NA RAHEGA BAANS, NA BAJEGI BANSURI

I was talking to one of my friends over the phone last night. The discussion was about a long-standing problem which affected directly or indirectly many of us. The solution, to most of us, looked so near, yet so far… We knew, that, with a sincere intent, it could be resolved. But, it was not happening, leaving many of us anxious and frustrated, even cynical and angry.

“But, I am optimistic,” I said to my friend, “All problems, sooner or later, come to an end.”

What, normally, happens is this: We are so consumed by the problem in hand, that we run out of patience… We fail to lift our head, and we are not prepared to hold the fort – hang on there… and let the storm pass by. Life shows us, that storms never last. They pass… Calm returns.

“But, how long to hold the fort? How long to hang on there?” some of us ask drained of our patience and energy… “Why can’t we cut off the snake’s head and end the problem, once and for all? ‘Na rahega  baans, na bajegi bansuri”!

I was telling my friend, last night, that if our egos do not allow us to mellow down and make peace, Nature invariable has a way of ending our troubles in her own way. Call her God or the Universe… Nature does destroy our super-power egos, and bring us to our knees. Often, the very ‘thing’ over which we keep on fighting – yes, Nature takes away from us that very thing – land, gold, money, power, position, name, fame, reputation, ideology etc. When, the root cause of the problem is nipped in in the bud itself – the problem goes!

I remember the story behind the Hindi proverb – ‘Na rahega baans, na bajegi bansuri’…

In a village, there lived a man who owned a vast bamboo farm. One day, when some village boys were playing around the farm, one of them pulled out a bamboo and made a flute out of it. All that the boy had to do was - cut the bamboo, make a few holes in it and play. Seeing this boy, one by one, other boys, too, did the same. Soon, the peaceful atmosphere of the farm had turned very noisy. As days passed by, many more boys from the village started coming to the farm to make flutes out of the bamboos… It became a nuisance not only to the farm-owner but to the whole village. Finally, fed up with the flute-menace, the farm-owner decided to put an end to the problem, once and for all. He got all the bamboos cut off… Some he sold to merchants from other villages, and some he destroyed. But, he was determined to end the noise menace in his peaceful farm, where he had come to live peacefully.

We all have come to live, here, peacefully on our respective bamboo farms. If the bamboos become the source of disruption for our peace, we may have to do what the peace-loving man had done with his bamboo farm…

That’s the wisdom, I derive, when I put myself in the farm-owner’s place…

What if I do in life what the children did – obsessed with playing their flutes without caring about how their obsession brought misery for others? Yes, what if I refuse to listen to sincere plea from the affected people? What if I keep doing it despite strict warnings?

Whether we like it or do not like it: If we like to play flute, we ought to respect the man who raises the bamboos!

Else, ‘Na rahega baans, na bajegi bansuri’!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Kamal Kishore Rikhari