The living creatures and their ways are in God's power. Whatever He says, they do. When the Sovereign Lord of the Universe is pleased, there is nothing at all to fear.
Jīa jugaṯ vas parabẖū kai jo kahai so karnā.
Bẖae parsann gopāl rāe bẖao kicẖẖ nahī karnā.
जीअ जुगति वसि प्रभू कै जो कहै सु करना ॥
भए प्रसंन गोपाल राइ भउ किछु नही करना ॥
ਜੀਅ ਜੁਗਤਿ ਵਸਿ ਪ੍ਰਭੂ ਕੈ ਜੋ ਕਹੈ ਸੁ ਕਰਨਾ ॥
ਭਏ ਪ੍ਰਸੰਨ ਗੋਪਾਲ ਰਾਇ ਭਉ ਕਿਛੁ ਨਹੀ ਕਰਨਾ ॥
~Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji~
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Date / Time: Another day in paradise. The precise moment when the first rays of Sun segregate dusk from dawn.
Before the day ends, Lokesh has an important journey to complete and thus he hails an approaching cab.
Lokesh: Please take me to the Narayan Film Studio, Antriksh Marg.
Cabby: That’s too far off. Instead, let me take you to the Maya Photo Studio, Lobh Nagar.
Lokesh: Huh! No.
Cabby: Why?
Lokesh: See, I have been called to audition for the movie, “Nirvana”, and the screen test is in the Narayan Film Studio. Please help; this may be my big break after several years of mindless struggle.
Cabby: No, I say you should go to the Maya Photo Studio, it is nearer.
Lokesh: I have been there in the past, instead of developing a positive, all they hand you is the negative and later when you are gone, a picture hangs on their wall. And that road is behind me, not where I am headed, so why would you suggest something so absurd?
Cabby: Forget the big break, let me take you to the Maya Photo Studio or else…
Lokesh: Or else? What? Don’t bother, I know how to walk and can make that journey on my own. Although I fail to understand what is with this tag line “We Take You Where You Want” on your cab when that is the least of your interest?
Cabby: That is a typo. It was meant to be “We Take You Where We Want”, but since honesty tends to scare off people, have never bothered to correct it. As long as the traveller is traveling my way, I take him there, or else I don’t. Maybe I should start a chain of “My Way or Highway” cabs.
Lokesh: Yeah, you should. Good luck with your enterprise, may God bless it always and forever. In any case, I prefer to take the highway, have found out it is the fastest route to happiness. I will walk for now, thanks so much anyhow.
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Auditions are on at the Narayan Film Studio. The one and only Absolute Being, or AB as HE’s popularly known by HIS infinite followers, is taking the screen test for the upcoming “Nirvana”. In the history of mankind, no soul has ever bettered HIS scriptwriting; HE is The Supreme Crafter, always full of heartfelt passions and mind blowing twists. Truly, HE is the biggest writer, producer, director of the celestial, the true King of the Kings.
Lokesh: Boss, I am here for the screen test.
AB: Hmmm… Been a while since you received the call, so what took you so long?
Lokesh: Actually I was deliberating how to reach here, and eventually I walked. Sorry for the delay.
AB: No worries. And as long as you have learnt that it is always best to walk your own path in order to reach where it counts, there is no real delay as such. Besides walking is good, it keeps your heart and body fit, it keeps your mind and soul aware. Keep walking.
Lokesh: Yes Boss. Always will.
AB: BTW, just in case you are still in daze, that cabby was me.
Lokesh: Huh!
AB: See, I knew you aren’t fully aware as yet. Enlightenment must come little by little, otherwise it will overwhelm you, and you my child have always been overwhelmed by all that the world has shown you.
Lokesh: But how? Why? And if you were here in the studio, how could you have been there?
AB: I am everywhere. Omnipresent. In every living being. In every soul. In every cabby who helps or doesn’t help you in the journey, it is me, I decide, I direct who will get to play what part. Look, a cabby or a “saarthi” as Lord Krishna was to Arjun, will not only take you from one point to another but will bring wisdom. Always look at the bigger picture if you want to learn. If cabby knows the route, I will direct him to help you. If the cabby doesn’t know the way, I will direct him to refuse you, so that you can find your own way. Unless he refuses you, you will go on and on in circles with him without ever trusting yourself that you can reach to me on your own. I knew that walking will do you good, will give you more time to prepare for the audition.
