“Are these really applicable in real life?”
Startled, I looked up. I was absorbed in reading the pithy pearls of wisdom of Canakaya Pandita in his famous compilation of “Niti-sastra”. Unknown to me, a young man across the aisle of the plane had been shoulder surfing and reading along with me. “Well, I feel the principles are always relevant” I ventured. “Have you read this book?”
Turned out that he had not. But he had been reading a lot of what he classified as “spiritual books”. He was just returning after spending a month in an ashrama (did not specify which) but was none the better in terms of his quest. He said, “I am 29 years old. I know I should be getting married. I should be more focused on my job. But I am not sure about my priorities. Should it be friends, job and family or should it be spiritual endeavor. What should I do?”
We spoke for the next 30 minutes. He was from Dehradun, a picturesque town by the foothills of Himalayas that is also a popular tourist resort. I asked him if he knew there was an ISKCON temple in his city. “I have heard of a Hare Rama Hare Krsna temple” he said, “but never visited” For some reason many Indians refer to the ISKCON temple as the Hare Rama Hare Krsna temple.
We had less that 30 mins. of flight time left. I could see he was not interested in visiting the temple or reading any of the Srila Prabhupada books I was recommending. He more interested in someone telling him exactly what to do. He was getting impatient with people telling him to discover his own path, read the scriptures or follow any process. He wanted someone he could trust to answer his specific questions about matrimony, profession education etc.
I reflected that this is the reason there is a whole set of “spiritual” men and women that cater to this need of quick and easy solutions. There is a “guru” in Delhi who charges Rs 5,000 for 15 mins. of “consultation”, to guide people to solve life problems. There are others who sell rings, gemstones and talismans. Srila Prabhupada would say that for every person who wanted to be cheated there is someone waiting to cheat him. If someone is going around the marketplace trying to buy gold but offering the price of iron, sooner or later someone will come and sell him iron painted as gold.
Its been empirically observed that if a person drops a coin on a dark street, he will tend to search for it in the areas under the lamplight. This is the comfort with the known and fear of the unknown. When one is venturing into the uncharted areas of spirituality, they carry over their familiar material conception of quick results and sense gratification. The slow, deliberate patience and commitment to make real spiritual advancement is perceived as too much of an endeavor.
There was limited opportunity us to interact and soon the flight landed. “It was easy to confide in you because we are complete strangers and it’s unlikely that we will meet again.” he said before leaving. Well he was right, and he was wrong. We did meet again but he looked right through me as if I was a complete stranger. Hopefully his quest will take him to a goldsmith and he is prepared to pay the price for it.
