with words too big to mouth?’
I t only means trivial things with no meaning. But there is a danger lurking behind.
Darkness and light, sadness and happiness, good and evil, heaven and hell, God and Satan – we classify all these into opposites. This classification is the main cause for grief and misery.
If we understand that they all complement one another no problem would seem difficult. It’s when you take a dual view of what is essentially one that the problem arises.
From what you said, Guru, I feel its more or less true. But tell me about this world full of cruelties, pettiness as well as love. Don’t all these have any meaning? There is life and life situations in this world. If I am there is this world for me and if I am not there isn’t. I have that much significance. Only till then.
So I’d live happily as long as I’m in this world. I don’t find any reason to be sad.
‘You, when you see them as mutually opposing entities sadness, anxiety and fear creep in. Looking at things as yours and mine leads to agony.’
‘Have you seen my Guru?’
“No.”
There is a story about him.
He was a prosperous farmer. Your wealth was assessed on the basis of the number of farms and animals you owned. He was a good man approved by everyone.
One of his horses disappeared into the forest. Hearing the news his friends called on him to express their concern. Very unfortunate, they said. Didn’t he lose a horse?
‘My Guru replied, “Fortunate or unfortunate – who knows?” After some days the lost horse came back along with ten horses.’
Friends flocked in saying, see you are fortunate.
“Fortunate or unfortunate – who knows?” answered Guru.
His only son mounted one of the wild horses in order to tame it. But the horse flung him off its back. The young man broke his leg and was bedridden. Friends came in to sympathize. Wasn’t it unfortunate? That too the only son!
My Guru still replied, “Fortunate or unfortunate – who knows?”
Some time later there was a war. All the young men were forced to enlist in the army. Friends dropped in exclaiming, “O, how fortunate you are. They didn’t take your son away.”
Even then he said, “Fortunate or unfortunate – who knows?”
Such moments, events are inevitable in life. We’d have peace depending on how we look at it, perceive it, accept it or do not accept it.
‘Or else? Can we prevent the rain from falling?’
“If you want you can take shelter somewhere or carry an umbrella. You may also enjoy the beauty of the rain. What do you say, Mathaicha?”
‘What shall I say? What Guru says has got to be right.’