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Swami Suddhananda |
It was deep inside the estate, we were taking a long walk. There
were birds everywhere. All of them were exotic, but one bird was very
special. We were yet to ‘see’ it, but we had heard its song. In fact,
the song was an inescapable enchantment. It was reaching almost
everywhere in the estate.
It begins very early in the morning, around 5.45, and continues
almost up to an hour. Then it sings again in the afternoon after 5.30
p.m. In between it does sing but just an occasional tune – very short
and sharp. The call at dawn and the dusk is absolutely mesmerising.
It is the most leisurely long whistling I have ever heard. I love the
cuckoo’s song as well as that of the call of the doves, the brown
crow, the oriole, the Indian nightingale and many other sounds I am
familiar with, but the names of the birds are not known to me.
Especially, there is one small, deep green bird with red beak whose
call fills the jungle. There are many of them and it is a typical
jungle sound. Like any other sound, you must hear it to feel it.
But the bird I am referring to now is most exotic
for me. I had never heard it before. The locals named it ‘mani koel’.
I was yet to see it and we were looking for it, following its sound.
The thrill of the sound made the unknown source more thrilling and we
were determined to see it.
The person who had already seen it belonged to the
estate and he was our local guide. He knew the whole estate and
beyond. He was in the front and we were following him. Our attention
was not on the path on which we were walking. We were totally focused
on the tops of the tall trees where the bird was supposed to be
perched.
Then suddenly he was far ahead and we were left
behind. There was a person in the group who panicked very easily and
he was worried about the guide! How habitual! How ridiculous was the
reaction! I was literally stunned by the idea that exploded in my
mind. The whole episode had an amazing similarity with the knowledge
of the Absolute.
The Consciousness Absolute is the exotic bird, the
happiness, the sound of which we all have felt at one time or the
other. It is so charming and thrilling that we all are desperately
looking for it in the jungle of the vast existence. There are
literally hundreds of sensations, birds perched on the
many-branched-sense organ trees. The ‘I’, the individual enjoys it
all, but soon gets hooked on to one enchanting sound or Absolute
Happiness that seems to drown all other sensational songs.
Then here is a guide who is very familiar with the
jungle, the birds, the sounds, the exotic sound and he never loses
sight of anything. He is no more in need of seeing the bird as he has
seen it and is always revelling in the song of the bird wherever he
is. He does not have to look for the source. But then, there are
always new visitors to the jungle estate. Each person finds himself
in the jungle of a body-mind existence. The individual, the ‘I’
slowly starts enjoying the sounds, the sensations of the jungle, but
does not know how to walk about. As a result, sometimes he gets lost
in one point or the other and looks for home. When he listens to ‘the
song’ of happiness, he feels at home and therefore wishes to go to
that source of the sound or the song of happiness. He does not know
how to go about. His independent search for the place has left him
more confused and sometimes the emotional wilderness overwhelms him.
There the guide becomes a great help – a guide who
knows the whole landscape, recognises every sound, every sensation,
every emotion and of course the song – royal that fills the jungle,
the birds, the seeker, the path, the trees and every other thing.
If such a person accepts to guide the new entrants
into the jungle estate of life, the new entrants must feel blessed.
But some of these novices are so confused, so self opinionated that
they arrogate themselves the superior wisdom of guiding the guide!
The guide smiles and tolerates!
In case the guide is gone, we do not have to worry
about the guide as the guide will know exactly how to return and
where to return and where the followers might have been stranded. He
will not willingly lose track as he cannot lose track in the familiar
terrain of limitless space of consciousness and the jungle of the
thoughts and the body. That is why he is a master, a Swami and has
chosen to be the guide. He does not have to put on a special dress,
but the tradition has organised a uniform, like the traffic police
with a uniform, to whom one can ask for guidance on the road.
But the self-appointed guides, who claim to have
heard that exotic sound in some rare moments of life in a special
place, without knowing the vast landscape well, can confuse
everybody. Since they did not know ‘how’, they will not know ‘how to
guide’. They will make others wait for the longest time for a special
moment or place for the rarest of experiences to happen! While
‘waiting’ for the special moment, they will lose out on the song of
the Infinite every moment.
The person who panicked in the group had such an
experience with a guide before, where the followers were left
stranded with a vague promise. Some of those followers enjoyed the
camaraderie or the companionship in the group than the song within
themselves. Some enjoyed the new landscapes for some time and forgot
the purpose for which they started. The self-appointed guide offers
the promise of an exotic experience or gives a sanction to whatsoever
they were feeling good about at the moment.
The proper guide is the one who first knows for
himself the whole landscape and takes the novices on the tour step by
step from the point of known to the unknown. Even after seeing the
bird, the source of the song, we have to return to the estate
bungalow from where we started!
Similarly, even after seeing the source of the
happiness – song, the Self – bird, we have to return to the mind-body
estate bungalow to continue living with million different songs of
sensations without losing ‘the song royal’ or Absolute Happiness –
bird that fills the entire estate. The song and the bird are one and
the same in absolute happiness and that also is the truth of all!
There is no reason to panic even if the guide
seems to be trapped or jailed for a moment. He must be given the
benefit of the wisdom to handle the situation. As even the guide in
the estate knows all the footpaths, the springs, the water holes, the
shady places as well as the open space, so also a very conscious
person, the wise, who is one with the Self, the Consciousness, knows
all about the inner landscape – the emotions of high peaks,
precipices, soft valleys, landslides, smooth rivers, rapids, exotic
wild life of thoughts and the very common every-place perceptions.
I asked the person not to panic as we were in safe
hands, but rather use our time alone to look for the bird. May be, it
is perching right overhead and in our anxiety for the missing guide,
we may lose sight of it! In the search, each one is to himself and
the guide is available for all. The novice has to remember all the
footsteps, must be introduced to the whole landscape, the footpaths,
so that he can track back and forth to the estate bungalow. There is
no need to move back and forth to the source of the song as the song
– royal is everywhere and can no more be missed.
We were yet to see the bird, but this thought
around the search for the bird, made the day. The life is full of
song and in the objective world, there will be always a million more
things to see. An exotic bird will be a lovely thing to see, but in
case it remains invisible until the end of the stay in the creation,
there shall be no disappointment as the song – royal has touched us
all, filled us all!
Be the song – royal! The Eternal Song!
Swami Suddhananda
Samvit Sagar Trust
Tiruvannamalai
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