Lokesh: But what if I would have decided to go along with the cabby?
AB: Always your Freewill. You can choose whatever your common sense tells you, it is all about priorities. If the screen test is an important break you wanted, you will come. If it isn’t, you won’t. That is always your choice. I can only offer you something when you decide to come, not before that.
Lokesh: I am glad I decided to walk. Now it makes all the more sense.
AB: Hmmm… Any experience of acting?
Lokesh: Boss, I have been acting all my life. I mean, there have been times when there was an audience, but for most of the time I was busy acting for myself, to myself, trying to do all by myself, alike Sunil Dutt in Yaadein. Does that counts?
AB: Ha Ha Ha… You are mad. Anyhow, we will now do the screen test. Go and pick a dialogue sheet of any random character, let me see if you have it within you to deliver a sterling performance, so this must be an honest attempt by you.
Lokesh: Yes Boss. Thanks, I will always attempt to the best of my ability, after that Que Sera, Sera… I am carrying a sheet on which I wrote something earlier, I’d read it out…
jisse samjha tha ibaadat; woh shayad mere dimaag ka khalaa tha
haatheli pe ghaav banna ke apni lakeerein badalne chala tha
muqaddar ke sitam ko samajh ke muqaddas, yeh majnoon dhadkane
ek khandar pe pehra deti ab bhi muqarrar, jaise dastuur ho koi…
AB: Are you insane? Neither is this couplet a patch on Ghalib nor is this movie about him… The name of the movie is “Nirvana”, do you even understand what it means… It means Mukti… Moksha… Liberation… oh BTW, we are making it a bilingual; the version for the international market will be titled “Salvation”…
Lokesh: Sorry… My bad… Since the title is “Nirvana”, may I try speaking the dialogues of Mother Teresa, she has been a role model and I have always looked up to her…
AB: Ha Ha Ha… Are you mad? I can’t possibly ever take you for the role of Mother Teresa; I mean even if I ignore the gender difference and the obvious contrast in appearance, you have a rude voice which is absolutely unsuited for such a soft gentle role.
Lokesh: Is it imperfect voice?
AB: Ha Ha Ha. Unsuited is more like it. Besides, what is your motto in life, understand that the true production value is in being real at all times, so will you be comfortable speaking the lines of the great Mother Teresa since all the dubbing must be done by you and not someone else.
Lokesh: Yes Boss, as always you are right. I am imperfect to be alike the great Mother Teresa. I still live my life by the immortal lines by Saint Aurelius Augustinus, “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
AB: I knew it. Thank ME you are not completely mad.
Lokesh: Thank God. Thank God indeed. So, how about I speak the lines of Kurt Gobain, from the grunge band “Nirvana.” First of all, the name of the band matches the title and second of all, I am absolutely at ease mouthing his famous lines, “Nobody dies a virgin... Life fucks us all.", and also “I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”
AB: Don’t be silly. Kurt Gobain was a lead singer and like I said, you have an absolutely horrendous voice imperfect even for the bathroom singing. Get real as I said, Get real. GET REAL.
Lokesh: Sorry Boss. I agree, I am imperfect as Kurt Gobain too. Acha, I have always been a huge fan of Bhagavad Gita, so how about if I try and go mythological and do some reading from it for this screen test.
AB: Uh oh! We don’t have a separate Bhagavad Gita on the sets but for now the epic Mahabharata is available to you. Be aware that the teachings of Bhagavad Gita are a part of it. Go get that from the top shelf, open any random page and enact the first name that appears, it will be a good test to find out if you have any improvisation skills within you.
Lokesh: Yes Boss. Here I go and here I come. OK, so the first name I find on the page is Gandhari, the wife of Dhritarashtra.
AB: Ha Ha Ha… Ah, the famous luck of Oye Loki, Lucky Oye is back. How on earth will you enact as Gandhari? Again there is the gender difference, and moreover Gandhari after meeting her husband Dhritarashtra for the first time and realizing that her husband was born blind, decided to protest silently by blindfolding herself. So is this constant silliness your way of protest? Are you willing to be blindfolded for the remaining of your life?
