#iswar

ईश्वर को कैसे पाया जाय ?

हरेक साधक की अपनी-अपनी क्षमता होती है । सबकी अपनी-अपनी योग्यता होती है । उसके कुल का, संप्रदाय का जो भी मंत्र इत्यादि हो उसका जप-तप करता रहे, ठीक है । साथ ही साथ किसी ज्ञानवान महापुरुष का सत्संग सुनता रहे । बुद्ध पुरुष के सत्संग के द्वारा साधक का अधिकार बढ़ता जायेगा । साधक की योग्यता देखकर यदि ज्ञानवान मार्ग बताएं तो उस मार्ग पर चलने से साधक जल्दी अपने लक्ष्य तक पहुँच जाता है ।

प्रथम भक्ति संतन…

There are legends about the land. About holy men doing their penance for centuries. About great poets and artists getting inspiration from the river that used to flow through the village. This is punyabhoomi. There are legends of how fertile the land is.

Now this is also where things get blurry. Everyone has their own version of what happened and how it happened. And since all houses now have toilets, it should give you an idea of how much time has passed.

All that matters now, is that there exists just outside of what used to be manickams house a giant of a tree. This tree is unlike any other on this planet. It is large and white and made entirely of rolls of white paper. During a strong breeze the branches unroll and streams of white fly and dance around in the air. It is particularly beautiful on full moon nights when the moonlight bounces between branches and leaves, and gently curves and embraces this tree.

The first time it rained people got so worried as it seemed the entire tree had wilted and become pulp. But as sure as the sun rises every morning, the tree once again grew and how.

Some say it was the tears of an innocent boy that gave this tree its life. Some say it’s the goddess saraswathi herself, who has decided to settle down in their village. The people haven’t gotten any smarter, so this theory is highly disputed.

He moved from place to place in the house but got no privacy. Someone or the other would come in or give him some errands. Or he will have to spend hours telling his grandparents how his other grandparents were, and he would have to repeat it many times until they understood.

Manickam had never felt the need for privacy as such. But today he just wanted to be left alone. He even tried going back into the bathroom but then someone or the other would come and keep knocking on the door to figure out what was taking him so long.

Meenakshi, his sister, was really intrigued. She had missed manickam a lot the last few days and had so much to tell him, but he was acting very peculiar and constantly running away. After some time she realised that he was infact hiding something. That’s it. like arjunas gaze on the eye of the bird, meenakshi became fixated on what was that little bulge under her brothers shirt.

It was a divine dance it was. The stuff of choregraphers wet dreams. Manickams search for privacy, meenakshis hawk eyes and stealth mode, and general relief and laughter outside when they realised ethiraj mama didn’t have a heart attack after all, it was just gas. As the misery left ethiraj mama through the back, it entered everyone else through their nostrils.

Manickam had already thought of the many things he wanted to do and try with the roll of paper. He finally decided he would go out and sit high up on a tree somewhere and then do everything he wanted.

He told his mother he would be back in a few minutes. His mother of course wouldn’t hear of it, and meenakshi kept jumping up and down try to draw the mothers attention to what manickam was hiding.

Oh it was a sad moment indeed

They argued for a while, there was a lot of yelling and crying. Which is when manickam felt a stinging pain across his left cheek.

Time itself froze.

If you have ever had a little sister you would know how they are masters of the word oops.

Manickam slowly pulled out his hand from under his shirt, still holding the roll of paper. His eyes were red with anger. The fire in his eyes would have scorched his mother to ashes if not for the few drops of tears wetting the fiery eyes. One such drop of liquid fire fell on the roll of paper and mysteriously vanished.

Manickam bent a bit and flung the roll high up in the air. It went flying and flying leaving a trail of white as it flew. It flew through the courtyard, high above the roof and then over it and vanished.

Meenakshi ran out of the house. Partly out of curiosity and partly to bring her brother back what he so adores as a peace offering. She ran around the house many times. she looked up and down, in ditches and even in the well. She climbed up the small guava tree to get a better vantage point but could see nothing. She came back inside and tried to figure out the mysterious trajectory of the flying roll of white. But to no avail. She even brought her friends over.

