An Ancient Indian Tale – Renunciation??

An Ancient Indian Tale – Renunciation??

This is not for the uninitiated, but still, read on….

The Emperor was in a benevolent mood. He was, always, when he travelled in his resplendent chariot, clad in all finery, to the palace of his favorite concubine. He was obsessed with her and had made this town his unofficial Capital. Every evening, he did take this route through the woods to reach the palace at the other end. He returned back to town every morning again through the woods, and took same route everyday.  . The woods provided a much needed respite from his over-whelming responsibilities. Sometimes, his responsibilities bordered on the absurd…like monitoring the activities of his son, the Prince, his son through his legitimate Queen. Recently there had been reports that his Queen, apprehensive about his concubine’s growing influence, had planned, with her son, to assassinate him. 

The woods were quiet and peaceful and were populated by the wild birds and animals. They were so pleasing to the eye. However, what added more to his sense of well-being was the Sanyasi who sat always under the huge banyan tree by the small pond.

Thin, frail and maybe as old as the Emperor, the Sanyasi was oblivious to the commotion created by the Emperor’s travels to and sojourns in his concubine’s palace. He had made the woods his home. He co-existed peacefully with the denizens of the forest. Nobody seemed to know where he came from and why he was here. He, however, had left behind in his home-town, all whom he had known, and had strayed far till he came to these woods, and something had prompted him to stay. He spoke to none, spent his nights in penance and his days sleeping and foraging for berries, fruits and leaves which the trees shed. He was living off the material which the trees discarded. His nocturnal activities were a mystery to the towns-people and all the emperor knew was that this was a lazy man, devoid of all abilities to enrich him-self with worldly pleasures.

The Emperor never failed to notice the Sanyasi as he passed by everyday. It was a part of his daily thought – process to wonder on his onward journey, how there could be such a useless person on earth. On his return journey, he never failed to sympathize with the Sanyasi’s incapacity to seek worldly pleasures.

This drama continued, until one day, the emperor, obsessed with curiosity, stopped his chariot by the pond and walked up to the Sanyasi sitting under the Banyan tree.

“I am the Lord of this land and I am curious to know what earthly purpose you are striving for, sitting alone in these woods. What benefit do you derive by doing what you are doing?  Are you not inspired by seeing me and my accomplishments, my rewards and my pleasures?”

The Sanyasi replied,” Sitting in these woods will not serve earthly purposes. My purpose is divine and I am seeking to merge with my Maker. You do not inspire me! Your accomplishments, rewards and your pleasures are earthbound and transient. Your earthly purpose should be to transcend the transient and seek to merge with your Maker. It is evident from your curiosity that you do not know where you are heading!

However, there seems to be an earthly benefit too to my divine purpose. The lord of the land has come to stand before me, who wishes to merge with the Lord of Creation!

Friends! The Sanyasis’s stand is the penultimate to the ultimate…Hinduism, with all its glorious history has provided us with one final step to all steps … it is the answer to the unanswered question among all mankind… “who am I?”….man passes through various phases in search for the answer and as he progresses, his identity too changes….. from the disbeliever.. to the believer… to the religious… to the Sanyasi – Renunciation of worldly pleasures…

 to the final role of Almighty Himself!!! Aham Brahmasmi - I am God!!

This is the stage at which man does not even wish to merge with his Maker….. he renounces that wish also and so becomes the Maker, the center of the storm of creation… motionless … but the reason for all… eternal peace, eternal bliss!!

BPO Intrigues???

BPO Intrigues???

The night shift had ended at 5.00 am Indian time. It was now 5. 30 am and increasing silence had made him bold. It was the same as every other morning at the Medical Billing Call Center in one of the best cities in India, Chennai. He knew the lay-out of the 100-seater facility much better that any other employee at the facility.

The Office was mostly dark due to the heavy curtains and most of the lights were turned off. Only the server room was bright and Thomas – the IT Manager had always kept the lights burning all the time. He hated Thomas for it, since it made his work more insecure. The bright lights haunted him in his sleep everyday and if somebody saw him, it would be his doom.

He moved silently to the 3 rd bay in the first row. It belonged to Sita – the Senior Analyst. At the thought of her, he was filled with loathe. She had an American name – Claudia, but could not speak a word of English. Headstrong she was, understandably though, with her vast knowledge of the Chemotherapy Billing she had been doing for the past 5 years. She had just been given her appraisal report and pay-hike papers and she had forgotten to take the letter home. He knew how to access her drawer. Skillfully, he drew out the letter and shredded it to pieces.

Tomorrow, Sita would search for her letter in vain in her drawer and complain that somebody had opened her drawer without her permission and had stolen the letter. There would be confusion in the Office since there would be other complaints also, from other employees, thanks to his dubious activities. But all this confusion would help to mask his presence in the Office, that too after all had left.

He continued to the bay where Kanchana sat. She was Julie to the Americans and she was a good girl. She worked hard and was always hungry. She worked the night –shifts and always stashed snacks in her bay. So to him she was KanD (Candy). The smell of food pervaded the area since it was air-conditioned with split a/c s. The Office was air tight and the air-conditioners worked to cool the air inside the Office. Well, nobody could blame him if his gastronomy was stimulated by the smell of the snacks, it was a primordial feeling, specially for him. However he took care not to open new packets. There was a packet of cookies half-eaten and some peanut cakes in a re-sealable plastic pouch. He helped himself to just one cookie. The Plastic pouch was slightly open. The poor girl hadn’t closed it well. He opened a little more, just enough to pull out one peanut cake. He took care to munch through the cookie and the cake, without leaving a trace!

He moved over to the bay where her boss, Ram, sat. The California Client knew him to be Steve Williams. Ram was 44 years old and was turning out to be a bit of the show-off nowadays. He sported a french - beard and was proud of his newly acquired flat-belly. A barrel that he had been, he owed his flat-belly to the green- tea he had been using over the past 3 years. Steve’s perseverance with the green-tea had paid off!

So he too wanted to try it out. He too was getting fat these days! He carefully picked up the tea-leaves which were strewn in Steve’s drawer and moved over to the waste water container in the pantry. The container was shallow and he stepped into it. He placed the tea leaves in the water and scrubbed himself. The water barely came up to his chin. It smelt of coffee and tea. He was fortunate to be spending his life in an air-conditioned Office and bathe every day in the left - over of coffee and tea. He completed his ablutions and picked the tea leaves and chewed on them and drank a little of the water. Shaking himself briskly to rid his fur off the water, Mickey – the BPO mouse  scampered purposefully, for a nap, towards his home, which was a  currently the drawer of the CEO, who had put in his papers a week ago, after starting his own Company by poaching on this Company’s Clients.