I Recited…. over a Million Rosary Beads….
From Just About Every Religion…Almost Every Single Prayer…
Rummaged Through Books ….That Professed Philosophy….
But Felt Trapped in Labyrinth…Found Myself not really going Anywhere!
For Salvation …..I Read Somewhere…
Saffron Robes I must Learn To Wear….
In My Quest For True Wisdom…I must drift here and There….
But Something Within Me Said “This Will Get Me Nowhere!”
I Tried to fast for several days on end…….
Attended religious discourses where …very often Truth…like a maze ….seemed all twisted and bent……
I Debated philosophy just about everywhere……
But this again seemed to get me …..Nowhere!
Then one day….I met a Friend…….
Who pursuaded me to take a Vipassana course …and I finally went……
Outside the gates at Igatpuri…. as I stand in Awe and stare……..
A voice within me cries out………”You are finally getting somewhere!’
One By One ….Through the course…… as the days pass by………
My Harried traffic of thoughts …seemed to calm down and die..
And in silence….as My raging mind …….grinded to a slow….
In That moment of stillness….. I learnt all……. that I needed to know!
As Wisdom smiled upon me….. that day…..
It explained to Me….. in its very own calm …..and special way…
That All my past conditioning ….was nothing but traps …. and tricks of the mind…
All I had to do was look within …..to diffrentiate between Truth and illusion, and what it was, that made me so blind!
Like a Diver I plunged within…into the depths of my mind….
Grasped the Rarest of Pearls..for which I searched everywhere…. but could not find…
And as I make my way ……onto the surface…..
The world all of a sudden ……seems a very different place!
Now…neither do I fast nor do I pray…..
I drift nowhere ….but I still do travel in my own very………. special way!
Finding the Truth within me…. at night and day………………….
All through work…. and even at …..play!
To Many…it might not seem holy in the wordly sense….
Requires no chanting,no flowers,no offerings…..no incense!
Nor does it yearn for rituals….. or fast….
And yet shows me a permenant solution to the miseries ……of my Present…. Future ….and Past!
Like a weary pilgrim…… I feel I have finally reached my home…
Satisfied that in searching for the truth….I no longer need to drift….. and aimlessely roam…
If only you could take a course …..and for yourself …..someday see….
What is it ….That is ……so very invaluable……..and yet so…. free!
A.M.
The Mother of all Journeys”s….The Journey …Within……