Saturday, April 15, 2023

Distractions and Sumiran

I remember a nice educational story I heard in my childhood.

A man was traveling on his horse.
The horse was thirsty. 
The man looked around and saw a farmer watering his fields by running a Rehat* at a well at some distance.
The traveler came to the well to let his horse drink water from the Rehat.
The horse came close to the tank to drink water but got scared by the loud noise created by the Rehat and stepped back.
The horse was thirsty - so he came close to the water again. 
But he got scared and stepped back again.
Seeing this, the traveler asked the farmer to stop the Rehat for a while so that the rattling sound would stop and the horse could drink water.
The farmer stopped the Rehat - but as soon as the Rehat stopped, the water stopped too.
So the farmer started the Rehat again - but the horse would not drink water because of the loud noise.
It went on a couple of times. 
Every time the Rehat moved, the horse got scared, and when they stopped the Rehat, Water would stop.
There was a big dilemma.
If the Rehat moves, the horse gets scared - and if it stops, the water stops.

The farmer said to the traveler - 
Just as you have trained the horse for riding - train him to drink water in the noise of the Rehat or other things as well. 
Otherwise, this dilemma will always be there. He will have to learn to drink water in the noise.

Similarly, we often think that when the hustle and bustle and noise of life would stop - only then we will be able to meditate and do Sumiran, etc.
But that is a mistake.
As long as there is life - the distractions of the world - the cycle of happiness and sorrow and the game of hope and despair will continue. It will never stop or end.
Therefore, we should do the Bhakti - Sumiran - meditation while living in the hustle and bustle of life and the noise.
Only then will we be able to continue walking on the right path and reach our destination.
Otherwise, we might waste our lives waiting for the right and appropriate moment.
                                                         "Rajan Sachdeva"
Note:
*A Rehat is a device for extracting water from a well - in which a series of buckets threaded into a rope moves in a circular (up & down) motion when the rope is pulled by oxen.

5 comments:

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