Lokesh: Err… No. Sorry, my bad. And the famous luck of Lucky Loki says sorry, my bad too. Can I wear Ray Ban’s instead of being blindfolded permanently? I can take those off and put them back on at my convenience.
AB: Shut up. Get real. Get real for MY sake. Get real for your sake. GET REAL.
Lokesh: Boss, you are Absolute and you are absolutely right, I agree that I am imperfect to be Gandhari. Having always believed that life is meant to be lived to its maxim, I can’t let anyone or anything change that ever. I mean, how can I possibly forego to make the most of this beautiful life when the whole eternity, Kaynaat, is majestically mesmerising, I can’t possibly cherish and nurture it to my best by needlessly remaining blindfolded for the rest of my life.
AB: Phew! Change… Change the page…
Lokesh: Haha…
AB: What?
Lokesh: Ah! The famous luck of Loki is back... The next name is Dhritarashtra…
AB: Hahaha… Abe duffer, when you are imperfect to play Gandhari, how on earth will you play Dhritarashtra… Change… Change the page… Change the page before your time is up…
Lokesh: Wokay… Here I change… so the name that appears first on this page is of Bheem… Yayyyy… I’d love to play Bheem… I love the dialogue from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, “Thair paapi ... main teri zubaan kheench ke loonga ...” and “Dharamraj, iski jubaan kheench loon ke?”
AB: Abe Nautanki… First have an honest look at your lean body, I will need to magnify more than x 100 for you to look alike Bheem… Do you live to eat or do you eat to live… All along I am telling you to become real… I want you to become a story within a story, and yet you are merely engaged in acting within acting…. Are you interested in this screen test or not?
Lokesh: Sorry boss, who kya hai apni na ki apni bad luck hi kharaab hai… Galti se mistake ho gayi…
AB: Time khoti matt kar babu… Hurry up… Change the page…
Lokesh: Yes Boss… the next name is Karna… Yayyy… this is where my luck changes… I’d love to play Karna…
AB: Think it over… Karna was a great warrior yet history hasn’t been kind to him…
Lokesh: I am not going to live forever that I worry about how I am going to be perceived, thus I don’t care if the history will or won’t be nice to me, all I care is to play the part to the best of my ability. My job is to hope and pray for your kindness, that’s all I am interested in.
AB: Karna learnt all on his own after being refused by Dronacharya, how about you? Are you willing to learn on your own?
Lokesh: Boss, I too believe every moment in itself brings a new lesson, and if I am willing to learn, I am willing to grow… I honestly intend to keep learning as long as I am alive… Yet unlike Karna, I cannot claim that I have learnt everything on my own, all the friends and foes have been my teachers… Life has been the greatest teacher…
AB: Hmm. But Karna had been cursed by a Brahmin whose cow he accidently killed. He also carried the curse of Parashurama: that he would forget all the mantras required to wield the divine weapon Brahmastra, the most destructive weapon in archery, at the moment of his greatest need. Do you understand that although Karna was an extremely competent warrior, more skilful than Arjuna, yet the curses on him brought his doom in crucial moments of his battle with Arjuna?
Lokesh: Curse or no curse, I am not going to let the fear get the better of me in any battle…
AB: Hmmm… Karna, the son of Surya, was as radiant and powerful as him… Will you be able to do justice to Karna?
Lokesh: Sire, I find the light within, and I rely solely on my courage and your direction, will it be suffice?
AB: (Smiling) Yeah… Totally… But Karna fought against his own kin Pandavas for his friend Duryodhana, can you do that…
Lokesh: Yup… Absolutely… A friend is the family I choose for myself… I can fight any battle for my friend…
AB: Even if the friend would ask you to fight an unjust battle…?
Lokesh: Err… No… Not really… To go by the wise words of Aristotle, “Piety requires us to honour truth above our friends”, I’d stick with the truth if it came between choosing between a friend and the truth…
AB: Ha… But what is truth… Your truth can be different from anyone else’s truth… Your truth maybe Monday morning on India time yet it may still be Sunday evening for someone who is living in another part of globe... Do you understand that time can blur the truth…
Lokesh: Yes, I understand… Everyone has their own path, and everyone has their own truth… Everyone must live their own truth… My truth is only binding on me…
AB: Hmm… Flip some more pages…
Lokesh: Ji Boss… Wokay, so this page starts with the mention of Abhimanyu… Yayyy… I love Abhimanyu… The protagonist in the TV serial Fauji played by Shahrukh Khan too went by the name of Abhimanyu…
AB: What do you know about Abhimanyu?
