On a Road Trip

....contd.....

Our next stop was a Jain mandir. It was old and in dilapated condition. Yet could clearly see the magnificence and grandeur of it in its time. There was a choultry adjacent to it and its rule was “pay-as-per-your-wish”. We rented 3 rooms and rested for couple of hours and left later.  There I found that each person wanted to pay a certain amount since the room rent was not fixed..it surely reflected their character...few wanted to walk away paying just Rs.51/- while few thought Rs.200/- was too huge an amount that they were paying...these were the same people who would pay Rs. 3000/- to a hotel room...people exploited anyone and at every place whenever they got even a least bit of opportunity....and these were the same people who called themselves 'good people'....

At around 4pm our bus stopped by a road side tea stall for tea break. We all got down and ordered for tea. My Guru took her tea glass and started walking into the woods. She sat under a tree after walking about 200mts. Others followed her. All sat around her while sipping tea. “What did you pray for in the church?” asked Ravi suddenly.

“Even we did” echoed Nitya’s and Madhavi’s voice from behind. “After all we are also masters right? Masters behave alike. We knew that energies were good in church so we prayed. But only masters can recognise this energies. So we did what you couldn’t even think of” replied Nithya and Madhavi.

“What was your prayer?” asked Rahul trying to sound curious. He winked at me. I knew even he had noticed arrogance in their voice and tone when they uttered. The word “Masters”. I knew immediately he was trying to pull their legs. I knew he was up to some mischief. I just suppressed my smile.

“Of course, for our well being and for the success and happiness of our family. That is so very important we believe in swadharma. So we pray for our family always. And as we are masters we pray for all by saying “sarvajana sukhinobhavantu”. This is common prayer for all us masters” they replied. 

I could see the redundancy of so many statements in that explanation. Why did they use “swadharma” at all? Were they trying to impress others who weren’t masters? Why the emphasis on “Common prayer by us masters?” were they trying to say no two masters were different and that they were as good a master as my Guru.

...contd....