Tete-e-Tete with Past … II

Could not sleep properly, Dadu’s words were resounding on my ears day long. As soon as I got up in the morning, I ran to the park where I had met dadu yesterday. He was sitting on the bench wearing a white dhoti and kurta. I felt like touching his feet but hesitated to do so in a public place. He saw me, smiled at me and did not hesitate to put his right palm on my head. “How are you today?” he asked. “Fine. Waiting eagerly to meet you.”, I did not say that I was thinking over the topic we discussed yesterday all day long. He smiled and kept quiet. I was not sure how to start the topic once again. I asked a generic question,”So, what do you see wrong in current generation”. He responded promptly, “None!!! Rather I am happy with the current generation.”. This surprised me and I somehow thought as if he is trying to make me feel happy by saying this. “Confused again!!!” he said and smiled. I said, “Yes, you said yesterday that we are not focusing but you are saying, there is nothing wrong with current generation. How is it possible?”.

“Do you know how the situation was there when your father was of your age? Every society goes through a cycle of creation-development-destruction. It reaches to its peak and then it destroys for various reasons. A new society was created after independence where it was not in a state to walk by its own. It needed help from various sources to survive and grow. Now this society is in its adolescence. It has got many things, many choices to get more and has enormous amount of energy. This is the phase when it can either go in a completely wrong direction if it is not shown a right direction. As an adolescent feels entire world is underestimating it of its capabilities, this generation is feeling the same. Fortunately in this information age you have access to many ancient sacred texts to refer to, many intellectuals to interpret it and many are there who are showing willingness to follow it. The material to give the right direction so that this society reaches its young age in right direction, is available with you. You can see and understand what is right and what is wrong. You discuss the social issues in your social networking sites thoughtfully. Don’t you?”. I said “Yes”. “Then this is the sign of positivity. Corruption, intolerance, injustice are symptom of a confused society. Once the society comes out of confused state, these all symptoms will vanish slowly. When you were a kid and did some mistake, didn’t you try to hide from your parents in the fear of getting scolded?” he asked. “Yes” I said and smiled. “Similarly, this society is doing all crazy things to hide its weakness” he paused.

I asked, “So, you mean, we need not worry about the corruption, injustice, intolerance and various other crimes?”. “Didn’t you mother punish you when you did a notorious activity, when you were a kid? She did. So we must punish, make people aware but not stick to it forever and cry for this state of the society. Rather, find the root cause and fix it patiently and carefully. When confused to find a solution, refer the materials our great saints created based on extensive research and build on it.” he explained.

He stood up taking the support of my shoulder and said, “When you are questioning the state of the society, that is the sign of change. Keep questioning, you will find your way out. If you feel like and if you have any questions, meet me tomorrow at the same place and same time.”

I spent some more time sitting on the bench and saw dadu walking slowly towards the exit. I ran towards him and touched his feet to take his blessings. He blessed me saying, “May god give you lots of strength to choose the right thing at right time”.  Many joggers walking by looked at me with great surprise but I didn’t care.I walked back to home slowly thinking what Dadu said.

Namaste!!!

– Stray Dog