Lokesh: I know that as Karna was the son of Sun, Abhimanyu was the son of Moon… He too was a great warrior… In the absence of Arjuna, Abhimanyu was the only one who knew entering the deadly and virtually impenetrable Chakravyuha… But…
AB: Buttttt? What?
Lokesh: (Gulp) He only knew how to enter and not how to exit… He died…
AB: You do comprehend that Abhimanyu couldn’t have been killed; he perished only because he was attacked by multiple enemies…
Lokesh: More than that, all I comprehend is that Abhimanyu attained Moksha after dying a hero… and that in itself is the greatest reason for me to want to emulate him.
AB: Are you afraid of dying?
Lokesh: Nope… I am not afraid of dying; my only fear is living an unlived life… And when the death comes, I want it to find me alive…
AB: So be it… May you be alive and feel alive as long as you live… May the fear of not knowing how to exit never stop you from fighting the battles of your life… I bless you... I grant you this role…
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Standard Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction and the characters and events in it exist only in its pages and in the author’s imagination.
No wait a minute…
Modified Disclaimer:
In fact all the characters and events are real in this work of fiction… God, The Absolute Being, AB is real. All the names that appear in it are real as illustrated in the Glossary… Lokesh is in the process of becoming real… So that leaves only the cab story as a work of fiction… Believe you me, now it exists only in author’s imagination...
Glossary (in order of appearance):
1. Mirza Ghalib http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza_Ghalib
2. Sunil Dutt (Yaadein) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaadein_(1964_film)
3. Mother Teresa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa
4. Saint Augustine http://library.thinkquest.org/18775/augustine/bioau.htm
5. Kurt Gobain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain
6. Bhagavad Gita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita
7. Mahabharata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata
8. Gandhari http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhari_(character)
9. Dhritarashtra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhritarashtra
10. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSj7DuaX0lk
11. Karna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna
12. Aristotle http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle
13. Shahrukh Khan in Fauji http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauji
14. Abhimanyu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhimanyu
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OM, O Shiva, the God with three eyes, we worship and adore you, you are the fragrance of life, who nourishes us, restores our health, and causes every being in this world to thrive, we hail to thee, we meditate on you, just as in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens, and the gourd is freed from the vine, so free us from attachment and death, and do not withhold immortality, please open our eyes to the wider dimension so that we renounce mortality to be in peace forever.
ॐ त्र्यम्बकम् यजामहे सुगन्धिम् पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान् मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माम्रतात् ।।
Om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam
urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt
~Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra, Yajur Veda (3-60); Also called Tryambakam Mantra is because it worships Shiva, The Three Eyed God. And because this mantra observes Shiva in the fiery aspect of Rudra, it is also called Rudra Mantra~
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Enlightenment is a full, permanent recognition of what one truly is, free of all false positions, speculations and other mental encumbrances. At the end of a hard day trading, it is enlightenment that is the only thing worth taking home from the spiritual marketplace.
~Oshana Dave~
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Once there lived a devotee called Ismail. His prime concern in life was to remember his spiritual master and be one with his love. For survival of body and to provide for necessities of life, he sold vegetables. With love for his master in his heart and mind, and a basketful of vegetables, every day he visited the market.
Knowing his simple nature, people used to cheat him. Every day, some people would give him counterfeit coins for his vegetables. Some would even come the next day to exchange the counterfeit coins they had, saying, “Yesterday, you gave us this coin; please exchange it with a real one.” Ismail would quietly accept the counterfeit coins.
Time passed thus. His body became old and the end of physical life approached.
Ismail sat for his final prayer. ”Dear Beloved, throughout my life I have accepted counterfeit and bogus coins from one and all, never once rejecting or refusing them. Oh Beloved! Time has come that this counterfeit coin reaches your divine presence. You too, likewise, do not reject the useless coin. Kindly accept it and give it shelter at your feet.”
Needless to say, the Lord accepted him with a showering of love.
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Dear God, Dear Universe, I too have been a counterfeit coin.
Please accept me and give me shelter at your feet.
Please...
