BANYAN TREE
TEACHING STORY
Following God
One night, Sufi mystic Farid dreams he has reached heaven. And the whole of heaven is decorated—millions of lights and flowers everywhere. He enquires, “What is going on?” They reply, “This is God’s birthday; we are celebrating it. You have come at the right time.”
So he stands underneath a tree to see what is happening. A great procession starts moving down the road, in which a man is sitting on a horse. Farid enquires, “Who is this man?” and they reply, “Don’t you know him? He is Hajrat Mohammed.” Turning towards the millions of people behind him, he asks, “Who are these people?” and they reply, “They are Mohammedans, followers of Mohammed.”
Then comes Jesus, and millions are following him, after which Krishna comes on his golden chariot, and millions are following him too. And so the procession continues endlessly.
Finally, Farid sees an old man coming on an old donkey. And nobody is behind him; he is just alone. He starts laughing looking at this man. It is hilarious; nobody is following him. And why should he be on a donkey? He asks, “Who are you, sir? I have seen Mohammed, Christ, Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha. Who are you? You look like a kind of joke! And nobody’s following you.”
The old man is very sad and says, “Yes, I am God. This is my birthday. But some people have become Mohammedans, some have become Christians, some have become Jews, some have become Hindus—nobody is left to be with me.”
Out of shock, Farid wakes up. He tells his disciples the next day, “Now I am no more a Mohammedan. The dream has been a great revelation. Now I am no more part of any organised religion. I am simply myself. I would like to be with God—at least one person following him.”
THIS, I KNOW
Guru Nanak Dev
• Speak only that which will bring you honour.
• He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God.
• Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a guru, none can cross over to the other shore.
• Even kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.
• If the people use the wealth bestowed on them by God for themselves alone or for treasuring it, it is like a corpse. But if they decide to share it with others, it becomes sacred food.
• The world is a drama, staged in a dream.
• He who regards all men as equals is religious.
• Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that which is salutary for his soul, for he who meditates in solitude attains supreme bliss.
• Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form.
INSPIRATION
Beggarly Heart
When the heart is hard and parched up,
come upon me with a shower of mercy.
When grace is lost from life,
come with a burst of song.
When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner,
break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king.
When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one,
thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder.
—Rabindranath Tagore
ONE-MINUTE WISDOM
Living with others
Once there was a man who lived in isolation. He thought that if he didn’t interact with anyone and only spent his time being productive, he would get all worldly success. He did not want to waste any time talking to anyone. He prepared assiduously for a well-sought-after job and cleared all the preliminary levels and exams to get the job. In the final interview round, he failed to crack the questions which were about connecting to people and communicating with others as he had absolutely no experience of it. This made him realise the importance of interacting with the world and other people too, along with working hard in private. Now, he lives a life of balance between the two.
JUST FOR LAUGHS
No enemies
Once in an open talk show, the speaker asks the audience, “Raise your hand if you do not have any enemies.” An 80-year-old woman raises her hand. The speaker invites her to the stage and asks her, “How do you not have any enemies?” She replies, “I outlived them all.”
QUOTE
“This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play.”
—Alan Watts