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An old and dear friend now
lives estraged from her husband in the hills. About a year back after a gap
of more than two decades I managed to find out in what hills and even got
her telephone number, but somehow never upped the nerve to ring her up.
perhaps the reason was that I'd heard she had given up the life of everyday
living and become a semi-recluse in meditation. Since the person I had known
used to be a pert , vivacious and almost, at times, a party animal, I could
not muster the courage to confront what I perceived now as a metamorphosed
being. How could I possibly talk to her about dim light smoke and loud, loud
music. So the Year passed.
Last week, damned if she
didn't call me up! within 10 seconds however the missing years rolled up and
walked away and we talked for about half an hour as if there had no gap in
between. As if we had just met the other day. As if she was the old person
again. Somewhere in between it suddenly socked me between the eyes that she
was the same person I used to know. So the faltering dropped and I decided
to ask her if she was a monk or what. She said it was nothing like that; she was
just tired of cities and stuff and, yes, that's why she lived in the hills
and, yes she did meditate but it wasn't as if a big fat dollop of nirvana
was sitting on her head.
Somewhere during the
conversation I asked if she remembered the time her husband, she and I had
trekked towards a stream on the outskirts of a small town. And that while
crossing a vast treeless grazing land on the way were unexpectedly
confronted by a fast moving white wall of rain steadily bearing down on us.
Without any shelter in sight and nowhere to run we ended up looking at each
other a little foolishly as the deluge overtook us and soaked us to the
bones. She said she could never forget it; it had been one of the most
beautiful moments in her life.
Moments of vision, provided
that we're unforgetful of them, enable us to go beyond the transitoriness,
the emptiness and unreality of things. But actually there's no going away
anywhere; only a renewed staying on where there's happiness in having so
many of these moments running like a stream through our lives. I mean, look
at my friend. She had gone nowhere even after 20 years as I discovered to my
delight. Instead, everything had enabled her to just stay on exactly as she
wasn't. |
