Answers…!

Today, on this auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti, the holy transit of SUN, let us try to understand the eternal quest of Q&A, where all the answers seem to pose a new question and no question seems to have any rightful answer. ‘How and why is this so?’ is again an interminable question…!?!

When Maulingaputta came to Buddha for the first time he asked many questions. Buddha said, “Are you asking in order to solve the questions or are you only asking to get answers?”

Maulingaputta said, “I have come to ask you, and you have begun to ask me! Let me ponder over it, I must think about it.” He thought about it and the second day he said, “Really, I have come to solve them.”

Buddha said to him, “Have you asked these same questions to anyone else as well?”

Maulingaputta said, “I have asked everyone continuously for thirty years.”
Buddha said, “By asking for thirty years you must have got many answers – many, many. But have any proved to be the answer?”

Maulingaputta said, “None!”
Then Buddha said, “I will not give you any answers. In thirty years of questioning many answers have been given; I can add some more but that is not going to help. So I will give you the solution, not the answer.”
Maulingaputta said, “Okay, give it to me.”
But Buddha said, “It cannot be given by me, it has to be grown in you. So remain for one year with me silently. Not a single question will be allowed. Be totally silent, be with me, and after one year you can ask; then I will give you the answer.”

 

Sariputta, the chief disciple of Buddha, was sitting nearby under a tree. He began to laugh. Maulingaputta asked, “Why is Sariputta laughing? What is there to laugh about?”

Sariputta said, “Ask right now if you have to ask; do not wait for one year. We have been fooled – this happened to me too – because after one year we never ask. If you have remained totally silent for a year, then the very source of questioning drops. And this man is deceptive! This man is very deceptive,” Sariputta said. “After one year he will not give you any answers.”

So Buddha said, “I will remain with my promise, Sariputta. I have remained with my promise with you, too. It is not my fault that you do not ask.”

One year went by and Maulingaputta remained silent: silently doing meditation and becoming more and more silent outwardly and inwardly. Then he became a silent pool, with no vibrations, no waves. He forgot that the year had passed. The day that he was to ask had come but he himself forgot.

Buddha said, “There used to be a man called Maulingaputta here. Where is he? He has to ask some question. The year has passed; the day has come, so he must come to me.” There were ten thousand monks there and everyone tried to find out who Maulingaputta was. And Maulingaputta also tried to find out where he was!

Buddha called to him and said, “Why are you looking around? You are the man. And I have to fulfill my promise, so you ask and I will give you the answer.”

Maulingaputta said, “The one who was asking is dead; that is why I was looking around to see who this man Maulingaputta is. I too have heard his name, but he is long since gone.”

The original source must be transformed, otherwise we go on asking; and there are persons who will be supplying you with answers. You feel good in asking, they feel good in answering, but what goes on is only a mutual deception.

Stay tuned and seek S-O-L-U-T-I-O-N not answer…!

Source – OSHO Book “Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy”

Fatherhood…!

No Sunday in my life till yesterday was in so pure Black and White…! Only two primary human emotions of absolute anguish and gross gratification prevailed the Sunday. Such a strange and profound mixture of emotions that sets you on a roller-coaster would either build a much strengthened persona out of your being or has all the potential to shatter you apart and feel more aloof than attached. I am counting on my endurance and hoping for the prior possibility with crossed fingers as I just hate to get abandoned by the powerful flow of negative emotions. In fact I hate the negative energy so much that I am very much positive about getting it released in the ether of outer space beyond the gravity…!

Anyway, I will just report the two incidences responsible to take me on this roller-coaster and I won’t get into detailed analysis of either as there is a serious threat of me being getting so engrossed in those overwhelming sentiments once again that I might lose the track of everything around.

The Sunday started normally with all the morning chores until I received a call from my best friend asking me to come to the hospital that I have never heard of. The urgency and shake in his voice warned me of the imminent and the detailed knowledge about his father’s situation only deepened the concern. Although I tried to reach the unfamiliar hospital with the best possible human effort, it was late and my friend has lost his father already. A chilled gust went through my spine as I headed to see his father and however deaths on the hospital bed I have seen till date; I felt like remorse this one with all the vigor for three reasons –

1. ‘Appa’ was my, probably only living and reachable Idol and I used to paint my own developed personality by borrowing shades of his well-read, all-composed and almost yogic persona.

2. I never had the real interaction at length with him that I always imagined since I first met him.

3. The falsifying concept of ‘Karma’ that doesn’t seem fair anymore with the undesirable, unexplainable and very grievous conclusion of such an intellectual noble and selfless being.

All I can do now is wish and thrive to inherit values from his disposition like serenity and pursuance.

In the White side of the Sunday afternoon, it was my daughter’s First Stage performance of her passion for now – Bharatanatyam – that she really seems to enjoy and endure. Being a kind of unorthodox middle-class father, as my wife likes to put it, I never cared about my daughter’s academic reports except for making fun of the marks, remarks, evaluations and handwriting's of the teachers authoring those, which both of us enjoy thoroughly with her furious mother overlooking. As I always preach Mark Twain’s philosophy of not allowing the schooling to interfere with learning, I can pity or have mercy at the most for the parents running around their pupils irritating them for the numbers in Report Cards. I prefer to celebrate my daughter’s otherwise achievements like her expertise with PowerPoint presentations or even FB, creativity put in preparing Greeting Cards or even any mundane school project, practicing badminton for a reverse shot, mastering riding a bicycle, having a great eye behind the camera… the list would eat-up all the space in the post.

Her recent initiative of Bharatanatyam was just a curiosity for me as I used to see her hurrying to attend that class with a fervor and enthusiasm. I never imagined that she will be performing on the stage so soon with her Tai and other dance-mates and will enthrall, awe and gratify the father in me…! It was an experience and I never felt like a typical father before and when the senses returned the pain of the morning also returned with exhilarating force as at this moment I was enlightened with the epiphany of 'fatherhood'…!

Stay tuned and maintain the B-A-L-A-N-C-E…!

First Day...!

What more can you ask for than the First Day of the New Year falling on a Sunday...! We decided to extend the Celebration fervor little longer to envelop this platinum opportunity of spending the Entire First Day of The New Year with family. Could you ask for more…? I guess not.

This time our adventurous excursion took us to Ramdara, a place about 40 KM from Pune with a serene beauty and once again my favorite deity Mahadev along with Ram, Sita, Hanuman and Dashavtar. Like Nilkantheshwar, this was also less populated relatively and has no ‘urbane’ facilities to offer either. I am keeping my fingers crossed for these places to retain their originality and serenity as long as possible.

The quacking Ducks, the Green water lake, the smell and feel in the atmosphere of cooking on ‘chool’ – a cooking arrangement made with local materials like stones and dried tree branches – add to the absolute exotic experience to the gadget-savvy urbanites. 

The best part is the very short distance of it from the concrete civilization in a sense that you can spend more time with nature than in traffic and still can reach for your usual sophisticated necessities within couple of minutes.

If you have even half a day at your disposal, don’t miss to take a right turn just after the Toll Plaza at Loni on Pune – Solapur Road and within minutes you will forget almost all the mundane worries with the absolutely tranquil welcome of Ramdara. 

Stay tuned and keep E-X-P-L-O-R-I-N-G…!

PS - For more photos click on the title.