Many hours later when manickam had calmed down he too decided to take a stroll around the house. He walked with his hands in his pockets not caring a damn but sneaking a peek quite convinced that he will indeed find it. after a few dozen rounds he got a bit worried.

Manickam felt a burning sensation in his groin. He recognised the feeling immediately, but he was a good distance away from his house. He could have relieved himself in the bushes. But what if someone saw him? You see manickams father was an important man in the village. To show off his importance he had constructed the first bathroom in the village in his own house. Since that fateful day manickams father had banned the whole family from relieving themselves in the countryside.

Manickam thought of school, of complex mathematical equations of far of lands and tasty foods to distract himself while he ran back home. His father was having an important meeting when he got home. How he wished he could just run inside, but how could he be so rude. He squirmed and twisted his legs this way and that. He did part situps to try and move the pressure around. his father was happy to see him after so many days but was puzzled by his calisthenics. Manickam quickly nodded and acknowledged everyone and begged to be excused for a moment. manickams father was very concerned. You look like you saw a ghost. Are you alright? VYJANTHIII come here, look whats happened to manickam. All of his fathers friends too got involved. Maybe its an allergy? Enna kanna, vijay padam pathu vandeya? Ayyo maybe amman has come into him.

By now manickam was finding it difficult to even talk. His mother came rushing in. enna kanna, are you ok? She said as she started patting him from head to toe. She wanted to quickly comb his hair so that he is presentable in front of his father, but by now manickams face had started going into contortions.

Manickams four year old sister too came running in to investigate and quickly started telling him everything he had missed in the village the last few days he had been away to see the grandparents. Anna anna you missed our guest. This one lady who barely wore any clothes. Appa said we shouldn’t make fun of her.  She was whiter than white and you know she couldn’t even sit chaplamkoti. Ha ha anna you know.. shut up meenakshi, leave your brother alone, cant you see he is in so much pain. Shouted vyjanthi.

Manickam could barely breathe now. He tried to inch towards the bathroom door only few metres away. His mother wouldn’t have it. she kept pulling him right back to investigate further. Why aren’t you saying anything she said. Manickam had very rude thoughts about his mother at that time and came very close to voicing them out when it happened. Miracle of miracles. One of his fathers friends had a heart attack. Pandemonium. The whole household rushed towards ethiraj mama, giving manickam the precious few seconds to make it to the bathroom.

He got inside and locked the door. At first the bathroom used to irritate him. He used to enjoy looking out at the hills while he made his own hills. He used to enjoy listening to the sound of his waterfall merging with the one in the village. But ever since this bathroom had come he felt boxed in. he would observe his bowels and notice that there was a stark decline in how high the hills were. But of late he had begun to enjoy the bathroom. It was the one place in the entire house where he could just lock the door and be.

He got to the commode took aim and srrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

And that’s when he saw it.

Manickam was spellbound. So much so that he couldn’t even fully enjoy the wave of relief spreading through the body.

A roll of white paper.

Wow

Very quickly the religious repercussions of it started crossing his mind. how come we have paper in the bathroom. It is paper, it is what books are made of, it is our goddess saraswati and here she is lying next to the unholiest of unholy places.

He went to pick it up when he saw a glistening spot of urine on his forefinger. He quickly washed his hands and patted it dry and even chanted a silent prayer before picking up the deity.  All gods he had encountered so far were hard, made of stone and brass and wood and other hard things. But here in his hand lay the goddess of knowledge, white just as she was supposed to be, and soft. Oh was she soft. He pulled one end of the paper and it unrolled just a bit, he pulled more, it unrolled a bit more, he pulled harder and suddenly a square sheet of soft paper came on his hands.

Oh it was beautiful. He wanted to explore so much more, the possibilities, oh wait till I show it in the school. I will be a hero. But before that he wanted to spend some time with it. he apologised to the goddess for shoving her under his shirt, but he couldn’t think where else to hide her to sneak her out of the bathroom.