WHEN WE STOP CHECKING FOR MONSTERS UNDER OUR BED











Pic.: Alwyn Mathias

“Have you ever danced with the devil on the pale moonlight?”

- Joker in the movie ‘The Batman’ 


The other day, I was watching a video in which Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev (Isha Foundation) was  in conversation with Suhel Seth. Here is an excerpt:


Suhel: “You see the India’s political landscape… There is more factionalism… more hatred…There is more defacement… We never had people abuse each other in the way we do (now)…”

Sadguru: “No, that happens only on a couple of (TV) channels…That doesn’t happen on the streets… On the streets, there is nobody abusing each other…”

Suhel: “In parliament they are… In parliament they are…”

Sadguru: “Political spectrum is another world. I am saying, don’t make – as you said – don’t make just 542 people as India, ok? You walk on the streets… You walk on the streets of Mumbai – not in the elite colonies – Go to the slums, walk… Will anybody simply abuse you? It’s not true. If you walk with a smile on your face, everyone welcomes you. You go to any village… just walk through the village… You think they will abuse you? It is not true… It is not at all true… This is not the experience... They (those who cry India being abusive) have not seen India at all…

"I had, at one time, crisscrossed India on my motor cycle… I just rode into some village, some time… I just knocked on somebody’s door and said, ‘I am hungry’… There was not one home who ever told me, ‘No food’… or asked, ‘Who are you?’ They all would feed me… They would ask, ‘Would you take a shower? Would you rest for the night? Really, I slept in many homes… I ate and slept in many homes… I never asked their names… They never asked my names… I just slept there… We had the most wonderful engagement. The next day morning, I rode away…

 "This can’t happen in any other country… Believe me!”




'Vande mataram’…

‘Bharat mata ki jai’…

I chanted this as a little child when I did not know the meaning of those words…

Today, I chant this even more fervently, with even more awe… yes, as an adult, knowing well what those words mean!

I have seen and experienced the India Sadguru describes in this video… I have been to strangers’ homes… who never asked my name, nor I asked theirs… They have given me food, looked after my shower and night’s stay… and, you ask me, “Has India – my India, our India – become more abusive?”

Joker – the one who you and I fear and hate in the movie ‘The Batman’ – says:

“We stopped checking for monsters under our bed, when we realized they were inside us.”

 


GERALD D’CUNHA

 Video: YouTube

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