THE SILENCE OF FOUR DISCIPLES















"Silence is ever speaking;
it is the perennial flow of language.”

-      Ramana Maharshi

One day, a Zen master wanted his four disciples to observe a day-and-night silence. He asked his servant to guide them to a nearby room. “Please light the lamp when darkness falls,” the Master instructed the servant.

For an entire day, the four disciples successfully observed the silence and they were all very happy about it. “Our Master will be very delighted,” they thought with pride.

Just then, one of the disciples said to the servant, “The darkness has fallen… Please light the lamp.”

“Hey you… You have broken your silence,” reacted the disciple who was sitting next to him.

“You both have opened your…” the third disciple was about to complete his sentence when he realized what he was doing. So, he tightly shut his mouth with his two palms… But, the mouth had been already opened and the silence had been already broken!

Now, when all this drama was unfolding before him, our fourth disciple was surging with pride, which he couldn’t contain any further. So, he declared, “You ignorant souls, listen to me: I am the only disciple in this room who has observed the complete silence… and, our Master will be surely proud of me!”







So, our Master – the Prime Minister of our country – has asked us to observe this 7.00 a.m. to 9.p.m. ‘Janta Curfew’, today… and, I am one of those ‘four disciples’. At 5, just before the Sun goes down, the Master has asked us to join our hands to make sounds of ‘taali’, ‘thaali’ or ‘ghanti’… yes, to express our ‘gratitude’… Like my fellow disciples, I, too, am excited… to ‘perform’ something noble!

But, then, but then… Yes, but then, that itching pride in me to shout from the rooftop - “Yes, I did it… I did it”!

The Sun is about to come up in a while… We are about to be ushered into our self-quarantine room… yes, to observe the silence… the curfew!

And, yes, we are all itching to declare, even before it all ends - “Yes, I did it… I did it… The Master will be delighted and proud of me”!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.:pixabay.com

Video: Playful Music


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